My dinner plan last night contained polenta. I had the chicken stock, milk, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, red pepper, and salt all at a boil when I took the corn polenta out of the pantry, opened the container, and found teeny, tiny bugs all over inside. I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating or if there really were bunches of tiny dark bugs in the polenta. So, I took the container to my husband and asked him what he saw. Yep, lots and lots of crawling, tiny critters.
My seasoned liquids were all set for the corn polenta to be added. At that last minute, I made the switch to an oat polenta, using coarsely ground, rolled oats (ground in the food processor).
I was thinking, this might be really gross. But as it turned out, it was actually quite good. I finished making the oat polenta just as if this was made from ground corn. I poured the cooked polenta into a pan to cool, cut it into triangles, floured and pan-fried, then topped with marinara sauce.
With the buggy corn polenta, I dumped it on the compost and gave my pantry a thorough cleaning. As far as I can see, the bugs were only in the corn polenta. To be safe, I am in the midst of freezing all of our grains in batches, as I make room in the freezer.
My husband had thought we could just microwave the polenta and still use it. I don't feel that desperate just yet. I lost about 3 to 5 pounds of grains to the bugs. But I think we're going to be fine.
Have you ever had savory oatmeal before? I've always wanted to try something savory made with oats, just to see how we'd like it. Turns out -- we really enjoyed it. Just one of those instances when you don't know if you'll like it until you try it.
