Day one of the "Cook with What You've Got" Challenge. Sorry, no pictures, but I made something I've been wanting to make for a few weeks, Red Beans & Rice, from the current Cook's Illustrated magazine. I had all the ingredients, since I had been planning this for some time. The only ingredient I didn't have was the andouille sausage, so I substituted some Hungarian garlic sausage that a local church makes twice a year, and a co-worker brings to work. The red beans were from www.ranchogordo.com . I had high hopes for these beans because they are supposed to be very fresh. I soaked them all day on Monday, and then cooked them for a total of 1 1/2 hours with the other ingredients, but they just never got creamy. The flavor of the entire dish was great, but the beans were not the texture that I imagined. I was very proud of myself that I didn't go to the store just to get andouille sausage, that took a lot of willpower! I used beans and rice from my pantry, sausage and chicken stock from the freezer. Also used frozen green peppers from my freezer that have been in there since 2008! (I should freeze them more often, doesn't take much, just cut them up and freeze).