kayb

Can't hold a candle to @BonVivant's lunch spread and sausage salad, but lunch today was tomatoes with mayo, cottage cheese and bacon, jail slaw, and a dish of those finally-cooked, but not very good because they cooked too long, baked beans. Sugars were beginning to turn bitter. Lesson learned; don't try Boston baked beans with unsoaked beans any more. The rest of lunch was good, though. I forget how much I love this slaw. It's also the best slaw going for a barbecue sandwich, which is just not a proper barbecue sandwich without slaw on it.

Wonder if it has something to do with the sugar/molasses? I figured I'd have to cook them longer, but sure didn't think it'd take two hours and them still not be done.

They'd been in my pantry less than six months. I cooked the first half of the bag, after presoaking, with no problems. Don't know what the issue was this time.

Smoked pork tenderloin, jail slaw, potato salad. Minus the damn beans that didn't get done (see Rancho Gordo and Instant Pot threads). Very good, nevertheless, and as the beans are now done, after cooking all night on slow cook, we will repeat this one night this week (I have more tenderloin in the fridge).

@JoNorvelleWalker, no, they were alubia blanca. I got the bag back out of the trash and looked. Update -- this morning, after 12 hours on slow cook, they were done -- but surprisingly, still quite firm and not mushy. Bonus -- the long, slow cook made the sauce absolutely delectable. As I am cooking risotto today, they'll go in the fridge for sometime later.

Well, update to the above post. Cooked the beans at 45 minutes, high pressure, quick release. Still hard. Went for another 30 minutes, high pressure, quick release. Hard. Gritted my teeth and went again for 45 minutes, high pressure. Still. Hard. They are still in the IP, on slow cook, set to go all night. These damn beans will be done when I get up in the morning, or I will know the reason why. Had my tenderloin (which was exceptional, but would have been even more so alongside some beans) with potato salad and jail slaw. Not sure what I'll have to go with beans tomorrow.

Resurrecting this topic to ask a question. I was gifted with a smoked pork tenderloin today, and decided I needed some Boston baked beans to go with it. Hadn't soaked any beans, as I hadn't planned on cooking beans tonight, but no worries -- I have an Instant Pot, and I'll just pressure cook those babies unsoaked. Put a half-pound of alubia blanca beans in the IP with the requisite ingredients, and decided to go 45 minutes at high pressure. Quick released the pressure because I was getting hungry and everything else was done -- beans were not. I said...well, never mind what I said, but I started 'em back for another 30 minutes. At the end of that time -- still hard. So I cursed, fixed my plate without them, and set them for another 45 minutes. For anyone who's counting, that's a solid two hours under pressure. And they still weren't done. I presently have them on the slow cook setting and plan to let them cook all night. Has anyone else had this experience with these beans? I've had them in my pantry less than six months. I'm befuddled.

Reason no. 5,387 why I love my IP: Came home from my volunteer shift at the soup kitchen with an unexpected gift of a smoked pork tenderloin, so now in my IP are a half-pound of RG alubia blanco beans, with molasses, dry mustard, regular grainy mustard, brown sugar and bacon. Boston baked beans, pork tenderloin, potato salad, jail slaw in the fridge already. We'll eat well tonight!

Made the bread with pureed corn as the liquid yesterday. I think I pulled it from the oven just a smidge early -- it's a tad gummy -- and while it has a good flavor, you really don't taste the corn. I think if and when I make it again, I'll add some cornmeal or masa for a bit more corn personality. Will be baking a lot next week, as I've traded a couple of loaves of bread for someone coming to till up my three little garden spots, and another to someone who'll offer his pickup truck for a run to Lowe's. I love the barter economy.

Will have to check there this week on cream, and take a look at the German sausages, as well.

In what do you saute your tomatoes, butter or oil? Any spices? Those look lovely. @rarerollingobject, have mercy! Those look GORGEOUS!

Four for a buck at Kroger yesterday. They appeared to have a gracious plenty. They had bags of big, juicy lemons, six in a bag, for $1.99.

Life being what it is schedules of course intervened the day I roasted the chicken, so I stuffed him in a Zip-loc and refrigerated him for a couple of days, and got back to him tonight. Dinner the first: Sliced chicken breast with cranberry gastrique (not a true gastrique, but close enough); green beans, blanched and then tossed with butter, salt and pepper; sweet potato wedges (very nearly overcooked because, well, I forgot about 'em) and a cucumber and tomato salad. Just a meal for one, as my daughter had eaten Indian for lunch and was still full. Next up: either chicken and asparagus risotto, or pasta primavera with lemon and chicken.

We'll even gin you up some press credentials. I've done that a time or two in my life. @Anna N and @JoNorvelleWalker, looking forward to your reports.

That's it. My apologies to you and @andiesenji.

I THOUGHT it was you who had posted the recipe, which I've saved as a word doc so I don't have the link any more. Perhaps it was someone else. @Okanagancook, I may not have let it rest long enough. The recipe said cover with plastic wrap, but I covered it with a tea towel. That shouldn't make a difference, should it? Am trying the bread with the pureed sweet corn today. Will report.

Help! I made @Anna N's pita bread the other day, and it was a dismal failure. I didn't get the oven rise she described; and the discs were leaden. On the few that did at least partially rise, the "bubbles" were very one-sided -- most of the crumb on one side, and a very thin layer on the other, not conducive to stuffing with sandwich makings. I chunked them. I varied from the recipe in two ways: 1. I used all white flour because I discovered I was out of whole wheat. 2. I used whey left over from making yogurt, in place of water. I generally do this when I make bread, and it's never proved a problem before. I don't think my anemic oven will consistently hold a 475 temperature; I may have been closer to 450. And I may have fouled up in misting the pitas; I just generally misted into the oven, and I'm wondering if the places where I did get a bit of the rise are where more water/steam came in contact with the dough. Should I have misted them directly? I also had to add more flour to get the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. I was using Gold Medal, which is a fairly soft flour and generally makes a looser dough. Suggestions for a repeat? I have hummus and tomato-cucumber salad waiting....

BLT, sans the L, with tomatoes from Florida, purchased at the local produce stand. Verdict: a tad on the mealy side, but decent flavor for an early season tomato. Good enough that if I get to craving tomatoes before the local crop starts to come in, I'll buy more. Oh, and these pickles: Boar's Head sweet pickles with horseradish. Like a bread-and-butter pickle (where did that name come from, anyway?) with ground mustard instead of mustard seeds, and a sinus-clearing portion of horseradish. I'm addicted. Will be attempting to recreate when cucumbers come in season.

Or eat a lot of boiled eggs. They ARE cute. If I weren't on a mission to get rid of "stuff"....

Not quite the same thing, but I make a lot of entrees that seem to fall in the "can't make a little bit" category -- lasagna, spaghetti sauce, stew, vegetable soup, etc. -- with plans in advance to freeze portions for future meals. I found small aluminum trays with cardboard tops (convenient for writing on) that contain a perfect two servings for the two of us. I have a freezer full of such, and it's awfully convenient.

I was planning to start the chicken challenge tonight, having thawed one of my farm-raised birds and halved him and stuck him in the oven before I learned my daughter has a dinner engagement. So I'll roast it, debone it, go ahead and start the stock, and put the meat in the fridge to start the challenge tomorrow. I am all but sure I can get at least three, and possibly four, meals for two out of the bird, plus the stock. I'll keep y'all posted.

@Ann_T, will you and Moe adopt me?

A hamburger steak special at a local diner in a small town where I was working; veggies were candied yams and purple hulled peas. Noteworthy only for a big cornbread muffin which was so sweet I ate it for dessert. I read somewhere a treatise on Southern cornbread that contended that typically, African-Americans sweetened cornbread while white southerners did not. (I know we never did.) I also noted in the candied yams a prevalence of clove, which I've generally seen at soul food restaurants. When I was paying my bill, I peered into the kitchen. Sure enough, African American cook.

If they still make them, Pepperidge Farm's Brown Edge Wafers.

I love Frito pie. This makes me want to go to Sonic and get one. It really makes me want to go back to Paris, TN, ca. 1971, and have one from the K&W Drive In, but Sonic is a lot more doable.