Beans Beans Beans...

We have been in Charleston 7 months 3 weeks, 2 days and approx. 8 hours 15 minutes and 6 seconds. I am not going to say we were happy to leave Florida, but the people in the cars around us thought it was strange that we piled out of the car at the Ga Fl line and was kissing the sign post, only the side that said you are now leaving Florida then we had to stop again at the sign that said Welcome to Georgia  and cheer.

Well maybe not really, but the people were staring at us as we cheered upon passing said signs. 

At any rate today,feeling somewhat nostalgia I decided to make Black beans and Rice a PuertoRican mainstay that we had a lot in Tampa, and was very good.  

Now I have never made the beans, so this was a first, I have done red beans and rice which is a American southerner favorite but these are different. 

In the first place you do not put, what my grandma use to call "seasoning" meat in them.

Seasoning meat being, bacon, sausage, ham hocks, ham,  some kind of pork. Red Beans and Rice is a main dish as opposed to being a side dish like it's cousin. 

At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that this is not a cooking blog, nor am I Puerto Rican so if you are and feel insulted, please don't put a call out to the PR Mafia, (which my daughters ex boyfriend has assured me exists) because they will just come down here after me and be disappointed, I am not sure the  beans are going to turnout so what could I offer them? MacDonald's? Then they will be unhappy because they couldn't even get a good healthy meal out of the trip, no better let them guys sleep. just leave me a nasty comment, but not to nasty and at least it will be a comment. 

Now, back to the beans, I looked up a recipe on the web, and am all ready to start. I put the beans in my crock pot, added olive oil, but I didn't have Goya I just had Walmart's brand hope that works, add the Garlic then the problem came up it told me to add 1 package of Sazon which I had on hand, , but it had to be without Annatto, so I searched the ingredients...but they are all in Spanish. I didn't see any words that looked like Annatto, so I guess the kind I have was okay, added white wine, again I didn't have Goya but I had a nice Chardonnay left over so I added that. and for good measure I had a nice glass to cheer me on, 

(it told me I could substitute apple cider, but what fun would that be?) set the crock pot on high for the next 5 hours checked the recipe to make sure I didn't forget any thing. I didn't except to read the first line: "Do not prepare in crock pot" 

sigh..oh well. Crock pot is on, we shall see what a big No No that will be. 

I should ask my friend Kate, Over at Cooking During Stolen Moments if I should have made the beans before writing the blog. It now occurs to me, I don't have a finished.  picture because the beans have 5 hours to cook. Oh well, guess I'll add the picture later when I edit so if you read this before drop back in and catch up later. 

At any rate, crockpot or no they smell like I remember they should smell.

Now a quick word about Florida. We had a bad experiences in Florida. My daughter had an abusive boyfriend, things were hard.(Hence the starting over blog) We didn't get to enjoy it ata ll, but since leaving and looking back Florida probably is a wonderful state and I don't wish to insult any from there.

It is strange to me to wake up at 5:00 in the morning in Tampa and have it be 80 degrees, you know you are in for it. the cold weather there  is in it's 60's. Most people love that, I miss snow. 

Sorry. 

Now I am sure there is more troubleI can get into today besides beans, let me go investigate. 

have a great Saturday...

Vacation Diary...Charleston SC

Three months ago when we moved to Charleston,we left most of our things in Florida, in storage. We couldn't afford to rent a truck at the time, and we had no where to go we were going to be staying in a hotel until we found someplace. It seemed the most reasonable thing to do. We planned a trip this week to go back and pick up the things, straighten out some driver license hassles Denise has been having, visit friends Tasha's other grandparents, her dad well you get the picture. But it ended up we have to cancel. Money situation, so I went to work and asked for my days back 7 days :5 vacation and two regular  days off. No, I was told. It is already in the system. The computer can't be changed. I hate computers! 

Butthen, I thought,  I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, well at least the USA The south? No matter, Charleston is a city full of rich history and heritage. (Remember Rhett wasn't received in Charleston,) It even has an aircraft carrier, three beaches, a Huge museum and several smaller ones. Yes, so I am going to see Charleston this week and keep a diary of my daily visits. So jumping in:

Day one: 

Today started slow, because it was the first day of vacation. I took my daughter to work like always, came home and crashed. (I didn't get home from work until 3am took her in at 5am)

Tasha and I slept for a couple of hours, (she is usually a morning person ) then picked up her mom and ran errands. 

Library, paid bills, window shopping, looked for a store that apparently doesn't exists, down from the bowling alley, I won't tell you what kind of store (No not that kind! Behave! this is a clean blog) got stuck in traffic, a car tried to run me off I26, I cut off a car on I526 (by accident but at least we're all even now a tit for a tat) went to the post office to pick up our mail and tell them not to hold it, and drowned our sorrows in Taco Bell.

Through all of this, somewhere in our travels while my back was turned: my nose  starts to run, my throat is scratchy, my head begins to hurt Must be allergies.

Has to be, right? 

5:30 pm first day in bed with scratchy throat, apple cider and Alka Seltzer cold and sinus. 

So tomorrow is another day.  We will start over. We've got plans. gonna beat this cold tonight!