[51] Beer-Glazed Black Beans with Bacon (and Tomatoes!)

How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Oh man, oh man! I’m so far behind on getting recipes up, and I’m not quite sure how that happened. Still, it’s an exciting time for me. We knocked out seven recipes last week (including this one and the previous post), and are on target to knock out another seven or eight this week. And that’s including having punked out and had pizza last night, our attending a game night Thursday, and our being off to a birthday celebration Saturday.

Woo! Of course, that means I better get a crackin’ on posting these old recipes, eh? Well, here’s the starter.

My hint for this recipe is to _be careful with your chili/chile powder._

h2. Ingredients

4 – 8 oz bacon, cut into cubes or small pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic (I just used about 3 big cloves.)… Continue reading →

[50] Cooked Beans, the Quick Soak Way

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Hooray! We’ve managed 50 recipes so far. I know we really could have been chugging along at a better pace, given when we started, but I’m still pretty pleased with 50 recipes. If nothing else, it means we’re still both dedicated to making this work.

Plus, it’s been a lot of fun.

So last night was one of those wonderful nights where we managed several recipes at once. In that case, it was three. It was looking like it’d just be two, but I realized I had never made dried beans before, and wanted to give it a go. Plus, this way, once the power goes out for three days this upcoming winter, we can eat the canned beans we have. It’s like we’re survivalists! We have canned food and a manual can opener.… Continue reading →

New Mexico

We’re in New Mexico again, visiting for my mother’s birthday (which has passed, but this was the weekend she wanted to celebrate).

As you can imagine, I’m not doing a lot of cooking right now. I have, however, decided that I’d like to get a jump start on menu planning for next week. This is somewhat augmented by the fact that I’d planned three meals for while Bill’s mother was in town, and then we did not eat at home. (Thankfully, I had not bought the ingredients for anything yet, so no money or food was wasted on those plans.)

Unfortunately, this planning is also hampered by not having my cookbooks with me, and not knowing what’s coming in our CSA. I have gotten a “sneak peek”, but planning around previous sneak peeks went poorly for us when we didn’t get any beets (among other planned for things).… Continue reading →

Quickie post

The worst part about teaching a pregnant woman who doesn’t speak English very well how to bake cookies is that you can’t chow down on cookie dough in front of her.

The best part, though, is much better. And that’s baking cookies with a new friend, and getting to chow down on them together, and watching her learn after she just put you through your paces on the piano. At least, that’s my best part.… Continue reading →

My feet are going to fall off.

Bill’s mother arrived Wednesday night, and we’ve been basically running around non-stop since she arrived. I’m not entirely convinced I won’t be walking on stubs by the time she leaves tomorrow afternoon.

Basically, we haven’t been home from about 9:00 am everyday until about 11:00 pm every night. In the interium, we’ve done a lot of cool stuff. Wednesday we took her to “Xoco,”:http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/xoco.html which everyone knows is Bill’s favorite. She said it was the best sandwich she’d ever eaten, so well done there, Mr. Bayless & Company.

Thursday I had a piano lesson, and then joined them for wandering Mag Mile. After lunch (Elephant and Castle on Lake & Wabash), we went to the Art Institute and nearly closed the place down. Then we ate at Uno, and wandered Mag Mile some more.… Continue reading →