Afterthought

Did you know that if you're lucky enough to have a pressure cooker, you can cook dried beans, not pre-soaked mind you, in 17 minutes?! I did not believe the booklet that came with my pressure cooker.

I have a fear of the pressure cooker. Everyone's mom has some story about one blowing up and I've believed those stories. My grandma Peg had a real loud one that rattled as it cooked. They're scary vessels, but I must start using this resource for all it's worth. I bought it back when I was knee-deep in my obsession with macrobiotics and have used it to cook brown rice exactly twice before last night. I'm so ashamed.

Well, it's gonna pay for itself now. No more canned beans in this house.

Also, this last week, I procured some Gimme Lean sausage and made some quick spaghetti with it. I sauteed some onion, green pepper, and garlic, then I added in the soysage (I've often made spaghetti using Jimmy Dean sage sausage), let it cook for a few minutes, added some spices (chili powder, oregano, dried basil, s & p), then poured in a jar of my new favorite canned sauce. I stirred in some cooked whole wheat angel hair pasta (Barilla, I think). At the very end, I added some part-skim mozz (hey, we make an effort to be healthy every once in a while). I would have baked it if I felt like I could wait a little, but...

It was pretty good. The Gimme Lean is really nice in flavor, but unfortunately it doesn't break up well (I tried really hard), so there were big clumps which was kinda off-putting. Overall, it was pretty good.