I rarely help with snow removal. I leave this task to my husband who 1) seems to like it and 2) has devised a very efficient system where he shovels just two tire treads worth of space up our driveway and then leaves the rest of it to melt at some point in the next few weeks. I honestly don’t know why more people don’t do this – what’s the point of shoveling an entire driveway when you really only need to make sure the car can get in and out? This obviously wouldn’t work in a situation of more than 8-10 inches of snow… or in a climate that doesn’t see temperatures above 35 degrees all winter…but in most cases around here, it works just fine.
The main reason I don’t help with the shoveling is because I don’t want to. I would rather be inside where it’s warm – plus, it’s kind of a pain to get my snow boots out of the front closet (the laces on those things are a bit excessive). So… to ease my tiny (and they are quite small) feelings of guilt for leaving this task to him, I attempt to compensate by making a hot breakfast of some sort.
These days, I’m on a hot cereal/porridge kick… one of my favorites being a millet based porridge that’s almost as easy to make as your standard oatmeal and reheats well. A close second favorite is an amaranth porridge – which 
consists of nothing more than cooking up a pot of amaranth and adding some honey to it. Another close second (tied with amaranth) is a new blend of grains that Wegmans has started carrying called “Sunrise Blend“. In my opinion, it requires the additional of maple syrup to truly be considered in the breakfast category, but with a little syrup – its really good.
Earlier today, there was a post on the “Joy the Baker” blog with two recipes for a breakfast polenta… Perhaps I’ll give that a try the next time I’m watching my husband shovel snow for hours on end (which, given the winter we are having, shouldn’t be too far away). Sigh.
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