18 thoughts on “Breakfast is Served”

1. Mush. That’s what my parents called it when I was a child, but I don’t think it’s a word that I’ve used as an adult. We just say cream of wheat, or whatever hot cereal we’re eating.

2. You would think the marketing guys would come up with a better name than ‘mush. But I do like cream of wheat or oatmeal with honey and buttered toast. The part that says “Specially adapted for..” may not be very PC for today. Don’t get me started about grits, lol.

3. Grits aren’t bad, with enough milk and brown sugar. “Mush” is not an appealing name…no motivation to get out of bed if all I have to eat is mush. These old ads are interesting.

4. I want to know how it’s “specially adapted” — isn’t whatever makes it good for children, etc. an inherent property of mush rather than a special adaptation?

5. Grits are great! With nothing except a little salt. Milk and brown sugar are for oatmeal.

6. Yuck; you need the brown sugar to kill the taste of the grits. Salt, indeed…next thing you know, you’ll be salting your fruit. I about gagged the first time I saw somebody waving a salt shaker over a perfectly good melon!

   The only adaptation I can think of would be a finer grind; mushier, if possible.

7. When my mother visited my grandmother for the first time–my dad was still serving in the Canadian Mission and my grandmother had just a few weeks to live, she asked mom what she usually had for breakfast. She said she’d usually stop at a coffee shop on the way to her job at the bank in downtown Los Angeles and get a sweet roll or a doughnut and a glass of milk. Grandma said, “You better get ready for mush!” And did she ever! Dry cereal from the box was reserved for Sunday mornings and for camping trips, and every other day of our lives it was mush–Malt O Meal, or cracked wheat cereal. Rarely oatmeal–my dad didn’t like it and that trait was passed on to his children.

   Now, the only way to go is Canadian–Red River Cereal is not only delicious, but it builds character. Of course, all that mush-eating built a heckuva lot of character too.

   Mush for all and all for mush!

8. You non-southern people are killing me. Grits are not a sweet breakfast cereal. If you put milk and sugar on grits that is a sure sign you are a Yankee. Salt, pepper, butter, maybe a fried egg or cheese, those are all legal. Most of the time grits come with most meals and are free. Next thing is you all be telling me about strange stuff you put in corn bread, Yankees in deed.

9. Growing up, I was sure I’d eaten every imaginable variety of hot cereal. It was served five or six times a week year after year after year. But Twin Brothers Mush must have slipped past somehow.

   FWIW, here’s the definitive guide to hot cereal, from best to worst, to save you the agony of my childhood mornings and the breakfast table
   *Oatmeal (old fashioned rolled)
   *Cracked wheat
   *Rice and raisins
   *Six-grain cereal from Church cannery
   *Steel-cut oats
   *Cream of Wheat
   *Corn Grits (doesn’t matter what they’re flavored with, they’re still at the bottom)

10. Sorry, The Other Clark, Red River Cereal is so much better than oatmeal that they’re not even in the same universe.

11. Amazon says Red River Cereal is wheat, rye, and flax. Interesting. It’s also more expensive than many of the cuts of beef I saw at the store today. Sounds like you’d need to run a smuggling operation across the Canadian border.

    I like quick oats myself, but they have to be cooked right. (Never stirred.)

    Deb wonders about grinding the corn more finely. At some point it becomes polenta, and then it’s gourmet food. (Also good for breakfast. Sauté in butter with some bacon or sausage, an egg or two, a handful of spinach…)

    Living away from canneries and places like Lehi Roller Mills, one of my sources for hot cereal is the local Indian grocer. Fada is more or less the same as cracked wheat.

12. Most of what I know about grits is that they take 20 minutes, unless you “buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans.” (“My Cousin Vinny” is an important — and unforgettable — part of a legal education.) That, and they’re delicious with just about anything savory. Don’t much care for ’em plain.

    I wouldn’t dream of putting brown sugar on grits — but I’ve occasionally allowed some allegedly-maple syrup to sneak over from the rest of the plate onto the cheese grits. It’s pretty good. (Yes, grits weren’t carb-y enough; I was also having pancakes and syrup. It’s not a frequent indulgence.)

13. This whole conversation makes me laugh. Again, it’s an example of never being able to guess what direction comments might take. I scanned the ad because of the silliness of duplicating a drawing to represent “twin brothers.” But the discussion of breakfast foods is even better. 🙂

14. Do you know the definition of the Mason-Dixon Line? That’s the line south of which they eat grits, and north of which they eat cream of wheat.

15. Amy,

    That’s probably the first time I ever heard anyone call polenta “gourmet” food (or should I say gourmet “food”).

16. Actually, I do. There’s an entire book in the library of the middle school where I work devoted to the work of Mason and Dixon, who surveyed the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and are also responsible for the literally-circular-shaped part of the border between Maryland and Delaware– I forget the story behind it.

    I live less than a hundred miles from it.

    My dad called cream-of-wheat type cereal mush, but told me that mush is also a word which could be applied to any hot cereal. I’ve never had fried polenta, but I have had fried mush (cream-of-wheat) many times, and it’s a favorite. I had a friend whose husband would only eat oatmeal if it was fried.

    Also, though I am not generally a proponent of the “if it’s organic, it automatically tastes better!” school of thought, I have found that organic oatmeal consistently tastes wonderful with only a little salt– no sugar needed. After I told my older sister about this, she tried it, and now her husband will skip breakfast if it’s regular oatmeal, but eat up of it’s organic. It really does make that much difference. My personal theory is that most places selling organic oatmeal turn it over more quickly than the grocery stores selling regular oatmeal, so it’s just fresher.

17. I have long enjoyed fried cornmeal mush with butter and syrup, except for the time at the Zanesville Ohio Bob Evan’s restaurant in ~1970 when I burned the top of my mouth so badly that it blistered. That near ruined my family vacation for me that year as it was on the outbound trip. Now I’ll take it panfried only.

    Ardis, you know those portraits are as different as the phizzes of twin brothers with identical sartorial tastes, the same barber, and the same penchant for posing with chin lifted. 😉

    Actually it is interesting to contrast with The Smith brothers on their cough drops, Manny, Mo and Jack Pep or the Einstein Bros with their bagels. I don’t know if any or all of them are fair representations of real people, but they are all iconic.

18. Now that I’ve gone back a couple times to look at the brothers, “Twin brothers mush” looks more and more like a short sentence, like “see Spot run!”

    Mush, brothers, mush!

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