In the Kitchen

Its pretty sad when your toddler knows the first place to look for you is IN THE KITCHEN.  No not because I am always eating but because I AM always cooking or doing something in there.  This page is 100% dedicated to the daily things I do IN THE KITCHEN.


9/5/17:  GOOD MORNING EARLY BIRDS!  I love mornings! Don't ask me why but I really do.  I guess its the crisp air that comes with the dew mixed in with the smell of yummy coffee and breakfast. Oh and the view off my back porch is AMAZING! But anyway on to what I wanted to blog about this morning.  We just had a long weekend due to Labor Day and what do you do when you have long weekends?  You smoke meat and hang out with your family, or at least that's what we do most of the time...   So this weekend Kev and my brother Jeremy (shout out) smoked briskets and I made sides to go along with all that beef.  We have had a few cookouts this year so I was tired of just having bbq beans or plain beans to go along with the food so I consulted with Pinterest and found a recipe for COWBOY BEANS and thought well WTF are those.   After reading a few recipes mostly calling for store bought can beans(how lazy) I came across one that sounded very yummy and easy to make and it used dried beans VS those mushy ass store beans. So I hatched my plan or my recipe I guess you could say and I did it my version of lazy way.  Here's what I did:

Ingerdients:

1 lb Ground beef (maybe turkey if that's your thing)
Bacon about 1/4 a lb (leftover bacon can be and turkey bacon used as well)
Roughly between 1 and 2 cups of dried beans your choice
1 sm/med onion
2 garlic cloves
4 tbsp. dark molasses
1 tsp chili powder (more if you like)
1 tsp dry mustard
A big shake of GOP(garlic p onion p and pepper all mixed up. we do a cup of each in a jar and shake)
2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar(could substitute for any vinegar you want).

Grab your beans: I did a mix 1/2 cup each of pinto, black, and navy beans. Any mixed beans would work.  I would have loved to throw in more but since I was feeding others that don't like certain beans(you know who you are) I stuck with those. I also threw in 1/4 cup of green lentils and what I had left of red kidney beans... there wasn't that many maybe 15 beans total.  Sort and rinse those puppies off, pick out any pebbles or broken beans and put them a pot and soak them for 4-8 hours.   After soaking period has ended drain that water and refill the pot to cover the beans about 1-2 inches and cook on high for 30 minutes.  After the high cooking time turn down to simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes.  you can forget about the beans for the most part just check the water occasionally to make sure its not evaporating and maybe give them a stir here and there.

Now get out your handy crockpot and preheat that fella(yours may not be a fella but mine is).  If you want to cook your bacon BEFORE you put it in with your beef now would be the time to do that while the crockpot warms up.  You can put your beef in the crockpot frozen if you need to but I would suggest thawing it out first for faster cook time.  So now would be the time to do that as well.  When everything is heated up and thawed out throw in that crock pot your beef, bacon (you CAN throw the bacon in the crock pot RAW with the beef.  It will cook up and give your beef some amazing flavor), chop up your onion and throw that in there, and give a good shake of the GOP.  Now cook on high until your beans are done.

Once the beans and the beef have cooked  preheat your oven to 350, drain your beef mix, and put in a casserole dish(a casserole crock would work too if you have that kinda time), and add in your vinegar, molasses, dry mustard, chili powder.  Drain your beans and add them to the mix.  Give it all a good stir.  Cook in your oven for 1 hour (or your casserole crock for 2 hours on high OR you could have your hubby throw it on the smoker like I did.)  If the mix isn't saucy enough for ya you can throw in some of your favorite bbq sauce. 

Bazinga! These beans are SOOOOOOOO good.  They pair great with smoked meats or could be eaten on their own.  I added them to my November menu as an entrée with cornbread and some green veggie that I haven't decided on yet. 

Unfortunately my new phone takes terrible pictures so I wasn't able to get any.  I will be resolving this issue soon.
Want to speed things up with this recipe.  Pressure cook your beans and cook your meat mixture on the stove in a nice sized skillet.  Then throw in the oven and bake.

Get the products I mentioned below:

Mixed Beans

3 qt crockpot


Casserole Crocks are the bomb

Presto Pressure Cooker