Fresh

I was searching for what specific topic to post on tonight and it arrived in my facebook message box. The topic is, Fresh, a documentary on food. As you may know already there are several documentaries on food already exposing the ugly underbelly that seems to run our food systems these days. I have not actually watched this documentary, yet. However, there is a trailer on the website and what I took away from that brief screening was that Fresh is a hopeful movie about change. It seems to take up where Food, Inc left off and provide information about changes that are taking place and what we individually can do. If I can find 100 people here locally that would like to see this movie, we can set up a screening. Anyone interested?

Speaking of fresh, I have the gardening bug. Little J and I spent 5 minutes this afternoon putting spinach, mesclun and peas in the pots we have on the back porch. I also picked up purple basil and nasturtium seeds while I was out shopping. I know now that my best growing spots still only get part sun but I am hopeful. I’ll move the pots around to find the best growing conditions. How about you? Can you plant $1 worth of seeds tomorrow?

Since this is a blog about cooking, it would not be right to miss and opportunity to share a few recipes. I mentioned beans in a recent post. I cook beans by the pound. It is a healthy and inexpensive way to have beans ready when you need them. In the morning, I soak the beans. This is an easy process you place the rinsed beans in a big pot with enough water to cover them by a couple of inches. Bring them to a boil for 2 minutes then turn off and let sit for several hours. When you are ready to cook them you drain them, place them in a pressure cooker (you could have used this for soaking, too) and cover with enough water to cover. Bring to pressure and cook according to your pressure cooker book usually 1-9 minutes depending on the beans. If I need the beans for a recipe that day I will separate that amount off and then freeze the rest in 2 c. batches. The pressure cooker I use is Presto 6-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker although you could also cook the beans the traditional way that takes many hours. I freeze many foods using a FoodSaver V2040 Vacuum-Packaging System that I received as a wedding present. The vacuum sealer keeps the foods fresher for much longer than just using zip lock bags.