I saw a co-worker eating some “Fruit Naturals” grapefruit. I hate that brand. It is false advertising in a name! Unless, of course, people think that added sugar to their fruit is “natural”.
Beans and legumes are awesome food. I just wish I knew how to cook with them so I’d eat them more. Mostly, I just stare at the packages of dried little beans and say, "Hmmm."
The Post Office just came out with a new, small flat rate box on Jan. 18th. I’m very happy about this! However, I’m not happy that none of the Post Offices around here have any (“Sorry—we haven’t received our shipments of them yet.”). I even ordered some online on the 18th, and they haven’t shipped yet. Yet another shining example of our government dollars at work.
A couple years back at work, a consultant was brought in to our company to look at the viability of outsourcing the IT work. It made a lot of us paranoid. When they left, our company decided outsourcing wasn’t the thing for us. About a year ago, all our printer support was outsourced to a local company. And last week, they announced the recommendation to outsource our 1st level tech support (phone people) to another company. We’re all taking bets on how long we have before we’re outsourced. **sigh**
I think that most adults don’t feel like adults inside. We’re all just children, pretending to be grown-ups.
Washington ruled in my favor. Now it’s Utah’s turn to clarify the support order and fix the mess later next month. Right now, I am grateful for the accomplishment of Step 1 in this long process.
I’m in the process of starting up a new blog that will follow my attempt at losing my ‘muffin top’. More details to follow…
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13 comments:
That's why we were so excited to have kids. We can play with kid toys without looking weird now!
It's a great feeling of accomplishment once you've made your first batch of real Boston baked beans. Also, they taste way better than the canned variety.
I have the same relationship with beans. sometimes they "Hmmmm" back at me.
Then I have another glass of wine.
I need some work. Outsource to me. But none of that phone support crap - you can keep it.
Hooray for you! That's great!!!
Crock pots are the greatest things for cooking beans, slow-cooking 'em with a bit of chili powder, can of Rotel, some bacon or ham hock, and some jalapenos. When you get home, add salt to match your taste, and serve it up with some cornbread!
YUM!!!
I've told my kids many times that I don't feel like an adult. I'm still the same inside as I was when I was a kid. I just know a few more things.
I've never heard of beans and legumes but I am just a kid at heart and kids don't eat stuff that sounds weird.
You're right, I wonder at what age we'll feel like grown ups?
Sorry to hear about the potential outsourcing. Ick.
That's not true. I'm a grown up. So there, suck it. Nah-nah-nah-nah-boo-boo.
I know my 'inside' stopped at sixteen.
Good luck on the 'muffin top' loss. I'm working on that myself and post progress on Mondays.
We buy frozen, unshelled edamame (raw soy beans) from the natural foods aisle at the grocery store (Cub and rainbow, here). Those (and frozen peas are easy to throw in with whatever you're making. Oh-I used canned beans a lot, too. Who has time for 50, 000 hours of soaking and cooking? Srsly. Sounds like people are thwarting you-I hope they knock it off and fall into line for you! :)
I like that idea, random thoughts; might give it a go myself. Love veggies, the slow cooked ones are delish, with bacon onions, tin of tomatoes, tomatoe puree worcestor sauce, mustard, seasoning and a dollop of maple syrup then cooked on low in the oven forever till a bit sticky.
You really need to get over your fear of beans, my dear. It seems that a lot of people find beans problematic because they are trying to cook ANCIENT ones--an effort doomed to frustration and even failure.
You live in a region that produces beans; find some fresh ones and dive in. If you want inspiration on varieties, go here: www.ranchogordo.com and meet more beans than you ever knew existed. :-)
As for cooking, I've found that--if your beans aren't geriatric--no soaking is necessary. Just toss some minced onion and garlic...maybe a little chili pepper or diced carrot, depending...into a crock pot. Cover with about two or three inches of water (above the bean level, that is!), turn it on low, and WALK AWAY for about six (or even eight) hours.
Add salt. Voila: beans!
If you're home, you can speed up the process by running things on high for a couple of hours, first.
My mother used to make pinto beans fairly regularly, and they were delicious. But I always ended up with tasteless little bean rocks, when I tried to make some, myself. Now that I've found a source for fresh beans--and beans with an amazing array of flavors!--we eat Just Beans about once a week. They're so delicious cooked this way that we don't even need to supplement most varieties with meat of any kind.
Have fun!
Oh, I forgot to add: as for grains, we've found that the purchase of a "fuzzy logic" rice cooker (an appliance that even I--Ms. Never Met a Kitchen Gadget She Didn't Love--previously thought foolish and unnecessary)makes eating more grains really, really easy.
My rice cooker can be pre-programed with a timer, so you can set it to have things cooked when you get home from work. You can make brown rice, white rice, kashi, groats, quinoa, millet, steel cut oats, you name it, in a good model. There's an excellent book to give you inspiration, that I highly recommend, called The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook : 250 No-Fail Recipes for Pilafs, Risottos, Polenta, Chilis, Soups, Porridges, Puddings and More, from Start to Finish in Your Rice Cooker by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.
Oh, and the cooker will switch to "keep warm" for up to 24 hours, as well. That is, if you get a Zojirushi, like mine. :-)
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