My thanks go to page designer Donna Bauer for coming up with the “Oat Cuisine” headline for my story about oatmeal this morning. She told me yesterday that she had been wanting to use that pun for years, so I’m glad I gave her the opportunity.
Speaking of oatmeal, as LL and I were testing the products mentioned in the story and the sidebar, I couldn’t help noticing how we take different approaches to oatmeal. I like mine with brown sugar or honey and a little milk; she likes hers with salt and butter and a little milk. It takes all kinds, right? She does have far less of a sweet tooth than I do.
And thinking about that issue brought to mind the ritual my father went through when he ate oatmeal many years ago, when I was a child. He would rummage through the kitchen cabinets and drawers looking for any stale confection to crumble into his oatmeal: stale cake or doughnuts or Danish pastries, the last few chocolate chip cookies in the jar, an old brownie — anything sweet and slightly over the hill was grist for the mill (oops, ha-ha) of his oatmeal. Then he would top his creation off with a sliced banana. And he insisted on using skim milk, which to me was like pouring milky-pale water into your cereal. I would sit there appalled in a state of goggle-eyed disgust and then frown wildly like a cadet existentialist.
Ah, family life. As I said, It takes all kinds …
Eating adventures
Responses to “Oat Cuisine Ha-Ha!”
January 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Fredric:
The best oatmeal I ever had was in the dining room of a hotel in Chicago (can’t remember which one). The chef burned a crunchy brulee on top of the creamy oatmeal. It was heavenly.
I couldn’t tell from the story this morning if you prefer McCann’s steel cut oats to Bob’s Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal? Are they similar?
Also I’m glad you made reference to the headline pun. I didn’t get it at 6 a.m.this morning as I was enjoying my granola (with oats), coffee and newspaper.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Really nobody should claim credit for coming up with pun that was used as the title of an episode of Good Eats.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Hi, Chris, that oatmeal with the “brulee” top indeed sounds heavenly. We have been fans of McCann’s for several years, but Bob’s Red Mill Scottish just had such a lovely texture that we may switch alligence.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Some friends who formerly lived in East TN tell the story about eating rice very much as Fredric & LL eat oatmeal - one with butter and salt, the other with butter and sugar. The first time her mother-in-law saw Alberta putting sugar on rice, she assumed a mistake had been made. Before she could explain she meant to eat it that way, her mother-in-law had confiscated the bowl and poured the contents down the disposal. We always ate oatmeal with milk and white sugar, sometimes adding raisins. But I like the brown sugar idea even better. I never really thought to try it with butter and salt. Might have to split a bowl the next time and conduct my own taste test with some of each.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Butter, milk and real maple sugar. That was my topping as a child.
Question, Fredric, do you salt your water when you cook the oatmeal?
I may have to try Bob’s Red Mill Scottish, just because that is my heritage, but I too love the McCann’s.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Missed the pun, too. It was early a.m. reading! Super Lo on Spottswood carries Red Mill and 3 types of McCann.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Neil, yes, I always salt the water, just as I would with pasta or rice.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Oatmeal! Bob eats a big bowl of it every morning–old-fashioned, nothing on it. Yuck. Not this gal. Irish steel-cut oats with butter and brown sugar, now that’s another matter, but not something I can indulge in every day.
But Bob’s plain treatment of oats has got to be better than how Michael Donahue eats his–with orange juice on ‘em! It’s true.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
For my oats, it’s got to be a bit of butter, touch of salt, and the darkest, most bitter, tar-like blackstrap molasses that’s legally available. Damned good way to start the morning. After blackstrap there’s little need for coffee.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am
There is only one reasonable use for oatmeal - in cookies. Decent God-fearing Southerners know only one hot cereal for breakfast - grits.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:06 am
G.P., that brings up a whole other subject, namely, What Are Grits? perhaps we need a new post on this theme.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Oatmeal is a canvas for experimentation. Any dried fruit you like, plus some honey, brown sugar or maple syrup, and nuts for crunch factor (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds). I cook oats in 1% milk, then add in chopped dried fruit, turn off the heat and add in ground flaxseed and flavorings such as vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger.
Some combos I like: Dried figs, dates and apricots with honey, vanilla, cinnamon, giner and nutmeg, topped with sliced almonds. Or, dried cranberries with maple syrup and chopped walnuts. I’ve even added pumpkin puree into oatmeal. Yes, I like oatmeal.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Bryce, whoa, do you ever like oatmeal! I’m dazzled by your inclusive creativity….
January 31st, 2008 at 10:09 am
Oatmeal…mmm. I can do it a few ways: with chopped FRESH dates and walnuts, with walnuts and bananas, with (locally made) sorghum and walnuts, or go crazy and mix bananas, dates, walnuts and sorghum. And never the instant stuff, good old stove top stuff.
No milk or sugar needed.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:19 am
I don’t know where to post this since the “Feedback and Questions” part gives me an error and “not found” message when I click on it. But I need some help from area lovers of fine restaurants.
A special celebration is coming up in May for me and I am looking for a nice restaurant where my husband and I can go for a really nice dinner. Someplace nice, without kids, great food and service, and (obviously)not a “chain” place. I was thinking Italian maybe, with cannoli on the menu - hard to find. But I am open to anything. Someplace other than the typical steak and potato as I have done it too many times. Something with good wine/scotch and where we can get a nice meal with 3-5 courses. We haven’t been to any really fine dining places, and that is what we are looking for but it is so hard to know what is going to be worth the money. Basically, some place we can make reservations on a Saturday night a few weeks in advance to ensure not waiting forever.
Sorry…don’t know where to post this but since F.K. started this string and he knows the fine dining establishments, I am going to the top.
Thanks for any help, and feel free to move this post to the appropriate area.
18 comment.