It's looking like the forecast is going to be right about on target...we're well on our way to getting up to a foot of snow outside.
Meanwhile, I'm trying my hand today at making something from scratch that I've always just opened a can for instead: Baked Beans.
When it's cold outside, sometimes I find that some hot baked beans and kielbasa gets me warm deep down inside. However, the price of my mainstay for over 20 years, Bush's Baked Beans, has more than doubled in price recently, at least where we are! And dried beans are actually very cheap. So it's finally become worth it to me to try my hand at making baked beans. I hit the Internet in search of a recipe that claims to be a match...and this is what I found:
"Better Then Bush's" Baked Beans. It'll take all day to make, but isn't labor intensive, as it simply needs TIME. If we have church tomorrow, we're supposed to have a meeting afterward that includes food...and I will bring this. Toward the end of its second baking time I'll add in cut up pieces of kielbasa. While I can tolerate "Frank N' Beans" when I'm at a potluck, I'd much prefer a better quality sausage...so kielbasa it is. I'm going to ask my oldest daughter to make some corn bread to go with it. I'll let you know how it all turns out!
I'm actually working on
two suppers at the moment, since the baked beans are for tomorrow. My oldest daughter has been hankering for fried chicken and so I, not happy with the recipes I had, went hunting for something new. Here's what I found:
Spicy Oven Fried Chicken. Sounds delicious...so right now my chicken pieces (that I mentioned yesterday getting for only $1/pound) are currently marinating in the buttermilk/hot pepper sauce mixture in the refrigerator.
Foods like Baked Beans and Fried Chicken are often referred to as "Comfort Foods". And most certainly on a cold winter day, these do bring a warmth to our bodies and a peaceful satisfaction to our hunger that seems at times to go deeper than just filling a physical need. My thoughts, however, drift over to a passage from
2 Corinthians 1: 3,4 about comfort:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.After many years of learning through some hard knocks and difficult times, I've received comfort from the Lord and from others many times. And receiving comfort from another during a time of trial feeds a heart-need, deep inside...warms our hearts, and strengthens us...much as a good, hot meal of "Comfort Food" fills and warms our stomachs. I'm hoping that once again, I can find words of comfort during these challenging times we are in that will allow me to bless others with the great comfort I've received myself. Sometimes I don't have a lot materially to offer others, so I hope and pray that I can at least be one who brings hope and encouragement.
In closing today,
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21
Comments (1)
UPDATE on the chicken: It turned out really good.
I cut the Hot Pepper sauce in half and added a couple eggs to the buttermilk/HPSauce marinade. For my breading, I used a blend of crushed Shredded Whole Wheat Cereal (those large biscuits that have no sugar on them) and wheat germ to replace the dry bread crumbs. Other than that, I did everything else the same. Oh, and I used skinned thights, cut up chicken parts instead of the boneless breasts.It came out very moist and flavorful...the flavor wasn't just in the coating, but also in the meat itself.