This week's Cooking Highlights

Well, this week was pretty successful!

As I wrote last week, my charro beans were much more successful than previous attempts. I googled "how to make charro beans" and came up with this article. It called for 8 pieces of bacon, I used 6 and still thought that was too much and so did Richard. Next time, I think I'll try just using olive oil to cook the onions, cilantro, and garlic. Also, it took longer than it said. I soaked the beans for more than 12 hours overnight, but instead of only having to cook for 1 1/2 hrs on low, I had to turn up the heat to get the beans to finish. Richard chided me, telling me "you have to cook beans all day!" I was just going with the instructions. After eating the beans a couple times for leftovers his comments actually got more complimentary and he requested than I keep the beans on hand at all times.

Sunday night I made Thai Curry Shrimp with Basil Lime Couscous from a Rachael Ray recipe that I found. Thankfully, it was just as yummy as the first time I made it! In case you can't make out the ingredients, there are shitake mushrooms and roasted red peppers in there with the shrimp. Light coconut milk makes it creamy and the curry gives it a little heat (depending on how hot you get the curry paste). Its a little annoying to get the ingredients, but it was worth it. I didn't bother with the peanuts garnish (just one more thing to buy and I'm not crazy about peanuts). The leftovers were super delicious!



Monday I used the crock pot to make the pork carnitas. I got home around 5 and Richard and I were able to go for a run, come back and shred up the meat and eat! We did stop by HEB to pick up some more Roma tomatoes and avocado to dress up the tacos, which I hadn't planned for (oops). I put a little sour cream and mozzarella cheese on mine, Richard added onions. The leftover beans were a great side. Oh, and I insisted on getting a vegetable to go with our meal, but I was the only one who ended up eating the asparagus. Luckily, we were able to eat the leftover veggies with our Santa Fe Chicken on Wednesday.

The Santa Fe Chicken a la Amanda was Wednesday night, and also muy bien! I forgot to take a picture, but it shredded up beautifully and was great with some rice. I think I would add more tomatoes (or an extra can of Rotel) next time and the cayenne pepper that I left out because I didn't have any (oops!) It also didn't take the 10 hours that it said it would.

Thursday night I was planning to eat leftovers because Richard doesn't get home until later, but he called me when I was on my way home from running to say he was on his way. So I decided to go ahead and make the TexMex Calzones also from Amanda. For the black bean salad, I usually add some thawed frozen corn (I don't really like canned) and didn't use celery because I didn't have it. This was another winner, and Richard asked if I could also keep these on hand to take for lunch.

Now to plan for this coming week!
Love, B