Warm Up Breakfast

Don't get me wrong. There are some positives to being unemployed. Like not having to wake up early when adjusting to Daylight Savings Time. Being able to sit and watch the snowflakes fall rather than try to manuever through the streets. And the ability to make Vanilla Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta to stay warm on such occasions.

I took the Breakfast Polenta recipe right off the adorable Joy the Baker blog. I love Joy and want to make nearly everything that she creates. I'd never thought of having polenta for breakfast before (I'm fairly sure most people haven't) but, to me at least, it was tastier than oatmeal or cream of wheat. Or even plain ol grits.

Here's what you need:
1 cup polenta
3 cups cold water
2 cups milk
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup brown sugar

Here's what you do:
Combine the polenta (I use Bob's Red Mill Grits, also known as Polenta) and 1 cup water in a small bowl; set aside.
Add the remaining cups of water and the milk to a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Then add the polenta/water mix and whisk to combine thoroughly. At this point, turn down the heat and let the mixture simmer until the polenta has thickened into a porridge-like state. This could take anywhere from 10-40 minutes, depending on how your polenta is cut and apparently the day of the week, as I've made this twice and the first time it took about 14 minutes and today about 25.
When the polenta is nice and thick, add the vanilla and the brown sugar. Pour into bowls and serve, perhaps with a dusting of more brown sugar on top. Or cinnamon. Or be creative.

Here's how it looks:


With the leftovers, Joy suggests putting them into a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap and sticking them in the fridge for tomorrow morning, when you then make fried breakfast polenta. Unfortunately, the last time I tried this the polenta completely fell apart. I'll try again tomorrow and report back.

But now, back to the job hunt--because ingredients cost money, and because I need a proper camera rather than my cellphone.