Cookie Porridge

What do you eat for breakfast?  I make a lot of oatmeal, which is ironically the very food that prompted those ridiculously drawn out battles of wills with my parents when I was a girl.  You know, where I would refuse to eat one bite and had to stay at the table after everyone else was done, watching my oatmeal get worse by the minute.  Now I love it.  Go figure.

I also make polenta (mamaliga), grits and rice porridge (congee), but oatmeal is our hot cereal of choice.  I have recently been getting some ideas about how to spice it up from our favorite cookie recipes.  Muffin and scone recipes work well for this, too.  I just add the spices and dried or fresh fruit that are in the recipe, and cook the oatmeal in my regular way.

This morning we had Molasses Cookie oatmeal, inspired by this sublime recipe from The Silver Palate.

I added a little ginger, clove, salt, butter and cinnamon, and sweetened with molasses.  I often think of pastries that I have enjoyed and try to copy them into my oatmeal.  Blueberry, lemon zest & cardamom oatmeal was a big hit.  What do you add to your porridge?