The Wrong Oatmeal

Breakfast has become something of a trial in the last couple of weeks. Both Benjamin and I are tired of our standard breakfasts - he of cereal and I of toast and peanut butter. We also both have breakfast tacos or scrambled eggs with toast, and we are both a little bored with that too. During the week, I often only have 15 or 20  minutes in which to cook and eat breakfast (and read comics on the interwebs, and check Facebook, and my email...) so I have to have something that doesn't take a lot of time (or something made in advance, but since I already make my lunch the night before, asking me to make breakfast is is bit much). I also must eat breakfast and it must have protein, or I get terrible low blood sugar by 8:30 or 9, and it can take all day to properly recover. Hence the toast with peanut butter.  It works, but it is dull.

So this morning, I figured it was time to break out the oatmeal - it is Fall now, and nice warming, filling breakfasts are appropriate. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that both the Scottish oatmeal and the steel-cut oats had been infested with moths. Sigh. We had an infestation a couple of months ago in the pantry, but the oatmeals were kept in a different cabinet, and sealed, so I had hoped they escaped the damage. Nope. I was forced to use rolled oats, which I only really like in cookies or bread. It was the Wrong Oatmeal. Sigh again. For next week I must stock up anew on my favorite oatmeals, and I must buy a new storage container to keep them safe.

Breakfast at Ashley's

I had to get up at 4 AM this morning to take Benjamin to the airport. Urgh. We got him there at 5, and presumably he is on his way by now. On a normal day, I would have had to keep myself busy until 7:30 or so, and then head to work. Today, however, I am attending a seminar at the downtown public library, and it doesn't start until 9. So, yes, that is 4 hours to kill between drop-off and start time. I didn't want to drive home, because that is just a waste of time and gasoline. Since it was so early that nothing else was open, I decided to take advantage of the free wi-fi at the airport for an hour or so, and play on my Facebook page. I just started one yesterday, so I am still exploring. And that was fine, but I also needed breakfast.

Now, I like eating breakfast out, but I prefer it to be a good breakfast. Except when heading out on a camping trip, I don't want just a sausage biscuit from McDs. And I don't want waffles - we make those all the time at home. I need a nice sitdown breakfast. What to do? Where to go? The answer: Ashley's at the Capitol Hotel. We ate dinner there with my parents at Christmas and were suitably impressed. Benjamin was even convinced to give up his prejudice against fancy restaurants on account of Ashley's. And they serve breakfast. Lovely, lovely breakfast. I had sourdough buckwheat pancakes, with syrup imported from Vermont. Topped with baked Arkansas Black apples and a tangerine-cinnamon whipped cream. With locally farmed bacon. So, so good! The pancakes weren't big fluffy tasteless things. No, they were light, but substantial, crispy but tender. And the apples and cream...I could eat a big bowl of them just on their own.

I can't wait for another opportunity to have breakfast there again. With Benjamin.

Breakfast for dinner

Tonight, we had breakfast for dinner: waffles, scrambled locally grown eggs, locally raised buffalo sausage, and cantaloupe. I can't believe we haven't done this in a really long time, if ever, since we've been together. It is such a good idea. You get the best meal of the day, but when you are awake enough to appreciate it! Our waffles were enhanced by grape jelly we got in our basket of the month last month, and by the chocolate-hazelnut spread we bought at the University District Farmer's Market in Seattle this summer. Yum yum yum. Too bad we didn't have local peaches as the fruit, and it would have been all local. Oh well, one item trucked in from California in a whole meal isn't too bad.