May the Oats be with you.

My life has been given a new meaning as of 11am.

I've never before dressed my oatmeal in anything except brown sugar, milk, and fruits of the dried variety, UNTIL TODAY.

The lovely Neeshan Mehretu and I got together to discuss our upcoming plans for a workshop at the Growing Our Food Systems Conference next month, and she greeted me with a bowl of freshly prepared steel cut oats doused generously in olive oil and a spoonful of an Ethiopian spice called Berbere: a mixture of cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger, onion powder, paprika, and a little sea salt. Oh, mah, gah. So good.

So finally, after decades of eating sweet oatmeal, my palate has been introduced to spicy, savory oatmeal. For all you avid oatmeal eaters out there, I IMPLORE you to try this: cook your oats with a little water like you usually do, and then mix some olive oil into it and sprinkle with whatever spices suit your fancy. Cayenne, paprika, cumin, garlic/onion powder, pepper, salt, basil, thyme? Yum, yum, yum.

Mmmm. Oats.