Day Twenty: A Beef Barley Adventure

Another full day of class for Richard.  I stayed home and made up the beef barley stew.  Unfortunately, I had not made beef barley stew before.
  I poo-pooed the recipes I found online, which called for a 'meager' 1/4 or 1/2 cup of barley, convinced that I wanted a 'truly hearty' stew.  I believe I put in (to my sorrow) about 2 cups of barley.  All the experienced cooks are now rolling on the floor laughing.  Those of you still innocent, just follow the blinkin' recipes you find!

Anyway, I now had two massive pots of barley mush that had tough beef chunks and a few veggies forlornly mixed in. But I soldiered on. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without, eh? And I was going to make it do.  I put it in two large tupperwares for the fridge, and brewed myself up an extra 6 cups of beef broth. When Rich came home, I sat him down, heated up a small amount of the barley/veggie/beef mush in a microwaveable bowl, and then poured an additional cup of steaming beef broth over the top of it, which did, indeed, manage to give it up a soup-like appearance.  I breezily attempted to convey that this was how beef-barely soup is always served, and Richard, dear man, never let on that he knew any different.

I should also take a minute to report that we are canceling the 'try ready-made' operation, as we've had only extremely nasty results. I might just add that "Sheperd's Pie" does NOT equal "Cottage Pie." My dearest Mom, who used the terms interchangeably, has led me most grievously astray. I purchased 2 reduced price meals of Shepherd's Pie, thinking that they were the standard beef, veggies and mashed potatoes I grew up eating. To my everlasting woe, and for your further erudition, a 'Cottage Pie' does indeed contain the above ingredients. However, a 'Shepherd's Pie,' (of which I purchased two) consists of lamb, veggies and mashed potatoes. I HATE lamb. Always have, always will. With the failure of both fast food/street food, and the take n bake/take n nuke genre, we're going to have to go with beef and barley and lasagna as food staples, as well as lots of yogurt, fresh fruit, and homemade ham and cheese sandwiches galore. Also, the take and bake pizzas are surprisingly delicious, if expensive ($6 each for one the size of a Pizza Hut small...one meal for both us though, so it's beating take out and street food prices by a lot). We have also restricted ourselves to McD and KFC when neccessity dictates eating the British version of fast food, as we are guaranteed that the taste, while not neccesarily brilliant, will not make us want to hurl.