FEIJAO A PORTUGUESA Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 10 hr Well, if you do Portuguese-style potatoes, may as well do Portuguese -style beans. :) 1 lb dried navy or Great Northern beans, picked over 1 lb sliced bacon 1 large onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 4 to 5 cups water 1 (6-oz) can tomato paste 1 lb Portuguese chouri or Spanish chorizo (cured spicy pork sausage), cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste 1 tablespoon paprika Soak beans in cold water to cover by 2 inches 8 hours. Cook bacon in a 4- to 6-quart heavy pot until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Spoon off (and discard) all but about 3 tablespoons fat in pot. Cook onion in reserved fat over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until golden, 7 to 9 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until it begins to turn golden. Drain beans and add to onion mixture with remaining ingredients (except bacon). Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender, about 1 1/2 hours. (Older beans will take longer to cook and require more water during cooking.) Crumble bacon into beans and season with salt and pepper before serving. Serves: 6 Source: David Leite I hope Annie doesn't mind how this thread got hijacked!

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors and happy Independence Day to everyone here in the United States. I have nothing in particular planned, Elery and I have been working hard renovating the kitchen. I just painted countertops and they can't be used for a couple of days. Ashley is in the hospital, the docs think it's her gallbladder. No, kidney stones. No, wait.....oh, they don't know. Ugh. Makayla is signed up for ballet camp and I've been driving her back and forth to Grand Rapids. Fireworks used to be fun until they started popping them off at every amusement park, ball game, car dealership opening, whatever. Now I don't care if I ever see them again, but Amanda is working on the 4th of July and I might end up with Bud and Makayla somewhere. Have fun, everyone! Annie

Tried this the other night--sort of "cabbage rolls/Polish Pigs" without the rice-- nice change of pace. Diane's Home Cookin Chapter: 2014/15/16--to try--main dishes & sides Unstuffed Sweet-and-Sour Cabbage ================================ source: Gourmet 11/2008 1 (2-pound) head green cabbage, quartered or cut into sixths-- lengthwise and cored 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, divided 1 large onion, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 pound ground beef chuck 1/2 pound ground pork 1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice 1/3 cup dried cranberries 3 tablespoon red-wine vinegar 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar 2 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley Accompaniment: steamed rice . Cook onion and remaining garlic in oil in a heavy medium pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and stir in ground meats along with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring and breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, cranberries, vinegar, and brown sugar and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally and breaking up tomatoes with spoon, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Season with salt. Sear cabbage pieces lightly in bacon grease then place in a deep 12-inch heavy skillet with broth, 1 garlic clove (sliced), and a rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then cook, covered, turning cabbage occasionally, until very tender, about 45 minutes. (Add more broth or water if necessary.) Pour sauce into skillet with cabbage and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Serve sprinkled with parsley. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/unstuffed-sweet-and-sour-cabbage-350572 Unstuffed cabbage

Nope, they don't eat them here or at home. One on Elery's side is so opposed that she spent two days eating NOTHING because they told her she got nothing until she ate some kind of vegetable, her choice. Her choice was nothing and the evening of day two a compromise was reached by allowing her to choose an apple instead. All the kids will eat fruit, pretty much any fruit, but none of them eat vegetables. The Princess is the 2nd worst offender, she has the same texture aversions I have, so anything slimy, mushy, viscuous, gummy, etc. is out of the question. She gagged on yogurt, pudding, cheese, peanut butter, nutella and ice cream until she was 6 or 7. She will now eat raw spinach, if forced to, but not iceberg. Not that I blame her, I don't eat iceberg either. I don't think it's school because none of them ever ate vegetables. My girls didn't either, I remember Ashley spitting pureed carrots all over the ceiling once when she was about two and the spatter pattern bled through three separate ceiling paintings. It was still visible if you looked hard when I sold that house. I kept giving them to the kids, though, and required ONE bite. Now, as adults, they will both eat pretty much any vegetable. Not as kids, though... I also require my grandkids to take ONE bite, although I do try to provide a vegetable they'll eat. Elery's grandkids, though, aren't required, his son says if that youngest one (the two day hunger strike kid) eats one meal a day, he's satisfied. So if they are here with their parents and my grandkids are also here, mine are still required to eat the vegetables, even if the others aren't, I make no exceptions. Bud covers his with copious amounts of catsup and Makayla gags her way through it. Madi and Maci try to hide theirs or feed them to the dogs, but they always get that one bite in. And they always hate it, so I wonder if I'm actually just causing them to hate the vegetables even more than they would if I left them alone. Annie