Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, is one of my favorite cooks.  I have found that combining some of her recipes with Paula Deen's recipes can make some tasty food. On Sunday afternoon, I made the Pioneer Woman's  Seven Can Soup  .  It is super easy to make and so good. These are the cans of food I used:  Chili Beans (she used Pinto beans; I didn't have any in the house), black beans, corn, kidney beans, 2 cans tomatoes with peppers, and a can of Chili with no beans. Open the cans and dump them in a pot. How hard is that? Keep dumping. Stir it all together.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer at least fifteen minutes. Just before it is done, add about eight ounces of Velvetta cheese.  If you are a cheese snob and refuse to use Velvetta, you can use whatever you desire.  By the way, we paid $5.99 for two pounds of Velvetta; we bought 2 pounds of good cheddar for $4.99 at Sams. Velvetta is no longer cheap cheese, u...

A pot of chili is perfect for cold weather suppers.  I make mine in the crock pot, and it takes a little planning ahead.  But once it is made, you can have several meals just by heating it up.  The chili is started the night before we plan to eat it. I start with three cups of dried pinto beans.  You can buy canned chili beans, but all they are is pinto beans with chili powder.  This was is less expensive and you don't have cans to throw away. You can buy chili powder just about anywhere now.  I put 3 heaping tablespoons in the dried beans. I heat 2 quarts of water in the tea kettle until it boils.  It takes the crock pot a long time to heat this much water, and the boiling water just gets the beans to cooking right away.  I usually add additional water before I go to bed, and check them first thing when I get up.  All crock pots are different, so check the beans often and don't let them run out of water. In the m...