Fat Girl Gone Thin

Sometimes at the end of a horrible no-good very bad day it helps to come home, throw down your briefcase and start things over (preferably with a glass of wine).  Sometimes this means pretending the day never started, hiding your head under your covers and going straight to bed. But sometimes it means tying on the apron strings and whipping up a big ole’ plate of comfort food.

On days such as this, I like to cook breakfast for dinner. And then make extra for the next morning. It’s like a little gift from today-me to tomorrow-me…  A little pep talk in gastronomic terms that says things are on the up from here.

I’ve never been much of a cold cereal girl, except for a mixing bowl-sized serving of Honey Nut Cheerios every once in awhile, when my sweet tooth kicks in during the wee hours.

What really gets me going during the A.M. drudgery is a bowl of hot oatmeal, along with a multitude of tiny dishes filled with any and every topping option. Raisins, brown sugar, toasted coconut, almonds… and the list goes on and on.

What usually ends up in my stomach though is an apple and a double-tall cappuccino. And sometimes a few gummy bears from the candy dish at the front desk.

In the dead of winter, especially this time of year when the dark, wet days seem to linger into infinity, I start to crave some of spring’s early offerings – a bowl of fresh snap beans, cherries…. somehow the frozen reserve of garden-goodies in my fridge seems like more of an insult to my senses than a welcome reprieve from the stagnant February grocery store isles. As if the frost-bitten Ziploc bags are just a reminder that this is as close as you can get to the real deal for another four months. Or as close as you can get if you prefer to refrain from the scientific wonders of a winter-time red tomato.

But given my day, my stubborn reluctance fell short and I found myself diving head first into the freezer in search of my stow away of blueberries. It’s funny how we complain about the time it takes to harvest these creatures - standing out in the heat , picking one berry at a time until our hands are full and our stomachs are filled. This time of year, I would give anything to be faced with just such a problem. Instead it’s 5:30, dark outside and I’m digging past frozen turkey and ice cubes in search of the taste of lost summer.

Berries finally in hand, I fell back on a trusted childhood recipe – a take on the Malt-O-Meal magic muffin. The cereal’s been around since the turn of the century and the recipe has been on the side of box as far back as I can remember. It’s simple – Malt-O-Meal, flour, sugar, an egg, some baking powder and oil. The ingredients are so utterly adaptable that it’s nearly impossible to add something that will mess it up. Depending on how healthy (or guilty) you want to feel, the batter is an open battlefield for your tastebuds’ desires.

Last night I went the healthy route and added my blueberries and canned plums, used whole wheat flour, bran flakes, some fresh-ground flax seeds and eggs from my grandfather’s farm. The result was a delightful evening, curled up in a comfy chair - book in one hand, muffin in the other, with memories of summer evidenced on my blueberry stained tongue.