I'm not sure why I care so much about oatmeal.  It was not a food we ate growing up, and when I first started eating it (in college) I ate only those instant packages with more sugar than oats in them.  I didn't like those so much, but something in me continues to long for oats.  Cooked slow.  In milk, with yogurt and fruit on top.

I had gotten pretty good at making it in the morning-- quick oats, then old fashioned oats as I gained confidence-- but there was something missing.  I still Wanted More.  I searched my favorite websites for steel cut oat recipes... they all said Crock Pot.  Well, since my 4 quart slow cooker broke, I have been cooking in a ginormous crockpot I can put a whole chicken into.  So for my own measly self, it would be oatmeal overkill.

My husband said, "Buy a little crockpot-- the kind to cook dips in."  I started to search Craig's List for a used crockpot.  He said, "That's crazy. I bet they're $8 at Target.  Just go buy one."  But buying a crockpot just to cook oatmeal in-- and oatmeal only I would eat-- seemed like such a waste.

Then one day, I just HAPPENED to stroll down the crock pot aisle at Target, and low and behold, the little dip-cooker-aka-oatmeal-slow-cookers WERE only $8.99.  So I bought one.  And since then, I have been having oatmeal mishap after mishap.  First, I discovered that cooking it all night (there's no timer setting on the baby crock pot-- I guess the timers grow on them as they get big) burns the oats.  Yuck.  The next time, I put the wrong ratio of oats to water.  Crunchy.  The third time, I turned it on very late at night and got up very early to eat -- regular oats I had mistakenly put into the pot instead of steel cut oats.  Burned again.

Tonight I put steel cut oats, milk (in a 1:3 ratio), dried fruit, a little butter, and a dollop of brown sugar in the pot.  And I put the baby slow cooker on my timer (the kind I put my lights on when I go away) to cook from midnight to six.  I live in hope.

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