As I was working today, I called Steve at home and he was so excited about a new recipe he was going to try...Southwestern Turkey Meatloaf. When I walked in the house it smelled delicious! And I had let myself get very hungry so I would appreciate his thoughtful efforts. We dug in hungrily and each had 2 helpings because it tasted so good. The long grain rice and the black beans were crunchy we thought, but it was still yummy. Since Steve told me he had improvised some of his own ingredients, I decided to read the recipe and see if I could figure out what he added. As I read down the list, I asked him if he put in each one, knowing we didn't have some of them. I came to the 14 oz can of beef broth..."Did you put that in?""No, we didn't have any."
"So what did you substitute?"
"Nothing."
Ok, so it was minus 14 ounces of fluid...I said "that's a lot of fluid to be missing." He also put in black beans from a package instead of a can, which I thought would be fine as long as they were cooked before hand.
He said, "If I had put all that fluid in, it would have been too runny."
So I said, "Let's see how they instructed you to deal with all that fluid, maybe the rice would not be so crunchy..." and I began to read aloud step 1, out of only 2 steps: "Stir rice in oil in saucepan until brown. Add broth. Bring to boil, then simmer15 min or until rice is tender. Stir in beans..."
He gave me a look like "where did you get that?"
"Ok, so you didn't read the recipe did you?".... He gave a sheepish look...who needs recipes...
Then I became curious about the black beans since I remembered that recently I had made bean soup and he had not realized that beans needed to soak first and was surprised just how much bigger they got after soaking.
"How did you cook the beans?"
"Just like it said on the bag. I put them in water, put the bowl in the microwave on high til it boiled, then took them out and let them sit for a couple of hours."
"Yea, but how did you cook them?"
"I just told you."
So together we got the bag out of the trash since I knew he wouldn't believe me...I would have to show him in writing. He showed me the 2 options for soaking the beans. "See, there."
Then I pointed out the additional instructions just below that, "Cooking Directions" (add 6 cups of hot water to drained beans, simmer gently for 2 hours). Oops.
So we just had double servings of uncooked long grain rice and uncooked beans. My stomach is beginning to feel bloated as they double in size. I hope they digest before they get too much bigger...
