No Screed Today

Not feeling anything meaningful today.  Gonna be a day of whining and complaining as nurses will have to work as we approach the clinic capacity.  They will still do great and will do a good job, but there will be considerable whining and self-pity and I will have to pretend to care.

“Beans are a warm cloak against economic cold.”
― John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
 

Slept well last night, woke up a little early and set up the crock pot for beans.  I am always tempted to cook old style baked beans in their natural habitat (read here: a cast iron dutch oven and in the oven overnight or all day) but I don't think that I am ready for that just yet.  So crock pot it is.

First things:  I am currently inveighing against the mistake that is my current crock pot.  At the time it was a thought out decision that made sense. I was wrong.  It is one of the "casserole" type crock pots that holds about 2.5 quarts.  When I got it I was well-pleased with myself.  Now after a couple of years of "meh" I keep using it because of a weird combination of insolvency, obstinacy, and self-flagellation.

Busted out a pound or so of the dried Orca beans that Mike was so kind to haul back for me during the return from our drug-addled foray to Joe and Barb's.  They have been soaking in the fridge since Monday night. 

Last night a prepared a quart of the cooking sauce in a quart mason jar.

• 3 tablespoons onion powder
• 1.5 tablespoons red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon dried garlic chunkies
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• a healthy squirt of mustard left over from the drunken mess that was our June debauch
• QS to 1 quart with water

I let that stuff sit sealed up on the counter overnight to commingle.

Today I drained and rinsed the beans, chopped up two medium onions and between a quarter and half pound of bacon end and pieces bought at the holy shrine of Grocery Outlet and mixed everything together in the crock pot and turned the beast on.  

They will have cooked for around twelve hours when I drag my ass back through the door tonight.  I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow