Here's the first recipe I made from that new Milk Street Instant Pot cook book, Fast And Slow. The recipe is Black Beans With Bacon and Tequila. It is absolutely delicious, made with bacon, onions, garlic, canned chipotles, cumin, tequila, some chicken broth, and a little lime juice. The dish is garnished with cilantro, and, even though it is not in the recipe, I ate it with a couple of toasted corn tortillas. With the leftovers I may thin it and make a bowl of chilaquiles - in one of his books Bayless has a similar black beans dish, made into chilaquiles, that is fantastic.
Black Bean Tequila soup, opened after pressure cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Items for finishing off the black beans. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Black Beans with Bacon and Tequila, with some corn tortillas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I cooked all that fish food and lost my apatite.'
All I had was breakfast and that was it.
Tonight it is going to be what I really want, 'A giant hamburger steak made from ground chuck with french fries.

fish tacos, speckled trout.

Chipotle mayo, plus a lot of fixings. Yummy.

Tonight, I took half of the leftovers from that black beans with bacon and tequila and made some chilaquiles with it. I thinned it out, and layered it with some tortilla chips. It was very much like that recipe in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. That was also topped with crema and queso fresco, if I recall.
Making the chilaquiles with the Black Beans With Bacon and Tequila. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished chilaquiles by pepperhead212,

I want a cheese burger so bad that I stopped off at Jaliscos Meat Market on the way home and bought tomato and lettuce.
I have everything else.
One of the hardest things for me to do is make one I can actually eat.

I started using a small handmade rolling pin to make thinner hamburger patties.
Works really well.
The burger came out good too.

So far today the only 'for sure' eats will be fried rice, using the leftover jasmine rice and bugogi beef from yesterday's lunch. And kimchi. Probably a tossed salad to go with it.

I made surf and turf tacos.
Fried catfish fingers.
Taco meat made with my own salt free seasoning.
Corn tortillas quick fried in oil till half crispy and puffy.
Lettuce.
Onion.
Tomato.
Cheese.
Avocado salsa.

Pork shoulder on the BGE. I think I’ll use cherry wood for the smoke. Rub, something with some sugar and some heat. Better get after it soon so it’ll be ready for dinner. Get it to about 200 degrees internal so I can pull it.

Sides, probably doctored pinto beans meaning cumin and some other good things added in. Maybe boiled yellow squash as another side. Time to check the garden for that.

I made some escabeche today! The stuff I got all those 2 1/2 lbs of jalapeños for, when I saw them yesterday. Lousy weather, so good day to work inside. I used the end of my last jar of escabeche last week, so I had to make some, even though the peppers were not from my garden. The only thing in it from my garden (besides a few Thai peppers, for heat) was the 20 cloves of garlic! I always use a lot of onions in the escabeche, as I love those chunks of pickled onion. I use a lot of old 3 cup pickle jars, which reseal well, and are safe for pickling. I add a bit of CaCl to the vinegar mix, to help the carrots stay crisper than usual. I filled three 3 c and one 4 cup, and filled another 3 cup jar about 1/2 cup short, which I will use first. I steamed the sealed jars for 15 min.
Salted peppers and carrots for escabeche by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I double the amount of onion in escabeche! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

First cooking of the vegetables in the escabeche. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Escabeche, almost ready to go into the jars. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished escabeche, about 15 cups. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[mention]pepperhead212[/mention] escabeche would go well with the meal I made tonight. MooShu chicken patties which contain Montreal Steak seasoning, soy sauce, onions and garlic, sauteed butternut squash spirals with baby spinach from the garden and potato cubes cooked in just a drizzle of olive oil. These are the potatoes that I blanched and froze back in December as an experiment and it really turned out well. They were starting to sprout and I knew that we could never eat them all so I froze some like this. It does not look like it in the picture but they are not peeled.

I will definitely freeze potatoes again.

20200424_171336 (2) by Brownrexx, on Flickr

Beef stew in the Instant Pot tonight. I was out of frozen peas so I used Lima beans and it was good.

I resisted buying an Instant Pot for at least a year thinking that it was a gadget that I didn't need but I have decided that I like it a lot better than a Crock Pot.

20200425_172332 (2) by Brownrexx, on Flickr

Tomorrow, I'm dong a brisket (3 lb. piece) in our Instantpot. I usually cook a larger brisket overnight in my pellet smoker, but this should only take an hour and a half. We'll see how it works.

1. Spread a bed of field greens on a tray.
2. Add a layer of chipped chopped turkey (or ham, or other meat)
3. Add a layer of chopped green pepper (1 pepper)
4. Add a layer of canned black beans (1 can)
5. Add a layer of hominy (1 can)

Exceedingly good tasting & healthy.

Crock pot pork chops with a mix of several bbq sauces, tossed salad and whatever else tickles the fancy. Haven't gotten that far yet. Probably homegrown veg from the freezer.

The ultimate extreme BLT sandwich.
That's right there is a crispy hash brown inside too.
Dukes mayonnaise of course.

Tried 2 new recipes tonight and both were excellent. I made teriyaki chicken in the Instant Pot and for dessert I made a recipe for small batch brownies which is baked in a loaf pan and only makes 8 brownies. It is perfect for us since we have willpower issues especially with brownies.

20200429_172540 (3) by Brownrexx, on Flickr

20200429_173540 (2) by Brownrexx, on Flickr

The brownies look great my grandmother used to let us as wee children make brownies.
I mean I was pre-kindergarten and she would let me cook.
Everyone called her aunt Fan and she was about 1/4 to 1/'2 or so American Indian born in the late 1800's.
Those brownies made me think about my grandmother Aunt Fan and her old stove she propped the ovendoor closed with an old cobblers cast iron shoe last.
She never went out in public without her bonnet on with long dress and arms covered to the wrists.
That was about the time JFK was assassinated by that fruitcake Oswald.
My cousins farm the land she was raised on.

Cucumbers fresh from the garden!

Made this with hidden valley ranch dip and fresh lime juice. Wow, really, really tasty.

Lime rules.
A thousand uses.