Only thing I do differently is I dice the garlic cloves. They are going to be pureed anyway so no point to leaving the cloves whole and diced gives a bit more assurance of good heat penetration. You might find that filling the jars a little less than 3/4 full works better. More liquid, especially when they haven't been fully pre-soaked, works better for me. Less drop in the liquid level in the jars leaving beans exposed. I just drain it off after opening. Dave

Ellen, I have to tell you, the noise from that VitaMix is like unreal. Bud plugged his ears, I just winced. Dcarch sggested putting a 5 gallon bucket over top of it and plllog says she wears earplugs. I can certainly see why. Makayla's cookies were much like my chocolate chip cookie recipe, with one cup of mini chips and half a cup of sprinkles. They were chewy and soft in the middle, crunchy on the outside, just like a good chocolate chip cookie should be. Lars, we did use those long sprinkles that aren't so hard, I didn't think I'd like the crunchy little ones very well. They added more color than flavor or sweetness, but it did make them prettier. Ice is treacherous, so no matter where you are ice can bring things to a stand still. We can power through snow, but ice keeps you home. Choir is the only class Bud actually likes, other than science, so his teacher will be the only one that ever gets his homemade hummus, I think. Basil, thank you, I'm going to look for one of those. Annie

I cook a pound of dried chickpeas for hummus, divide the cooked peas three ways, make hummus with one portion and freeze the other two for later batches. The frozen peas are indistinguishable from freshly cooked when made into hummus. I have a really ancient (stainless steel four-sided container w/ a spigot) VitaMix that I found at an estate sale. (I got a plug from VM for the spigot hole because food got into the spigot, was wasted and the spigot was a pain to clean out.) Has reverse which I use when grinding eggshells--Need to do this outdoors. I have used the VM to make cornmeal out of popcorn when I had run out of cornmeal. It did an OK job. Used it to make lo-carb ice cream--cream, sweetener, ice cubes, vanilla--did a good job with that. Used it a couple of times to puree soup. Abandoned that because it's messy and I don't like dirtying up extra containers & transferring hot soup. The stick blender works just fine for that task. I tried smoothies but my stomach does not like all the air that gets incorporated into them. Gives me terrible pains. And I like my margaritas on the rocks. Actually, we like the already mixed Chi-chi's margaritas, diluted with a little water because they're too strong/ too sweet w/o dilution & served on the rocks. Chi-chi's might be just about right undiluted if you're blending w/ ice for a frozen drink. Bottom line is that I could easily live without the very loud beast. I'm just glad that I paid only $20 for the it. Satisfied my curiosity about them. IMO, VM, Blendtech, etc. are over-hyped & overly expensive. To be fair, I very seldom used my old Oster blender before I got the VM so didn't really have much use for a super-duper blender in the first place.

I make my pasta fagioli with bacon -- is that common? I saw Maryanne Esposito make it on TV and that's the recipe I've used ever since. I remember telling a coworker how good it was, gave him the recipe, and he loved it so much he started making it for himself every week. Lol! Annie, I'm so sorry. Would you like me to start a new post and ask about your favorite way to use lobster, jumbo shrimp, and heavy cream? With NY strip steak?! :O) The beans must be a southern boy thing, although my BF doesn't make his pinto beans nearly that often. Enchiladas Verdes sounds great!!! But BF makes his fantastic red enchilada sauce by the gallon, so he makes the red enchiladas lately. :). Re your bean selection, that's amazing! Here, if all the store shelves are fully stocked, my choices in dried beans/peas would be black beans, pinto beans, either small navy or great northern (never both! Sometimes neither), rarely red beans, and usually green split peas... maybe brown lentils. No mixes that I've ever seen!