Amish-Style Apple and Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal -- Tradition in a Pan, New Year’s Morning

New Year. 2017. I don't make resolutions because resolutions are promises you make to yourself that you immediately break, and I'd rather not start the year with a failure. What I do is take stock. Where am I? What's working? What isn't? It's less aspirational and more diagnostic, like a mechanic looking under the hood instead of wishing for a new car.

Where am I: Lexington, Kentucky. Forty-eight years old, turning forty-nine in March. Construction foreman, back holding, barely. Married to Connie for twenty-five years. Three kids — one graduated and working, one in college, one in high school. Mother alive and stubborn in Evarts. Father dead eight years. Writing a food blog that twenty people read, including my mother and my daughter and probably some bot from Russia.

What's working: the family. Connie is steady. Travis is growing up. Amber is going to be a nurse. Clay is playing football and staying out of trouble and eating us into bankruptcy, but those are acceptable problems. The cooking is working — I'm getting better. The soup beans are getting closer to Betty's. The ribs are mine now. The blog is a thing I do that makes me feel like I'm holding onto something important.

What isn't working: my back. I need to deal with it. I know I need to deal with it. I'm going to say I'll deal with it in 2017 and that sounds like a resolution, which I said I don't make, so I'll rephrase: my back is going to force me to deal with it whether I want to or not. The back doesn't negotiate.

For the new year, I cooked black-eyed peas. This is a Southern tradition: eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck. Betty did it. Her mother did it. I don't actually believe in food-based luck, but I believe in traditions that connect me to people who are gone, and if eating black-eyed peas makes me feel like Betty and her mother are in the room, then the luck is real enough.

Black-eyed peas: soak a pound of dried black-eyed peas overnight (or quick-soak by boiling for two minutes and letting them sit for an hour). Cook them with a ham hock or a few slices of bacon, a diced onion, two cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, and enough water to cover. Simmer for an hour and a half to two hours until the peas are tender and the broth is rich. Serve over rice with cornbread on the side. Some people add collard greens for money — the greens represent folding money, the peas represent coins. I add the greens because they're good, not because I think food is currency, but I'm not going to argue with a tradition that gives me an excuse to cook collards.

Connie and I ate black-eyed peas and cornbread in front of the TV, watching the ball drop replays because we fell asleep at ten-thirty on New Year's Eve, which is what happens when you're forty-eight and the spirit is willing but the body has a strict bedtime. 2017. Here we go.

The peas were the ritual — that was for Betty, for her mother, for the whole long chain of people who cooked this way before me — but New Year’s Day starts in the morning, before the traditions kick in, and a cold January first in Lexington requires something warm and purposeful before you start thinking about luck and collards. This baked oatmeal is what I throw together the night before and slide into the oven while the coffee brews: apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, the kind of simple honest ingredients that remind me of the way Betty cooked, nothing fancy, everything with a reason. It carried us through the morning until the peas were ready.

Amish-Style Apple and Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced (about 2 cups)
• Optional: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Lightly butter an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, stir together the rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
3. Whisk the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract until smooth.
4. Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until everything is moistened. Fold in the diced apples.
5. Transfer and top. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and spread it into an even layer. If using, scatter the chopped nuts evenly over the top.
6. Bake. Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden and the center is set and no longer jiggly. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.
7. Rest and serve. Let the oatmeal sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve warm, as-is or with a drizzle of maple syrup or a splash of cold milk poured over the top.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 275 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 41g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 185mg