Kitchen excitement! I’m easily thrilled, but hope you will love these two ideas as much as I do!
The first is a colorful addition to our cereal in the morning. I used a zester to denude the orange of its rind, which is then kept in one of those tiny two-ounce Tupperware containers. Remember those little guys? So handy!
DH puts some of the rind in with his cooked cereal and saves the rest to eat with his daily allotment of dark chocolate (see later post). I load up our cereal with whatever fruit is available, and fruit season is upon us here in Arizona – for which we are thrilled.
But the bigger thrill today was this great little treat of barley, yogurt, maple syrup and nutmeg.
I like to presoak almost all of the things that I put into our ever-present kettle of soup. Yesterday it was split peas, and today I wanted to add barley to the soup. So I pre-heated my Nissan-Thermos vacuum bottle and put in a cup of washed barley and filled up the three-cup vacuum bottle with boiling water. I figured I would have to cook the barley a bit in the soup to get it just right.
Imagine my surprise when I took off the top after a few hours, and it was PERFECTION itself! As you can see from the picture below, I couldn’t wait to try it out. I added a bit of plain yogurt (I make it myself!), and about a teaspoon of maple syrup. It looked a little plain, so I sprinkled on some nutmeg. You can leave off the syrup if you are not into sweets, substituting fresh fruit. For those who can handle sugar, a little marmalade, or any jam would be delicious, too.
Decision time: Should I gobble it down, or control myself and take a picture of this delicious treat?
Gobbling had to wait, but only for a few minutes.
It was so delicious, I can’t wait until the end of the next meal to repeat this treat.
It’s kind of like rice pudding, only a lot less effort. Give it a try! So easy.
Adventures of Dorrie Anne 
You convinced me! I will try that as soon as I get some barley, some plain yogurt (have to buy, sorry) and some maple syrup. I wonder how raw honey would taste as a substitute for the maple syrup? But it wouldn’t taste the same, though.
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Honey would be great, too, Dale. Try cinnamon instead of nutmeg. I’m thinking of using garam masala next time for an Indian flavor. Probably no sweetener needed with that.
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Be careful. . . I am almost drooling all over my iPad!
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(Hands off the chamois to Dale!)
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I love the colors and textures in the first photo. The second photo just makes me hungry! Might have to try that. The barley looks like puffed wheat cereal.
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Two minutes to set up the barley in the morning, and less than that to spoon it out, add the yogurt, etc.. Gary suggested that some of the orange rind would have been good on it, too. He’s right about that, but then he has become an “orange rind on almost everything” man these days. I might try some garam masala on it . . . right now!
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I made the supreme sacrifice! I ate some food before going to bed. This is a very rare thing for me, but I was so taken by my own suggestion of the garam masala that I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Yes, I took a picture, but too tired to make a new post tonight. Watch for it tomorrow. Hint: Barley, yogurt, homemade orange marmalade, garam masala, and . . . dried cranberries! YUM!
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