Day 5 – Brown Rice Porridge

In a bold and daring move, splashed with a side of insanity, hubs and I adopted a kitten a few months back. How could adopting a cute little kitten be bold, daring and slightly insane you ask? Well. I’m allergic. And when I was a kid, I was REALLY allergic. The kind of allergic that if a friend had a cat I couldn’t stay and play for too long before I’d be a sneezy, eyes watering mess. It started when I was, I think, around 7 or 8 years old and I got scratched by a cat the night before my Aunts wedding. Whoa nelly, the next morning was brutal. My eyes were almost swollen shut and the scratch was nasty and red and itchy as hell. Basically since then, cats and I, well- we weren’t meant to be.

That is, until this past July when the same aunt posted a picture on facebook of kittens. Tiny, cute, little spotted and completely adorable kittens. EEEEE!!!!!! I was a woman obsessed, and smart move or not, 2 months later one of them found his way out of his travel crate and into our living room.

I’ll talk more about the allergies in a later post (they’re better) but for now, all you need to imagine is a giant 11 pound almost 7 month old kitten, jumping onto my stomach yesterday morning, head in my face, purring louder than a helicopter flying overhead. At just before 5 am. Sleep? Soooooo not happening. So I padded across the apartment to the kitchen and got some brown rice simmering. Now we have kitty to thank for this particular post.  Thanks, kitty!!

You can make brown rice porridge any number of ways. If I have leftover grain I just add water and heat it up. If you have time, add a bit more water and let it do it’s thing for a little while longer. You get a really nice creamy porridge this way. You can pressure cook grains for porridge too. If you have lots of time, like I did yesterday morning, bring 1 part rice and 8 – 10 parts water to boil, along with a small pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and wait for a couple of hours, checking occasionally after the first 40 minutes or so to make sure all is well. Add more water if you need. Yum.