beans, beans the magical fruit

I realized (and read) that dried beans are cheaper than their canned counter parts.

I made the black-eyed pea dip for the Super Bowl. I soaked the beans overnight, I cooked them for the right time and they turned out just fine.

Today, I'm making a dish that uses black beans. I bought those as dry beans. I forgot to soak them. I followed the "quick" cook instructions. I'm crossing my fingers that they are cooked. I'm also crossing my fingers that the dish turns out.

I'm famous for reading ahead and skipping steps. Dishes usually turn out just fine. But there's a lot of frustration before the final product is actually sitting on the table.

I made scones to take to the Cool Cats tomorrow.

Um, those gave me some trouble too. I made notes and am confident that I won't have the same mess next time. Again, they turned out just fine. There was just a brief moment of panic when I tried to move them to the cookie sheet that created a bit more of a mess than I had planned. (I still had the same amount of scones as I had started with, there was just some excess flour that decided to jump ship.)

Now I'm making a jam crumb cake for Pastor Gary's February dessert. It calls for sour cream. I'm pulling out the ingredients to get it ready. That's when I realize we are out of sour cream.

You can substitute plain yogurt for sour cream, but all we have is vanilla yogurt.

This has not been a good day for me in the kitchen.

Thankfully, Bill graciously offered to go pick up some sour cream. He's my kitchen hero.

scones

I haven't ever made scones. I have enjoyed eating quite a few. Including one this morning. But the first time I had them was at camp.

Yes, camp. We had a nutritionist who was the head of the kitchen. God Blessed that camp food. Brown was not the food group of choice that summer. Although it totally spoiled me. Brown camp food does very little for me except raise my blood pressure and jack up my sugar levels.

Back to scones. I think she made them because of Ian, who was our... I forget his title, but he was British and he worked at camp. He was a counselor for at least one summer. Anyway, back to the scones. I think she made them for Ian. They were good. I had nothing to compare them too (well, muffins, I guess) and I liked them.

This morning, I had a meeting at the local bakery. They had double chocolate chip scones. Yum! I've had scones there before. They rate right behind croissants, which is another post on a food I love.

But I haven't ever made scones. So I checked out PW's website to see if she's made any. Guess what? She has. It looks like I'll be making these soon.