Alton Brown showed me on "Good Eats" how to cook breakfast in my sleep. I took his idea--for waking up to a steaming bowl of steel-cut oatmeal by cooking it overnight in a slow-cooker--and adapted it to polenta, my second-favorite mush-y food. Instead of making this alternative to a typical diner breakfast, you could serve it like oatmeal: prepare the polenta in a slow-cooker, scoop it into bowls and top with a pat of butter, a drizzle of honey, a splash of cream, a handful of fresh or dried fruit or berries and/or a sprinkling of chopped nuts.

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