Culinary meanderings...

So, what happens when your cabbage is too small and tender to actually roll?

Beats me, but I'll let you know when the crock pot is done with it in about 12 hours. It looks something like tomato-cabbage stew. *sigh*

I suppose I can't win 'em all. I'm hardly a disaster in the kitchen and most of my experiments turn out OK. Here's last week's Baked Beans, adapted by me from several variants found googling "crock pot baked beans". Note I recommend over-doing the soaking and pre-boiling - the only thing that went wrong here was they were under-cooked after the first 10 hours so we cooked 'em 12 more.

Crock-Pot Maple Beans

3 c. dried beans (I used a mix of black beans, navy beans, and black-eyed peas).
1 sm. onion or a few shallots, chopped and sauteed until carmelized.
3 cloves garlic, or to taste, crushed and sauteed (with the onions)
1/2 tsp ground pepper, or to taste
splash of tobasco if you like
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp mustard powder
1/4 c. brown sugar (or less, to taste)
1/4 c. steak sauce
1/4 c. maple syrup
Optional small chunk of "salt pork" if you care for that, too. I left it out.
Water, broth, or another interesting liquid - apple juice sounds like it might be fun - as needed. I find sometimes with my crock-pot I need to add liquid partway, depends on the contents.

Wash/rinse beans to remove dried husks or other debris that might be there. I usually fill a pot, swish around and pour off the rinse a few times. Beans that float (most sink) are skimmed off and discarded, though I forget why I was told to do that. Then, refill with clean water and soak them an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of overnight, preferably 24 hrs. As long as they don't sprout you haven't over-done it.

Pre-boil the beans, again, minimum of an hour. Watch the pot as when you boil them they'll soak up the water quick and may boil dry and burn.

After that, it's easy. Beans go in crock pot. Toss onions, garlic, and salt pork in with 'em. Mix all the rest of the ingredients into a sauce and pour in. Cook low and long, I don't think this recipe does better on the higher setting. I did low for 10 hours then left them on overnight after the first try proved them a bit under-done.

Cheers. I'll let you know what comes of the cabbage incident.