Cabbage and Barley

I remember a stew of cabbage and barley at my paternal grandparents' house, when I was a child.  The truth be known, their house almost always smelled of cabbage, onion and garlic.  I do not recall my mother cooking cabbage and barley much.  I remembered eating it some, but we usually only ate at my paternal grandparent's house when it was a holiday, and cabbage and barley is not holiday food. It is good cold weather, stick to your ribs, food.

Years later, I stumbled upon a recipe for it, when I was married to my first husband. We liked to try recipes, and we both liked this.  He especially liked it on mashed potatoes.  He would ask for it, if time went on and we did not have it.

I remember one time telling my mother what we were fixing for dinner. She told me she did not like it, but my father did, so my grandmother would send some down to him when she made it. (Both sets of grandparents lived within a few houses of where we lived, when I was a child.)

My father was not a real picky eater, but he had his definite preferences, as did my mother. I am not sure who deemed the meal selection pattern at our house, but if the primary meal was something one of the five children in our family did not like, there was a second selection available.  I thought that was common, until I went to college and my best friend from college told me she had never seen that!  Wow! What amazing parents I had!

I remember not liking ham when I was young, because it was too salty. I remember not liking spaghetti with marinara sauce because it was too spicy. (Ketchup was the spiciest I could handle.)

Very late in my mother's life, I learned that she liked breakfast for any meal, and mustards of various kinds. (I do not think she bought specialty mustards until later in life. But at Christmas time, my father received many, many gifts from the suppliers he used: he was given gifts of alcoholic beverages, fruit baskets, cheese and whatnot trays. Many of these cheese and what not trays had specialty mustards on them.) 

I should have clued to the breakfast for any meal preference, because very often, in winter weather especially but not exclusively, we had oatmeal, sausage and toast for dinner, especially on Saturday night. Or pancakes and oatmeal and sausage for dinner.  Which was fine by me. But it was on a family trip, when we went to a restaurant that served breakfast all day, that my mother declared her delight at having breakfast any time of the day!

I used to like breakfast foods, especially grainy, nutty and fruity cereals.  Because, in my teens, I became lactose intolerant, and because I liked a hot breakfast, I used to put peanut butter and hot water on my cereals, making a sort of peanut butter milk for the cereal. Over the years, I have gotten away from breakfast cereal.

I still like a hot breakfast, especially in the cold weather.  But I like soup for breakfast.  Although they do not like me because of the lactose intolerance, I especially like cream soups for breakfast.  I also like spicy eggy food for breakfast.

My food tastes have changed.  I loved sweets as a child.  Sometime after I moved to Texas, I developed a definite preference for salty food rather than sweet food.  And, I have developed a definite addiction for spicy food.  I read somewhere that capsaicin is addictive.

I know that when I travel out of West Texas, I seek out spicy Mexican style food.

Well, it is the time of year to eat cabbage and barley, so that is what is on the stove tonight.