In Pursuit of Steel Cut Oats Breakfast Recipe

A few weeks ago (five, to be exact) I posted a picture of my first attempt at Shannon Ables's recipe for "Buttery Steel Cut Oats."  Since then  I have fallen in love with the recipe and have made it nearly every morning.  We've always been a big oatmeal family, but these buttery steel cut oats definitely top the charts.

Y'all, I seriously had doubts that steel-cut oats could taste so good, but decided to give them a whirl after hearing @thesimplyluxuriouslife share her recipe. I toasted my slivered almonds right before adding them. This stuff was amazing! I literally devoured the entire bowl. #heathyfoodwin #tsll

A photo posted by Ashley Craig-Diaz (@inpursuitofthefinerthings) on Apr 19, 2016 at 9:32am PDT

I received several requests for the recipe and rather than just directing  you to Ms. Able's website, decided to share the recipe in a post.

The necessary ingredients include:

• 1/4 Cup Steel Cut Oat Meal (original, not quick cooking!  The one pictured is John McCann Steel Cut Oatmeal, but I've also used Bob's Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats, and both are good)
• 1 Tablespoon Butter (I've been using Président Salted Butter)
• 3/4 Cup Boiling Water
• 1/4 Cup Cream (pictured is Organic Valley Heaving Whipping Cream.  I've also used Regular Whipping Cream, and they're both good).
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• Handful of Toasted Slivered Almonds

I've been toasting my own almonds while the rest of the meal (pun intended) cooks and decided quickly to toast enough for a whole week and keep them in a small glass jar (exactly what I did with the walnut and rolled-oat mixture for the Magical Breakfast).  These directions will tell you the steps I take to do this, but once your almonds are toasted for the week you would (obviously) leave those steps out of the process.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place your kettle of water on the stove to boil.  Place several handfuls of slivered almonds on a lightly sprayed baking sheet.

In a small skillet, melt butter with oats over medium heat to begin toasting the oats for 2-3 minutes.

Once the oven is preheated, begin to toast almonds for 5 minutes.

When the water in the kettle begins to boil, add 3/4 cups to the oats in the skillet.  It should immediately continue to boil.  DO NOT STIR!  Add a dash of salt and reduce heat to low.  Allow oats to absorb liquid for 8-10 minutes.

I normally enjoy my cup of coffee while waiting for the timers to go off.  Check out this super cute "Milton" mug by The Scribble Studio that I picked up from 

Cheeses and Mary a few weeks ago!

 After almonds have toasted for 5 minutes, stir around and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.  NOTE: There is a very fine line between perfectly toasted almonds and over-toasted (aka, burnt) almonds.  Keep an eye on them and take them out RIGHT as they start to brown in color.  

(You'll notice in the above picture that I've found the "hot" spot of my oven 

and have learned to work around it. :)

Once your oats have absorbed liquid, stir and add 1/4 cup cream.  Allow cream to become absorbed then transfer to bowl.

 

Add honey and small handful of toasted almonds.  Save the remainder of almonds in a small glass jar to use throughout the week.

This recipe is for one but can very easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled for more!  Just as with the Magical Breakfast, have fun adding different toppings to make it unique to your taste.  I've played with a few toppings, but the honey and almonds are definitely my favorite!

In Pursuit of Authentic French Cooking

I (along with everyone else who had not already done so) fell in love with Julia Child after seeing the 2009 film, Julie and Julia.  The movie inspired me in more than just cooking; it was the inspiration to start my blog!  Even though I knew it would be silly to copy Julie Powell's idea of cooking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I was intrigued about how easy or difficult Mrs. Child's recipes truly were.

A few years later, I decided to try cooking through her TV series, "The French Chef."  While her recipes didn't seem necessarily difficult, they were all rather time-consuming.  I started saving them for weekend entertaining, when I would have the luxury of a few hours to cook a meal.  While I didn't cook through every episode (sadly, Amazon gradually removed the Prime Instant Video of "The French Chef," first seasons 2-10, and ultimately all of the seasons), I did find a few "go-to" recipes that I knew were fool-proof and would always turn out tasty.

"Casserole Roast Chicken"

I was quite disappointed when I discovered Amazon no longer had any of the episodes available on Prime and decided to read Mrs. Child's biography, My Life in France.  It starts just like the movie, with her and her husband, Paul Child's arrival in Paris.  It did take me a little while to get in to it, as most of it is written as she would speak: not always coherently, and sometimes jumping around from thought to thought.  About half-way through, I started to really get into it.  I enjoyed reading the back stories of the different French Chef episodes- I could read about her traveling to to visit Professor Raymond Calvel and learning proper techniques to make French bread and follow it with the episode she filmed covering her lesson.  This was especially fun to do with the "Pressed Duck Dinner" recipe, where in the book she documented traveling to Rouen to film the ritual at one of her favorite restaurants, La Couronne.

Most recently, I was listening to a podcast of The Splendid Table's 20th anniversary show where Lynne Rossetto Kasper replays an interview of Julia Child from their first episode.  The topic is summer barbecue meals, and Julia shares her recipe for Potato Salad along with a tip about most importantly making sure the potatoes are cooked correctly.  She also expresses her preference for Ground Chuck as her hamburger meat of choice and exclaims that she "Hates fake food- you can't have any fun with that!"  Lynn and Julia then have a brief conversation on the importance of moderation and their dislike of low-fat and fat-free products. Julia proclaims
that, "People are nutty who want to watch their fat or give it up entirely.  You can't have any fun eating that kind of a diet- all you can eat is vegetables and legumes and to hell with that is what I say!"