Not Enough Oatmeal

Wasn't sure what to title this one. It's named after Hosni Mubarak's 2005 order for a constitutional amendment to allow multi-candidate presidential elections. Looks like the Egyptian people weren't appeased. And how you gonna have single-candidate elections? Not that a choice between two candidates is much better than a non-choice of one, especially when the two are both bought out by multinational corporations. In related news, I might attend the Save the American Dream rally downtown today in solidarity with Wisconsin protesters. Of course, if I do I'll bring a sign reading "America's slept long enough... time to wake up!" But I've got other things to do, so not sure if I'll make it.

There is definitely enough oatmeal, on the other hand. I used this fantastic recipe. I like Joshua's method better than the one I use for my porridge. I'm out of almonds and I don't have flax meal, so I made a few alterations.

makes 1 serving (if you've got a big appetite)

INGREDIENTS:

1 c. oatmeal

1 c. mylk

1/2 c. water

1/2 Tbsp. maple syrup

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 banana, chopped

1/8 c. jumbo black seedless raisins

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small pot, bring the oatmeal, mylk, and water to a boil over medium heat. Uncover, lower to a simmer. Stir in maple syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.

2. Remove from heat after approx. 4 min. Mix in banana and raisins.

Laura Riding. 2001. Anarchism Is Not Enough, 17: "If it were possible to reproduce [a poem] in an audience the result would be the destruction of the audience."

The Avalanches, "Since I Left You"

Shays' Rebellion Almond Porridge

Named after the Shaysites' failed attempt to take control of Springfield Armory in 1787. The Founding Fathers weren't so great if they thought debtors' prisoners were a good idea and that their property was more valuable than the lives of poor farmers.

This recipe makes use of the almond pulp byproduct of the almond milk recipe.

makes 1 serving

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. almond pulp

3/4 c. water

6 shakes cinnamon

1 handful jumbo black raisins

1/2 banana, sliced

1/2 spoonful brown rice syrup

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring oats, almond pulp, and water to a boil in a small pot. Lower the heat and cook for several minutes, until the oats are tender and the porridge is your desired consistency.

2. Shake cinnamon into a bowl. Add raisins and banana slices. Pour the porridge on top, then combine with brown rice syrup.

From Bob Black's The Abolition of Work:

"Sahlins concluded that 'hunters and gatherers work less than we do; and rather than a continuous travail, the food quest is intermittent, leisure abundant, and there is a greater amount of sleep in the daytime per capita per year than in any other condition of society.' They worked an average of four hours a day, assuming they were 'working' at all. Their 'labor,' as it appears to us, was skilled labor which exercised their physical and intellectual capacities; unskilled labor on any large scale, as Sahlins says, is impossible except under industrialism. Thus it satisfied Friedrich Schiller's definition of play, the only occasion on which man [sic] realizes his complete humanity by giving full 'play' to both sides of his twofold nature, thinking and feeling. As he put it: 'The animal works when deprivation is the mainspring of its activity, and it plays when the fullness of its strength is this mainspring, when superabundant life is its own stimulus to activity.'