Oatmeal deluxe
Friday, 4 March 2011
An old variety of daffodil that came with our house. It’s in the lawn, not a flowerbed.
My new favorite breakfast is what I call oatmeal deluxe (with dried fruit and cinnamon/ginger)—and I didn’t eat oatmeal willingly for decades after a childhood encounter when I was in the hospital after having my tonsils removed. I remember I had a coloring book before I went in to introduce me to what would be happening, called Tommy’s Tonsillectomy. I liked that it had a big word in the title.
Anyway, I felt weird when I came out from under sedation. I don’t remember if Tommy discussed that much, but I was unprepared for the sense of altered reality.
I entered the hospital as an unenthusiastic oatmeal-eater, but when they brought me a bowl of light blue oatmeal* the morning after the surgery when my throat felt terrible, I felt skewered by reality and became a quiet non-fan of oatmeal. Besides, it was a gluey lump and not particularly warm.
I stayed a non-fan until sometime last fall, when I developed this recipe, with powdered cinnamon and ginger, and added dried fruit. Yum.
* Mom told me much later that someone at the hospital thought if they added food coloring kids would eat more readily. Not.