I made a delicious batch of soup from leftover ham during my January “eat your pantry down” semi-experiment. It was a happy experiment; perfect for leftovers from the holiday or a cheap supermarket deal on a ham.
Clean Your Pantry Ham Bean Soup Let this be a forgiving recipe.
The goal is to use up ham and make cheap, tasty food.
Sauté In Pot (about 5 min.):
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 T. oil or butter
Add 1 T. (or more) of chopped garlic and sauté for about a minute.
Add: 32 oz. chicken stock
2 cans chopped tomatoes (undrained)
2 cans of chick peas (drained)
3 cans other beans (black, kidney, white… drained)
1/3 cup salsa verde (or other salsa, chopped jalapeños, etc. or omit)
1 can corn (I used frozen)
1 T. cumin
For those of you that don’t want to wait, here’s a no knead bread that takes about 90 minutes from bowl to bake. I’m usually busy doing other stuff and just let it sit longer than an hour, but if you’re in a pinch, you can rush it along.
(Recipe Below)
Same Day No Knead Bread
INGREDIENTS
6 c. flour 1 T. salt 1 T. yeast 1/2 tsp. sugar 3 c. warm water (about 130 degrees)
Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Add water. Mix, scraping down the sides; cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a non-drafty place for an hour (or 6+ hours if you’re doing other things).
Place dutch oven in your oven and preheat to 450.
While it’s pre-heating, stir your dough again, scraping down the sides, then transfer to a piece of parchment, then put parchment and dough back in your bowl (this helps for easy transfer in a minute). Cover it with a towel while you wait for oven to pre-heat OR about 20 minutes.
Once oven is at temp, dust the top of the dough and make a few cuts in it (or not), and then transfer dough to HOT pot. Cover an bake @ 450 for 30 min. with lid on, then remove lid and bake 10 more minutes to brown (I move to a baking sheet for all-over “brownness” – but you can leave in the DO if you’d like.
SCRUMPTIOUS SAUCE FOR RAMEN 1 T Sesame Sauce 1/2 T Red Pepper (or more to taste) 1 T Minced Garlic (or more to taste) (Heat in pan until fragrant) ADD 1/4 Soy Sauce 1 T Brown Sugar 1 T Sriracha (more or less to taste) Cook & drain ramen – add to sauce. Mangia!
**You can add lime, sesame seeds, cheese, etc. This is a yummy base to start
I love corn on the cob. Done right it is a delight. Grilling out in summer time is accentuated by a bowl of steaming hot, golden yellow corn. I find it a bit of a pain to make, however. In the past, I’ve either soaked it while in the husk and put it on the grill (tasty) or boiled it in a bowl of water. The latter is my least favorite way to prepare it, adding humidity and heat to a house that’s already struggling to keep cool.
Enter the Instant Pot. I ordered mine during some internet sale event (Black Friday/Cyber Monday-ish?), after hearing that it was the next best thing since bread was sliced. I love my crockpots, and wasn’t thinking I’d be getting rid of them, or replacing them. Instead I thought this might be another helpful appliance to add to my arsenal.
Without writing an essay on it, I’ll just say it’s like a crockpot microwave. At least that’s what I use it for — its ability to speed things up when time is of the essence. But this isn’t about the Instant Pot, it’s about making some delicious corn quickly.
Here’s how it goes:
INSTANT POT BEER CAN CORN ON THE COB
Ingredients:
12 Cobs of corn (this will depend on what size pot you have, I have 8 qt.)
1 Can of beer
2 tsp. Seasoning (you can use seasoning salt, Old Bay, Tony Chachere’s, seasoning salt…)
1 Stick of butter
Method:
Shuck corn and break cobs in half; stack on top of the trivet in your IP. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. of seasoning and pour 1 can of beer over (you can sub with stock or water if you don’t want beer). Set your IP on high pressure for 5 minutes. Use quick release at the end.
When it starts to cook (you have 5 minutes, if you’re paying attention), melt the stick of butter in a pot and add the other teaspoon of seasoning. Once the lid is ready for removal on the IP, pour the butter over top of the cobs.
Play around with the seasonings to your liking.
Happy eating!
IF YOU WANT TO ADD SHRIMP… Do everything the same, but set the IP for 4 minutes, QR, open and add uncooked frozen shrimp, set IP for 1 minute, QR.
PS: Again… did anyone else think Instant Pots were called Insta-Pots?
I got an 8 qt Instant Pot right after Thanksgiving on a cyber Monday sale. I chose the largest one because I’m generally cooking for a crowd, or at least trying to have some leftovers. I realized they were an exciting new kitchen appliance, but I did not know they were like the new breadmaker. The closer it got the Christmas, the more I heard people talk about how there was a shortage, and where could they find one? Meanwhile, mine was sitting happily in its box.
Without dragging you through paragraphs of pictures and text you don’t want to read, I’ll just say that it’s a decent appliance, but I’m not getting rid of my crockpots. If you go into the purchase with the idea in mind that you will be able to make things a bit faster, but not perform miracles, you’ll be OK. But if you think this thing turns water into wine, you’re overestimating the power of an Instant Pot. Also, did anyone else think it was Instapot?
So I’ve used this bad boy a few times now. My first victim was chili, and I will say that was ho hum. Nothing spectacular. Pork butt. OK, faster than usual. Nice. Chicken wings… again, faster, but had to broil them after so I wouldn’t gag on slippery wings. I made macaroni and cheese, and that was a success. Instead of boiling, draining, adding, throwing in a crockpot, I could do it all (and faster) in the Instant Pot.
After a couple tries, I settled on a recipe that I like pretty well. I shared it in a Facebook group, and will share it here. It’s your basic pressure cooker M&C recipe, just tailored to how I like it. I’m not too big on measuring, but I think this is pretty close. Try it and tweak it. I think you’ll be happy with it. If you’re making a smaller batch, you’ll have to do the math.
Creamy Dreamy Pressure Cooker Macaroni And Cheese For A Crowd
Mix in pot:
3# macaroni
1 stick butter (cut into chunks/tablespoons – doesn’t need to be melted or anything – frozen is even fine)
15 shakes Tabasco (or whatever hot sauce, depending on your desired flavor, I went heavy)
1 T. ground mustard
2-3 T salt (depending on your desire for saltiness, I added more at the end)
1 T. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
pepper
12 c. H20
Pressure cook on HIGH for 4 minutes, use quick release. No need to drain, the pasta absorbs it all. At this point I gave it a little stir. Then…
ADD:
2 cups heavy cream & 2 cups milk (or 4 cups half and half… possibly more, depending on consistency)
2 pounds freshly shredded sharp cheddar
1 pound freshly shredded Muenster (or other soft cheese)
~ 1 pound freshly shredded parmesan
(Mix cheeses in slooooowly. I kept mine on sauté and dug deep to make sure that cheese was getting melted in real nice.)
I’ve seen these one page calendars, and they intrigue me. I could find examples for 2017, but not many for 2018, and I wanted one for my planner. I might end up doodling up one for fun, but for now I made a printable one that I can copy off of (or print and paste in my journal, if I want).
This version of a yearly calendar I find visually appealing, seeing how the days make patterns. Feel free to print one out, if you’d like. You can print the image, or click on it to go to the PDF version of the 2018 one page calendar.
