First blog post!

Brussels Sprouts...

Last year, my husband, Scott, and I decided to do "Meatless March," which is exactly what it sounds like: no meat for the entire month of March.  At first, I really struggled with the fact that I couldn't run out to the deli during work and eat that perfect turkey sandwich on rye every day.  Seriously, I had dreams about turkey sandwiches and all of their glory, and yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds.  But after about a week, I would venture to say that I started getting used to it.  And then after about two weeks, I might even say that I liked it, and I especially liked the challenge of trying to find meatless options everywhere I went.  I also found that I was enjoying the challenge of cooking 100% meatless meals, and going to the store to buy ingredients that I had never ever considered using before (enter: Brussels sprouts!). Cooking vegan and vegetarian food quickly became a slight obsession, and I was really excited about making meatless versions of foods that we would normally eat. Tofu parmesan instead of chicken, lentil and mushroom "meat" loaf, beet sliders...and the list goes on. Of course, I made a ton of mistakes. Exhibit A: "Ahha! I got it! I will impart flavor on this tofu by using Worcestershire sauce in the marinade! I'm a genius!" Except that this genius forgot that Worcestershire sauce is made from anchovies and anchovies are technically meat. *face palm*  Lots of things like that happened, but by the end of the month, I had gotten the hang of it, and was really loving it. 

And then, I ate a cheeseburger. I'm not going to lie to you, that thing was delicious. But I felt kind of weird and sluggish after eating it, and Scott felt kind of weird, too.  So that was that, and we decided to stick with a mostly plant-based lifestyle. We define ourselves as vegetarian-ish, which basically means that we are meatless about 90% of the time, and vegan as much as possible.  Once in a while, a cheeseburger happens.  Or chicken nuggets after a long night of liquid indulgence. Or that turkey sandwich I was talking about earlier.  But the point is, we maintain this lifestyle most of the time because it makes us feel good.  I can promise you that I am never going to be the person who preaches to anyone else about what they should and shouldn't eat. What I will do, is share some of the successful recipes (and probably some of the total train wrecks, just for the fun of it!), so that you can try some of this stuff on your own if you wish.

Barley...

Yes, I love the grain and cook with it from time to time.  But the barley part of this blog really refers to beer. Scott is a craft beer enthusiast, which sort of made me a beer enthusiast by default.  After months of making what he called "my dandelion face" (re: the face I made when sipping IPAs and exclaiming that they tasted like dandelions and that was NOT a compliment!), I started craving the taste of hops.  Of course, IPAs are now my favorite type of beer, but I digress...

Sometimes, he will open three beers at dinner just to see what beer pairs the best with the food.  We will sip and sample and try to decide which beer is the winner with that particular meal. How else would we know that IPAs + pesto = a little slice of heaven?! In short, Scott will most likely make some guest appearances on this blog when it comes to pairing craft beer with the food that I make. I might even give it a go every once and a while as well.