Oatmeal done old school

I realized this week that I've never had oatmeal before. Oh sure, I've had food in a bowl made from oats whose package told me it was oatmeal but it was just not so. I found this out when I set about making from-scratch oatmeal made with old-fashioned oats and water.

Once, my man made a cherry pie from scratch with fresh-from-the-tree Michigan cherries. And it changed my notion of how delicious and real a cherry pie could taste. Eating my scratch oatmeal was a smaller version of that feeling, like I'm eating something that was made the same way for generations before me and will continue to be made that way in the future. When paper packets with microwave directions go out of style, there will still be this oatmeal.

Old School Oatmeal
--adjusted from the French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook--

1 c. oats
2 1/3 c. water
salt
1 c. apple sauce
1/2 t lemon juice
1/3 c. soymilk
1/2 t butter
2 T cinnamon
raisins
raw sugar

1. In a med. saucepan, combine the oats with the water and a pinch of salt. Bring it to a boil.
2. Add applesauce and lemon juice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to avoid the mix sticking to the bottom of the pan.
3. Add soymilk, butter, and cinnamon and stir.
4. Pour half of the pan into a bowl and add as many raisins and as much raw sugar as you fancy.

Admittedly, I added a little more sugar than I was proud to admit, but it was so delicious, it was gone before I could take a second picture.



Of course, this still left the other half of the pan, which I held in reserve in the frig in a long tubular plastic container. I ate it for breakfast the next morning, and I have to say, I wish I would have taken a picture of that oatmeal when I first plopped it back out of that container. It looked like a jello mold. A sand-colored jello mold. Or flan. And it jiggled like jello too. And flan.

I mushed it out into the bowl and added a little extra water. It microwaved right up and was just as tasty the second time.

(Also delicious with a sliced banana on top.)