Actual (But Still Lazy) Peaches and Cream Oatmeal

I am literally doing this right now.

Canned peaches might count as cheating, but who cares! There are actual peaches, there is actual cream, and I used old-fashioned dried oats instead of quick oats.

Mark Bittman once said that dry, old-fashioned oats become edible after soaking in liquid for ten minutes. I've done that a few times and have found it to be true, at least according to my own digestive system, which is totally fine with the practice. 

This time, I used boiling water and it worked really well. So take THAT, corn syrup lower fiber instant stuff! You aren't the only option anymore for people who want oatmeal but don't want to clean up afterward. (Apart from the dirty bowl and spoon, and apart from putting the ingredients away again. But other than that!)

Chicken salad made with freakin' love

MY APP MADE THE TEXT TINY!!! AARGH!!!

Because my partner is not vegetarian, I woke up before 6am and made a truly badass chicken salad to fill sandwiches with, to send to work with him. (He's in the home stretch for Never Alone, which is a video game that my husband works on.)

My sandwich goal was to create something suitably complex and creamy without using mustard, Johnny's seasoning salt, Penzeys Ozark seasoning mix, Old Bay, or Worcestershire sauce, because I use those pretty much every time. Instead, I chopped some celery seeds and cumin seeds, sprinkled in some lemon olive oil, used diced pickles, horseradish powder, powdered paprika (which rhymes with Caprica)...I put a lot of seasoning stuff in the mayonnaise base and it's really freakin' good. Made with freakin' love, is what's what.

Tillamook smoked white cheddar slices are included, for use as a sandwich topping OR as a side dish. Some little, diced cubes of that cheese are stirred into the chicken salad, too. Not enough to taste overtly, but enough to just make the flavor a little more interesting. When tasting the chicken salad once I was done, each sample tasted slightly different than the sample before it, so I'm confident that every bite of the sandwich that it will become will be unique, and that each bite will compliment, rather than simply mimic, the bites prior to the bite taken. It will tell a story. A story of "oh, hey, that's in there, too!"