Porridge is the best breakfast on a chilly morning!

This post is mainly for my mom, as she's often curious what I mean when I say I had some porridge for brekky.

What I really mean is that I had "complicated oatmeal." It's sort of like you can have tea or you can have Tea: the first is a simple cuppa, brewed up in a lovely ceramic mug and sipped while watching TV or having a workday morning brekky of cold cereal; the latter is more of an experience--a fancy teacup, perhaps with a saucer situation going on, and a little pitcher of milk rather than glugging some in from the carton in the fridge. Both drinking experiences start the same: water is boiled, tea leaves are steeped, and their deliciousness is ultimately consumed. The difference is what you make of the whole experience. Do I always want to, or have time to, set out a giant Tea spread to make the English gentry proud? Hell to the no. But when I do, I love to make a true experience of it. It's a reminder to slow down and enjoy things rather than shovel things in my mouth before rushing off to do my next task.

Likewise, there is oatmeal, and there is porridge. I'm going to sound like a math teacher here for a second, but bear with me: all oatmeal is porridge but not all porridge is oatmeal--think of those little ven diagrams or whatever you looked at in math class for these kinds of comparisons. To wit: porridge is basically just hot cereal--it can be oats, millet, barley...anything you cook up with a liquid and eat hot off the stove (or out of the microwave). Oatmeal is called oatmeal because it's made from oats. Quinoa is currently having a moment where it is leaping from dinner plates and finding itself served in the morning hours with fruit, almond milk, and tea (or Tea).

 
So that aside, when I say I make porridge, I use oats, and so yes, I am having oatmeal. But "porridge" just sounds fancier and sets it aside from the instant stuff. I pour out these oats, not from a little brown paper packet, but from a box where I have to actually measure out each serving. (My favorite brand is above.) I dump the oats into a pot on the stove--if I'm making enough for me and John, I'll use my trusty 2-quart saucepan; if I'm making enough just for me, I'll use a cute little Corningware ceramic pan. Rather than cooking the oats in water (which never tasted good to me, and may be why I've always hated the over-sugared packet oatmeals), I cook them in milk--cow's or almond. Regular old cow's milk, of any percentage you like, makes not only a thick and luscious bowl of oats, but it also adds a subtle sweet flavor, much like the sweetness milk takes on when you steam it to add to your coffee. I've also used vanilla almond milk, and this, too, makes it feel like a special meal. The whole cooking process takes about 10-15 minutes, so again, not really the thing to do if you need to dash out the door, but if you've got the time, it is so well worth the effort. See? It's complicated oatmeal.

A few of my favorite servings are thus:

• Brown sugar
• Jam/compote
• Fruit butter
• Honey
• Chopped nuts

These can all also be mixed and matched. And I've recently gotten into savory porridge as a fabulous new idea for breakfast for dinner (or a nice brunch option). I cook it the same way (using milk on the stovetop), but then I will cook a sunny-side-up egg and plop it on top and season the oats with salt, pepper, and whatever other savory spices speak to me.

I hope this inspires you to make some complicated oatmeal and start the day nice and warm!