Happy Cereal Day

I LOVE cereal - cold cereal, dry cereal, whatever you want to call it. My favorite? Frosted Mini Wheats and GrapeNuts, although I can eat most any kind. I remember when growing up that cold cereal was a treat which we didn't have a lot and when we did it was usually Corn Flakes or Cheerios. Hot cereal was usually the main staple of our breakfast particularly oatmeal with raisins (that's why I think I don't like eating raisins).

My most vivid memory regarding cereal happened in 1965 when our family took our first real family vacation and headed from Eglin AFB to Tampa. Mom had planned and prepped for our meals on the road so that we could save money. After all, we were a family of six and eating out on the road would and could be expensive. While in the commissary one day before the trip, she apparently ran across a great deal. She found boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal that was .10 cents a box and bought LOTS of boxes of it. This wound up being our breakfast each and every morning while on our vacation. We would usually stop at some rest area along the wayside and Mom would bring out the styrofoam bowls, plastic spoons, jug of milk and the Cap'n Crunch. I have NevER bought Cap'n Crunch for me to eat since that time.

When I eat cereal, I eat it for pure pleasure. I like eating it when I can take my time. There is an art to proper cereal consumption:

1. Fill the bowl until the cereal is about even with rim. It can be leveled out with your hand.
2. Pour your milk (preferably 100% whole since it does taste best. However since I eat more than one bowl at a time and want to keep my voluptuous figure, I've opted to use 1% or skim) until the cereal starts to rise up over the edge of your bowl. If pieces of cereal are jumping overboard, it's time to quit pouring.
3. If your cereal is not pre-sweetened a couple of teaspoons of sugar should be sprinkled around on your cereal. Just dumping the sugar is not allowed as you will then need to stir your cereal to mix the milk and sugar and you could lose precious cereal from your bowl. And, the ultimate topping for unsweetened cereal is slicing up a nice firm banana. Those shouldn't be left to be eaten until the end though as they will tend to get rather mushy and that's not good! (No I won't and don't add strawberries or blueberries or any other fruit on my cereal. Yuk!)
4. Despite what the television commercials say, I don't like crunchy, newly-poured cereal. It's too sharp; too stiff and sometimes can even cut the inside of your mouth. Cereal tastes much better having the chance to soak up some of the milk. "Soggy" cereal does not bother me and will not be thrown out.
5. With each delicious spoonful of consumed cereal, the level in the bowl goes down and bits of cereal stick to the sides of the bowl. These are not to be considered "no good" bits but should be routinely and systematically shoved back down into the milk with your spoon and leveled off to keep the bowl of cereal in tip-top shape.
6. Milk left in the bottom of the bowl is evidence of a serious problem. You MUST drink all of the remaining milk. That is where the best flavors wind up and you discover that sometimes your milk has even turned pink or brown depending upon the type of cereal you just consumed. (One of the trials in my marriage is that Joe ALWAYS leaves LOTS of milk in the bottom of his cereal bowl. He doesn't like milk he says. Well, if you don't like milk, don't add so much the next time)!

Bet you didn't think there was such an art to eating cereal, huh? And, you've just read my philosophy on cold cereal which I've been honing for the last 50+ years. What about you?

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Pssst....I will admit that I've even eaten cold cereal straight from the box sans milk. Of course, it was some fabulous sweet cereal and I just needed something to satisfy my sweet tooth.