In the Kitchen

In the Kitchen Today

Food Saver

A vacuum bag sealing system will pay for itself. I use mine on cheese, freezer items, you name it. I buy just the basic machine, don’t use all the other bells and whistles, so you can usually find them for under $100.

Canning Jars

I found plastic canning jar lids on Amazon for about $7. I store beans, macaroni, and other dry goods in canning jars with these lids. You can also use them in conjunction with canning jars for items in your refrigerator.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SSN3L2/ref=twister_B0000BYC4B?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Beef and Bean Soup (pressure cooker)

1 lb Stew Meat

1 Chopped Onion

3 cups Sliced Celery

2 cups sliced Carrots

2 cans stewed tomatoes (optional – add into mixture in pressure cooker)

4 handfuls of dry beans (not soaked overnight)

Reduced Sodium Better than Bullion Beef Base to taste

Combine stew meat, onion, beans and half of the celery in the pressure cooker. Cover to fill line with water.

 Lightly spray the lid gasket with PAM, put on pan. Set the pressure regulator on the lid. Heat on high until pressure regulator starts to whistle. Start timer for sixty minutes. Turn down the heat until the pressure regulator is barely spinning.

After sixty minutes remove the pressure cooker from the heat, cool under cold water until pressure releases. Put the contents into a large stock pot, add carrots and reserved celery. Add Better than Bullion Beef Base to taste. Add fresh cracked pepper to taste. Cover and simmer until veggies are al dente.

Serve with warm bread. Enjoy!

Kitchen Shears

This is a tool no kitchen should be without. Better yet, you should have several pairs, in case you need to cut meat with one and veggies with another. Some will tell you to buy the ones that you can take apart to clean them. I own four pairs of shears, none of which  can be taken apart and mine can be cleaned just fine.