Beef and Barley Stew

I am not a food blogger. But those around and close to me have of late been cooking an oddity for our family, but they look like they are doing a pretty good job, strangely enough. It is not that we can't cook, we can. We cook, we bake, we do it all, we just don't do it often. So after reading their blogs I was inspired to plan some 'real meals' for my family this coming week. We started tonight with a beef and barley stew. Barley was a new ingredient for me, I'm not sure that I cooked it properly as it was bit chewier than I expected it to be, but still good.
Not being a food blogger I have looked at several to help me cover this genre here properly. So I find that one thing they all have are pictures. So I took some, I did not stage all my ingredients as some do because well, I don't get all my ingredients out at once and I put them away as soon as I am done using them, otherwise I'd never have a 'clean' kitchen.
So here's what it looked like as a stew without the barley and then after I added the barley.

I also found in my research that they give great facts about some key ingredients. so here goes;
barley is comparable to wheat products as far as health benefits however it differs by having both soluble and insoluble fiber, while wheat only has the latter.
I used Thyme and Oregano as spices for this recipe but apparently you can use whatever you have lying around. I really like the flavor of thyme, I plan to use more of it in ALL my recipes, how do you think it would taste in pancakes?
After looking at several food blogs I also felt that there was something missing from their coverage of the food.
What was missing is the shots of the people reacting, interacting and enjoying the food. So I'm here to fill that gap.

This stew was particularly good paired with chocolate milk boxes.

After some testing it was determined that putting barley up your nose is not the best way to get more fiber into your system. It is also kind of sticky so it doesn't come out all that easily.

As a general review:
You may like it so much you feel the need to either attack it or bow before it.
Either way it was an amazing stew.

The perfect end to the meal is a homemade chewy granola bar filled with almonds, cranberries, sunflower seeds and peanut butter.

gap filled : you are welcome food blogging community.

From the Dinner table

Tonight as we ate dinner around the table (which yes, had some laundry folded on top of it that I am 'planning' to put away sometime well... maybe tomorrow). ANYWAY, after a moment of silence Claire dropped her head to the table and in her robot voice said 'Must sleep at the dinner table'. After she sat with her head down for about 45 second I asked 'what are you doing Claire' and Nick shhh-ed me- with his little finger up to his lips and everything! Claire told me she was sleeping and we we all sat for a bit till Claire 'woke up' and began eatting as if nothing had happened. Has someone been hypnotizing my children?
Dinner was penne with sausage and peppers tonight.

The Perfect Day

This morning Claire crawled into our bed at 7:30 and cuddled down in between Jim and I. She rolled over to face me and 'whispered'

"It's a perfect day mommy". 

What she meant was that the sun was up, she was awake and I needed to make the best of it. (she's good for me like that) Did I mention that my perfect day started at 7:30, the latest I have been allowed to wake up in about - well - 18 months.   :)

And it was a perfect day. 

Jim was home on his day off, grocery shopping so there were goodies in the house, getting our Christmas tree, decorating our Christmas tree, first flurries of the season, delicious dinner with in-laws and kids to bed without even a moment of fussing.
Claire was right, today was a perfect day and I feel so very blessed to have been able to share it with her.

Chicken

So recently I made a chicken. It was my first whole chicken. I was pretty excited and nervous about what we would find inside it. You know if they had taken out the guts or if I would have to do it. Thankfully it's parts were in a bag, which is now in my freezer since I'm not ready to tackle that new adventure but don't want to be wasteful.

Any suggestions about what to do with them would be appreciated as I have NO CLUE what you do with whatever parts are in this little bag...

Once we got over the inital fear of the bird (and it's innards) we really enjoyed it. Claire and I helped it do the chicken dance... yes our bird was shaking it's butt right before we stuffed it full of salt, pepper, and parsley.

Then we put that bird in the crockpot, covered it in salt, pepper, basil, parsley and butter. Yes Aunt Stasi- we did put butter in that bird's armpits because everyone who knows anything (ie anyone from our house) knows that butter belongs in your armpit.

Then we cooked that bird... for like 7 hours (2 on high and the rest on low). While it cooked we called some friends to help us eat the chicken.
They came and brought the pie. :)
We think we'll try doing a duck next! Any advice from those who have done that before?