| Good Saturday morning, all. Last week I talked about how at my core I'm a creature of habit. And at this particular moment, that's true. I have the same daily routines, listen to the same music, make the same recipes. But the other day I started flipping through a photo album I put together for my husband 18 years back, including snapshots of when we first started dating more than two decades ago. Looking at who I was then, it occurred to me that maybe I'm not quite as static as I had thought. If you'd told this past version of me that I'd one day enjoy running or have two dogs or achieve a yet-unknown dream of a career in food journalism, I'm not sure I would have believed you. And that doesn't even cover all the different things I now eat. Case in point: Never would I have thought I'd be an Oatmeal Person, yet here we are. As I've written previously, oatmeal became a staple of my diet when I was home on maternity leave with my son more years ago than I care to admit, and it never went away. I'm particularly fond of a recipe from author Archana Mundhe's "The Essential Indian Instant Pot Cookbook," in which old-fashioned oats are flavored with cardamom and saffron to resemble kheer, a rice pudding, and cooked in the pressure cooker for just 1 minute. I also like to slow-cook steel-cut oats in my Instant Pot to have a ready-made, warm breakfast when I wake up. I'll happily eat baked oatmeal and overnight oats, too, both of which Nourish columnist Ellie Krieger has spotlighted in her time with us. Her new recipe for Pear Overnight Oats was inspired by the Swiss tradition of muesli, a hearty dish featuring nuts and dried fruit first promoted by a physician more than a century ago. Oats! They're no passing fad. Ellie soaks the rolled oats in milk and Greek yogurt, then combines them with grated pears, pumpkin seeds, pecans, almonds and golden raisins. A dash of ground cinnamon and ginger pull it all together. Another thing I eschewed for years yet adore now: Floral flavors. I assumed all foods with that botanical bent were akin to eating potpourri, but I've come to appreciate the way that orange blossom can elevate a simple cake or rose water an elegant thumbprint cookie. Now I grow my own lavender and use its buds to make a simple syrup I stir into my favorite tea latte. Allison Robicelli is on a similar wavelength with her Lavender Tonic. She, too, makes a flavored syrup, mixing it into tonic water to create a classy, nonalcoholic drink that straddles the line between bitter and sweet. This week's new savory recipe is a similar balancing act in complex flavors. Modeled on a recipe from chef Marcus Samuelsson's new Marcus DC restaurant in Washington, Aaron Hutcherson's Roast Chicken Thighs With Mumbo Sauce stars a condiment you'll want to put on everything. This take on a D.C. staple includes ketchup, pineapple juice and gochujang for a sweet, tart and spicy addition that would go just as well on your favorite meat and vegetables as it does the succulent bone-in chicken thighs here. As usual, I'm looking forward to the live weekly cooking chat Aaron and I host every Wednesday at noon Eastern. If there's a culinary conundrum we can help you work through, send it along now. I hope you can join us when we kick things off in real time. Until next week, happy cooking. | 
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