Chicken wings with barley

 I'm hoping to complete February a week early so have jumped ahead, although I'm going to leave what should be today's recipe (chocolate peanut butter cheesecake) until Easter when I can share it with my wider family.  So I've taken the opportunity of the fussy daughter being out tonight to make this as it contains her most hated things - fiddly meat with bones in and a mushroom.  For me the mushroom was the highlight of this dish with the taste of the chicken a close second.  But what really let it down was the pearl barley.  Anyone who has read my blog previously will know my initial terror of pearl barley which I overcame in a slow cooked stew in the first kitchen diaries.  There's the problem for me - I now know that for me to like pearl barley in needs cooking for 3 hours so it's swollen and tender whereas this way just reminds me of meals that used to make me feel physically sick in the 1970s.  So, it's a no from me I'm afraid.