Priorities

How do those Lolcat folks know when I need an illustrative photo for the blog? And how do they always manage to come up with just the right one? This little furkid arrived in my daily Lolcat newsletter this morning and just cracked me up. Almost wiped out my tiny mad entirely.

What? Well, yeah, I'm a teensy bit miffed at myself for not posting last night. I was trying so hard not to leave gaps after my long hiatus and what do I do? I fall asleep at an unusually decent hour and miss the boat altogether. Sheesh. Adding insult to injury, after midnight came and went, I kept waking up off and on for the rest of the night.

Not that there was all that much to report yesterday. I managed to share some of the puff pastries with daughter Patti and SIL Roger Sunday, thereby saving myself from about a kajillion feral calories. Then I had the very last one for breakfast Monday morning. Since I used the last of my butter on that batch, I can't make any more until I go grocery shopping again. I'll be sure to concentrate on eating really healthy between now and then so I can indulge without guilt.

Toward that end, putting my pressure cooker back into service has made it easier to put more beans into my diet. I really do like all kinds of beans but all too often give a pass to the recipe in question because I haven't got time or inclination for the soak cycle -- not even the quick soak. And I refuse to buy canned beans, with all the sodium and mystery chemicals. Besides which, they're just that much more weight to pack up the wooden mountain and then I have to rinse and flatten the cans for the garbage and haul them back downstairs again. Pffftt!

What I do now, is, I toss a pound of beans in a bowl of water and let 'em soak for 4 hours. Then I rinse 'em off and do them in the pressure cooker for however many minutes are required for that type of bean. Once they're cooled, I spoon them into pint-sized Ziploc freezer bags and toss them in the freezer. Each bag holds 2 cups, which is just over what a can holds. Any time I need beans for a recipe, shazaam! There's a bag waiting in the freezer. What's more, the bags can be rinsed out and used again. Even though they're plastic, I'm still using them "green" so I get to feel virtuous.

Oh, yeah . . . it's a lot cheaper this way, too. So I can buy more butter to make more puff pastry. Heh. Priorities. We haz 'em.