Munchie Monday: Instant Pot Barbecue Baked Beans

When we arrived home some dear friends put together a wonderful welcome home party.  I wanted to make something to bring so I chose son #2's barbecue baked beans.  This is what I did, which was not exactly his recipe!

4 large cans Bush's Original Baked Beans (you can already see this will be an easy recipe!!)

1 large sweet onion, diced fine

1 cup barbecue sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons prepared mustard

1 Tablespoon Montreal Steak Seasoning

Put the diced onion and one quarter cup water in the Instant Pot inner bowl and turn to Sauté mode.  Cook, stirring pretty often, until the onion is translucent.  Stir in the remaining ingredients, cancel the Sauté mode and turn to Slow Cook mode for 4 hours.  I did not put the cover on the pot and stirred the beans every 30 minutes or so.

When it was time to go to the party I put the cover on and carried it with us, leaving the cord at home so I would not lose it.  Very important part of the directions!

These were pretty good.  There was so much food (and fun) at the party that we took home enough beans for another meal at home when the family returned from their 4th of July trip.

In the original recipe there was 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup real maple syrup, and the option of adding in 2 Tablespoons red pepper flakes and 1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper.  That was going to be a bit heavy on the sugar and way too spicy for my eating pleasure which is why I changed it to 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 Tablespoon Montreal Steak Seasoning.  In case there were leftovers, I wanted to be able to eat them comfortably in case no one else wanted to...

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies Plus INVITATION

This morning with the mom and the dad still away on their anniversary trip I decided to actually make the Texas Sheet Cake Cookies that I had acquired ingredients for the other day.  Between then and now the time had been filled with working on the house closing process for Vermont house, visits with friends, trips to swim practice then to a swim meet, and a hundred other small things that tend to take up time and keep forward momentum on our move at a standstill.  With these cookies finished (plus the green jello frogs and bowls of green jello and bananas), I will force myself back to the upper regions to get control of the huge amount of moving stuff.  Fortunately there are offers to take a bunch of the items that I still have clutched in my heart so maybe I can let them go more easily.  A good home is what I want for my treasures...

INVITATION!
Dear One and I have been asked to speak in Church: Next Sunday, 14 July,  at 10:30 A.M.  These will be short talks and not too heavy. Well, if you know me, you know that at least MY talk will not be heavy at all!  Everyone is welcome to attend.   This will be our Sacrament Meeting so we will participate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper prior to the talks.  Following Sacrament Meeting, which is approximately 1 hour in length, there will be Priesthood and Relief Society meetings which are discussions and also about one hour in length.  Everyone is invited to those as well.

Now, on to the Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Either grease a cookie sheet or put parchment paper on a cookie sheet to be ready for the cookie batter.

In a large bowl whisk two eggs and 1/3 cup vegetable oil together until smooth and well-combined.  Stir in one box chocolate cake mix. I used a Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake mix.

Using a medium portion scoop, scoop out the batter onto the prepared cookie sheet or sheets. (Next time I will use a smaller scoop.)

Bake for 7-15 minutes, depending on the size of the mounds of batter (which is pretty thick, by the way).

Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then remove to cooling rack until completely cool.

Icing
In a medium saucepan, place 1/2 cup butter, 3 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa, and 3 Tablespoons milk.  Stir until melted together.

Add 2 2/3 cups confectioner's sugar and stir until smooth. 

Pour over cookies and let set until firm.  (I "licked the spoon" after doing this so I can say the icing is good enough to eat...!)

Store in an airtight container if there are any left over.  Or freeze.

My assessment of the cookies is that they are somewhat this side of a failure.  There are three children and one adult lined up in the kitchen as I type putting dibs on specific cookies.  I have just put eggs in the Instant Pot to hard boil for lunch sandwiches so I am going to hold off the hungry munchers until they can eat some real food, THEN they can have the cookies and green jello frogs for dessert!

Journey's End...for a while

On Sunday we drove from Maryland to Vermont.  Entering Vermont we had a bit of an Oregon welcome as the skies opened up and rain poured down just after crossing the border.  Later on we saw a lovely rainbow.  When we approached our actual journey's end, in one town south east of our home,  was a glorious welcome home rainbow.

When we had crossed the Vermont border the eyes became a little damp.  By the time we got to White River Junction blinking of eyes really fast was taking place.  By the time we got to the interstate exit to home there was no denying the tears.  When we drove up the driveway to our home the sweet sight of our grandchildren waiting in the yard and on the porch met us and the tears fell like rain.  Happy tears and hugs followed, and we were home.  At least for now.

Last evening I was out collecting boxes for give-away stuff.  The sight of a hot air balloon, one of those lovely summer sights here in the Upper Valley, came to my eyes.  This particular balloon was moving very fast.  Usually they just float along in the air but this balloon seemed like it had someplace in mind to go, and needed to get there fast.  It is amazing that there was not even a breath of a breeze down at ground level.

Tonight we go to Concord, New Hampshire to meet with the Stake President who will officially release us from our full-time missionary service, an event which will also probably elicit more tears, but the time has come.  These past two years have been so wonderful, so hard, so filled with new opportunities to grow and to serve, and most importantly, to become even more filled with love and gratitude to our Heavenly Father and our Savior  Jesus Christ for the wonderful lives they have given us and the blessing of being able to return to Their presence one day when our earthly mission is complete.  Taking off the tag will be hard. 

 Being a representative of Jesus Christ for two years has had an indelible effect upon me.  I treasure the experience, and all those people we served with in helping our young missionaries and the many people who called, emailed, or arrived at the mission office with so many needs and wants to be met.  I did the best I could to be of service to them all.  Even the crabby ones.

Now we are on to the next adventure...

Because we need to downsize our goods (our son and his family are buying our big beautiful house), the real work begins.  Forty-six years of kitchenware, paper crafting, wool rug braiding, sewing, quilting, cookbooks, and even knitting "stuff" has to go.  We are putting the stuff to leave the premises in boxes and will offer it to anyone who wants it.  If anyone local reading this is interested,  email me what interests you and it is yours.  The only potential downside for the receivers is that the stuff only leaves as full boxes!  No picking through boxes and taking only three or four items!! Whole boxes go.

Dear One is in charge of the electronic stuff at the bottom of the picture.  I don't know if "his stuff" is on its way out.  Can I say I hope so?!  Of course, he is a hero and has little stuff.  He has already sent me out with a big bag of clothes that went in a yellow donation bin.

This is only a part of the haul to go.  Some of it (genealogy, a few tools, some yarn) we will be moving with us, but much of this needs to find new homes. I cannot in good conscious just toss it.  We will likely be starting over in a new place and certainly in a much smaller home...likely without attic or basement...so you see our dilemma!

And now to work...well, after a good solid nap.  Waking up in the middle of the night is great because I get things done, but is bad because then I have no energy for the day's work...so, to bed.  Have a nice day!  And do email about things you would like to come get.  It will be a few days before it is ready, but soon!

More Travel Thoughts...

May I say that I admire anyone who has to travel for a living?!  Living in motels and out of a suitcase for days and days is beginning to pall on my spirit.  Tonight will be our ninth straight night in a motel.

Some observations (and this comes from our choice of motels, of course...we just want clean sheets, clean floors, and hopefully some sort of breakfast on site so we won't have to go searching for food in the morning...):

Some motels sound really good online.  Some motels do not live up to their advertising.

Some things I now know I do NOT like in a motel:  sandpaper towels, kleenex so thin you need three pieces to even remotely do the job, swimming pool construction, slippery tubs, torn-out smoke alarms, icky harsh carpeting, slippy slide-y toilet seats that are barely attached and cannot seem to be fixed, by me, at least!

Some things I DO like: kind, pleasant desk staff, kind, responsive housekeeping staff, a place to lie down and stretch out after many hours of driving, good air conditioning (it is summer, after all), a comfy easy chair, showers with lots of water coming out of the shower head, a sturdy handle to assist with ingress and egress at the shower.

The very first morning of this set of travel nights (eight in a row, so far, with a few more to go...) I got ready to shower.  I stepped into the tub with my left foot, which, due to the slippery tub, slid like lightening to the far side of the tub.  Fortunately I did not fall down, but my right leg below the knee slammed into the edge of the tub at breakneck speed and instantly brought up a huge painful lump.  Eight days later the pain is abating somewhat but the leg is pretty colorful. I am continuing to wear long skirts to mostly cover the accident.

I know, pretty icky to show, but...if I share the discomfort it alleviates somewhat...don't you think? Pretty much covers the leg from knee to ankle.

I LOVE the handle in this shower.  A nice sturdy grip bar makes showering so much more pleasant. We have several in our shower at home. I love them.  This last motel is the best one.  What am I saying...it is the ONLY motel which had a grab bar worth grabbing.

There was one problem with this shower, however!  

You will see the water roaring out of the shower head at full tilt.  If you know me at all, you will know that I had to jump around in the stall like a scared grasshopper to get even part of my body wet enough to lather up.  I just imagined that I was having a great shower and thought of everything we need to do today.  After a while I gave up and wiped the soap foam off with the towel then rinsed with the washcloth at the sink.  The towels and washcloths in this motel were nice and soft so this was not a trial.

Well, off to look at houses.

Today's Journey

It was hard to hop into the car this morning. We did not actually hop at all.  We sort of took some deep breaths, smiled at each other, then crawled in.  Dear One is so fabulous to do all the driving.  Of course, he is scared to death to ride with me driving, but still...

We passed some cool signs today.

We took the road to the right...

Seeing these signs that were real actual signs in front of us was great.  I love music.  It was amazing how easy it was to find music on the radio! We have spent days now with a lot of empty spaces in the landscape and static on the radio.

One thing I really like about this car is the ability to use Apple Carplay.  We had already been driving for an hour and a half when I took this picture.  I loved the idea that we would arrive at the motel just after 4:00 PM.  Nice thought.  Not even close.  But we are now here, two-plus hours later.

It is nearly impossible to see the sign, BUT we are now back in the Eastern Time Zone for the first time in nearly two years.  One son said, "Welcome home!"  I did feel like we are home.

Tomorrow we will be in South Carolina, and stopped for a few days.

A Long Day On The Road...

Today we started driving in Kansas and ended up in Illinois on our way south and east.  There were so many interesting things to see.

In Missouri, the State roads seem to be named using letters instead of numbers.  Hmmmmm.  That is interesting.

These strange route numbers kept me alert...sort of.

While we were trying to get through St Louis (it took well over an hour due to police cars blocking our lane then a little later a three-car crash which appeared to just pull bumpers off two different cars...the third one seemed to be a bystander...), I happened to see the Gateway Arch.  Out of several dozen tries, this is the best one:

It looks like cars are going to drive right up and over...but they can't.

Somewhat to the east of St. Louis it began to rain.  That was such a blessing.  Driving through St. Louis during rush hour with the already mentioned traffic issues would have been a nightmare with rain added in.  Thank You, Heavenly Father.  Seriously.

This is what we saw during the rainstorm:

It always makes me happy to see a rainbow--because they are so beautiful and because of the rainbow prophecy.  One more year at least...though I cannot remember where to find that prophecy. Someone can remind me.

Finally, we arrived at our motel after nine-plus hours on the road, I wanted to drown our sorrows in food.  Dear One just wanted to drop into bed after finding a motel for tomorrow night.  Well, with his good friend, the channel surfer...!  There was a "Grand Buffet" restaurant right next to the motel. I queried the desk attendant who said she could not recommend it. It is a Chinese and American restaurant but she said she advised against it.   Drat!  I love Chinese food.  At least, I love the Asian sauces I have eaten almost universally.  Dear One is not adventurous and thinks he does not like Chinese.  What a disappointment.  So...I crossed the road to a place called Bandanas BBQ.

This is what we ate:

This was Dear One's supper except for the coleslaw.  He LOVES garlic bread.  Also french fries.  What he doesn't love are green beans.  UNLESS they are deep fried!  He ate them ALL!  I was so surprised. I was going to get the fried okra since, after all, we are sort of in the South.  The hostess talked me into the green beans.  I guess I can wait until we get REALLY south to try some okra.  I am thinking fried okra is the way to go to put my toe into the okra-eating pond.  I mean, how can you go wrong with deep fried anything?!  Okra is really an alien food to me at the present time.

This was my bbq salad with pork on top.  They gave me a container of bbq ranch dressing with about 1/2 cup of dressing!  Can you believe that?!  Can you also believe that I used self-control and only used a little bit of that dressing?  That one you can believe. I put most of it in the trash bin. Sadly.

So, now we have an Olmec Bird Monster showing on TV as a possible UFO. I think I have had just about enough for today.  The lovely king-sized bed is calling my name.

Tomorrow we go back at it for another nearly 500 miles. Then only one more day after that to get to South Carolina, our first goal.

Family First, as President Says

We were supposed to continue serving until 21 June but our daughter was marrying on 13 June.  President said we needed to be there.  So we were.  The first day of our trip away from Utah gave us another sweet "family first" experience.

Our niece and her family live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, exactly where we needed to get to to drop down to Fort Collins for our first night of sleep.  We have not seen our niece in many years.  She has moved from a single woman working to become a social worker to a wife, and mother of two children, one of whom went to preschool this past year and one who is two.  Darling children. Sweet family.

M was so kind as to make us sandwiches for our supper to take with us (we really only stopped a few minutes because it was already 6 PM and we had miles to go before we slept, which we were definitely ready to do!  Or at least, we were ready to stop moving...!).  She also went to the work of making us a pan of homemade granola bars from the "Oh She Glows" cookbook, a cookbook I have wanted to get for years but somehow never did.  Now, because these bars are so good, I took the plunge and ordered it to be sent to my sister's home in North Carolina where we hope to end up in ten days or so.

Once again we have seen how kind people are.   We are blessed with a wonderful family.  And that is to say nothing of the fabulous friends we have had throughout our lives.  Live is so sweet with so many kind and loving people surrounding us and interacting with us.

Now...on the road again!