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!

Tearing the Roof Off!

During my quiet time today, God led me to the story of the paralytic that was lowered from the roof by his friends to Jesus for healing. This guy's friends were so determined to get him to Jesus that they ripped the roof off! They were so committed that they didn't quit until the job was done.  They didn't care about what others said while they were doing it.  They didn't listen to anybody's taunts or doubts.  I'm sure they had other things to do but they were willing to put themselves last so that their friend could have a moment with the Master.  


What an example of how to put yourself "out there" so that others can see God.  It challenges me to be more determined and committed to show Jesus to others.  It also reminded me of all the people that have prayed to the Father on my behalf through the years.  Some I knew about and others I didn't.  They didn't do it to get a pat on the back. They did it out of their love for me.  


I just hope my friends realize that when I say, "I'm praying for you", it means I'm tearing off the roof to get you to the Master.

Are my ears deceiving me?!

I was sitting at Cracker Barrel enjoying my supper when I heard the first few notes of a song.  I stop eating and raise my head.  Why in the world would Cracker Barrel be playing this song?  And what artist in their right mind would put a country/blue grass twist on this song?  What song you ask? "She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals.  Who covered it with a country twist? Dolly Parton

I found both songs on YouTube so you could compare. Which do you think is better?

Fine Young Cannibals Version

Dolly Parton's Version

Another God story...

Here I am sitting at my computer needing to finish another paper but I have to stop and share how God takes care of the details.  So far I've been able to sell all my textbooks once I'm done with them.  Well all except one...Management of Information Security.  Sure sounds like an interesting read, doesn't it?  You're right...it's good for curing insomniacs.  Last night I was working on this paper and needed proper definitions for the types of backups there are.  I knew I had read about them somewhere, but where? Then I remembered that I had the powerpoint slides from my first CIS class two quarters ago.  I start searching and BINGO, I hit the jackpot.  I find the needed definitions but now I need to be able to cite them.  What book is it from? Oh yeah, the book that I haven't been able to sell.  Thank you God for looking out for me and helping me finish another one of these lovely gems.  Only two more and I'm done....FOR LIFE!

Sometimes it pays to be honest...

I knew that once I had my knee surgery that I'd need a little help getting around.  Mom wanted to do it but because of Matt's health scare last month her hands were already full.  So Mrs. Julie came to my rescue.  I wanted to do something nice for her so I went to find her some flowers.  Tate and I didn't get out til late Saturday afternoon and most florists are already closed. We stopped in at Kabloom on Youree Dr.  I went into their cooler and found the perfect arrangement.  It had Mrs. Julie's favorites, star gazer lilies.  So I hobbled to the counter and paid.  Then we dropped them off at Mrs. Julie's office. She liked them so my idea was a success.

Yesterday I was checking my credit card balance to make sure I hadn't forgotten to write any charges into my checkbook when I discovered that Kabloom had charged my credit card and then refunded my money on the same day.  At first I thought they had charged me twice and they were just fixing their mistake.  I never found a duplicate charge.  So I called Mr. Bill at Kabloom to notify him about the accounting error.    We verified all the information and he knew exactly what happened.  He appreciated my honesty and told me that it was my lucky day because he wasn't going to charge me for the flowers and asked that I use them again in the future. Sure thing, Mr. Bill!

Squirrel Hunt

Tate took me on my first squirrel hunt.  I swiped, I mean borrowed, my brother's gun and off we went.  Apparently someone had given the squirrels a memo that we were coming because we only saw two.  I got the first one and Tate got the second one.  I'm ready to go again.

The mighty hunters LOL

God is great...God is good....

Mom's new dog, Bud

Shooting them is more fun than cleaning them!