meals from the kettle

In Germany, I don’t have a microwave. So if i want something warm to eat but don’t reall feel like cooking, two of my favorite meals come from the kettle. My breakfast, and my late evening dinner.

Give it up for……..savory oatmeal! It is hands down the best breakfast ever. To make it in Germany, I use superzarte haferflocken, boil water in the kettle, pour the boiling water over the flocken and stir. Then comes the tasty stuf – choose any of the following: olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, avocado, cottage cheese, grated parmigiano, poached egg, Tabasco, Greek yogurt.

And if you need a quick meal before the next EM game starts (for you non Europeans that is European championship game in soccer), make yourself some mashed potatoes. The prefab kind, of course. Same procedure, boil the water, pour it over the dry goods, and stir (I usually add a bit of milk and or butter here). Then add all or some of these: bacon, fried egg, poached egg, any kind of cheese, herbs de Provence, and everything you know from breakfast.

For the poached egg I bought an egg coddled recently. Beautiful little thing, and you can just crack the egg in there, put some capers, spices or bacon in there, close the lid and – yes! – also just dump it n the kettle. It says technically to poach the egg in a water bath (as in pot n the stove), but that is clearly a pre-electric-kettle prescription. Works like a charm.

It might both look a little mushy, but don’t let that get to you – tastes delicious! I promise.