Top 5 ways to celebrate National Oatmeal Month

There are better ways to celebrate Oatmeal Month than a trip to McDonald's

​Once the New Year parties pass, January doesn't offer much to celebrate. A little industrious googling, however, quickly reveals some lesser-known January holidays. Did you know, for instance, that January is National Bath Safety Month, National Braille Literacy Month, and National Blood Donor Month? (The good people at the national month designation society seem to have gotten stuck on the B's). Thrilling though those designations may be, we are most pleased to report that it is also National Oatmeal Month. The Hot Dish came up with this list of the top five ways to celebrate this illustrious occasion here in the Twin Cities.

1. The Firebird Oatmeal at Psycho Suzi's
This is for all of you who associate oatmeal with dutiful, fiber-rich breakfasts that taste like cardboard. Psycho Suzi's, whose weekend brunch still seems to be fairly under the radar, coats their steel-cut oatmeal with a candied bourbon brulée cream, and serves it in a petite ramekin crusted over with a thick layer of hardened brown sugar that you have to break through with your spoon to reach the gooey deliciousness within. It's dessert for breakfast, about as far from Grandma's Malt-o-Meal as you can get.

2. The Anodyne Oatmeal at Anodyne Coffeehouse
Touted by Mpls St. Paul Magazine and others as "the best oatmeal in town," Anodyne Coffeehouse in South Minneapolis cooks their signature oatmeal in apple cider and loads it up with wild rice, raisins, cranberries, pecans and maple syrup-poached pears. It's served with brown sugar and soy milk, and is tasty enough to qualify for the official state breakfast of Minnesota.

3. Oatmeal cookies
Why bother getting sugar on the side when you can bake it right in, and throw in a heap of butter while you're at it? There's no shortage of places to get a great oatmeal cookie in the Twin Cities, from Patisserie 46 in the Kingfield neighborhood of Minneapolis to the family-owned Saint Paul Classic Cookie Company. Or if you're feeling ambitious, you can always whip up your own batch with this handy recipe from the Star Tribune.

4. Summit Brewery's Oatmeal Stout
Now we're talking. What could possibly taste better on a chilly winter night than a thick, dark, potent Oatmeal Stout, brewed right here in our own state capitol? High on malt and low on hops, Summit's Oatmeal Stout has whiffs of coffee, caramel, and chocolate. It goes down easy and warms the belly from the inside out. It's only on tap at select bars and restaurants, but Summit's website provides a handy guide to all the places you can find it when you've got a hankering.

5. The Lunch Box Bread at Sun Street Breads
Solveig Tofte, the mastermind behind the much-lauded Sun Street Breads, created this recipe based on memories of the oatmeal bread that comprised her childhood lunches. "It's a good way to sneak some extra nutrients into the kids," she says, but we think it works equally well on adults. Metro Magazine provided the recipe for the Lunch Box Bread, which is one of Sun Street Bread's best sellers. Hey, you gotta sop up that Oatmeal Stout with something.