So something happened tonight, something that does happen on occasion, albeit rare occasion (or maybe Cody and I just have lower standards!) that makes me wonder; how honest do I need to be on this blog? haha ...I made a bad, a REALLY actually bad, really bad dinner tonight!! Luckily my husband is awesome and ate it anyways, and we both got into a couple laughing fits about it...about how bad it was..
So...I invited you into my brain, I suppose I should give it to you. If it is too scary you can look away!
I need to back up to last night. Last night was the end of a weekend long of feeding friends (anyone who knows me understands this is something I LOVE! feeding friends and family in my farmhouse). So we were lower on food, it was grocery store time. I knew this in the morning so I gave it a little forthought...dig deep! I pulled out some dried pinto beans and pearl barley I had leftover from making a pot of butternut squash chili a few weekends ago. I started soaking both (separate since beans take longer to cook than barley). I didn't know where I was going to go with this, but it was a good protein source to start planning around.
For lunch I tried eating this vegetable thai curry bowl from Trader Joe's my mom had brought up when we were sick. I quickly realized it needed rice, or something, to eat with it. It was basically coconut curry sauce with vegetables and pretty spicy. Perfect! I will save it for dinner and add some beans and barley! Dinner is planned.
After they soaked all day (just as good as soaking overnight), I drained and rinsed both. I added enough water to cover the beans a few inches in the pot and turned it on medium high to start a little boil. Once boiling I turned it down and put a lid on tilted. After a while (I don't know..maybe 30-60 minutes? Just check them) when it was tender enough to be edible but still a little hard, I added the barley and some more water. Barley needs about 20-30 minutes usually but just keep checking until it is at desired tenderness. Then I just drained both using a pasta colander. I am sure there is a way to be exact about the water and use just enough so that both soak up the water and it is perfect like when you make rice...but I don't worry about it because draining is fine for me. Then I took some of the beans and barley out and left how much would be right for dinner that night. Thought I could use some for next day, either lunch or dinner. And I added the can of curry to the rest. It was really good. If you like meat, it would be easy to add chicken or anything you like. Bread and/or a salad would be nice. It was a wierd day for us and I got home late so we just ate that. My favorite kind of meal: ONE POT!!
Then today rolled around...maybe it was the new and somewhat scary feeling of having this blog, of someone looking over your shoulder, when you know how to do something and you do it all the time except when someone watches you all of a sudden you mess up! Well, maybe there was some of that or something, because I MESSED UP! lol
This is what I had in my fridge that needed used: a small amount of beans and barley, half can of pumpkin (leftover from making super delicious pull apart cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread! http://www.sunnysideupsd.com/2011/09/pull-apart-cinnamon-sugar-pumpkin-bread/ ) and some tempeh I had not used yet. I let these things simmer in my mind throughout the day and came up with this: Add the beans and barley to this tetra pak carrot ginger soup I had in the pantry, marinate the tempeh in the pumpkin somehow, and make some easy cornbread... 'Yes!' I thought, this will work, and it will be so impressive!...
And maybe it could have worked. Maybe if I had more tamari to add to the pumpkin and I had also added some nutmeg, maybe a little cinnamon, some ginger to pull in the soup flavor... And maybe if I had rememebered to put the melted butter into the cornbread batter...and maybe, just maybe if the ginger carrot soup hadn't tasted like **s... then, I could have had a somewhat pleasant dinner. But this was not the case... It was bad. I think Cody and I both had moments of jealousy over Henry's mashed sweet potato with breastmilk that he was smearing all over the high chair... However! We ate with laughter and our bellies are full :)
There you have it. The whole truth. Because sometimes, dinner doesn't taste good, and that is OK! Most importantly you got to sit down with your family. Even if everyone had to eat a bowl of cereal later!
Dine On!
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