May 5- freezer cooking and food storage

Hello 

When we visited our son in January,  I looked through a few of their cookbooks.  I found a slightly different way to cook beans, especially to I

use the beans in future dishes.  I bought quite a few dry beans during the pandemic and with meat so expensive, this seems like the perfect time to eat those beans 

I don’t know what cook book published this- I just took a few phone photos of the recipes I was interested 

I did red beans, just like the recipe except no garlic and I used 2 bay leaves. 

I’ve always presoaked dry beans and I’ve never put in the salt until the beans were cooked tender.  

But this method worked great! 

I think I ended up with the equivalent of about 10 regular size cans of beans with one recipe.  

While I had the 4 quart crock pot cooking red beans, I made a big batch of pasta sauce in the bigger crock pot, 

 also to put in the freezer.  

http://ahomewithasmile.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-ive-been-up-to.html

Above is a link to my first blog where I explained my method for making what we call Roma Sauce (other people just call is spaghetti sauce 😉)

Another task on my weekly to do list was to look over our canned goods and food storage, to kind of check dates, quantities and if we short on something important.  It’s truly hard to know how much to have on hand.

I straighten everything up in the sewing room closet and the kitchen pantry.  

For 2 people living in our household,  I think we have plenty.

That shelf has canned meat and tomatoes. 

Lots of canned goods in the cubbies- each shelf will hold 32 regular 15-16 ounce cans- plenty of soup, vegetables, fruit

And probably more fabric than I will ever sew up 

Kitchen pantry - 

I don’t think you can really see everything in the photos - but after straightening everything, the only thing I put on my future grocery list is olive oil.  

I’m just showing this in case it’s helpful to anyone.  

And because it’s Cinco de Mayo, we had a sort of Mexican inspired supper.

2 grandsons are here and we ate late, after their ball practice 

Our favorite kind of nachos

Tortilla chips topped with refried beans, a jalapeño slice for people who like them and any kind of cheese

Then bake or broil until the cheese melts and the chips toast a little.  

Serve with toppings like salsa, etc if desired 

These are so yummy! 

❤️Rhonda 

May 2 - washer issue and school pick up lines 😱

Hello everyone 

The appliance repairman came yesterday and fixed the problem.

This little screen that goes somewhere was full and crusted with “sediment”

It’s a tiny little filter but it was just full of packed sand.  And that’s why the cycles weren’t working.

He put a new one on.

I’ve done laundry all day and every load washed just like it was supposed to. 

It’s funny because I had an anonymous blog comment 2 days ago and they said their repairman cleaned out a bunch of sediment in their washer too.  

My town has a big shortage of school bus drivers.  So this spring,  the school district decided to rotate areas of service.  

It’s a big problem for people without vehicles or relatives willing to help. 

But I’m happy to pickup 2 grands who are without a bus for a week or 2. 

One of their parents take them to school and I just need to pick them up.  

I knew lots of people would be picking up kids but I was surprised by this line.  

I got there 20 minutes early and the pickup line was already 3 1/2 blocks from the school!  And there are 2 pickup lines on different sides of the school depending on the students last names. 

Once school let out, actual pickup went smooth and pretty fast.  

I’ve been busy today.  My big accomplishments were deep cleaning our bathroom and bedroom.  

No photos but I was behind on cleaning and it feels so much nicer and fresher.  

❤️Rhonda