Today's breakfast is brought to you by :

Quaker Oats! That stuffy belly achy gut, so you can poo breakfast of hardworking farmers, the world over.

Well, some of that may be true!

Anyway ....

I am having oatmeal, in what may or may not be a proper serving size, mixed with fresh (frozen) cranberries, cinnamon, a dollop of mandarin orange marmalade, a  tsp or two of safflower oil, and a scant handful of almonds.

Disappointingly, I did not nuke it all the way into submission, so it is waterier than I would best enjoy; but, it is cooked enough and I already did a bit of dancing, today, so I am a little tired and not inclined to hop up and start blasting it with radioactive particles, again.

On the subject of microwaves, I am of two minds. In general, I think it is best not to have one and to cook the old fashioned way.

However, if you are too tired, stressed out, busy or bereft of knowledge to cook rice (for instance) on the stove top and eating rice would be healthier than eating whatever else you would be eating, instead, because you are never going to cook rice on the stove top, then a microwave is better to have than not to have, for the nonce.

A rice steamer, however, is a nice compromise and if you get the right sort of steamer, it can also be used for veggies, fish, or even combinations of veggies and fish, or rice and fish, or veeggis and rice, and etc.

There are many days I'd like to toss my microwave out. Yet, my son eats Hot Pockets and I like rice, without having to stand around playing guessing games as to when it's going to start burning; plus, sometimes, we get corn dogs and there really is no excuse for the length of time those suckers take to bake in the oven.

My goal is to primarily move away from the sort of eating that requires a microwave. I do have a steamer. As of yet, however, I have not been able to find it and the vinegar on the same day and clean it out, and check to see if it works.

I got it cheap, from a thrift store; so, it's anybody's guess if the previous owner was a jerk who liked to have other people waste their money on defective items whilst they are garnering a tax break for themselves; or, if said previous owner bought a new steamer or was given one as a present and decided to donate the old; or, if the previous owner was simply one of those people who buy things, try them and then realize, years later, that there is no point in keeping it around, since that once or twice was all the use it ever got.

In other words, it may or may not work, but, I spent very little money on it, so I won't totally bewail my fate as regards said lovely steamer, should it be less than fully functional.

I should also have a crock pot, blender, Jet Stream Oven, toaster, and a tea kettle. I bought the tea kettle for my daughter, but, she left it here, so it is pink and it is mine! Until, at least, she comes for a visit and steals away with it, upon her leaving; then, it shall be pink and hers and I shall have to find me a new one.

The Jet Stream Oven is out at Mom and Dad's house. I have never put it together and tried it, to see if it works. Are you sensing a theme developing here?

It's the sort of thing you need to read a manual for. I have to concentrate to read a manual. Can read very well, me, but, not so much when it comes to instructions. That fact probably says a lot about my personality!

Said lovely oven is one of those things where you can, allegedly, cook whole meals, in much less time than it would take in the oven, maybe even less time than in the microwave. The thing is, one cannot read the instructions on use in less time than one can push buttons on a microwave or oven range, and, so, it sits unused.

Because, here is the crux of the matter: When I go to cook, it is because I, and/or someone else, is hungry! This is no time to start fiddling around with trying to learn things.. Nor is it a good time to take a chance on the bloody thing not working.

I guess what I need to do is get it together and see if there are instructions for, say, baking a cake or cookies; something, anyway, that could be cooked when not hungry and that would be able to sit idle for a while, after cooking, until hunger struck again.