Barley Gruel, a.k.a. Witch's Brew

Yesterday I tried making a rolled barley cereal, similar to oatmeal. The rolled barley behaved pretty much like rolled oats, but the resulting cereal was...well...kind of gray. It looked like something that might have been served in a 19th century orphanage, and referred to as "gruel."

Not very appetizing.

We had the idea of adding food coloring to improve its complexion, and Sophia suggested green, "because green is the only color we know where it is." I'm pretty sure the other colors

are up in the high cupboard, with the cookie cutters, but green is what we went with. I left Sophia to add color, a drop at a time, until she was satisfied. The result was...well...kind of green. I guess that was predictable.

It looked a little better once we'd decked it out with raspberries and almond milk. And it tasted fine, aside from a faint chemical tang from the food coloring. Sophia asked for it again at dinnertime, but I refused. Once a day is quite enough.