Crazy Week

Wow. Since my last post things have been kinda nutty over here. I intended to make the Taco Soup on Wednesday, but I realized later that I was short one can of pinto beans and the can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. The tomatoes with green chiles really shocked me too, because I use those all the time to make salsa. I usually have several cans on hand, but with the hubby being out of work, the pantry is not as full as usual. Since I really like green chiles, I didn't want to make the soup without them. Therefore a trip to the store was needed.

Wednesday morning was my first official shift as a server. It went pretty well. Then the manager asked me if I could cover a shift that night. Being the helpful person I am, I said yes. In retrospect I should have said no way in hell no. I had barely two hours from the time I got off until I had to be back. I was in no mood to go to the store during this precious reprieve from work, so I came home and sat down instead. Of course then I didn't want to get back up, but I did. The evening shift did not go as well as the morning. Some really big parties came in and where did they decide to seat them? In my section of course. My first real day as a server and they put a party of 10 in my section. I do not even want to attempt this and ask another server to take them. He just got sat a party of 6 and doesn't want both, so I offer to take the 6 and he agrees. Just when I'm thinking that things are under control, they seat a party of 16 people in my section. Of course I flip out and tell the manager on duty that there is NO way I am ready for that. Mercifully she gets another server to take the 16, but I have to take 2 of her tables in trade. That's cool. I can handle that. Or not. So now I have her two, plus the other guy's one, plus a couple in my own section and that's when things went downhill rapidly. I was so frazzled that I put the wrong table number down on one party's order, so of course their food got delivered to the wrong table. There went that tip. By the time it was over I was so mentally and physically exhausted I just wanted to pass out. Thursday morning I worked again. I came in and found that they had created me a special little 3 table section where no big parties could possibly be seated. Yippee!! The manager that was on Thursday morning was the same one that had been on the night before. She told me that she wanted me to succeed and wanted me to have a section I could handle. Thursday was a good day.

After work Thursday, I finally had time to go to the store and get the missing Taco Soup ingredients. By the time I got home at 4:15 after picking the kids up from school, I didn't exactly have time to start the Taco Soup and have it ready for dinner. And I had to leave at 5 to go pick up my oldest from cheer practice and then go to a PTA meeting at 6. I decided I didn't want to waste gas driving her home and then going right back to the school, so I whipped up some red beans and rice, packed some for us to eat and was out the door again.

Today I finally got everything for Taco Soup in the crock pot. Actually I got everything in but the meat. I left the browning of the meat and depositing it into the crock pot up to the hubby since I was running out of time to take the kids to school. Lately he's been taking them to school most days, but I needed to make fliers for a PTA fundraiser that is next week, so I took them. He did the meat and got it into the crock pot.

I have to say it turned out pretty good. I did add some water since some of the comments on the recipe stated that it wasn't very soup like. I didn't put a packet of ranch in there because it sounded slightly odd and to be honest, I forgot it when I was at the store. Today my mom emailed me a link to this online cookbook because of it's crock pot recipes. Taco Soup was in there too but theirs called for just one can of everything and the one packet each of taco and ranch seasoning so I wondered if it would be under seasoned. I finally decided to try some of the soup even though nobody else seemed to be hungry yet and did think that it could use a little more taco flavor. I just added some more taco seasoning, so we will see if that kicks it up a bit. I also added a drop of ranch dressing to my bowl to see what the ranch would do to the flavor after I had several bites. I was totally cool with dumping half a bowl if I didn't like it, but not so adventurous with the whole batch. I have to say, I liked the flavor that it added and I will certainly put the ranch seasoning in next time.

New Friends

Between yesterday and today I've read a whole bunch of blogs. Going to my favorite blogs and then checking out their faves or people that have commented on theirs, and then checking out their faves and comments. Does that make sense? So I've ended up on some that I'd have a hard time tracking my way back from, but I've found some real gems. Check out my blog list on the right to see the new friends. I removed a few from there too, because even though I'm still following them, they don't post that often. I didn't want the list to get too long that nobody would look at it. So check it out. I totally found a blog all about crock pot recipes. This lady is using her crock pot EVERY DAY for a year. Now you know how I LOVE my crock pot, but every day is a little too much crock potty goodness for me. But that only means that 365 crock pot recipes could last me like 3 years!!! I'm so excited. I found a recipe for Taco Soup on there that I'm totally trying tomorrow. Great thing is I have EVERYTHING already in my pantry. Including the pinto beans even though I don't recall where they came from. I'm quite sure that I didn't buy them, because I've been wondering what to do with them for awhile. Now I know. I just wish I had found it this morning because right now I need to go make something for my family to eat tonight.

Why I love my crockpot

I know this isn't surprising to you, I've talked before about how great the crockpot is, but I've just learned to make yet another thing in it!! Refried beans. A frend of mine gave me a bag of pinto beans when she moved. I guess I should clarify, she didn't just give me a bag of beans as a going away present, she gave me most everything that was in her fridge and pantry because they would be too much of a hassle to move. Included in those items was a bag of beans. So I've been looking at this bag of beans wondering what the hell to do with them. I usually buy my refried beans in a can. Finally I decided that I had these beans, I should figure out what to do with them. A short internet search later and I had a recipe for vegetarian refried beans made in the crockpot. That one little bag made as much refried beans as comes in two of the big cans, AND they were way yummy. Oh, and cheap since the bag and all the ingredients cost less than one regular sized can. Since there was very little work either, I can't even complain that my time is worth money. I don't think I'll ever buy refried beans in a can again.

Crockpot Refried Beans

Ingredients:

3 cups dry pinto beans
9 cups water
1 onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and minced (I didn't have jalapenos sitting around, so I used a teaspoon of a chipotle seasoning I have)
3 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the pre-minced garlic in a jar)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Prep:

Some of the recipes I found said to soak the beans overnight, dump the water, and cook them in fresh water, others didn't. Since I'm lazy, I opted to skip that step. Both ways the cooking time was the same, so I didn't see the point. If you feel that you have to soak them, go right ahead.

Combine all ingredients in the crockpot, cover, and cook on high for 8 to 10 hours. If your beans are old, they are going to take longer. I ended up cooking mine on high for 7 hours and then on low for another 7 overnight while I slept since they weren't done before bedtime.

When they are done you will be able to mush them easily with a fork. Drain and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher. Add in as much of the reserved liquid as necessary to achive the desired consistency.

Some recipes suggested putting small quantities in the blender and using that to mash them. Since this would have created more dishes to wash, I opted against it. The beans were soft enough that it didn't take me long with the potato masher. But if you don't have a potato masher, or have a broken arm or something that would prevent you from using one, a blender will work too.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Sort Of

So how many of you know that today is not actually St. Patrick's day, and that it was actually last Saturday? Apparently something weird happens when March 17th falls during holy week for Easter and St. Patrick's day gets bumped. I guess church and green beer don't go together. It's a shame, more people might show up. Here in the US nobody knew except me and one other guy. I wore green on Saturday, but not many other people did. You would have thought that the bars would have been all over it since Saturday is a much better drinking day than Monday, but they seem to have missed the news too. Today I wore a shamrock headband to work. I figured that since everyone was wearing their green today I might as well join the fun. It is my favorite holiday after my birthday and Christmas after all. This guy tells me, "you know today isn't really St. Patrick's day right?". I said "I know, but you and I are the only ones so I decided to join the fun." When he left he said "have a happy day". I think he was mad at me for being a sell out. Oh well.

So for those of you who were waiting for the corned beef and cabbage recipe, I'm sorry it's a little too late to cook it for tonight, and most definitely too late for last Saturday. The good news is, if you haven't bought yours yet, it should be really cheap tomorrow and it freezes well. I like to buy a few and then I can have corned beef sandwiches in July. So here is the corned beef in the crock pot recipe I promised last month.

Ingredients
3-4 potatoes
3-4 carrots
1 head of cabbage
corned beef brisket

Peel and quarter potatoes. Peel carrots and cut in half. Cut cabbage into 8 sections.
Place potatoes and carrots on the bottom of the crock pot. Place corned beef on top fat side up, along with all the juice from the package. Open seasoning packet and put that in. Add enough water to barely cover meat. Cook on low for 6-7 hours. Add the cabbage pushing it into the water around the meat. Cook for another 2-3 hours.

When ready to serve, remove the meat to a cutting board and let stand for 5 minutes. Cut into thin slices, against the grain. Serve with potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.

Crock Pot Ribs

Wow, it's Monday again already. Last week was quite eventful. I'll elaborate on that in another post, but today I was on my own again to run my whole household (including dinner). This is what I came up with. I had some pork spare ribs, but I didn't have a lot of time to mess around with them. I had to work today. So I looked on the internet to see how to cook them in my crock pot. I found several recipes, some more complicated than others. This was by far the simplest, and quite obviously the one I picked.

Ingredients

2 racks of spare ribs
1 16 oz bottle of bbq sauce

Put the ribs on a foil lined baking sheet and broil in the oven for 10 min per side. This is supposed to crisp them up some and drain some of the fat. I forgot I was broiling them until something started smelling good, so they were probably on the first side for 20 minutes, whoops. Didn't seem to hurt anything though. Cut them in half so they will fit in the crock pot. Slather bbq sauce on each section before you put it in the crock pot. Dump the rest of the bottle on the top. Cook on low for 6 hours. Broil for another 10 minutes when ready to serve if you want them a little more crispy on the outside.

Crock Pot Beef and Noodles

We have a busy household. Three girls and their activities keep us running, so I like super easy, yet yummy meals. I have a bunch that I've collected on the internet, or that have been passed down in our family. I'll share a new one every Monday.

Beef and Noodles

1 can of Campbells French Onion Soup
1 can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom with Garlic Soup
1 lb. of stew meat
Extra wide egg noodles

Put both cans of soup and the stew meat in the crock pot. Don't add water to the soup mix. I usually cut the meat into smaller chunks so it's more bite sized when I serve it, but you don't have to. Leave it in the crock pot on low if you are starting it in the morning or high if you only have 4-5 hours. When you are ready to eat, boil your noodles, and serve the beef and sauce on top. If you like it creamier, you can add some sour cream right before serving, but because my oldest is a picky eater and won't eat anything called "sour" the rest of us just put a spoonful on top.