I like oats but we aren't compatible.

The other morning I fixed oats for breakfast, as I often do.

While the oats were cooking, I wandered into the main bathroom. Next thing you know I was trying on some new face cream. It was then I smelled scorch.....like burned oats in a pan.

I jumped up and ran for the kitchen.

Too late. The oats had burned into the pot which was blackened inside and out. There was a thin haze of smoke filling the kitchen and living room, so I turned on ceiling fans and opened both the front and back doors to let out the smoke.

I was so angry with myself for pulling such a stupid stunt. It was my favorite Guardian Service pan to boot.

I had done the same thing not two days before, but the results were not as drastic. That time, I discovered the burned oats before they could meld into the pan. Not so, this time.

When I looked at the blackened pan, I thought it was a lost cause. I could never get all that burned on gunk off. Actually, I did, but it took two days of soaking and another hour of scrubbing with a brillo pad before the pan was usable again.

When I told my teacher daughter about the cooking incidents, she suggested I fix instant oats in the microwave. I told her I had done that many times but half the time, the oats boiled over leaving me with the microwave to clean up. That's why I decided to cook the oats on the kitchen range, I told her.

She suggested I use a bigger bowl.

Now I have watched an out-of-town friend of mine fix microwave oats many mornings. She uses a small shallow bowl and her oats never boil over. Just why is that?

Yes, oats are different. That is, different brands taste differently. My personal favorite is Quaker Oats but there are numerous selections in the grocery stores, some much cheaper than Quaker. But Quaker Oats have a texture that appeals to me. There are also quick one minute oats and also five minute oats. But who has the time for five minute oats anymore.

Recently I inadvertently picked up the five minute oats. It seemed it took hours and hours to use up that entire 42 ounce box of oats.

At least I don't pull stunts like some homemakers I know. There was this woman who put a platter of cooked lasagna in her cabinet instead of in her refrigerator. Not only that, the woman had to really push and shove to get the lasagna to fit in the space. And there was this homemaker who stored a gallon of milk in a cabinet instead of the refrigerator.

That's one of the reasons I'm writing about oats. I know that many of you cooks out there have pulled some bonehead stunts too, just like my oat senior moments.

Which reminds me of how much my daughter loves me.

We are always emailing each other and in closing, we express our love for each other. It sometimes gets mushy, like cooked oats or grits.

Last night I told her I love her more than a box of Quaker Oats.

She wrote back that she loves me more than ice cream, stuffed peppers and white gravy on a biscuit.

Now love doesn't get much better than that, does it?