I remember going to Grammy's home as a little girl. She made some great meals. One meal, however, of which I was not such a fan, was 16 bean soup. Not exactly my cup of tea.
Some 15 years later, however, I hit the bean section of the supermarket to buy the ingredients for some bean soup of my own. (And to think I never believed my mom when she claimed that my taste buds would change and grow as I did!)
I bought 4 types of beans, shown below, and set them in water to soak overnight. The next morning, I rinsed the beans and used them to fill the majority of our crock pot. I didn't measure, but there were probably 6-8 cups of beans once they'd soaked.
Ingredients:
beans (6-8 cups of your desired variety)
6-10 slices ham, chopped
1-2 cups chopped veggies
water
1/2 t. salt
1/2 T. garlic powder
1/2 T. chili powder
3 Tablespoons chicken flavoring granules
I took this opportunity to clear out the random odds and ends of veggies I had in the refrigerator, which consisted of half a large carrot, 4 stalks of celery, and a potato. Chop, chop, chop, into the crock pot you go.
I stirred it up, added 6 slices of chopped ham lunch meat, 3 1/2 cups water, 3 Tablespoons chicken flavoring granules, 1/2 Tablespoon garlic powder, and 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder. Later I added 1/2 teaspoon salt and some more water to make up for what steamed off during cooking. I cooked it for about 6 hours. (Cooking on low would be ideal. I was concerned about the beans getting soft enough, so I cooked them on high at first, but then had to reduce the heat and finally turn the crock pot off altogether to prevent mushiness.)
A while back, I made some pumpkin butter. One downfall there was that I didn't yet have a blender, so it didn't have quite the smooth texture I'd imagined, and I tend to be a little overly-sensitive to texture. Another downfall is that pumpkin is not naturally sweet, so a fair amount of added sugar is required, rather than the sweet, natural goodness of this batch of apple butter I whipped up.
During my first year of teaching, a year so close to my heart, I remember the teachers at Wilmore Elementary talking about their crock pots. Conversation clips went something like this:
"Crock pot. The best wedding gift I received."
"I found this great new crock pot recipe..."
"Oh! I put all the meat and vegetables in the crock pot and I forgot to turn it on... I need to go call my husband and see if he can do it."
"Crock pot Wednesdays, they're the way to go. We just get home from work, grab our dinner, and run out the door again."
Sure enough, the crock pot is great. I just filled my crock pot with apple slices. This took 11 apples for me. (I have no idea what kind of apples, just whatever was in the market.)
Then I added about 1 3/4 cups of 100% apple juice. I covered it and cooked it on high for 5 hours, then turned it onto low and cooked it overnight. In the morning, I removed the lid and cooked it about 6 more hours on high until enough of the liquid had evaporated. Here is a picture of what it looked like in the morning, and another of what it looked like in the blender once "enough of the liquid had evaporated."
I waited until it was cool before putting it into my blender to smooth it out. It's amazing how much this batch reduced from the original, heaping-full pot of apples! Anyway, I added about 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon to the mixture and blended it together for just a few seconds. And that was that.
Naturally, the taste of the finished product will vary greatly depending on the variety of apples used. Our apple butter ended up being just a bit tart, but very tasty, especially with the addition of the cinnamon.
The sandwich. Ingenious.
In a world devoid of cold cuts, thank goodness for the good old crock pot. Pulled pork BBQ sandwiches coming right up!
Ingredients:
5 small tomatoes, chopped
1/2 T. oil
1/2 large chopped onion
1/2 c. tomato paste
3/4 c. water
1/3 c. apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
3 1/2 t. barbecue sauce (You could use a little less of a stronger barbecue sauce or a dot of Liquid Smoke. We use a really watered down product here labeled as BBQ sauce.)
2 lb. shredded pork, cooked (We've done this with chicken too and it's amazing!)
3T. cornstarch to thicken
Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook 6-8 hours on low. Remove top last half hour to thicken as needed.
Peaches. Chop 'em. Throw them in the crock pot. Add 1/4 cup water. Cook for 4-5 hours on high, covered. Remove lid to let excess liquid evaporate... Fast, easy, incredibly delicious!
The man wanted soup… well, he actually just commented that he loves a good thick soup, and I, not knowing what else in the local supermarket would thicken a soup, whipped out the cornstarch and a whole bunch of veggies and got cooking. This was easy and actually turned out quite well… Compliments to the chef, I suppose.
½ c. cornstarch combined with some water
3 c. chicken broth
2 T. Italian seasoning
1 t. salt
½ t. black pepper
vegetables:
7 small tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, diced (Now’s a good time to mention I don’t know the difference between chopped and diced…)
2 carrots, diced
1 ear of corn, de-kerneled
several long green bean strands, chopped
Combine all ingredients in the crock pot. I cooked it on low for 3 hours, covered, then on high for one, uncovered to allow it to thicken a bit more. The man was happy.
We ate this with some cornbread for a great little lunch.
An original recipe.
Perhaps the unintentional theme of this blog is "my amazing husband." I feel like it just oozes from me, every day, a comment here, a story of his amazing servant heart there. So, dear friends, this post is about the time, way back two days ago, when he said, "Hey, precious Bethany, you just rest; I'll make dinner."
"Really?"
Really Chili.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
6 small tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 cup red beans
1 cup pumpkin, diced
1/4 cup chili powder
salt to taste (1-1.5 teaspoons)
black pepper to taste
Mix together in a slow cooker. Cook for several hours on low. Yum!
An Original Recipe
