Microwaved Old-Fashioned Oatmeal by Erythrosine

Microwaving oatmeal is great, because once you've worked out the time for your own microwave oven, you can start it cooking and then go off and take a shower or something. The unwatched pot does not burn.

The first step is to buy OLD FASHIONED type oatmeal. The more refined and finely flaked oatmeal is, the more it tastes like library paste. One-minute oatmeal is not as tasty as old fashioned oatmeal, and instant oatmeal is almost entirely identical to library paste. Microwave cooking old-fashioned oatmeal is no more trouble than instant oatmeal, though it takes longer, so you might as well get the good stuff. Of course you can first use up whatever you have by cooking it in the microwave, following the instructions on the package.

Next step is to determine how long it takes your oven to bring two cups of water to a boil (or whatever volume of water you're going to use). Mine takes four minutes.

I measure one cup of oatmeal into my 2+ quart bowl (you need extra room to prevent boilovers), then use the same cup to measure twice that volume of water. Add a light sprinkling of salt, unless you're avoiding it. Consider adding some raisins, or pitted prunes if you like them. Then set the microwave to cook it for twice the water-boiling time at 50% power. So, in my microwave, for two cups of water plus one cup of oatmeal, that's 8 minutes at 50% power. Do not put a lid or any other cover on the oatmeal! Doing so may cause a boil-over, which is a mess.

Corn meal mush is also very good and easy cooked in the microwave, although the amount of butter in the Microwave Gourmet cookbook is truly excessive. (I do strongly recommend the Microwave Gourmet cookbook by Barbara Kafka; note that the Microwave Gourmet Healthstyle Cookbook is NOT what you want, even if you're into healthy food, which I am.) And the latest thing, according to the LA Times, is stone ground old-fashioned grits which is supposed to be vastly tastier than the instant variety. (Note: "grits" is singular, according to my husband's Alabama relatives.)