Flavors of childhood

So in case you don’t know, I’m sick again.  Sore throat, blocked up gooey sinuses.  Seriously, yuck.  So I’m on this conference call this morning and I am absolutely ravenous because being sick generally makes me burn through calories like a marathon runner, and all I can think about is cream of wheat.  Call ended much earlier than anticipated which I will not complain about so I went down to the kitchen to make my self a bowl of cream of wheat.  Now what’s so great about hot cereal? you ask.  Well let me tell you, it’s the way that my mother prepared it for us when we were young.
So you prepare the cereal as instructed on the box (instant simply will not do), the water version.  While the cereal cooks toast up two slices of white bread (yes, the nasty stuff- I’ve tried whole grain and it just doesn’t do it for me in this case) and then butter that with real butter.  Put the prepared cereal into a large bowl and lace it with whole milk (or half-and-half) and honey.  Next, break up bits of the toast crusts and stir them into the cereal.  Leave the inner area of the toasts for eating on the side.  Mmm, heaven.
When we were kids mom would make this for us in the cool weather for breakfast, and sometimes when we were sick.  This is one of my comfort foods.  When I am sick, and feeling needy, but have to pretend to be a grown up because mom can’t always be here to take care of me, this is what I make, and it makes me feel so much better.   Thanks mom, for the memories, and for teaching us how to cook 😉
J