I Got My Red Beans! Wednesday, Jun 25 2008 

My daughter has been schooled in the ways of making the red beans and rice. Hooray for family traditions! We gathered all of our ingredients and began our lesson.

Of course, there’s the actual red beans, then there’s onion, garlic, bell pepper, celery, salt and pepper, and sausage. Later there’s rice (we prefer brown). I did the major prep of the veggies and let Miss Sadie do the “chopping into little bits” part. She needs some practice with her knife skills, but she’s getting there. And before you ask, my recipe is roughly this:

1 pound red kidney beans

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium bell pepper, diced

1 or 2 tablespoons chopped garlic

a few stalks of celery

some salt

some pepper

8 or so cups or water

some spicy stuff if you feel like it

1 or 2 pounds smoked sausage

Rice (eventually)

Put everything but the sausage and rice in a pressure cooker and cook for one hour after the jiggly thing starts jiggling. Hush up Alton Brown! It can work this way and you know it! After one hour, turn off the heat and let sit for awhile. When depressurized, open the pot. Add sliced sausage and a few more cups of water. Can you tell that I don’t really measure much of anything? Let simmer for as long as it takes to reach the thickness you like. My hubby and I like the red beans to be fairly thick. Meanwhile, cook your rice.

Serve with some cornbread, or buttered bread. Yummy stuff. Eat every Monday…I command you!

Ok, that’s it. Until next time,

No Red Beans for Me Thursday, Jun 12 2008 

Kiddo #3 took his turn at the stove on Monday. At about 3 in the afternoon he asked if we could cook red beans and rice. Nope. Sorry. Too late in the day to start that. So I sent him into the pantry to dig around for something else he might like to have for dinner. I like the way he thinks! Not only did he come up with a yummy dinner, he used up the leftover grilled chicken from Friday night! Talent, pure talent.

We had Soy Ginger Noodles with Stir Fried Veggies and Grilled Chicken Breast, plus Egg Rolls.

Looks good, right? It was. Mr. 10 year-old did a beautiful job, handled everything like a pro, and could not have impressed me more. He made me promise that next week we’d tackle the red beans and rice, though. I don’t think it’ll be a problem!

Until next time,

Because it’s Monday, That’s Why! Monday, Jun 9 2008 

So the eldest child has decided that he wants to cook a meal, too. He can’t decide what he wants to cook, though. I’ve planted the bug in his ear that since tomorrow (well, later today, if you want to be technical) is Monday he should learn how to cook red beans and rice. Because it’s Monday. And that’s a Monday dish. He said he’d take it under consideration. Bah! Under consideration? WTF? Cheeky little bugger. We’ll see…

Until next time,

A Meme Sunday, Jun 8 2008 

Stolen from Stellify

The Rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

My Result:
My creation
1. Van Dyke: Allison, after Picasso, 2. A platter full of cheese!, 3. Andrew Jackson, 4. The green hair club meeting, 5. Scarlett Johansson by heryl Nields, 6. Amazing Circles: Diet Coke Cans, 7. Eilean Donan Castle Scotland HDR, 8. Pumpkin Pie, 9. accept, 10. The KNOT of a Marriage, 11. timid, 12. Rat Scarf As Bondage Aid

I like it.

Until next time,

I’m Spotting a Trend Saturday, Jun 7 2008 

What with the youngest monkey successfully pulling off a meal last night, kidlet #2 spazzed out and wanted to cook dinner tonight. OK. What did she want to cook for dinner, I asked. Grilled chicken breasts (not gonna happen), peas (do-able), and mashed potatoes (also do-able). We decided that Daddy should do the chicken grilling since he’s got way more experience with the grill than she does. She did, however, choose the seasonings that went on them. And besides, there are bugs out there. That left the peas and potatoes. She needed a little help with the manual can opener, but microwaved those peas like a champ. And let’s just say that instant potato flakes are no match for my girl. She whipped their fluffy little butts!

Proud of her meal!

Now, to get the eldest child cooking and then teach all 3 of them how to run the washer and dryer. Yee haw, this is turning out to be a pretty darn productive summer after all!

Until next time,

Proudness Thursday, Jun 5 2008 

Guess it had to happen eventually. My baby is no longer a baby. Dammit.

My youngest monkey (age 6) cooked dinner for the family tonight. Well, he baked a frozen pizza. But still, he felt very accomplished! He added all the extra turkey pepperoni to it by himself, put it into the oven (under extremely close Mom-type supervision), set the timer, checked it at the halfway point, etc. He got all the salad fixin’s out of the fridge and set up a salad bar on the kitchen counter. He even put lettuce in his salad…not just olives, croutons, and dressing. Oh, he’s growing up!

I’m sort of torn as to how I feel about all of this. Part of me is sad that my baby is getting big. Part of me is really proud of him. Part of me thinks that if I can train each child to cook just one meal I’ll be sitting fucking pretty three nights a week! Lazy, me? Nah.

Until next time,