Monday, August 07, 2006
Sunny Boy
While on our pack-trip in the back country of the Canadian Rockies, we were introduced to Sunny Boy. I guess it is quite a breakfast favorite in Western Canada, but we had never heard of it before...nor had the French cook in our group, prior to being hired on there a couple of months earlier. We LOVED Sunny Boy (well, at least Grant, Vonnie, John, and I did). None of the kids liked it at the time...but, in the weeks since then, Rayna has decided she loves it too (provided I put lots of sugar AND CHOCOLATE MILK on it!). Doug will eat it without too much complaining (fixed the same way as Rayna's). Darcy detests it. (As she does all vegetables and grains...except potatoes and corn.)
Vonnie and I loved it so much that we made the men stop at the very first grocery store we came across, after riding our horses out of the mountains! Grant insisted that I could probably order it over the internet and really didn't need to purchase a life-time supply right then and there...but, Vonnie and I still pretty much wiped them out of what they had in stock! Since returning home, I have finished off the first bag--almost single-handedly. If I can't order more over the internet, we will just have to run back up to Canada to restock me, I guess!
While we were in camp, the other two guides had no end of fun retelling poor Isabel's mishaps in trying to cook Sunny Boy. She had never HEARD of Sunny Boy before being hired on there (don't think it is readily available in Quebec, just Western Canada). Anyway, she dutifully followed the instructions on the back of the bag...the results of which were deplorable as far as her Western Canadian counterparts were concerned. They expected their Sunny Boy to be SOFT...like cooked oatmeal....not crunchy like granola! They were amazed that Isabel would have no idea that THAT is how it was suppose to be. They really did give the poor girl a very hard time over her earliest Sunny Boy attempts. By the time we met up with them, though, Isabel had it down to a science (almost!). In bafflement she told us that it took her over an HOUR to cook Sunny Boy. On the package, it says it takes three minutes. But, as she pointed out, the directions on the package are DIFFERENT depending on whether you read them in English or French! If you are French, you are suppose to use one cup of water per serving, but, if you are English, you are only suppose to use 3/4 cup! Whether you are English or French, you are suppose to boil it for three minutes and let it stand for two minutes. I have discovered, that if you are an American cooking in a microwave, you need to use 1 1/8 cups of water per serving and boil it for twelve minutes! So, it takes me fifteen minutes to cook Sunny Boy in a microwave...three minutes to get the water boiling and then twelve minutes to boil the Sunny Boy. If I were cooking over a wood flame, like Isabel, I am sure it would take me over an hour, too!
Sunny Boy is a delightful combination of wheat, rye, and flax. I prefer it served with raisins...and sometimes a little milk or chopped banana. Grant likes his best with brown sugar and raisins. Rayna likes hers drowned in chocolate milk and coated with plenty of sugar and sprinkled with raisins.
¶ 8/07/2006 08:52:00 AM 
Vonnie and I loved it so much that we made the men stop at the very first grocery store we came across, after riding our horses out of the mountains! Grant insisted that I could probably order it over the internet and really didn't need to purchase a life-time supply right then and there...but, Vonnie and I still pretty much wiped them out of what they had in stock! Since returning home, I have finished off the first bag--almost single-handedly. If I can't order more over the internet, we will just have to run back up to Canada to restock me, I guess!
While we were in camp, the other two guides had no end of fun retelling poor Isabel's mishaps in trying to cook Sunny Boy. She had never HEARD of Sunny Boy before being hired on there (don't think it is readily available in Quebec, just Western Canada). Anyway, she dutifully followed the instructions on the back of the bag...the results of which were deplorable as far as her Western Canadian counterparts were concerned. They expected their Sunny Boy to be SOFT...like cooked oatmeal....not crunchy like granola! They were amazed that Isabel would have no idea that THAT is how it was suppose to be. They really did give the poor girl a very hard time over her earliest Sunny Boy attempts. By the time we met up with them, though, Isabel had it down to a science (almost!). In bafflement she told us that it took her over an HOUR to cook Sunny Boy. On the package, it says it takes three minutes. But, as she pointed out, the directions on the package are DIFFERENT depending on whether you read them in English or French! If you are French, you are suppose to use one cup of water per serving, but, if you are English, you are only suppose to use 3/4 cup! Whether you are English or French, you are suppose to boil it for three minutes and let it stand for two minutes. I have discovered, that if you are an American cooking in a microwave, you need to use 1 1/8 cups of water per serving and boil it for twelve minutes! So, it takes me fifteen minutes to cook Sunny Boy in a microwave...three minutes to get the water boiling and then twelve minutes to boil the Sunny Boy. If I were cooking over a wood flame, like Isabel, I am sure it would take me over an hour, too!
Sunny Boy is a delightful combination of wheat, rye, and flax. I prefer it served with raisins...and sometimes a little milk or chopped banana. Grant likes his best with brown sugar and raisins. Rayna likes hers drowned in chocolate milk and coated with plenty of sugar and sprinkled with raisins.
¶ 8/07/2006 08:52:00 AM
