Rae: Beans, Beans the magical fruit

I have made it a personal goal to learn how to cook with dry beans, lentils, and peas. I purchased two really cheap extension cookbooks online that are very basic. And I have two wonderful new cookbooks to explore:

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World

Like Beccy, we are trying to make better eating choices at our house. Since our move to Payson, Ivan has not been working full-time and so he hasn't been eating out for lunch or drinking sodas. He doesn't miss it at all. I have been at home and have been able to enjoy grocery shopping and cooking more. And I DO enjoy both. We have both lost weight and we feel so much more healthy. And Bill hasn't complained. Yet.

I recently went to the Drypac cannery in Spanish Fork and purchased a lot of #10 cans of food. We gave the bulk of our really old food storage to the single woman who purchased our home in Lancaster. She had nothing in the way of storage and we didn't really have room to bring it all with us. So, in many ways, we are starting over. It's interesting to live in an LDS community and see the panic that many members exhibit because they have not been following the counsel of the prophets. As your auntie and sister and friend, I can bear witness that we are SO blessed (spiritually and physically and materially) when we try our best to follow those leaders. Consistently, with small (or even tiny) but solid steps. Not in panic mode trying to take imprudent giant steps.

Back to the beans. I failed my first attempt at cooking with beans. It's kind of tricky to figure out exactly how much soaking and cooking they need. And DON'T use a slow cooker. It's just not the best method. At least for dry beans. Ivan asked me if I felt bad about the beans I had wasted. I said that if I had felt that bad, he would have known because I would have been in tears! As it was, I just got more information and tried again. I successfully made a delicious batch of Boston baked beans! I am soaking black beans this morning for an end of the week batch of Cuban beans. So good!

I am reminded of a time when Gma spent the entire day trying to make homemade tomato soup. And I do mean the whole day. It didn't smell very good to Beccy and I and we kept making snide comments about having to eat it. At least I did. We were not little children but Gma MADE us sit down at the table and we were supposed to eat her creation. Darned if I was going to! It made her really mad until she herself sat down to eat...took a couple of spoonfuls and realized how nasty the soup was. Then she cried a bit and then laughed a lot and the soup went down the disposal...or something like that. The moral of that story for me as a mother is that I never forced the kids to eat anything BUT they had to at least try it first. Many times they have tried new foods only to discover that they like the end product!

Enjoy your cooking, eating, and reading!