Today we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat Shadow (????-2022). I don’t know where he came from, and I don’t know where he’s going, but he was with me for roughly ten joyous years, and was an A+ #1 pal, best friend, buddy, comfort, teacher, and legendary cat.

Coming off several rounds of the pumpkin baked oats concept, some fatigue had set in, and a variation was called for.

For now we’ve settled on a version of this pear baked oatmeal recipe, with some modifications.

For a long time, Kat had been doing a form of chia pudding for breakfast. On one day growing weary of it, she declared a need for a Brand New Breakfast Concept.

While I declared that my new band name, she began making a baked oats dish, until at some point, due to scheduling issues and These Terrible Times We Live In, it fell to me, and I needed A Recipe Of Some Kind, and found this Kodiak Cakes Air Fryer Oats recipe.

Hey this is a thing, remember?

Remember to season the beans though: sazon, garlic, bay leaves, oregano.

This is so satisfying, and so simple. Kat has often made it, but I finally had reason to do it. Saving here for reference, this is based off this recipe at food52.

So, you’re going to make three things, and when they’re all done, you’re going to mix them all together.

I wish I’d been an adult when I was a teenager. You only ever wanted to connect, but I let my mom turn me against you in your disability. She made me an ally in her abuse and I was just a kid, trying to survive my teen years.

I was at times cruel to you. I was, after all, a teenager.

Why write something if it won’t be definitive? Why write something if it’s not perfect? If it doesn’t address every point, or everything related to the topic? Or if it makes a good point but gets some other things wrong?

Why write if probably nobody will read it? Why write if even just one person who might read it might think they wasted their time?

Quoted from this talk on the legend of Aṅgulimāla, from the Wild Heart Meditation Center’s Spring Retreat, the speaker quoting their teacher:

When it rains
Before I can get to the sound of the rain
I have to walk through sounds of war
I have to walk through the screams of young men dying
I have to walk through the visions of tree lines up in napalm
I have to listen to the screams of 17-year-old boys crying, for their fathers, for their girlfriends, for their mothers
Before I can get to a place that is just rain.

The talk, overall, is an exploration of forgiveness, redemption and compassion.

Notes on an amalgamation: a good combo for meal prepping, but to get a good quantity you kind of have to double everything. Quinoa pilaf loosely based on this recipe, minus the extras, greens via Mark Bittman, and crispy-skin salmon with guidance from seriouseats.