Marzhere and others: (see my prev. msg. above, maybe #6 or so from top). I made it as indicated above in my prev. msg. and it was perfect! The only change I made, just for added ins., was after about 1/2 hour sitting on the stove after the boil, I stirred it up to ensure no lumps or congealed spots. It was great this morning. I didn't use a full 1/2 tsp. of salt and for me, I needed to add a little more this morning. Next time, I will add slightly more than 1/2 tsp. I'm so glad you opened this up for conversation as I most often avoid making it due to time constraints. Now, it's so easy!!! I used the generic steel-cut oats from our local "health food-type" grocery store here in California - Frazier Farms. It's 2/3 less in cost than the McCanns brand and tastes identical. arline

Maureen, I should have clarified. We keep on hand 2 different versions of McCann's steel-cut oats. The box version is a "quick cook" version. For that, I just let the oats soak in a bit of milk while I'm getting the other ingredients ready for the meatloaf and then use as is. For the canned (not quick cook version), I soak those overnight if I'm making oatmeal the next morning and set aside some for meatloaf, but I don't cook it before hand. As for Scotland, we were there last June. My father-in-law had a sabbatical there and he and his wife had rented a house in Crail, just next to St. Andrews. So we used that as our home base and spent three weeks traveling in northern England and Scotland. If you're ever in St. Andrews, there's a butcher shop with the HUGEST, DISGUSTINGEST (is that a word?) display of raw sheep stomach encased haggises... sort of putty grey and rubbery looking. All set up in a lovely pyramid!

I put some raisins and about 3 heaping tbsp. oats plus salt, sometimes some cinnamon in water in an individual bowl, heat about a minute in microwave, stir, to re-mix the cooked stuff at the edge and the partly cooked stuff in the middle, let them sit for a bit, then give it about another minute or slightly less - don't want it to boil much - stir again, let it sit for another minute or two, then heat for about half to a minute more, depending on consistency of the gruel. Add brown sugar, milk and half and half, warm for about half a minute, and eat. Nice change from farina, 3-grain/8-grain, etc. cereal, lg. flake and quick oats. I haven't done cornmeal as morning cereal. Good wishes for treating your body to good nutritional food. ole joyful P.S. Treating your body/mind/spirit well may well entail saving more money annually toward retirement, which many aren't doping(1) enough of, and learning how to make it work harder, to develop larger growth with a measure of safety ... ... for you'll likely be retired longer, and enjoy sufficiently good health that you'll be game for more (usually more expensive) activities, adventures, travel, etc. Tough being forced to forego such interesting activities due to fear of burning one's last dollar well before one draws (and surviving spouse draws) one's last breath. o j 1 P.P.S. This was supposed to be, "doing" ... but I thought that the way that it came out was too delicious to amend! (still) o j

You'll have more success if you find recipes that use steel cut oats rather than substituting it for rolled oats. As cloudy christine pointed out, steel cut oats are real teeth breakers. Check Bob's Red Mill for recipes (see link below). Click on RECIPES. You can substitute COOKED steel cut oatmeal cup for cup for COOKED oatmeal in a recipe, but it's not the same thing uncooked and will not substitute cup for cup as a dry ingredient. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Bob's Red Mill