February 22, 2008

Oatmeal makes you stupid over time.

I've been eating oatmeal every day for breakfast. The following are actual "trivia" questions from my most recent box of instant oatmeal. (Highlight the end of the line to view the answer.)

  • What former NHL star has 9 MVP awards? Wayne Gretzsky
  • What U.S. city hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympic games? Los Angeles
  • What U.S. state has the most national parks? Alaska

Reasonable, right? But as the days wore on, it sank to the level of Are You Smarter than a First Grader?

  • How many valves does a trumpet have? 3
  • Name the art of clipping shrubs into ornamental shapes. Topiary
  • What Jim Henson puppets first appeared on the television show Sesame Street? Their answer: The Muppets. But they're wrong. Henson's first Muppety appearance on the Ed Sullivan show was September 18, 1966; Sesame Street premiered on November 10, 1969.
For the record, Trader Joe's Oatmeal Complete (plain) is about how I'd expect library paste to taste. The upside? No trivia. Posted by rv at February 22, 2008 10:51 AM to food
Comments

I've been eating the steel cut Irish Oats (I bought an iPod cover @ amazon and if I bought 8 cans of the oatmeal for $25, I got out of the shipping charge).

It's better than the library paste that you have been eating. The downer is that it takes a full hour to cook (there is a microwave 10 minute recipe but don't use it). I make about 4 servings in advance and cook it with dried fruit.

Posted by: Bob at February 24, 2008 06:54 PM

Yep, we like the Irish oatmeal too. We've been eating Bob's Red Mill steel cut oats on the weekends. I just read that you can cook them in a rice cooker— I've tried it twice with pretty good results. Need to adjust the amount of water so that the rice cooker isn't "overflowing" when it gets to a good rolling boil.

Posted by: rv at February 25, 2008 04:26 PM