Oats and apples

Although I am a fan of cold weather and winter in general, I'm happy to think that spring is on its way here--at least I hope so. The forecast for the foreseeable future calls for highs in the 40s, lows in the 30s, or thereabouts. Part of what that means is that my foray into maple syrup making will begin very soon, but I'll cover that in a different post.

Strangely, though, with spring fast approaching, I had a craving for something kind of wintery -- perhaps in a farewell 'till fall sort of way. Besides, it is still cold outside. So I made some good, thick, creamy oats. Steel cut oats have a nutty, chewy character that are hard to beat, plus they are so good for you! I added in some of the apples that we dried, a bit of sugar, a little vanilla, and ended up with this:

I usually cook by just "throwing" things together, but I tried to pay attention to what I was doing while cooking this time. So, for anyone who would like a recipe, here's what I did to make my bowl of oats. I think it would bear any adjustments you would care to make to taste.

Oats and Apples

1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups milk (I prefer raw whole milk, but you should use what you want. Soy/coconut milk would likely be yummy as well.)
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (I used raw cane, which has more depth than white sugar, but white will work too)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp apple pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice)
~1/2 cup dried apple slices, broken into bits.

Bring water to boil in saucepan. Add oats, milk, sugar, and apple bits; bring up to just at a boil again, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for another 15-20 mins, stirring every few minutes. Towards the end of the cooking (maybe a minute or two before done), add the vanilla and spice. The oats are done when they are creamy thick. Remove from heat and serve nice and hot.