Dinner at Dayna’s
Went to Dayna’s (Mazz’s “bird”) house tonight for supper where she cooked up a wonderful Barley & Mushroom soup and some cornbread. I helped a little by chopping up some celery and mushrooms, but Dayna’s magic and skill made the meal.
In other news, Dayna’s son, Quinn, has been having computer issues that I haven’t been very helpful with. He’s got an older Dell Dimension 2300, a box that doesn’t have an AGP or PCIe slot – just standard PCI and he wants to be able to play several Lego games that require Pixel Shaders or some such. I think I *might* have found him a card that will work, but I’m not sure. Why does Lego make games that require expensive hardware? Even if they do, can’t you just turn off Pixel Shaders and play the game with less details?
I managed to find a very close recipe online from what I remember in helping to prepare it:
— From Real Simple Magazine, November 2005
Makes 4 servings
- 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil (divided)
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 2 medium yellow onions, diced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 20 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
- 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over medium heat; add barley and saute for 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from heat. In a medium pan, bring the barley and 4 cups of water to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until tender, 25 to 35 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 ½ tablespoons oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until the onions have softened, 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the carrot and celery and cook, covered, for 5 minutes more. Add the mushrooms, increase heat to medium-high and cook, covered, until they release their juices, about 4 minutes. Add the broth, bay leaves and thyme and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
Stir in the cooked barley and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove and discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. If desired, season with additional salt and pepper.