Babette Ate Oatmeal 3.17 A Tale of Poes and Fire

“He was printing daily T-shirts featuring a humorous topical headline of something he witnessed around town.” “Is that today's?” “Sure is.” “‘Babette ate oatmeal.’ Huh.” “Yeah.” “I'm keeping it real.” “It's good.” “It paints a picture.” “I can just see her...eating oatmeal.”

Ingredients:

For the blueberry Yale baked oats:

• ½ cup quick oats

• ¼ cup milk of your choice (I used coconut)

• 1 egg

• 1 tbsp maple or agave syrup

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• ⅛ cup blueberries

• 1 ½ tbsp brown sugar

For the white chocolate raspberry Harvard baked oats:

• ½ cup quick oats

• ¼ cup milk of your choice (I used coconut)

• 1 egg

• 1 tbsp maple or agave syrup

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• ⅛ cup raspberries

• ⅛ cup white chocolate chips

For the dark chocolate orange Princeton baked oats:

• ½ cup quick oats

• ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

• 1 egg

• 1 tbsp maple or agave syrup

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

• 1 ½ tsp orange zest

• ⅛ cup dark chocolate chips

• Peeled orange slices for garnish.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Grease a small ramekin or other oven safe dish for each baked oats dish that you’re making.

For the blueberry Yale baked oats:

1. In a blender, add the oats, milk, egg, syrup, baking powder, and salt. Blend until completely smooth.

2. Pour the blended mixture into the prepared ramekin.

3. Add in the blueberries and sprinkle brown sugar on top.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.*

For the white chocolate raspberry Harvard baked oats:

1. In a blender, add the oats, milk, egg, syrup, baking powder, and salt. Blend until completely smooth.

2. Pour the blended mixture into the prepared ramekin.

3. Add in the raspberries and white chocolate.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.*

For the dark chocolate orange Princeton baked oats:

1. In a blender, add the oats, orange juice, egg, syrup, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, and orange zest. Blend until completely smooth.

2. Pour the blended mixture into the prepared ramekin.

3. Add in the dark chocolate.

4. Place a few peeled orange slices on top of the batter.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.*

*Note: I prefer my baked oats to have a more cake-like consistency. If you prefer a runnier texture, then only bake for 15-20 minutes to your liking.

This is one of those episodes in which a certain food comes to mind first when you hear the episode title. You think of the Inn catching fire, Rory deciding to attend Yale, and the Babette Ate Oatmeal t-shirts. I didn’t want to just make oatmeal though because that’s boring. Baked oats were a trend for a while, so I thought I would hop on the trend. If you’ve been following me this season, you may remember that for 3.03 Application Anxiety I made strawberry balsamic chicken since Rory was visiting the Harvard alumnus. This was inspired by one of my favorite YouTube chefs, Brad Bakes. He is cooking his way through the Harry Potter series and often makes his dishes four ways to represent the four Hogwarts houses.

I decided to do the same for my baked oats. In this episode, Rory is making a pro-con list for her top three colleges: Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. I made three variations of baked oats inspired by each of the colleges and their colors. Raspberry for Harvard Crimson, blueberry for Yale blue, and orange for Princeton Orange. Of course, I added a few extra ingredients to compliment each of the fruity flavors, white chocolate for raspberry, brown sugar for blueberry, and dark chocolate for orange.

I feel like we’re back on track with good episodes. As I mentioned before, last episode is one of my favorites, but this is still a strong one. There was a stretch of filler episodes, and as we near the end of season three, I think we have only good episodes from here on out (maybe not the backdoor pilot that is Here Comes the Son, but we’ll get to that!). This is a pivotal episode because it serves as a catalyst for Lorelai and Sookie starting to seriously work on opening their own inn, and Rory decides to attend Yale.

There is a lot of debate in the Gilmore Girls fandom about whether Rory should have gone to Harvard or Yale. To me, I’ve always assumed she would end up at Yale simply so that the show could continue. It would be really challenging for Rory to be in Cambridge while the rest of the characters were still in Connecticut. Now realistically, if Rory was one of my students deciding between Harvard and Yale it would really come down to money. Both of these schools actually give good financial aid to high-need students. Though the money on this show is never realistic, I think if Rory was a real student, she would get good financial aid from both colleges. So then it would come down to where she really wanted to go. Harvard has been the school she wants to attend her entire life, but many students don’t end up going to the college they’ve wanted their entire lives. I think it’s definitely believable for Rory to end up liking Yale more than Harvard. And as I’ve said before, I’m curious about what other colleges Rory applied to because there is just no way she’d only apply to the Ivy Leagues.

Happy Cooking from the Hollow!

If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!

What flavor are you most excited to try?