Sometimes I feel like that fish from Finding Nemo, Dora. She has such a short term memory that she can hardly remember one thing from 5 minutes to the next. That’s the way I am when it comes to remembering the things I love to do, like cooking, taking walks, dancing, photography. For some reason I’m always forgetting that I love those activities. Then when I get to do it again it feels so good.

Today I woke up with a need for something warm and savory and pulled out my recipe notebook. Kashi Pilaf with Poached Egg, from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair, that will do.

Alas, I was short on kashi and my egg poaching skills are dismal. No problem, improvise! I decided to use steel cut oatmeal and a fried egg instead. I also added a chopped fresh tomato at the end.

It came out creamy, savory and totally satisfying. Next time I think I’ll add some spinach.

Here’s how I made it.

1. First I heated 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in a 10 inch skillet.
2. Then, I added 1 small chopped onion and 1 garlic minced garlic clove.
3. While the onion and garlic cooked, I dice a small potato and measure out 1 cup of steel cut oatmeal.
4. I also added some fresh thyme to the skillet.
5. I put 2 cups of water in a kettle and set it to boil.
6. By this point, the onion was soft and golden, so I added the potato and oatmeal and made sure it was well coated.
7. The kettle was whistling and I added the boiling water and reduced to simmer and cooked covered for 15 minutes.
8. While that cooked I fried an egg in butter.
9. When the mush was done, I added a diced tomato and let it rest a few minutes.

Finally, it went in a bowl with the egg on top. Just good food. Have a wonderful Saturday.