a cleaning fool plus a recipe

My friend Lily gave me the best gift...my cleaning lady (who I used to have clean my house every other week when I was working full-time) is coming to to deep clean my house tomorrow.  I am so excited.  There's nothing like having your entire house, baseboards to ceiling fans, all clean and sparkly at once!  A clean organized house is truly perfect harmony for me.  Oh and it always smells so good.  So today, I've been pre-cleaning...picking up, cleaning out closets, putting away the piles that accumulate in each room over the course of the week, so that my cleaning lady can get to work without random stuff in her way.  Thank you so much Lily, what a fantastic gift! 

I've been working on cleaning out my freezer and today I made slow cooker pinto beans with a couple of ham hocks that needed to be used.  Here's the recipe.  It's adapted from Paula Deen...and doesn't call for any butter!  Here's to a clean house and slow cooker recipes...two things that make life simple...

Slow Cooker Pinto Beans

Adapted from a recipe by Paula Deen @ foodnetwork.com

1 pound dry pinto beans
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 pound ham hocks
4 cups water
1 onion, chopped

1 jalepeno, minced with ribs and seeds removed

1 large tomato, cut into large chunks

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

Wash the beans and soak overnight in cold water. Drain the beans and dump into slow cooker. Stir in chili powder and oregano.

If using ham hock: Add ham hock to slow cooker with beans.  Add water until ham hock is completely covered.

Add onion, jalepeno, tomato, and garlic to slow cooker with beans and meat. Stir well. Cover the pot and cook on high until beans are very tender, about 5 hours.

 

Comments

[kelly]

yeah for cleaning!....and someone else doing it.
Super.

[Helen]

What an awesome gift idea! I never thought of doing that for someone. I must check into that for my very busy single mom friends. Shoot, maybe even for me as a birthday gift to myself! You are blessed to have such a thoughtful circle of friends.