Ok. . .I splurged. In an effort to replicate my wonderful Irish Breakfast experience I bought the “cute” little can of Irish oatmeal. You know the one. When you look at the Hot cereal section of the cereal aisle and up on the top shelf are those “Weird” grain cereals you have no idea what they may taste like and then the price tells you. .you don’t want to experiment with it. But this is oatmeal. . how different can it be. There is a Can, literally, that has the old fashioned label on the metal. . .not on paper. It says something like “Steel cut” Oatmeal. It is a cute can, but “Steel cut” what the hell is that? The can holds about 3 cups of oatmeal and costs $5.89. Yikes. . .good ol’ Quaker Oats in the cardboard canister costs about $3 and look how much you get with it. Hmmmm this better be good stuff.
Reading the instructions I see I should bring to a brisk boil 4 cups of water and add 1 cup of oatmeal reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Frist off, I am not going to make 4 cups of oatmeal when I know I will be the only one eating it. So cut that recipe in half.
30 mins of simmering? Quaker oats is sounding better, only have to wait 1 minute.
I start the water. Peering at the can I realize I can not open it with anything in the kitchen. It has one of those lids. . .well . . . those old enough to remember. . the old Baking Soda cans and Baking chocolate had them, they were a lid that you used the OPPOSITE side of the bottle opener to pry it up. Could I find a bottle opener in the kitchen. . .nope. So off to my office desk to get the mini screwdriver I use for computer repairs. That did the trick nicely. Once opened, I realized that this oatmeal was very different. No, there were no flakes of grain like Quaker oats. What I saw were more like pellets, I was afraid it would taste like Grapenuts, that is what it looked like. Again I found myself wondering, is this really the stuff I ate in Ireland?
. . . .30 minutes later. . . .It is starting to look like oatmeal, thick, gluepy (is that a word?). I get my bowl ready, dig to the back of the cupboard for the brown sugar, then go to the other room where the liquor cabinet is to find the bottle of Irish cream. Strange to be digging in the liquor cabinet at 7:30am. Oh well . . .I find that bottle of the good stuff, the one I shared with everyone at the party called Cool Swan. After filling the bowl with the hot oatmeal and dumping the brown sugar on it I tip the bottle anticipating the smell of Irish cream. . . .I tip the bottle. . more. . .I tip the bottle MORE. . .and out trickles about 2 tablespoons worth of the luscious cream. (cue Charlie Brown’s voice) ARGH!!!! I shared too much of it with my friends. (note to self, don’t share my treasures)
My Irish breakfast porridge is tasty. It is also slightly chewy. The “Steel cut” oats are a bit thicker than Quaker oats, but still, it is oatmeal. The flavor is there, it could be better with about another jigger’s worth of the Irish cream, though. But I am still enjoying it.
It’s Sunday, and the liquor stores are closed. You know where I will be after work on Monday.
Cheers!
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