Jars in the Pantry

 This morning I read a comment from a reader - someone I met through quilting and have known for many years (Pam!) and she mentioned how quickly she goes through the beans she's canned.

I understand (maybe) <G> how some people have no interest in canning. Today we have four appointments in town - quick dentist check for my new tooth, a couple of things for Vince and dropping my car off for new brakes. I knew it was going to be eat out or eat from a jar because we finished up the leftovers yesterday. Vince asked if I wanted to eat out and I told him I would prefer to open a jar. Right off the top of my head I thought about roast beef with potatoes and carrots but we finished off the roast beef leftovers yesterday so probably didn't want that again. We have Chipotle Beef Stew; Split Pea Soup with a sandwich, red beans with sausage. There are at least 20 varieties of meals in a jar all I have to do is open and heat.

We have a chance for ice Monday and I asked Vince last night if we have need to charge a generator. We're fine - probably all we would need to use a for us to keep a fridge going and one for the thermostat on the propane heater. As far as cooking, with a gas stove, I can heat up anything in a jar - really, I could cook anything I want to cook but I don't want to be having a big mess to clean up.

When I can beans, I will see what we're getting low on (or how many jars I have) and I try to can at least 2 pounds of each type bean at a time. That will give me 10 - 14 jars of that particular bean. Vince likes black beans, we both like small red, cannellini, pinto, chickpeas, Lima, cranberry. We also love anasazi beans but they've gotten too hard to get. I've found that the 100 year old cave beans are almost exactly the same so I've been growing them and can them fresh.

We try to eat some kind of bean every day! I'll open a jar, season them and they're a side dish. I add them to soups. I add them to salads. They're healthy. They're inexpensive. They're filling . . what's not to love about beans?  Well, there's that one little pesky problem for some people but we've found that if you eat them often, that problem kinda just gives up and goes away. I'm sure that's not the case for everyone but we do love our beans!