To hell with rice

Remember Sally, Charlie Brown's little sister, when she says she's mad at the whole world, especially stupid jump ropes? I'm fed up too. Especially with stupid weathermen. The weatherman said, and I quote, "no new snow" and "sunshine" and "highs in the mid thirties." It's been snowing and under 30 degrees for the last five hours. Needless to say, the sun is nowhere in sight. I'm so cold, and I'm so tired of practical wool socks and long underwear. I want to wear the slinky things my husband bought for Christmas, but I need flannel pajamas. Our heating system is struggling to keep up: and it's not keeping up because it was designed for the temperate Pacific Northwest, not the arctic.

Clearly, the cold makes me grumpy. My husband is none too pleased about the flannel either.

All this means I was not in a good frame of mind when it came to deciding what to make for supper tonight (it's a rice night). The curry rut was hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles, the leftover curry--three separate containers--vying for supper of leftovers status. All I have to do is put the rice cooker on, and I know I'm headed down the path of evil. I resist. I am not going to make rice. But I have to make something, it's just too cold not to eat. Thank heavens one Pyrex dish's contents were fuzzy enough to deliver me (us) from this damning temptation.

The accumulating snow means the crisper is getting empty-ish. I'm down to one head of lettuce, one head of purple cabbage, six Brussels sprouts, a handful of carrots and about six green onions. I pull it all out (except for the cabbage), along with the classic yellow Pyrex dish containing leftover roast chicken. This is starting to look like soup, but I need to resist rice. Digging in the larder, I strike gold: a bag of barley from the Buttercup Kindergarten teacher. With a huge sigh of relief, I throw it all into the pot, along with some chicken broth. The lettuce and green onion become salad with a tangy sesame vinaigrette, but the main event is soup. Without rice.