How are all of yall this beautiful Friday morning? The weather is gorgeous here, but I have to say, it sure seems weird that here it is almost Thanksgiving and our days have been in the high 70's to low 80's. What is up with that? There is one thing for sure here in East Texas, you never know what the weather will be no matter what time of the year it is. But, I do hope it cools off a little for Thanksgiving. All the kids will be here and when it is that warm outside and you are inside cooking with the stove and oven going non stop and the house is full of people, it can get pretty hot in this house ! But, like I've said before, I wouldn't have it any other way ! I'm so looking forward to all of them being here. While they are here, we are going to take a trip over to Marshall or Jefferson to see the Trail of Holiday Lights, take the kids to see Santa and the kids are going to give the Ice Skating Rink a whirl ! But there is one thing for sure! You won't see me on that ice ! LOL. I have better sense than that !
As I've told Yall many times, I always seem to have leftovers and I freeze a lot of those if there is too many to finish off within a few days. Well yesterday, while searching through the freezer for something for supper, I found a gallong zip loc bag full of the Cuban Beans I had made awhile back. So, I pulled those out for supper. We just love pinto beans made that way. This is a recipe that I got from my sweet Aunt Shirley years ago. I really have no idea why she called them Cuban Beans, but whatever they are called, they are good. You just cook your pinto beans until they are almost tender. In a skillet, you sautee onion, bell pepper and celery. Add those veggies to your beans. Brown about 2 lbs. of hamburger meat and add to your veggies. Add this to your beans. Then you start adding brown sugar, molasses and the seasonings which are garlic powder, seasoning salt, cumin powder and pepper. Then you add about 2-3 cans of diced tomatoes. You cook all of this down until the mixture begins to thicken. It has a wonderful flavor ! Now, not only did the beans I took out of the freezer have hamburger meat in it, I had some smoked brisket in the freezer, so I pulled that out and added it to the beans. It was great ! Next time you have pinto beans, try making them this way, I really think you will love it!
OK...I have something to share with Yall. I have talked about the Cookbooks that I have made in the past for gifts. When I started telling everyone about making the books, I had a lot of people want to order them. I also had people say that I should publish a cookbook too. To begin with, I had no idea how to publish a cookbook and really didn't think my everyday type recipes were something that people would like to find in a cookbook, or if I even had enough recipes to go in a book. Then of course, there is the cost of publishing a cookbook. After much research and talking to different cookbook publishing companies, I have found out in the long run, it would be cheaper and more effective to actual publish the books. I have already received about 30 orders for my books. If I considered the cost of supplies to make the books and everything else that would be involved in making them as well as my time, it just made more sense to publish the books and they would not only be more "professional" looking, but would last much longer too. Handmade books are great and so personable because they are made especially for that person ! But let's face it ! Handling these books over the years, the handmade books just would not hold up as long. So, having said all of this, I have decided to publish my books. I am in the process now of typing all the recipes up so I can send them to the publishing company and this takes some time. Also, when I get the recipes to the company, then it takes them awhile, about 3 months to get the books ready to ship. As soon as I know when these books will be available, I will let you all know. I really think you will like the cookbook. Like I keep saying, I am not a chef....just a cook ! So, you won't find gormet type recipes in there, just plain cooking. I can't wait to get my books and hope that all of Yall will like them.
In my blog this month, I am going to try and post some holiday type recipes for Yall. Of course, you can prepare these any day of the year but at the holidays we try to fix something different or certainly favorites of our families. I am still waiting on recipes from Yall. It would be so much fun to see all of the recipes that come in. So, let's get going and share our recipes !
This weekend, I hope to get some more of my holiday goodies done and in the freezer. Hopefully, I'll have time to get these done since my husband has to work this weekend, I should have plenty of time. But my poor little freezer will probably be grunting because of all the stuff I put in it ! LOL. I'm not sure yet what I will fix for supper tonight, but I have to get the ball rolling here so I know what to take out of the freezer. I'm posting a picture of the Cuban Beans and Rice with Cornbread, that we had last night. You can kind of get an idea of what this recipe looks like. It is very simple and delicious !
I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy this gorgeous weather ! "Happy Eating" !!
Muahhhhhhhhhh ♥
Cuban Beans & Rice with Cornbread
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