Day 11: There is a first time for everything, even black beans.

     Since I saw these beans sitting on the mark-down cart at Cash and Carry, I knew I had to try black beans.

     At the store I asked why they were on sale, and apparently someone had mistakenly special-ordered them for a customer who had actally wanted some other type of bean.  Not regularly in the store inventory, the black beans were placed with the markdowns, and I got them for 10 bucks.  I figured for 40 cents a pound, I can try something new, even if  it is dubious looking. 

    

     Do you have a good way of preparing black beans?  A recipe you like?  I'd love to try your way of eating these unusual beans.  Just leave me a comment at the end of the post.  It's easy to do, you don't have to register or anything, just use the "anonymous" box, and write me a note, then click send.  I have a chance to check my comments and put them up onto the blog after I read them.

    I arrived home tonight to find Noah reading on my bed dressed like this.  I guess he got into the fiesta of black beans himself!  He wants to hear your bean cooking ideas, too.

     Emily and Noah helped make some bread dough this morning.  We enriched the bread this time, by adding some milk, sugar and oil to the recipe.  I'll have this recipe on my separate recipe page, so take a look. 

     Bread is easy to make---even if I'm in a hurry and don't make my best bread ever, my family is still appreciative.  Walking into a home after school or work with the aroma of fresh bread has a promise of good things to come!  What it takes to make bread is not so much effort, it takes thinking ahead. 

     If you want bread tomorrow and have to work all day, you can make the dough tonight and refrigerate it until then.  Or, mix some up before work, put it in the frig to rise slowly all day, and pop it in to bake while you fix the rest of supper.  Or, make up the dough with just a fraction of the suggested yeast, then leave it to rise all day, covered, on the counter, and it will be ready to cook just before dinner. 

     Dough that has risen very slowly tastes better than over-yeasted bread of the same recipe.  Dough that has over-risen itself gets a new unpleasant flavor as well, so don't think you can just let your bread rise all day without reducing the yeast, or slowing down the yeast by refrigerating it.  Breadmaking is an exciting science, and beautiful artistry, too.

These two loaves cost about me about 28 cents each.  That is a lot of eating pleasure for the price!  We polished off one loaf for afternoon snack, and another with the "black bean chili soup" that we had for supper. 

Breakfast menu:  pancakes, jam, orange juice, tea

Cost:  $2.65

 35 scratch pancakes:  1.10

jam:  .30

OJ:  .99

2 cups milk for tea:  .26

Sack lunches:  ham sandwiches, carrots, lettuce, applesauce

Lunch cost : $3.69

8 oz ham: .75

1 loaf vitabee bread:  1.25

1 head iceberg lettuce: .83

six (22 oz) carrots:  .46

applesauce:  .40

Supper menu: chili bean soup, fresh bread

Supper cost:  $2.09

1 lb black beans: .40

1/2 stalk celery: .35

hamburger meat: 1.00

chili powder: .05

salt: .01

1 loaf fresh bread:  .28

I had made up a double batch of bean chili, and used half of the chili for supper.  The whole double batch had cost 3.62, or about .15 cents per cup of soup.  We used 12 cups for supper.  However, when I got home from teaching at about 10pm, I found that 2 more cups of soup had vanished.  I'll check into that when we are all together next.  I'm adding the .30 to today's eating total to make up for the snitching.  I don't like snitching, but at least they liked the soup enough to want more.   

Daily total cost: $8.95 plus .39 = $9.25 

The children are going to like black beans even more when they find out that eating black beans will be their ticket to affording ice cream!  I'll see what their reaction is tonight when I tell them this news...

Here you get a glimpse of the boothie lunch making station.  We make 10 sack lunches five days a week around here.  It is a major operation.  We are packing a more substantial lunch for tomorrow, because we all felt unsatisfied with the amount yesterday. 

When Rodger and I got home from teaching the Baby Basics class together, this is what we found on the table.  It was smelling delicioso and looking beautious, but unfortunately, is not for us.  It is a birthday present for Maddie, and has her name inscribed into the top crust.  Wow, that made our mouths water.  I'll have to see how much a pie costs...

School lunch fixings:  ham sandwiches in front with names, because some are smaller than others, just like some of the people here are smaller.  Behind them are pb&  j sandwiches, and to the side, carrots and lettuce.  You can see Sarah's laptop, from whence these pictures are uploaded.

I'll put up the info about these sandwiches tomorrow, because they will be eaten tomorrow.  See you then.