![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
My mother thought it was simply that we hadn't found the right one. She tried all of them on me. The sugared ones would get tried once and the remainder of the package ignored. I complained about, but would eat, plain cereals like corn flakes, Cheerios, grape nuts and shredded wheat. Then I discovered I preferred them without the milk or sugar. The puffed cereals, in particular, made good dry snacks, as did popcorn.
Having found the rightful place for cold cereals, I tried a variety of substitute breakfasts. I liked pancakes, especially wrapped around sausages, but they were too much work most of the time. We raised chickens, so I had eggs whenever I wanted them ... but I couldn't be trusted to cook them myself because I couldn't break them correctly.
Then I found hamburgers. A simple patty of ground meat, not necessarily beef, between two pieces of bread. Usually I added nothing else. Eventually I got to the point of making my own patties. At first I used simple ground meats, then mixtures of meats. Then I started adding spices, dried herbs like oregano, onion or garlic powder.
We always had a cast iron skillet in the kitchen. It was natural to fry the patties there. But eventually I had to make my own home. In 1965, the people I worked for sent me to St. Paul, Minnesota, for a two month class in repairing computers. I had to set up a cheap food factory that wouldn't take much of my attention. I bought a cheap little coffee percolator and a cheap lidded saucepan. I bought a package of cheap ground meat in a family pack, for the price reduction. I bought dried sweet peppers, dried grated onions and garlic powder. I bought a package of oatmeal, to extend the ground meat, making my hamburgers cheaper.
I had rented a furnished apartment for two months for far less than I would have paid for a motel for that period. That provided me a stove, a refrigerator and a freezer; I had to rent a bed.
I mixed together the ground meat, oatmeal and spices, placed some between sheets of waxed paper, and smashed them into flat, but highly irregular, patties about the size of my saucepan. I immediately froze the patties formed from the entire package of ground meat. I figured I had enough for three or four weeks. I no longer remember if I was correct.
Frying the patties in a covered saucepan wasn't very effective. The meat got cooked but it required too much attention. With the lid off they had a tendency to overcook severely. With the lid on, they steamed. One day I added some coffee and cooked the patty at a low temperature. The meat cooked with no additional attention required and the coffee gave it a good taste. But I had added too much oatmeal and the cooked patties were swollen monsters that resembled round blimps. I discovered that with the oatmeal inside I no longer required bread on the outside. I gave up the bread and thrived on my swollen boiled patties.
When I returned home, I decided to continue making my own patties with oatmeal and cooking them in a variety of liquids. Fruit juices were too sweet and too expensive. Soups from powders didn't work well for me. Finally I decided to turn it inside out again. I got a package of nine-grain hot cereal and cooked it up with the ground meat inside. I got the same meaty taste and I could experiment with additional ingredients. I discovered that dried apricots, dried papaya, dates and a variety of seeds worked well. I also discovered that if I added a raw egg when everything was cooked and the heat turned off then the mixture had a particularly good taste. That became my standard breakfast for several years, until I started having intestinal problems and was told to give up whole grains.
Neuropathy means the nerves are dying. It hurts and you lose all sensation. I have neuropathy in my feet, in my intestine, and ... elsewhere. Neuropathy of the digestive system leads to poor digestion and frequent diarrhea. I had to give up members of the cabbage family, especially my favorite, broccoli. I could no longer eat apples or pears (the sorbitol they contain is a laxative they share with gummy bears). I had to give up the breakfast food I had spent so many years developing.
My breakfast now starts with some fruit, usually melon or papaya, followed after half an hour by a hamburger, a pair of hot dogs, or chicken patties. Sometimes I'll fix eggs or pancakes.
Sometimes, when my intestine is really disturbed, I'll just have some chicken broth, although that is usually a lunch or dinner selection.
I often wish I could return to my blimp burgers or my hot cereal mixture.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
- Mood:
stressed
