An Interesting Tidbit about Nestlewood

My crock pot either has bean soup currently simmering, or it is in the sink, waiting to be washed until I start a new pot. Bean soup is our cool weather mainstay. I've said it before, but, really, I could write sonnets about beans. The soup currently simmering has 16 different kids of beans. I stir in some tomatoes (dehydrated, from last summer's garden) some basil (see previous), some green, red and yellow peppers,(again, see previous), a little cajun seasoning and I am all set. What we can't eat right away, I puree for bean dip and burritos and quesadillas. What we can't eat of that, I freeze (with my FoodSaver), to use at a later time. No one can recycle food like I can. What Paula Deen is to Southern cooking, I am to food recycling.

I think my mama taught me this. She never had enough to eat while she was growing up. So she always made sure that we did. Hamburgers, or bacon and eggs and toast or biscuits, or, my favorite, what we called 'pizza crap" for breakfast, (which was loaf bread,pizza sauce,pepperoni and cheese baked in the oven until gold and bubbly.) Little Debbies and cokes for snack after school and a fully cooked meal for supper. Pot roast, fried chicken, beans and taters etc... Not that I always liked what she fixed, of course, child that I was. But there was always something warm and hearty to eat.

I do that same thing. I can't stand to send my kids to school without some real food in their tummies. Bacon or sausage is always on the menu. To fill in the chinks there is toast and jelly, or pancakes. There is milk and /or orange juice.

I fall short as a mom in many ways, I'm sure. But, when it comes to getting everybody fed efficiently, my kids and Breezy and friends and neighbors' kids included, I rock.