Comfort Me With Oatmeal

Friday, January 21, 2011
I'm either getting good at managing my time or else the stars magically aligned, but this past Wednesday was the first day, in dare I say, months (?) when neither Andy or I had anything in particular that needed doing or any place that needed getting to. While we parleyed about going ice fishing, it seemed like an awful long walk. (Fyi, we can see the portage to the lake we're heading to from the cabin's living room.) Andy pulled the salted minnows out of the freezer, sat down on the couch, and didn't get back up.

By the time 2 o'clock rolled it was clear that we weren't going anywhere. And that was okay. A double batch of spaghetti sauce was burbling in the crock pot, the sun was shining and we'd spent the morning picking up around the cabin.

"I wish you could blog about how good it smells in the cabin right now," Andy said.

While the smell of fennel, basil, oregano and tomatoes was just fine and dandy, I need something more to truly achieve the "zen-ish" day we had going on.


Ruth Reichl says "Comfort me with apples." I say: comfort me with oatmeal. I can not imagine a calmer, more comforting food than oatmeal. In Madeleine L'Engle's Meet the Austens, Mother always had a pot of oatmeal in the double boiler waiting for the kids as a snack when they got home from school. How cozy is that?

Since coming back from NYC I've fostered a very unoriginal love for the Magnolia Bakery and was charmed to get their cookbook for Christmas. I must say, at first glance, the recipes are less than thrilling. There's nothing crazy or terrible innovative about the recipes but both recipes I tried so far have turned out wonderfully and taste a lot more exciting than they look on paper. It's just good ol' simple, delicious baking. Imagine my excitement yesterday when I found a recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Almond cookies in the cookbook that I had all the ingredients to.

In no time at all, the smell of almondy, buttery, vanillay, oatmealy goodness was mingling in the air with tomato sauce.
Now that's comfort in one compact package.

Happy Friday to all!

P.S. It did get darn cold last night. We woke up to about -35F this morning. And just remember, that'sbefore wind chill. ;)  

7 comments:

  1. Oh, great, so now in addition to everything else on my to-do list today, I'm looking at this delicious picture and thinking I need to make cookies. Oh, darn.

    Love your blog and your writing style.

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  2. Mmm, I have my nightly oatmeal or oatbran, and I agree on the "comfort me with oatmeal" comment. I'm also cracking up at the "unoriginal love of the Magnolia Bakery." After visiting the shop in New York I borrowed the cookbook from the library and made the basic vanilla recipe once as a layer cake and once as cupcakes- turned out delicious both times, and I am NOT a baker!
    Great post- I sure enjoy reading your blog!

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  3. Oh I love my porridge and I just fell in love with your cookies. Have to find a recipe. Yummy.
    Glad you have had a Zen-ish day.

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  4. Mmmm, oatmeal raisin cookies, I am sooo making those when I get back to Canada. And, eating a big bowl of cinnamon raisin oatmeal!

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  5. I love oatmeal! Thanks for linking up with us this week. :) What a cute blog.

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  6. These look amazing! There is an award for you on my blog :)

    Katy

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  7. Those look great.
    Aren't lazy days wonderful.
    I just got my hands on the Jamie Oliver cookbook "Jamie's America" for review and it's a bit on the disappointing side.

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