I am a slow holiday decorator. While I love to watch people drive down the highway with a Christmas tree strapped to the roof of their car on the day after Thanksgiving, I just cannot imagine any sort of Christmas decoration making an appearance here until December.
Generally, I will decorate in stages. The first things to appear on December 1 are the holiday dishes. I clear the cupboards of our everyday dishes and replace them with Christmas themed plates and bowls. This year I even had a few new bowls that I had found at Filoli.
Next to appear will generally be the outside lights and then perhaps the Christmas quilts will be hung and the other decorations will appear around the house and finally around mid-month the tree arrives and is decorated. I love how the house gets more decorated as the holiday draws closer.
This morning the house was cold. I know, it's California, how cold can it get? Well, not that cold, but for me it felt cold. There was nothing to do but make some oatmeal to warm up and make use of my new adorable holiday bowls.
Brown Sugar Spiced Oatmeal
This is one of those great recipes where you can swap out most of the ingredients and still end up with something tasty. Often I will use pear instead of apple, but I bet that peaches would taste wonderful in season. If you don't have or like dried cranberries use another dried fruit. Even the brown sugar could be traded for honey or white sugar or agave nectar.
Serves 2 - 3
1 1/4 C water
2 T brown sugar
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
pinch of salt
1 C oats
1 medium apple peeled and chopped
1/2 C dried cranberries
2 T chopped pecans
1/2 C milk
Heat the water, sugar and seasonings to a boil. Stir in the oats, apple and cranberries. Cook over medium heat while stirring for about 5 minutes.
Remove pan from heat and stir in pecans and milk. Pour into bowls and serve.
Here's a printable version: oatmeal.pdf
-- marcella
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