So with impending snowicane/snow-nado/snow-quake fore-casted, I thought a pot of oatmeal was in order for breakfast, especially since the three of us would be home. (Chris can telecommute for work on bad-weather days.) I had picked up a container of steel cut oats, or Irish oatmeal a few weeks ago but was disappointed with how long it took to cook on the stove. I did a search for some slow-cooker recipes and found a really unique one that involved a water bath in the crock pot, making clean up easier. I found the recipe/directions for what I did here, which was described beautifully. I will have to admit that I was skeptical of using my crock pot as a bain-marie, but it worked out perfectly. I had been thinking that making oatmeal in my big crock pot would be a.) messy and b.) making a huge quantity considering the minimal amount of liquid/food in the crock pot for it to work well. This method turned out great and I would definitely make oatmeal this way again. It will be especially easy for those mornings when Chris is up and out of here earlier than us because the crock pot has a stay warm feature.
I started out with a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup filled with four cups of water. I added one cup of steel cut oats, a pinch of kosher salt, and a handful or two of raisins. I gently mixed it all together and placed the Pyrex cup into my slow cooker/crock pot. I then filled the crock pot with water so that the level was close to the top of the liquid of the oat mixture. I put the lid on the pot and set the timer for 8.5 hours on low. I was estimating the time based upon when I thought we might be ready for breakfast. I think I could have done just 8 hours or possibly 7, since the oatmeal stays in the crock pot covered until I'm ready, and therefore continues to cook in the warm water. The raisins more than plumped up overnight and practically dissolved in my mouth when eating. Next time I may wait until morning to add them so that they plump without disintegrating. Some of the oatmeal escaped the Pyrex cup, but not too much.
A larger, more shallow baking dish may work better, but the measuring cup seemed to fit the best inside my crock pot. Clean up was super easy--no scraping up dried out oatmeal! Andrew is not a huge fan of oatmeal, so he only ate a little bit. I flavored his with some maple syrup. Chris got a nice spoonful of peanut butter in his and I added a little cinnamon, brown sugar and maple syrup to mine--reminiscent of the old Quaker instant maple and brown sugar flavor, one of my favorites from childhood, second only to apples and cinnamon! I think the next time I make this recipe I'll add apples and cinnamon to the mix and let that cook overnight. Definitely a nice hearty and warm breakfast on a cold morning. Of course the snow was a no-show for the most part!
It is snowing here, but it's been mostly flurries all day. The roads were clear this morning, and still are, so I am really surprised at all of the school closings in the area. I really wish the media/TV weather folks would be more realistic with their predictions and not freak everyone out. Of course it could all change tonight, but I think it is ridiculous. I watched a few minutes of a news program last night, one I normally do not watch but it was on after the Olympic coverage, and the weatherman actually had a graphic on the screen rating the storm today in a similar fashion to the way hurricanes are rated. Today's flurries was rated a category five--EXTREME! Seriously. They were showing local stores with people in a panic over not being able to find any more shovels.
This morning I received an email from my local yarn shop, the Tangled Web, advertising a one day only snow sale. If you mentioned the email today when shopping, you received 20% off your total purchase. Not too shabby! Of course I do not need anything from any yarn store, but I did need to get out of the house, so Andrew got his little snow boots on and we set out in the "storm" in the jeep to check out the fibery goodness. I did check on the yarn requirements of the pattern I want to knit for Andrew for next winter before we left, so I let him help pick out yarn for his wallaby sweater. He picked out a lovely dark pink at first, and said it was red, but eventually we narrowed it down to a heathered tan or a gray-blue shade. I decided upon the gray-blue, since I thought it might not show dirt quite as much as the lighter color. I went with Encore worsted acrylic/wool bend since it will be a garment that will need to be tough and very washable. Plus, he'll probably only get one season's worth of wearing out of it, so it isn't worth it to me to invest in more expensive superwash wool. It was Andrew's first trip to a real yarn shop and he was so good. He only touched some of the yarn and was content to just check everything out. He even helped pick up some skeins another shopper had knocked off the shelf and walked away from without noticing.
I'll end with a photo of the Category Five storm:
See all that snow--it was left over from the storm two weeks ago. What is new is the snow on the trees and the rooftop of the barn. So far, it isn't even shovel-worthy. Hopefully it stays that way!
