Oatmeal with Ontario peaches, prunes, and maple syrup

Peaches are in season at the moment in Ontario, so I found a way to include them into breakfast. Seems to work well.

So, you need:

• 1 Ontario peach: I suppose they don't have to be Ontario ones, but they taste very good and they usually have a consistently good balance between firmness and ripeness when they're in season. If they're hard, let them ripen a bit first (this normally only takes a day)
• 1/3 cup Rolled oats -- the long-cook kind: cooking times don't bother me much. There's not much difference to me between 3 minutes ("quick cook oats") and 10 minutes in the morning, because there's so much else I can be doing while they are cooking. The long-cook kind aren't as processed and retain more of their nutrients.
• 3 Prunes: I get these from Bulk Barn. They're not complete dry, but kind of sticky and shrivelled
• 1 cup water
• salt
• maple syrup: use the real stuff; not artificial. I like the Mennonite stuff from St. Jacobs.

Add a pinch of salt to the water and get it on the stove until it comes to a boil. Add the oats, reduce the heat (to a simmer), give it a stir, and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes.

While the oats are cooking, slice your knife into a peach until it touches the stone, and draw a line around the circumference of the peach with the knife (basically, you want to cut the peach in half with the stone still intact, holding the two halves together). Hold both halves of the peach and twist. One half should come free from the stone. Pry the stone out of the other half with a knife, or just use your hands. Then, dice the peach into medium-sized chunks. Add the peaches to a dish.

Slice the prunes into small-ish chunks. Add the prunes to the peaches.

Drizzle the fruit with maple syrup.

Give the oats a check. If they're going dry, add a little bit more water. Once the oats are done cooking, remove them from the heat, cover, and let them stand for a few minutes. Then, with a spatula, scrape the oats into the dish, covering the peaches and prunes. Use the spatula to fold everything together.

And, that's it. The oatmeal and maple syrup both have foundational, earthy tastes that work well together. The peaches add the sweetness and acidity at the opposite end of the spectrum. The prunes fill the gap in the middle.

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