BEAN SOUP

 SURPRISE!!!  LOOK WHO'S BACK!

I am a firm converter to the Instant Pot ... but you can still do this in a traditional Slow Cooker or even a stove top pressure cooker (although, I only know how to use a stove top pressure canner as a cooker)

But I used my Instant Pot ... but if you aren't, wash, pick over, and soak your beans over night - or do the Quick Cook method on the package.

INGREDIENTS/INSTRUCTIONS
1 cup UNCOOKED Navy or Great Northern Beans, raw (hard)
1 T salt (I prefer Kosher Salt)
Enough water to cover by at least 2 inches (cold water is best)

Pressure cook for 45-1 hour, when done let depressurize naturally (just until the top releases on its own)
Drain thoroughly.

Place pot back in cooker, turn on "Saute" mode and add:
1/4 Cup butter
1 medium onion or 1/2 large onion, diced
1 carrot per person, peeled and diced
1 rib celery per person, sliced 
1-2 cups Cauliflower, cut into small flowerets
2 tsp garlic, minced

Saute until onions are soft but not browned.
Add 1 qt broth (I used chicken broth but beef will work as well)
Ham, diced - I used leftovers from Easter
Pepper, to taste
1 tsp. Powdered Mustard
1 tsp garlic, powder

Place lid on, set to "manual" or "Pressure Cook" , set for 1 hour.

You can eat this right away once it gets done ... but I let it rest for 30 minutes while husband and son did outside work.

This amount fed us for 2 days ... and I still have a little left ... I found it still needed a little salt though, but then I used a NO sodium broth ...

We all had seconds, so it must have been good.
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WHAT NEEDS CHANGING:
~ I would say, add salt ... I added it when I cooked the beans by themselves, but by the time they finished the second cooking they became pretty bland.
~ I would have also shortened the timie for the second cooking ... some of the beans were a tad too soft for my taste, but then I like a firm bean that easily gives but still holds its shape.
~ The cauliflower disappears into the soup, just kind of disintegrates.
~ The color ... its a pretty yucky biege, not sure if its from the beans or the pepper I used.  Or it can be from the chicken broth as well, I guess.

WHAT I REALLY LIKED:
~ The cauliflower disappears into the broth, this means you will be able to get even more veggies into your kids
~ The beans & cauliflower help to thicken the broth just enough for a "stick to your ribs" supper
~ The taste! I haven't had a really good bean soup since I worked at the deli in college ... this was pretty close!

I have never had a soup that uses powdered mustard before ... I couldn't find mine at the time, so I had omitted it ... but I'm betting it would have added a wonderful kick, and gone well with the ham.

Also, Ham broth ... or cooking it with a ham bone in the final cooking time.

This is on my short list of foods for Opening Weekend at the Resort this year.

PYREX vs. pyrex ... YES THERE'S A HUGE DIFFERENCE

 WOW - its been a long time since I've posted on here.

Sorry.

Okay - onto Pyrex ...

I always knew there was a difference in today's Pyrex as compared to stuff from my childhood ...
I remember in Chem class in high school Mr. Glock telling us it was safe to only put the Pyrex test tubes into the flame of the Bunson burners, because they were made to take the heat ... 

And, yes, Pyrex was developed for chem labs! and amde its way into the kitchens of the world.

Here's a quick video (NOT MINE) which explains the difference:

But what it does not say is that the company actually SOLD its domestic division in the 80s or 90s to a comoany in Europe ... at least that was the story I heard ... thus the switch from uppercase PYREX to lowercase pyrex ... 

But this wasn't the only change ...

Cost-wise, the original formula was too expensive to make in Europe, so they figured out a cheaper, but still "viable" version of the product.

The American (PYREX) still uses the original formula but because of the selling of that division, they can NOT sell the better product under the PYREX name for household use.

Sad ...

Now if you have pyrex - while the product is still good, don't get me wrong - you will need to let it come to room temp before going from hot to cold, or from cold to hot ... and according to this video, it sounds like NEVER from the freezer to the oven.

Yes - there have been several stories on You Tube about glassware cracking, or even exploding, when taken from freezer to oven.

READY, SET, STOP

 yeah yeah yeah ... I know ... I should have my Instant Pot up by now, but I don't ... long story ... hoping it will be up and going by .... Aprl

Meanwhile -- I have taken to pre-cooking my ground meats and splitting them up, since most of it is used in crumbled meat pieces anyways.  I know I will have to use them up within 3 months of cooking and then freezing but that shouldn't be an issue in the long run.

Today I did up 10# of meat ...

    5# or so done up in 1/2# packages (total of 10)

    4# or close to it, cooked and then split into 1# packages (total of 4)

    1#, likely a tad more, turned into tonight's supper of salisbury steak, modified for my daughter's Low FODMAP (?) diet ... no onions, but she can have garlic ... total of 4 patties which have, well crumbled.

then on top of all this I decided to cut up and freeze a container of mushrooms I had asked hubby to get for us ... pre-daughter's diet ... I cut them in half and then freeze them - decided not to blanch them since the majority of the time I'm just gonna plop them into a sauce anyways ...

    1# mushrooms, split into 4 1/4# packages

then there was the Mixed Veggies hubby got me ... he bought them at Sam's Club and he got me a HUGE bag ... looked like about 5# of mixed veggies -- hubby will not eat Veg-All because it has lima beans in them (he hates lima beans with a passion!) ... so I was shocked to see him buy such a large bag - I haven't looked to see what exactly is in there but I'm assuming NO lima beans.

I opened the bag expecting to split it into a bunch of 10oz packages ... what I found was SHOCKING - at least for me ... 

Sam's Club has gone the way of CostCo when it comes to their veggies ... instead of being one huge bag of veg, I found it contained 6 smaller bags of veg - but still larger than I can buy at the store.  

So ...

    3 - 24 oz packages of mixed veg

    6 - 10 oz packages of mixed veggies

    1 - package of extra veggies for supper tonight

and that's it.

So it was definitely a "Read, Set, Stop" type of day.

And bitterly cold.

It was -11F for the longest time today, so I tried to use it to freeze my mushrooms and 1/2# packages of meat.  But I found that even after **2 hours**  the MEAT was still thawed, but the mushrooms were pretty firm.

I don't understand it -- I would have thought it would have frozen twice as fast as in the deep freeze ... but somehow, they didn't seem to freeze any faster at all!  hmmmm ... its a puzzlement.

OH MY GOODNESS - "CHRISTMAS" WAS GREAT!!

 WOW!!  That is all I can say ... WOW!!!

My hubby and daughter went all out for me this year ...

Daughter found me a wonderful Tea set = pot and cups WITH saucers! at a local thrift store -- don't judge us, we love a good Thrift (last year she found a FULL tea set, pot, creamer, sugarer, tea cups, saucers for $10!!!!!)

So now I have a tea setting for 4 people ... I've never had that - just the pot, creamer, sugar pot - I absolutely love it 

Hubby and daughter went to WalMart and she talked him into the Ultimate gift ...   for me at least ... 

For the last 2 years I've been using my youngest son's Instant Pot at the resort (Silver Bay Sunset Get=a=way in Luck, WI ... on lovely Bone Lake .... sorry, shameless plug) ... and I fell in love with it

It does everything - even cooks PASTA in 4 minutes, plus pressuring time - and its PERFECT, except the size - I found the 6 quart model to be a little small for me - we feed more than 3 people more than 1/2 the time and they are all adults with BIG appetites 

Well - not sure which was listening, but I got an **8 QUART** Instant Pot!!!

Only have 3 issues - but 2 are easy to fix:

~ it did NOT come with a rack for the bottom - you don't want food sitting on the bottom of the pot because it could scorch

~ Only 1 gasket, and Wal*Mart didn't sell any replacements for this size

These two will be easy to fix - I have a "UFO" steamer which I can use or a few other ways that I've lerned over the years ... and I'm hoping to be able to find another gasket on Amazon, maybe even QVC if necessary (they sell 8-qts too)

the last issue is a bit tougher to solve - that's the inner pot itself.  It is Non-Stick coated == which I'm sure is nice, and I will be able to use it without any problems ... but in the future I can see the non-stick coating will wear off ... but hopefully not for a looooooong time!

I will be doing a separate post on hints & tips I've learned over the last couple years.

Now I need to find room in my kitchen for one more thing!

I have a feeling my slow cookers will have to be put away ... but where do I put those?? 

NOT My Video, NOT MyRecipe ... But Looks Nummy!!!!

CHICKEN & RICE ... VERY SLOWLY

 OK - i know I've said this would be just for Crock Pot/Slow cooker recipes ... but every once in a while I've got to slip in some different ways of cooking .., in this case, just a regular oven.

This is actually a great Slow Cooker recipe as well, however I tend to wait until the last 1/2 hour before adding the rice to the pot ... of course I have only used INSTANT rice for this recipe, I'm not sure when you would have to add regular rice to the slow cooker.

This is a LONG cooking recipe - at least 2 hours in the Conventional Oven ... yup, and then the actual time is based on how long it takes the chicken to cook.

CHICKEN & RICE W/VEGGIES

Ingreadients-

3-4 Chicken thighs (although I've done it with as many as 8 in the slow cooker)

1 can veggies - I prefer Peas myself

1 can Cream of Soup, I like Mushroom but any will do

1 1/2 Cups Instant Rice

1 1/2 Cup liquid, includes liquid from veggie can

Spices of your choice (I used Salt, Garlic Powder, Chicken Seasoning)

8 oz Mushrooms

In pan (or slow cooker pot) mix rice with liquid, spread canned veggies on top. top with chicken - skin side DOWN.  Cover, cook at 400F for 1 hour.

During this hour, I soak my fresh mushrooms in cool water twice, draining them every 15 minutes - being careful NOT to allow any loosened dirt to resettle upon the mushrooms.  Then I slice the mushrooms and soak them twice more, again cool water and changing every 15 minutes.

Now pull the chicken out of the pan, mix the veggies with the rice. spread the mushroom slices over the rice and replace the chicken, skin side UP this time ... again spice your meat - I just used a little salt and garlic powder on this side .. spread the soup on top of the chicken.

Add just enough water to the can to get out the last of the soup, if needed you can add a little extra water to keep the rice moist 

Turn the oven to 425F, and return to oven - only TENT the foil on the pan (that is, don't attach the ends to the pan, just the sides - you could also just  place parchment paper over the chicken as well, do not crinkle around pan.  This will allow the chicken to get some lovely color.

If cooking in a slow cooker, if you want color to the chicken - you will have to transfer it to the broiler for a few minutes (I tend not to, why make more dishes)

*photo to come

RECIPE: TACO SOUP, DUMP & GO

SO I wanted to make something for Cinco De Mayo ... my son says I'm guilty of "Cutlure appropriarion" I told him "Tough knoogies"

so, what did I make? a quick TACO SOUP ... kind of

here's the recipe:

into crock pot:

3 chicken tenderloins

1 can  chicken 'n' rice soup

1 can vegetable soup, tomato based

1 can white beans (I used Great White Northerns)

1 can corn, with juice

1 cup water

1 T chili powder --or-- Taco seasoning (I didn't have taco seasoning so I used the chili powder)

shredded cheese

Dump it all in the pot.

Slow Cook 3-4 hours on high --or-- 5-6 hours on low heat ... shred chicken

serve in bowl topped with cheese.

I used an Instant Pot:

cook chicken tenderloins on Meat/Soup setting for 20 minutes with 1 C water

shred chicken. put back in pot and add rest of ingredients.

cook on Meat/Soup setting on high pressure for 20 miutes

serve in bowl with cheese on top.

Here's a look at my bowl ... it was good - I had a second bowl.

Not very spicy at all though, so if you like it HOT either increase the Chili Powder or break out the Louisiana Hot Sauce (such as Tabasco or Frank's or which ever your favorite is)

Will I make it again?

YES

Will I can/jar it up?

If I can find a safe version, you betcha ... can not can rice or several other ingredients that commercial canneries can - they have more heavy duty canners which get to much higher pressure than the home canner we can buy

Taste -

I usually don't like tomatoe with chicken, except catsup, but this is really good!

4 of 5 stars ... could have used some taco seasoning, which I didn't have

Ease to make -=

4 of 5 ... the toughest part is shredding the chicken and gettimg the spice right

Presentation -

5 of 5 ... well, its soup -- the cheese really finished it off.  Adding a dollo[ of sour cream would have looked nice too, but I think it would have ruined the taste.

Give it a try -- its really really good!