When people ask about living in SLC we tell them lots of great things, the people, the mountains, the recreational opportunities, the cost of living... When they say "But what don't you like?" the answer is always the same. It's not what you might think we lefties would say. We answer that the air quality in winter is the worst thing about life in SLC. It's especially bad this week. Bad enough that one awakens with a headache and kids are kept inside despite the fact that it gets into the 40's in the daytime and the sun is shining. We can't see the mountains from our house. At some points in the daytime, I can't see downtown from my house. That is distressing as it is only 11 blocks away.
To counter my completely blah feeling this morning (a little post inauguration let down mixed with the lousy air I expect) I made comfort food for breakfast. No one else was up (translation = no one to complain about my weird breakfast). I made wheat cereal with peaches. Cooked with 1/2 cup of milk and about the same of water. The peaches are special. I dehydrated them this summer, and when chopped and re-moistened in cooked cereal they tasted like sunshine. I mistakenly added my usual amount of sugar to the finished cereal before tasting it, and, thanks to the fruit, it was too sweet! Usually I include about 1/4 cup of raisins, and they don't impart as much sweetness. It was a nice way to start the day even if it makes for a goopy pan to wash.
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4 comments:
I'm sorry about your air quality. I hope Mark doesn't choke on it while he skis this weekend.
Weather in Minnesota is the sort of thing people make fun of, but we do have pretty good air quality here, even in the city (at least as far as I can tell, I'm not asthmatic or particularly sensitive).
Your peaches-and-cereal sounds fantastic. If I had the dried peaches, I would put them in the rice cooker with steel cut oats, and add to the hot cereal some cream from the top of a bottle of milk. I often use dried apples (from the store, alas, not home dried) in steel cut oats, and I love it. I bet peaches would be even better.
Why is it that dried fruit seems to work so much better in hot cereal than fresh fruit does? Do you think it's because so many of us grew up with Quaker Apples 'n' Cinnamon Flavor Instant Oatmeal?
I'll send some peaches to you via Mark. They are amazing. The ski areas are high enough that the air there is pretty good still. He will merely have to descend into the smog when he returns in the evening.
I didn't grow up with instant oatmeal, but I think that dried fruit works well because of the more concentrated sweetness and less tendency to make cereal too wet. Exceptions include bananas (not wet to start with), and I like to put fresh peaches on Grape Nuts (could use more wet anyway!).
I was out running errands on Monday and got so depressed about the air that I just started driving (up Big Cottonwood) until I got above the smog and could see the blue sky and crisp clean mountains. Beautiful.. then I had to descend back to the grey sky.
The summer peaches on winter cereal sound delicious!
And yes, I realize that my driving up the canyon doesn't help any with the air quality :-)
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