Bean-O-Rama

I could see that my frozen bean supplies were getting low.  It was time for a Bean-O-Rama.

I just invented that.  I’ve never done it before, but it was fun.  Like New Year’s Eve in Time’s Square.

If you’d like to do it here’s how:

First, go out and buy a whole bunch of slow cookers. Be sure to put them on your credit card.  Hee hee, ok, maybe that’s not so Frugal.  It just so happens, though, that I happen to own a lot of slow cookers.  So I decided to haul out three of them and put them to use, all at the same time.

Early in the morning I rinsed and soaked three different kinds of beans.  Around dinnertime, they had had a good eight hours or more of soaking, so I rinsed them again and put them in their respective slow cookers, and covered them up with fresh water.

At bedtime (9:00 pm, we like to hit the sack early around here), my husband and I got into bed.  I was just drifting off, oh I felt so cozy, when suddenly I shouted out “BEANS!”.

Scared the living daylights out of poor Hubby (and assorted dogs and cat).  He was cozy too, watching the NCAA playoffs.  He’s a good husband, though, so he got right out of bed and went directly to the cold kitchen and plugged in my slow cookers.  When I got up this morning - we had liftoff!

Bean-O-Rama featured a cast of thousands.  Thousands of Lima Beans, Small Red Kidney Beans, and big Pink Pinto Beans.  Yum! I will eat some fresh from the crocks, but I will freeze most of them for later meals.  Very handy to have, and very CHEAP!

My only regret is that I wish I had made some White Navy Beans for baked beans.  I don’t know why I didn’t do that because I certainly have the Crocking capacity for whatever a session of Bean-O-Rama might throw at me.

Here are a few players on Tessie’s Team Crockpot. They each have their  special strengths. I can’t really say I have a favorite; I like them all and use them a lot.

These were Christmas presents from my sweet Hubby.  Nobody really needs more than one, but it is very handy to have multiples at times.

If a big Voice came out of the sky and said, “TESSIE, THOU MAYEST KEEP ONLY ONE SLOW COOKER.  CHOOSETH!”  I don’t know what I would do.  I just don’t know  how I got along before all these Crocks came into my life.

Here are my beans, ready for the freezer.  I also made chili for dinner that night.  Yum!