Make beans without soaking – and live without being offended

Today before I teach you how to make dried beans without soaking them I’m going to talk about a subject that I may have talked about before on Southern Plate, but I’m really in the mood to talk about it today so I don’t really care if I’ve talked about it before. I love that I get to make the rules over things like this! 🙂

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with someone about my “career”. I have to put that in quotes because it’s just tooo funny for me to say in a serious tone. If I had set out to have a “career” that would be one thing, but this all just kinda happened so rather than see myself as someone steadily setting and meeting goals, I just see myself as someone working as hard as I can, enjoying the ride, and not really expecting anything else to happen but appreciating it when it does. I’m pretty sure careers are more focused than that, but I digress (as is my gift)

Anyway, they said something and paused suddenly, afraid they had inadvertently said something that might offend me. I sensed it and laughed as I said “Look, don’t you worry about offending me. I don’t get offended. Even if you tried to offend me, you’d still fail.”

But I could understand the trepidation about offending someone, as it seems to be all the rage these days, and so many people have to worry if they will “accidentally” offend someone.

I’ve been looking, checking out the web and news outlets, asking around, and for the life of me I can’t seem to find out who is offering the prize for being the most offended or what that prize is, but there sure are a lot of people taking the competition seriously. Sometimes it seems like folks just wake up looking for the first opportunity to be offended.

And trust me, I realize that so much of what is out there is offensive, but goodness knows I don’t have time to stop what I’m doing and be offended by it!

The thing to remember is that most of the time, 90% at the very least, when we are offended by something, no offense was intended. And the other 10% of the time, when someone was actively trying to offend us, well people and situations like that certainly don’t deserve the attention we’d give it by bothering to take offense.

Christy’s first rule of not being offended: Don’t take a paper cut and turn it into a sword wound. 

I’ve learned that it is best to assume the best of people and have found that to be a good general policy in daily life (my attitude changes in dark alleys, mind you).

Christy’s second rule of not being offended: When you assume the best in someone and they disappoint you, it is a reflection on who they are. 

When you assume the worst of someone, regardless of how they behave, it is a reflection on who you are. 

Oh I know it can be hard starting out. Sometimes the drama of being offended is hard to resist, but resisting it has it’s own rewards so I decided to list a few of them 🙂

Christy’s Handy Dandy List of Reasons Not To be Offended:

I’m referring to myself in third person a lot today, but let’s just roll with it…

1. People can enjoy being around you. Being friends with an easily offended person is exhausting. Truly. Here is an example from my teen years but there are just as many silly examples around us today, and I’m sure you can find a few in your own life: There was a precious person I knew in my younger days who was always upset over something, someone had always hurt her feelings. Eventually, each of her friends ended up taking turns being that one person who had to apologize and then try to make it up to her. It got ridiculous. My turn came when I referred to her boyfriend as “my friend” in front of her. She was heartbroken that I’d used the term “my” with regards to her boyfriend and paraded her personal agony around school for well over a week until the next opportunity for offense came up to take the heat off my transgression.

That was when I came up with Christy’s third rule of not being offended: “Folks who complain about always having their toes stepped on need to look at how far they are sticking their feet out” and decided to keep my feet as close to me as possible. This attitude has served me well for a couple of decades now.

My dear aunt reminded me of a great quote from Dolly Parton that goes well with this “Get down off the cross, honey. Somebody needs the wood.

2. Being easily offended is draining to you, too. Imagine being at peace. having a smile on your face and laying in the sunshine absorbing the warmth and happiness of life. Being offended is opposite of that

3. Being offended is a distraction that hinders the ability to appreciate and notice the good things in your life. It takes a lot of energy, focus, and effort to be offended. We may not want to see it that way, but being offended is an action and actions require energy to back them up. We can take that same energy and put it into being happy and looking for the good in situations. If you’re going to be using your energy to gain traction on a road, don’t you want it to be on a road that leads to a good place?

4. Being easily offended is the sign of a fool. Wow, impact statement! I thought of saying “is not the sign of a wise person” but decided to just quote Proverbs instead. Either way, your Mama didn’t raise no fool. Proverbs 12:16 

Disclaimer time (kinda like Hammer Time! only different): Now I’m not talking about someone infringing on your rights. I’m not talking about someone stepping over the line in a big way. I’m talking about the little things. The petty things that we should let slide right off of us but instead we choose to let them stick to us like lint to velcro. Velcro is a bristly, uncomfortable thing. Don’t be velcro.

Sometimes, people themselves are just offensive. A while back, I spent a day working with one of the most offensive human beings ever to be born on this planet. On every level that I can possibly imagine I had a justified, sanctified, right to be offended. I endured it, I got over it. Rather than being offended for myself I felt sorry for him and all that have to endure him while I no longer have to. I had a victory party after that day – and a few showers.

I have friends who, because of situations on their lives vs situations in the world, have more right than anyone I know to walk around being offended all day long. Rather than do that though, they bob along happily, almost dancing on top of the storm clouds of life – just because they’ve decided not to be offended.

I’m so grateful for the example of people like that.

It is to a man’s credit to be quick to listen, slow to offend, and slow to speak. (James 1:19)

There is something to be said for being an even keeled person with a heart that shows grace to others. You know those people, you just feel relaxed in their presence. You know you can’t accidentally offend them because they are not looking for offense. Instead, they assume the best in you. I’ve been around those people enough that I want to be one of those people.

I decided a few years back to stop being offended. Life is dramatic enough without me manufacturing more.

Slow to take offense. Quick to love.

That’s the stuff.

Alright, so eventually I have to talk about food so here’s the deal. Today I’m going to show you how to make dried beans without soaking them ahead of time and without having to pay any attention to them during the cooking process.

Because I’m too unorganized to remember to soak my beans most of the time and I prefer to be neglectful of food that I’m cooking whenever possible.

There are many virtues to dried beans. They are a great source of protein for meatless meals, they taste AWESOME, I grew up on them, and they are a much more budget friendly than canned ones but at the end of the day, sometimes you just need a big bowl of pintos and cornbread for supper. It’s good for the soul.

This method and recipe is not just for pintos though. You can use this to make any type of dried bean you like: Pintos, navy beans, northern beans, black eyed peas, black beans, limas, etc. If it’s a dried bean, you can cook them this way, without soaking. Just take your favorite bean and picture it in the photos of this recipe because it will work.

So lets get started.

You’ll need: Slow Cooker, beans, salt, pepper, water, and preferably a ham bone smoked turkey leg to season it with. Pepper is not pictured here and is optional. I use it but I don’t force it to have it’s picture taken when it’s not in the mood.

Sort your dried beans and place them in a slow cooker with your turkey leg.

By “sorting” I mean look through them a handful at a time and make sure there are no stones. This is just part of life with dried beans. Sometimes, while being harvested, stones hop up from the fields and the machines can’t tell them from the beans so we have to do that on this end.

Add in your salt (and pepper if using)

This quantity pictured is a measurement my grandmama refers to as “a good bit”.

Fill up with water, to about an inch from the top.

Cook on low 8 hours. You can cook them for longer than that if work keeps you away. I have cooked mine up to ten before, no worries. As long as you have a fairly new model slow cooker (I recommend one that has been purchased within the last five years) and enough water in there, it’ll be just fine.

I often cook these overnight and then turn the setting to warm during the day so I can have them for lunch and supper but they also work great to put on first thing in the morning for supper that evening.

When you remove your lid, poke at the turkey a bit until it all falls off the bone, then stir it up in there – but throw the bone away because you probably don’t wanna eat that 🙂

Note: The color of the walls in my kitchen are “sweet buttered corn“, not “putrid peas mashed together with a lemon” as my camera and lighting portray it in these photos 🙂

DIG IN!

Pictured here are these beans topped with Pickled Onions and Mama’s Mexican Cornbread.

WHOOWEEE, What a meal! And that folks is how to make dried beans without soaking!

Make Beans Without Soaking

Let me show you how to make dried beans without soaking them ahead of time and without having to pay any attention to them during the cooking process.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Keyword: beans

Servings: 4

Calories: 215kcal

Ingredients

• 12-24 ounces Dried Beans of your choice
• smoked turkey leg
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper optional
• 6 quart slow cooker

Instructions

• Place turkey leg in slow cooker. Sort beans and pour on top.
• Add seasonings.
• Completely cover with water and fill slow cooker to within one inch of the top. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Nutrition

Calories: 215kcal

Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

~Rene Descartes