Barley with sausage and potatoes

**This is not a gluten-free recipe and was posted before I eliminated gluten from my diet. Brown rice would be a great substitute for the barley for a gluten-free option.**

This recipe provided a great meal, but also taught me an important lesson: ALWAYS sort through your grains. I normally make a point to look through my grains for rocks or other small objects, but of course this was the time that I forgot. Sometimes I find some rocks (particularly in brown rice, for some reason), and sometimes I don't, so I was hoping that I would luck out and have a batch without any "impurities." But, as I was enjoying my dinner, I heard a loud crunch and thought that part of my tooth might have fallen off (luckily this was not the case). I then discovered a small rock in my mouth... and apparently I have a strong jaw because I managed to break it in half. I really hope that this was the only one, but I'll probably be more careful when I eat the leftovers. And I will DEFINITELY remember to sort through my grains next time.

Barley with sausage and potatoes (adapted from 80 Breakfasts)

1 1/2 cups water

pinch of salt

1/2 cup barley, sorted and rinsed :)

1 tsp olive oil

1 large onion, sliced thinly

1 large Russet potato, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp dried thyme

8 oz. smoked sausage, sliced

Bring water and salt to a boil, then turn off heat and add barley (barley has a tendency to boil over). Bring back to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 40 min. Drain barley, return to empty pot, cover, and let steam for 10 min. While barley is cooking, heat oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add onion and potato and cook until they start to brown (about 10 min). Add garlic and thyme and cook for another minute. Stir in sausage and let cook until it browns. Finally, stir in the barley. Serves 3-4.

I really liked this... even with the extra crunch. I'm not a huge fan of most meats, but sausage is an exception. I brought this back from Tallahassee, and I'm convinced that people from North Florida/South Georgia know how to make the best sausage. Perhaps I'm biased (and I've never conducted a thorough double-blind taste test), but I'm fairly sure of this belief. And that taste test is sounding tempting... anyone want to join me?

Grilling sausage and portobellos, and some bean and barley soup

I've done a bit of cooking since I got back to Michigan.... most excitingly I've tried out my new grill pan!  I also managed to acquire tons of meat while I was at home (lots of venison, and a bit of pork sausage).  Almost everything was frozen except for the pork sausage, so I decided to grill up some of that with onions and peppers for dinner on Saturday.  It was really good (and for some reason the grill marks make it taste better).  I'm pretty sure I could eat Bradley's sausage every day and not get tired of it, so I'm glad that I have more in the freezer!  I also made the other package of soup that Mom and I got in Traverse City.  This one is a mix of lots of beans and barley, and it's good, but not quite as good as the pea soup (and hopefully I'll remember that if I decide to buy more next time I'm in TC).  Finally, today I grilled up some portobellos with cheese and onions.  I think that yummy is the only proper description.  Let's just say that I'm going to be grilling a ton of things for the next few months.  I can't wait until squash and eggplant are in season because those are destined for my pan.

In slightly related news, I've been rearranging my kitchen to provide more counter space and make it more useable.  So far it's much better, and hopefully things will be perfect once my spice rack gets here.  I'll probably get it exactly how I want it right about the time I'm ready to move, but then I'll have a new project with my new place (and I can't wait for that for SOO many reasons).

Don't worry, I'm not dead...

Between catching up from being gone most of last week and starting a new project, this week has been fairly busy.  Luckily (note the sarcasm), things have already been screwed up with my project, so I have to wait a few weeks until I can do anything else.  But, in all of the mayhem, I managed to make some bread and cook a lot of veggies on Monday.  This batch of bread is probably my favorite so far.  I made the basic whole wheat recipe that I love, but added flax meal and walnuts (and used even less honey than before).  Unfortunately there aren't any farmers' markets open on Mondays (and I couldn't survive without veggies), so I went to the store across town that has decent produce and good prices.  I was surprised to find okra again, and you could pick out your own (so I spent a while picking out all of the small pods).  I steamed them, and it was delicious.  One of the things that I love about okra is that I don't even want any seasoning on it because it's so tasty absolutely plain.  I also got some lettuce, corn, peppers, carrots, and indian eggplant, all of which were good.  

I managed to make it to two farmers' markets on Wednesday (including one that I had never been to before), but unfortunately the selection is getting pretty slim.  They have winter squash, some beans, some greens, potatoes, apples, and a lot of stuff shipped in from warmer climates.  I got some green beans, lots of apples, kale, and some meat (a pork shoulder roast and ground turkey).  Last night was the perfect night to cook the pork; I was exhausted from being on my feet all day at the Obama rally, so I came home, rubbed the pork with some spices, put it in the oven, and collapsed on the couch for a few hours.  I didn't quite cook it long enough so that it's falling off the bone (I was too hungry by that point), but it was delicious.  I also found a recipe for my green beans - pan roasted with a soy/vinagrette/garlic sauce.  It was quite an adventure because there was a little bit of water that dripped into the pan when I was adding the beans, and the pan was hot enough that it created smoke everywhere and my smoke alarm went off for a while.  In all of the craziness, I forgot to add the sesame seeds on top, but they were still very good.  I'll probably make them again (but I'll be a little more careful next time).