Oh Midwestern Winter

Oh Midwestern winter, you do nothing for my photo skillz.

Here we have Smokin' Red Beans and Rice from the pressure cooker. It was a good dish, altho' the beans were a tad underdone. It seems like every time I make something in the pressure cooker, one aspect of the dish is off. If it's not the beans, it's the rice, if the rice is done, then the beans are a little, shall we say, al dente. Although I did have fun the other day putting in 8 C of chopped winter root veggies and pressure cooking them and when I opened the lid, ta dah! they were, like, 1/4 of their former mass.

here's the Smokin' Red Beans and Rice recipe...

3/4 C red beans, soaked overnight
3 T veg oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 large red pepper, diced (I just used some frozen roasted red pepper I had in the freezer 'cause I'm thrifty like that)
1 C Minute Rice
1 can diced tomatoes
1 3/4 C veg broth
1 t thyme
1 t adobo in sauce

Saute garlic, add everything else. Bring that sucker up to pressure, then keep it at pressure for 10m (next time I'll try 15m see; underdone beans). Allow pressure to drop naturally. Add salt and tabasco sauce as needed.

I will really try this one again, because it's! all! in! one! pot! so, it's almost like a casserole, and you know how much I like my casseroles, or as they say here in Minnesota, hotdish.

On the reading front, well, to my shame I am still working through Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. I cannot believe I have been reduced to reading such dreck. It is, however, great for just reading a few pages right before bed and not getting hugely engrossed in. Man, I should be reading Murakami or something. Geez.