By Eight years of this journal. The bakery is sixteen years old in El Paso, seven in Anapra. I am fifty-four. The cookbook is in its second printing. The recipe notebook has one hundred and ninety entries. Luis is fifty-six. His knees are starting to bother him — the decades of standing on concrete floors, the bakery's physical tax on the body that built it alongside mine. He doesn't complain. Luis never complains. But I see him reaching for the counter edge when he stands up from a chair, and the reaching is the beginning of the aging, and the aging is the next chapter, and the next chapter requires me to notice what Luis will never say.
I made menudo — the January ritual, the annual reset. The menudo simmered while I thought about Luis's knees and my own back (aching, always aching, the 4 AM tax) and the bodies that built the bakery and that the bakery is now wearing down, slowly, the way water wears down stone, not by force but by repetition. Sixteen years of repetition. The bodies are the stone. The bakery is the water. And the water is beautiful and the stone is strong and both are changing and the changing is the life.
The menudo is the January ritual — the one that asks something of you, the long simmer, the patience. But the bowl I reach for in the dark at 4 AM, before the ovens are lit and before Luis is up, has to be something already waiting. After sitting with the weight of all that the bakery has taken from our bodies — slowly, beautifully, the way water takes from stone — I wanted to share a recipe that meets you where you are: quiet, sustaining, and ready when you are. Cherry Pecan Muesli is that recipe. You make it the night before, and in the morning it’s simply there, which is sometimes exactly enough.
Cherry Pecan Muesli
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes + overnight soak | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
- 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups whole milk or unsweetened almond milk, plus more for serving
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons honey or pure maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Fresh cherries or extra pecans for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the rolled oats, dried cherries, chopped pecans, chia seeds, and cinnamon until evenly distributed.
- Whisk the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the milk, Greek yogurt, honey, and vanilla extract until smooth and fully combined.
- Mix together. Pour the wet mixture over the oat mixture and stir well to coat everything evenly. The oats will look very liquid at this stage — that’s expected.
- Refrigerate overnight. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or a lid and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight, until the oats have softened and absorbed most of the liquid.
- Stir and serve. In the morning, stir the muesli and divide among four bowls. Add a splash of additional milk to loosen if needed. Top with fresh cherries or extra pecans if desired, and serve cold or at room temperature.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 365 | Protein: 11g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 51g | Fiber: 6g | Sodium: 80mg