Even though I haven’t yet taken down my Christmas tree, the holidays and all the heavy eating are behind us now. This time of year, I like to make it seem like I’m detoxing, by having something that has a fancy word like “quinoa” in it.

Makes 4 servings

For the cereal

Ingredients

2 cups milk, plus more for serving
1 cup quinoa, couscous, or a mixture of the two, rinsed
⅛ tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for serving

How to do it

1. Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan (for which you have a lid, which you’ll need later) over medium heat, stirring continually at first, and continuously toward the end (to prevent scorching).
2. Add quinoa/couscous, and return to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until a good deal of the milk has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, glaze your bananas.
4. Stir cinnamon into cereal. Cook, covered, until almost all the milk has been absorbed, about 8 minutes.
5. By this time, I’m assuming your glazed bananas are done. Stir a few of the banana segments, plus 1 Tbs of the glaze into the cereal, breaking the bananas down as you stir, and continue cooking for 30 seconds.
6. It’s done! Serve with additional milk and a light dusting of cinnamon, topped with bananas.

For the bananas

Ingredients

3 Tbs butter
3 ripe but firm bananas, cut into ½-inch or ¾-inch-thick rounds
½ cup + 2 Tbs pure maple syrup

How to do it

1. Melt the butter over a med-high flame.
2. Add bananas to the pan, and turn them frequently until they caramelize, about 4 minutes.
3. Add the syrup, and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 3 minutes.

Notes:

• The serving size I’m recommending is about how much I’d like for breakfast. I could imagine being served twice that amount, were I to order this dish off a menu. But I feel strongly that typical American restaurants serve portions that are so large, it’s just flat-out wrong. Still, if I were serving this to guests, I might consider this recipe to yield three servings, just to hedge my bets – that’s more that I’d eat, but less that a restaurant would probably serve … and that’s about the amount I used for the photographs.
• The final texture of the quinoa/couscous is up to you. It’s a matter of taste. Remember that you can always add milk to the serving if the cereal seems too thick.
• The glaze’s texture is excellent when hot or at room temperature. If, off flame, the texture becomes uneven, simply warm it back up or let it cool completely. It’s texture is horrifying when refrigerated, but it resurrects itself to utter perfection when reheated.

It’s Saturday morning, and you’ve got the day off.

Congratulations. You need it. It’s been a hard week. What could be more fun that getting up this morning and spending a half-hour messing up your kitchen, making hot breakfast cereal?

My objection to cold cereal has many facets, but the main one is its firm American ubiquitousness. It has managed to bully every other option right out of the house and into the exclusive realm of hotels and restaurants. Does anyone have fried eggs at home anymore? This reminds me of shaved legs. Yes, it’s a long story, but since you’re curious, here goes: it’s so common for women to shave their legs, so expected, that when you encounter a woman with hairy legs (and oh, have I), you think of it as unnatural. I mean, odd, sure … shocking, OK … but unnatural? No. Clearly, it is natural. Eating something other than cold cereal in the morning is abnormal to the point of almost seeming unnatural. Clearly, there is nothing natural about associating cold cereal with breakfast at home, even though I guarantee you that if my husband were to find no cereal in the cupboard, he’d announce that there’s nothing for breakfast.

My response to that announcement would be that once you start the day embracing normality by eating corn flakes or puffed kasha, you set foot to a path that is entirely unremarkable, a path that inevitably ends with a tombstone that reads: Pretty Much the Same As Everyone Else. You should have Quinoa-Couscous Hot Cereal with Maple-Glazed Bananas instead: not for your health, but for your commitment to living an interesting life. Good thing you married me, because I know how to make it.

Quinoa-Couscous Hot Cereal with Maple-Glazed Bananas

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. This post owes a lot to Martha Stewart, but do you think we’re going to admit it? Not on your life. Perhaps it’s “The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original
Classics,” Clarkson Potter: NY, 2007; pg. 580 that owes something to us. Did you ever think of that?

At one of our favorite diners, we recently came across a notice that read, “Hot Line Cooks Needed!” So, if you’re good looking, and you can cook, and you’re looking for work, let us know and we’ll pass the info along.

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