Got Beans?

As mentioned before, my goal this year is to cook a dish I've never done every other week.  My first choice was to make red beans and rice from scratch.  In college, Tate and I ate many a box of Tony Chachere's red beans.  SURELY, I can do this.  I wanted to have enough for us and my dad.  We went to the store to get the ingredients.  We found the beans and I asked, "Do you think 1 lb will be enough for all of us?" Tate didn't know so he threw a 2 lb bag of beans in. (This is where everyone's eyes that I've told this story to get huge as moon pies.) I rinse them that night. They only covered the bottom of my stock pot. Next morning I remove the lid and they have filled half of the stock pot up.  I'm thinking, "When I see Tate, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died of natural causes."  When Tate came over I showed him the pot full of beans. He says to me, "We're gonna need some more meat." "Ya think?  WHATEVAH would cause you to think that?" (said in my best southern belle drawl)

Tate had emailed me 5 or 6 recipes from his mom's collection.  Tate forgot to bring over the hard copy he had printed out.  I went to print them out and found out that I ran out of ink.  So there I was running back and forth from the kitchen to my computer trying to make sure I was doing everything right. (Yes, I realize that I could have made it easier on myself and written it down but that would have made sense. Plus I thought that Tate was going to be right back with a copy of the recipes.)  Instead of making just one batch of red beans, I had the privilege of making two.  I had to stop in the middle of cooking them to go out to celebrate Tate's birthday.  When I got back, I let them cook for another hour and a half.  When I tasted them, they were bland, which made me really mad.

At church the next day, I am picking all the ladies' brains on how I can fix these beans.  I tell them my goal and what I did.  God bless each one of them because none of them laughed at me.  Now their eyes got huge and they nodded their heads as I told them what I did but they never laughed.  They even tried to encourage me by saying things like "you live and learn", "honey, don't worry about it because you can freeze it", and "well, at least you tried."  I went home, doused each pot with lots of black pepper and Emeril essence and let it cook for another 20 minutes.  I tasted each pot because Grandma Smith told me that a good cook has to taste their food while its cooking to know what it needs.  (I don't remember her cussin' while doing it though.)  FINALLY I have red beans with some taste.  I smash some beans to thicken it up and let it cook some more.  After 2 days worth of fretting over these beans, they are done.  Funny thing is...after smelling them for 2 days...I have no desire to eat them.  So into freezer boxes they go.

Moral of the story boys and girls...

Only use 1 lb of beans OR just use a box of Tony Chachere's stuff because

Two pounds of these plus all the fixins'.....

Equals two of these, full to the brim...

Which equates to all of this...

Now that may not look like a lot but it's way more than I wanted.  The good news is that I can check this dish of my "never cooked before" list.  Plus, if I eat them now, I won't be so cold.  I would like to take this opportunity to let all the chefs on the Food Network know that their jobs are still safe because I do not see a cooking show in my future any time soon...EVER!

Til the next episode of "Misadventures in the Kitchen with HAT"...

Take care and God Bless!

Recipe Challenge 2011

Can't believe it's the new year already! Where did 2010 go? Not that I want it to return or anything.  I have a new goal for this year.

I want to try a new recipe every other week.  So if you have any recipes that your family absolutely loves and you don't mind sharing, please send them to me.  If it comes out good, I did it. If it comes out bad, then Tate or Josh did it. LOL!

Happy New Year!