Beans, Beans, Beans

 

Well it was a success; no jars broke--yea! 

 

As you can see 1/2 cup of dry navy beans was not enough. 

 

 

For the second batch I upped it a little.  I used 3/4 cup per pint for the navy beans,  a little less than that for the pintos, and same for the great northern beans.  I canned 15 pints altogether.  I ate one the the jars that have less beans in them for lunch, and it was very good.

 

I'm thinking of canning some pintos in quarts, and pints of chickpeas and blackeyed peas--Yum!

 In (one a few) memories I have of my paternal grandmother, she tried to get me to eat some blackeyed peas, which I hated, when I was small.  I love them now.  I can eat a whole can of them by myself, but they are hard to find now days.

 



Beans and Salsa

 

 

 I've decided to make up with an old friend---my pressure cooker.  I am canning some dry beans.

I decided to post on my blog while I am babysitting my canner.  It has been a long time since I posted.  SHAME!

 I bought this canner 31 years ago.  My sister, Paula and I decided to make some salsa, because our Mom and Dad were going on vacation, and with a large garden, they had an excess of tomatoes and peppers and our mother suggested we try our hand at canning some salsa.  She forgot to tell us to use gloves when we were cutting up the hot jalapeno peppers, so we didn't.   About the time we were ready to put the salsa into jars and can them, intense PAIN begin.  We had to finish the job, so we fixed bowls of ice water to put our hands in every few seconds---it was terrible.  We finished the job then she went home to nurse her wounds.  The pain lasted for Four. Long. Stinking. Hours.  I laid on the couch with my hands in ice water.  I haven't used my canner since. I have made lots of jelly, apple butter, and some water bath salsa.  We had our last baby a couple years after that episode, and I just lost interest in canning.  I have been reading peoples blogs about canning dry beans and I had to give it a try, so we dug it out of the attic yesterday afternoon.

 

 

 

My hubby loves beans and salsa.  So here we go.  There are 54 minutes left to pressure them, and a heard a loud crack about 20 minutes ago--I'm hoping it was just the canner popping and not a jar cracking--so far I don't smell any burnt beans smell, which is a smell I am well acquainted with.  I have let my beans boil dry on more than one occasion.  One time it took 3 days to get the smell out of our house.  I get side tracked pretty easily.  I am a little nervous about that crack I heard though.  

 

It's just a vinegar smell coming out of the rocker weight vent--I'm hopeful.  The pressure gauge stays steady at 15 pounds with my large burner set on 4.5.  (I added that so I will know next time.)  I am maintaining 15 lb. pressure for 90 minutes.  I poured boiling filtered water over 1/2 cup of rinced dry beans, and added 1/2 tsp. canning salt, with 1" of head space--that's also for next time.  With the 2 quarts of water in the canner, I added 2 Tbs.white vinegar so my jars would come out clean.  I will let you know how it turned out on my next post.



Having Fun Now

                 

Tonight I made another pressure cooker recipe, and it has possibilities.  It's called

Mexican Chicken Tacos.

Here's the meat mixture after cooking it in the pressure cooker.  It would be great in Chicken Enchiladas too.

Here's the recipe.  You can click on the picture if you're interested.

I hope you can read my handwriting.

I didn't make the salsa, I just opened a jar of it.  I'm a cheater, I know, especially when it comes to cooking.

Now for the FUN!  I've started a new handwork project, because I'm not happy unless I'm doing some handwork.  I still have my quilt I need to work on, but this calls my name, and I can do it when I'm tired of the other.  I had to trace the pattern onto the tea towel after I ironed a ten inch square of freezer paper to the back to stabilize the towel while I was tracing it.  I have a light box, but it was sure nice out today--sunny and 65 degrees (can't beat that in January), and we had the doors and windows open, so I traced it on the patio door with it slightly open--Wonderful Clean Air.

I just used an ordinary pencil for this, and it worked fine.

Now, I'm having fun again. Woo-Hoo!

Sailor's Delight

Lovely Sky tonight.

You know the saying--Red sky at night, sailor's delight; Red sky in the morning sailor's take warning.

I tried another pressure cooker recipe.  This time I picked an easy one that would not fail.

I have no desire for two flops in a row.  This one turned out great.

I didn't exactly go by the recipe---I used a cheaper cut of meat---rump roast.

I have to cut back on my carbs so this one is Hubby's.  He liked it real well.  I hope the sugar in the BBQ sauce doesn't send my pressure up.  It sure was good.

Cinnamon ?

We had an adventurous meal tonite--Southern Style Meatballs and Gravy.

It tasted a little strange.  The recipe, which I copied from a book I checked out at the Library, calls for cinnamon in the meat mixture.

This recipe needs to be worked over, big time.  Less milk in the meatball mixture, NO CINNAMON,  minced onion would be nice to add, and a little salt.  I'm not sure about the eggs either, I will probably leave them out next time.

The gravy was fine, except I used less butter, just 1 Tablespoon.  I didn't use any sugar in it, and it was fine without it.  I forgot to put the hot sauce in it, and I bet that would have been good, or use beef gravy.

I only used half of the meatballs in the gravy----so, guess what Hubby gets to take for lunch to work.  I will put turkey Gravy on them, I think that will help.  He didn't think they were too bad--that's good.

I'm trying out some new pressure cooker recipes, so----more adventures to come.