In some sort of bizarre, From the Test Kitchens of Good Housekeeping-esque frenzy, I have been compulsively trying out recipes for different types of barley salad.

Yes, that's right. You heard me. Barley salad. Do you want to make something of that?

Here's the thing. I really, really like barley. I find it exceedingly satisfying: comforting, wholesomely nutritious, yet mildly eccentric. Slightly original, even. Yes, not everyone dares to take the barley road. It's like okra, in that regard. Or brussel sprouts, for that matter.

During the winter, I love to cook up large pots of soup that are just chock full of barley, and so the idea that one could also eat barley during the summer in the form of barley salads struck me as being sheer genius!

In the past week alone I have made (and slightly tweaked) recipes for Herbed Barley Salad, Greek Barley Salad, and Lemon Mint Barley Salad, all of which have been utterly dazzling in their Wholesome Barley Goodness!

The other thing about barley? You can eat it with a spoon while cryptically intoning "Garmonbozia! Garmonboooozia!" a la David Lynch's Twin Peaks. It is, I think, the definitive foodstuff for this particular activity. Now folks, I wouldn't recommend trying this at home in front of other people because they will, trust me, only think that you are a dork. If you are by yourself, however, or preferably in the presence of quizzical cats and dogs, you will undoubtedly find yourself to be unspeakably hilarious.