Oatmeal

I took my mother last week to Winco for her weekly shopping trip.
While she puttered around looking for her odd assortment of things to boil, I wandered around.
I ended up looking at tea, but they had little to offer.
Though I did find a tisaine (non tea based "tea") for Swede.
It was high in anti-oxidants, so might help with his immune system!
Poor Swede is so ill!

Now it was time to find mother and see how she was doing.
But, I had to walk past the cereals to do so.
In front of me were the oatmeal selections.
Out of nowhere a memory was triggered!

I was on Long's Peak, back in 1970, in the Rocky Mountain National Park!
It was my first climbing trip in the USA.
I was bivouacked at the 12,500 foot level, just above timberline.
And it was freezing cold.
But, I like cold, so not a problem.
I was making so soft boiled eggs for breakfast, on my little sterno stove.

It sputtered and coughed but did boil my eggs for me, eventually.
So, I needed something that was easier to make next time.
As the rain fell quietly on my tent's roof, I thought about oatmeal.
I quickly dismissed that idea!
Mother's favorite breakfast item to make.
It was boiled and therefore perfect!
Only mother could not actually even boil oats and have it taste like anything in nature!

Yuck!
I never had tried cooking oats before, so intense was my aversion to it.

Back home, I went to King Soopers to check out oatmeal.
And there it was, Quaker's Instant Oatmeal.
There was only one flavor, Apple Cinnamon.
I bought a box.

I made a packet for lunch.
It was worthy of a second helping!
At last an edible oatmeal!

Two months later I was on James Peak, west of Denver.
One of the rottenest climbs I have ever been on!
But my new Butane stove was much better!
And breakfast was superb!

There was no Apple Cinnamon flavor on the shelf.
So, I reached for a box of Peaches and Cream flavor oats.
Very tasty.
Even my youngest daughter thought so!

Well time to add the now boiled water to my bowl of Peaces and Cream!