She mails emails by the seashore

At the present time, I’m all caught up with emails!  So if you sent me an email (or left a question in a comment), you should’ve heard back from me.  If you didn’t receive a reply, please send your email again, as my email responses apparently get lost in cyperspace quite often.

Speaking of emails, I got such a sweet one from a blogreader, Rachel—who tried her hand at preparing hulled barley—that I had to share it:

Hey Katie!

After your genius post on The Healthiest Grain in the World I knew I had to go out and pick up some hulled barley.  I never knew that it made a difference what type of barley you bought.  Turns out I’ve been eating the “white rice” type of barley my whole life.  But now that I’ve tried hulled barley, I actually found that I like that one even better.  It has a chewier texture than the pearled barley plus I feel even healthier knowing how good it is for me!

I just wanted to send you an email to thank you for telling me and all your other readers about this new grain.  One of the main reasons I love your blog is that you help me to expand my knowledge of what’s out there in terms of new foods.  I don’t think to pick up unknown products when I’m at the store because I’d have no idea what to do with them.  So if it weren’t for you, I’d be eating brown rice, broccoli, and carrots every day.  Well, not really, but you get the idea.  Thanks to you I’ve learned about so many new products/foods and how to cook them, like polenta, arame, spaghetti squash, Artisana, agar agar, butternut squash, kamut flakes, and the list goes on.  Hopefully someday I’ll be able to find a kabocha squash, because I really want to make your kabocha mousse.

Oh, and before I forget, here’s what I made with the barley: Peanut Butter and Banana Barley Fusion!  It was ridiculously good.  Thank you thank you thank you.  I can’t wait to see what food you introduce me to next!

Question of the Day: What is your favorite new product, food, or cooking method that you’ve discovered thanks to the blogworld?   

The creamy tofu-in-oatmeal idea is definitely one of mine . 

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Unrelated note: If you haven’t already done so, check out the Pancake Wrap-Up post not only to see who won the contest, but also for pancake inspiration galore!