I wanted to try this recipe for brown butter cocoa oats all week but I couldn’t motivate myself to get out of bed and make it. When it’s cold, rainy, and cloudy, all I want to do is press snooze three times on my alarm and hide under the covers.

Today the sun was shining, though, so I figured it was the perfect occasion to force myself to get out of bed. I went downstairs and made this oatmeal before I went to work.

I realized while I was making these oats that recipes don’t always come with explanations. I guess that’s the whole point of a recipe, but still, sometimes I think people follow them blindly and don’t understand why they’re doing a certain step. For example, this recipe from The New York Times food section tells you to brown butter and then mix the oats in, but it doesn’t tell you why you need to stir the oats in after you brown the butter.

You might be tempted to skip this step, but don’t. The reason you mix in the oats is you’re giving them flavor from the browned butter. They’ll become nutty and fragrant. That flavor will shine through in the finished product.

I topped my oats with banana, shredded coconut, cacao nibs, almond milk, and a pinch of flaky sea salt. The sea salt is key because it balances the sweetness AND it brings out the chocolate flavor in the oats.

I’m going to revisit this recipe soon and maybe add cinnamon or coffee. I could see a mocha flavored version of this recipe being delicious.

Here’s a song to take you into the weekend. It’s a new song by one of my favorite musicians, Josh Rouse. I went to see him live by myself when I lived in Chicago a few years ago. I kept thinking we were making eye contact but we probably weren’t. Still, it’s thrilling that I was that close to the stage.