Staple Food: a PowerHouseCreatives Contest

This is an entry into the "Daily/Staple Food" contest being run by the PowerHouseCreatives community. Of course, food tastes better when it is served with pretty dishes! The bowl in the photo below is from my set of tableware, given to me by my mother as a gift many years ago. The pattern is called "Spring Daisy" by Oneida^®.

Criteria :

1. Take 3 or more photos of your daily/staple food.
2. Write and share about it. You can talk about its ingredients, why it's your staple, and how it came about.
3. Entry must not be less than 350 words 'cause who knows, you might get curie or ocd :)
4. Add a nice title to your entry.

Submission :

1. Your Entries(Steemit Post)are to be posted in the PHC 'community-contest' Channel.
2. One Entry is allowed per participant.
3. This contest must be done as a Steemit Post.
4. Post title must include 'PowerHouseCreatives Contest' but with your own title.

Almost every day, I eat some sort of porridge for breakfast. There are two kinds that I eat the most — oatmeal and grits. I realize that these foods might not be common in some parts of the world, so I will explain them here.

• "Oatmeal" is a porridge made from oat grains that have been dehusked and then ground, cut, or rolled, and cooked in water to soften them. The porridge can be made thin or thick, (depending on preference), and sweetened if desired. Some people also enjoy oatmeal with the addition of milk, cream, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, or fruit.

  Oatmeal is a very healthy food, and can help to lower cholesterol as well as improve cardiac health.

  In the US, three varieties of oats are available for making oatmeal: "old fashioned" oats (as was the only type available for most of history) which requires 45 minutes to cook, "quick" oats that cook in 5–10 minutes, and "instant" that's ready to eat about a minute after mixing with a small amount of boiling water.

• When settlers came from Europe to North America in the 1600s, they encountered tribes from the Muskogee First Nation that were grinding corn and cooking the resulting cornmeal into a porridge called "cornmeal mush." That is the basis of the dish called "grits" which has been a staple food of the Deep South ever since. Corn was so plentiful and easy-to-grow that many rural areas still have old corn mills — some are in ruins, but some have been restored to their former glory and returned to service for historical purposes. Many place-names also include remembrances of these mills: Brown's Mill Road, Mill Creek, Mill Mountain, and others.

  A similar dish exists in Europe in the form of "polenta." Polenta can be made from any of the grains — buckwheat, millet, spelt, chestnut flour, and others. When maize was brought to Europe from America in the 1600s, it began to be used sometimes as well. The corn that is often used in Europe for making polenta, however, is a different species than that used in the southern US, so the texture and taste are different. ^[1]

  The same as with oatmeal, there are "old fashioned," "quick," and "instant" forms of grits available. They can also be made thin or thick, depending on preference. A little butter, salt, and pepper are frequently used as seasonings, and it isn't unusual to see small bits of bacon, sausage, ham, or other meats added both for flavor and to make a heartier meal. Cheese is also a very frequent addition, and "cheese grits" is a "comfort food" for many of us raised in The South. Shrimp is also a fabulous addition to grits, and is a quite common offering in Southern restaurants, as is crayfish (usually called "crawfish" or "crawdads" here). I also remember that my father would occasionally (but not very often) stir some ketchup into his grits for a variation.

I love fruit! Whether I have oatmeal or grits, I often eat some fruit alongside, or even directly in the same bowl.

Even if I buy oatmeal that has bits of freeze-dried fruit in it, I like to add more fruit to it, either fresh or dried. Fresh fruit that is good in oatmeal includes peaches, plums, bananas, and berries such as blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. There's nothing quite like pieces of plump, juicy fruit in oatmeal!

My favorite dried fruits for oatmeal include raisins, currants, prunes, apricots, and cranberries. Raisins are especially good in oatmeal, as well as grits. I enjoy all kinds of raisins, but my favorite are the "golden raisins" (called "sultanas" in British English) which are made from pale green fruits that are often called "white" grapes because of the pale color of the flesh inside. They seem plumper and juicier than the darker varieties, although they cost a little more.

I usually round-out my daily breakfast with the addition of some meat for the protein value. Vegans and vegetarians can easily substitute tofu and other options such as the soy-based non-meat "sausage" links or patties I sometimes buy. My choice nowadays is usually sausage or bacon made from turkey, as the saturated fat content is much lower than those products made from pork or beef. My favorite is the Banquet^® brand Brown-'N'-Serve™ turkey sausage links. They're ready-to-eat after 1-minute,30-seconds in the microwave (wrapped in a small piece of paper towel), then go right into the bowl with my oatmeal or grits so I don't have to wash another dish. And — Voilà! — breakfast is served! Yum!