Day 1: Intro and Breakfast

Why honey?

When I returned from my adventure last summer, tucked inside my 160+ pounds of checked luggage was a bounty of edible goodies from Italy, South Africa and Switzerland. I've been slowly rationing the best of it, including four jars of honey made by my Italian colleague, Tullio, who produces honey from bees he keeps near Turin.

You'll see there are two types of honey: the lighter acacia (left), from the flower of the same name, and the darker millefiori (right), from a variety of flowers (in Italian, mille=thousand and fiori=flowers).

This blog was inspired by my desire to use the honey in a memorable way. There's certainly nothing revolutionary happening here. Honey will play a role in every day's post - usually small in quantity, but always in the spirit of incorporating a bit more sweetness into each day.

As I've prepared for this month (a daily post required a surprising amount of advance planning), friends have already provided recipes, inspiration and ideas. If you've got a honey recipe (or one in which honey could be substituted/added), I'd love to add it to the mix.

Why now?

Although the snow has still not completely melted here in Minneapolis (any day now, please), it's technically been Spring for a couple of weeks. Honey, like Spring, is associated with flowers and insects and sunshine and warmth.

Here we are in April, the first full month of Spring. The perfect time for 30 Days of Honey.

Let's start at the beginning. Breakfast.

I love oatmeal in the morning. Real oatmeal that takes more than 30 minutes to cook. But who has 30 minutes a day to spend making breakfast? If you do, please arrive at 7:00. I'll be waiting.

So what's an oatmeal-loving, time-challenged gal to do? While some claim that instant oatmeal is equivalent to slow-cooked, I prefer the taste and texture of slow-cooked, steel cut oats (usually Country Choice Organic, since they're local). I make enough for a few days and refrigerate individual servings to reheat in the morning. 

After reheating the oatmeal, I top it with ground flax seed, cinnamon and dried fruit (usually blueberries).

Oatmeal doesn't need any additional sweetener - the blueberries are more than enough - but in the spirit of the blog I've added a teaspoon of acacia honey.

You can see the honey glistening around the edges. Simple and sweet.