Shelby

Yes, I used both jars (minus what ever Newman stole when I stepped away for a minute 🙄) you want a total of 5 oz. of dried beef. I usually find it in the grocery store isle that has the canned meats --this was near the Spam. Sometimes it's not in jars and it's in packets. Hormel also does a dried beef. Here is the recipe: Cheese ball 2 dried beef packets (5 oz total) 1 softened cream cheese 2 chopped green onions Dash of worcestershire sauce Dash of onion juice Dice the dried beef. Mix in all other ingredients and form into a ball. You can roll it in chopped parsley if you wish. I don't ever have onion juice so I skip that and a add a couple dashes of Worcestershire. The fish really didn't make a mess. Chicken and gizzards make the most mess for me. I see a few splatters that I need to clean but really not bad. I just use my cast iron skillet with about 2 inches or so of veg. oil. Get it to 350F and fry. These crappie are pretty thin so it doesn't take long to get them done...maybe that's why it's less mess. I bought too much cheese. One was a major splurge but it's seasonal and I've been looking at it for several years. I got 1/2 a pound so it wasn't toooooooo bad at 25% off. I'll say more about it later. I hope we don't hate it lol.

It's Friday!!!!!! It is SO windy (and when a Kansan says it's windy, it's really windy lol). It's blowing steady at 35 mph and gusting to 45 right now. Later it's supposed to blow steady at 40 and gust to 55 😳. I have a Christmas tree on the porch that has blown over. Usually the deer don't move around in wind like this but they sent me a little video of a good buck milling about just now. So, we will see. Yesterday afternoon I made a cheese ball--it's easy and it always gets good reviews. When Ronnie's dad was alive he requested this often. Mix it all up in a bowl and form a ball. It looks really pretty if you roll it in diced parsley but I didn't have any. I mentioned on the good bargains thread that Murray's Cheese was having a sale on Cyber Monday. 25% off. That is very dangerous for me. So here's a little preview of what's for appetizers tonight: Last night's cheese ball and crackers I also put out some store bought head cheese Thawed out some crappie from over the summer and fried that in a panko/flour mixture With macaroni and cheese and fresh cooked spinach @Smithyasked yesterday if the guys ate their burritos cold or warmed......well they did microwave them yesterday. Today they've come up with their own microwave at the shooting house: 🤣

I think I would have something a little saltier lol.

I remember tracking a deer damn near midnight. It was COLD. We had flashlights. Hard to see blood trail like that but we found it.

They reheat them here in the microwave and then take them....they're probably cold again by the time they eat lol.

Strongly agree.

I'm not exactly sure where they will take him. I'm sure he will keep the antlers though.

Good morning everyone! More info about the ham and beans and cornbread. Cornbread recipe: 1 cup flour 1 cup cornmeal 1/3 cup sugar 1 tsp salt 3 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/3 cup melted butter 1 egg 1 cup milk 1 diced jalapeno Some cubed sharp cheddar Grease cast iron or round cake/pie dish. Mix all except for the cheddar--don't over stir. There can be a few lumps left. Pour into dish. Poke cheddar all around. Bake at 400F for 20 mins (I used the CSO). Ham and beans.....easy peasy in the IP. 2 bags of beans -Rancho Gordo sized. You can use the nine bean bags like they sell at the store--might not need 2 whole bags of those Diced: onions carrots jalapeno garlic celery Meaty ham bone diced ham black pepper couple of bay leaves Dump all of that in the IP. Fill to the line with chicken or turkey broth. Pressure cook on high for an hour--may need to go an additional 30 mins depending on the beans. Add a can or so of diced tomatoes (I used a quart jar that I had canned) Season with salt if it needs it--the ham is salty enough on it's own for us. Yesterday was busy. After the guys left I made breakfast burritos. Enough for 4 days. I told them if they get sick of them to let me know and I'll make breakfast sandwiches. Eggs Tater tots that I did in the CSO Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage Salsa Shredded sharp cheddar By the time that was all done I realized it was getting dark and they would be home soon. So, I baked up some sausage rolls and broke out my last jar of that jalapeño mustard that I canned. After I arranged the platter I realized I had violated the no cheese near sausage rolls protocol. @Anna Nwill probably string me up for this.😬 Moving on to dinner. I made venison meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy and southern cooked to death green beans with bacon. Our friends plate Ronnie's rather messy plate This morning the wind is blowing something fierce so I was pretty surprised to see the truck back into the driveway. I know when they back in that a deer has been gotten. He's a beautiful buck. But the terrible news is that he's full of infection (so we can't eat any of the meat) due to a bow hunter making a bad shot 😪. Reason #1 as to why I'm not a bow hunting fan. I'm glad he's not suffering any more. Onward and upward as they say. They will go back out this afternoon. I've already gotten the dishwasher going. I don't have to make breakfast soooooooo I think I'll get to have a delicious nap in a bit And, as always, I'm pondering what to make for tonight.

I'll give more details in the morning, I promise Thanks for asking.

Those jalapeños are hot. And yes, cheddar cheese cubes. I like biting into a gooey gob of it

We have a success. Phew. I'm almost scared to start on breakfast burritos and dinner....... I have to show my newish little candy cane plates And this was dinner last night as the FIRST pot of ham and beans was cooking. French dip sandwiches The guys have loaded up and departed for the shooting house. Just to scout around and prep for in the morning. I'm off to do the first round of dishes and figure out breakfast, appetizers and dinner. I feel a glass of wine coming on.

Maybe with the force of EG behind me this will turn out ok lol. I don't want to see a bean or a ham for a loooooong time after this.

These are the ham and beans from hell I tell ya. Been pressure cooking for an hour. Beans aren't done. We will go another 30 mins and if they are still hard I'm throwing the whole damn thing in the river lol.

I think I know what you're asking, but I'm a ditz sometimes lol. I pressure cooked it for an hour and then I released the pressure to see if the beans were sufficiently done. They were, so I put it on the keep warm setting. I truly think the keep warm on this bigger pot is a lot less warm than my smaller IP's. Ohhhhhh trust me. I wanted to tell Ronnie to just take him to lunch somewhere, but our guest never wants to do that...he always wants to just come here. I am ever so grateful to have a lot of Rancho Gordo beans lol. And a husband that went to get another ham. And that the said ham wasn't frozen.

My IP is different than that....it defaults to low and 17 hours of keep warm. Low on my smaller IP's is just perfect. This one must default to a lot lower. I can change the setting between High Low and Custom (custom you can set your own temp which is what I'll be doing this next time ) Oh yes, it could have been worse and in the big picture it's not a big deal.....that's what I get for trying to get ahead of the game lol. And on the plus side, I have more ham to freeze.

Hello everyone! I made my ham and beans yesterday. Homemade broth, my canned tomatoes, Rancho Gordo beans...the whole shebang. It smelled wonderful. I left it in my huge Instant Pot over night on the keep warm function-- as I've done a million times before. Got up this morning, opened the lid to give it a stir. IT SPOILED. OMG it wasn't even warm. I guess the keep warm function was set at waaaay too low of a temperature. So, I'm doing it again. 🙃 This better be the best freaking ham and beans ever lol. Ronnie is in town getting me another ham. Our friend's flight is delayed a bit due to the bad storms over there.......sooooooo....that's my morning 😬. I'll be back with cornbread after while. Let's all say a prayer that I don't screw that up too lol.

YUM for sure! I do the same thing. They don't last long around here either.

Yeah there was no shortage of Cream of Mushroom for sure 🤣 Deer season opens on the 1st (Thursday) so they will deer hunt in the mornings and evenings and probably goose and duck hunt in-between.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack. Let the disorganization begin 🤣. Our friend gets here tomorrow around 10:30 as usual. It's currently 33F and flurrying (is that a word?). Going to be cold the whole trip except for Friday. Better to be cold than hot for sure. Ankle still not right....but it's better than it was last time we were here so there's that. I might just have a permanent limp. Things could be worse and I now have a really good weather predictor 'cause it ramps up when it's cold lol. Got some Christmas put out. It feels cozy with all of the lights on at night. We just returned from going to the grocery store and Sam's. I was stupidly surprised at finding some shortages again! Sam's had no veg. oil or cream. Dillon's had no flour (well, they had the expensive King Arthur brand but not their Kroger brand) and no large containers veg. oil. A fellow shopper mentioned to me that she's fearing shortages again....I told her I'm thinking the same thing. Got to clean the fridge out and put groceries away. Then I'm going to make a huge pot of ham and beans. Things are up in the air so I want to be prepared. If they come home for lunch tomorrow then I'll heat the beans up and make a batch of cornbread. If they don't then I'll do the same thing, except for dinner .

Murray's Cheese has 25% off site-wide today.

OH! I'm sorry! *settling back in my seat*

Thank you for the wonderful trip!

I've been craving ham. I love your broccoli cheese too

Uh yeah. This looks delicious.

I've been craving cabbage rolls for weeks. Yours look amazing! I'd definitely make soup. Uses up a lot.