Заработать Форекс Казахстане

I have had a love for music since I was a little girl. My mom taught me piano and as I got older I added a few more instruments to my repertoire including trumpet, French horn, guitar, and recently the ukelele. I now teach piano and it has been a wonderful way to earn money from home (you can learn more about my piano teaching here). If you have any musical abilities, it can be instrument, vocal, theory, etc. then an awesome way to profit from your talent is to sell sheet music online. I just recently added this new side hustle to my repertoire and I&#;m looking forward to having another passive revenue stream going. I recommend selling your music at eunic-brussels.eu If you haven&#;t been to their site before, click here to take a look around. They&#;re a great site that I&#;ve used for my piano students many times! Let me tell you a few reasons why I recommend them, then when you&#;re ready to submit your music, click here to begin selling.

About Sheet Music Plus

• They have over 1,, million print and digital sheet music titles.
• They sell music for choir & voice, piano, instrumental, band & orchestra, religious, and more!
• Thousands of instant downloads available for as low as $ 
• They provide &#;look inside&#; images and sound clips for most products.
• Been around since

Why Sell on Sheet Music Plus

• Earn 45% commission.
• Worldwide exposure to millions of buyers.
• You retain the copyright to your music.
• You can legally arrange s of popular copyrighted songs through ArrangeMe with SMP Press.
• It&#;s free to join and start selling.
• Easy to add mp3 audio clips of your songs.
• You set the price for your arrangements.

How to Start Selling

1. Create your music. I use a program called Noteflight to make the pdf arrangements.
2. Sign up for SMP Press (this is the area for the composers, it&#;s free!)
3. Upload your pdf arrangement.
4. Fill in as much info about the arrangement as you&#;d like. You can include an MP3 sample of the song, add a cover to the pdf, etc.
5. Click the &#;submit your music&#; button and SMP will review your product and then notify you when it&#;s listed. This doesn&#;t usually take long, only about 24 hrs for me.
6. Promote your product. They&#;ll send you a link and promotion ideas.
7. Earn your commission! Get paid via check, Paypal, or SMP gift certificate.

The awesome thing about digital downloads and selling on sites like this is once you&#;ve submitted your music then you&#;re done! You now have a passive income stream that you can work on whenever you have time or never again and still make money! It&#;s similar to how I feel about selling stock photography! Love it!! If you want to check out the first song I submitted click here. My 10 year old helped me compose it!

Now go dust off the old trombone and get your musical juices flowing like back in the good old days of marching band!

LOS ANGELES
July 19,

STRANGER: Malachi Marx
LOCATION: Los Angeles, California
THEME: An afternoon with a gay for pay porn actor/escort

Caution: This interview contains explicit sexual language

“I&#;m not gay and I don&#;t like pornography.”

Not the words you&#;d expect from someone who has made thousands of dollars from performing in gay porn videos and escorting with a mostly male clientele, often with sex involved. But it&#;s exactly how Malachi Marx (not his real name) describes his career being gay for pay.

Malachi, 25, doesn&#;t necessarily look at gay porn as a bad thing; rather, he sees it as work. Hard work that he sometimes struggles to get through, but work nonetheless. His primary focus appears to be on using his career in the sex industry as a means to providing a solid future for his female partner and children.

I knew nothing about the gay for pay industry so wanted to find out more, and Malachi agreed to an interview while I was in California. We&#;d planned on meeting at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant for dinner, but at the last minute Malachi suggested lunch at his place, where he said he could talk more freely. After a short train ride, I was at our arranged meeting spot and he picked me up from the station. Before starting the interview we swung by a delicatessen to pick up some lunch. The site is called Dining With Strangers, after all. We got panini, mine with pesto chicken and Malachi&#;s a turkey artichoke concoction. With something to sate my never-ending appetite, it was off to the interview.

When we first arrived at our place to eat and talk, I met Malachi&#;s female partner (I neglected to ask whether they were just dating or married), tending to one of their young children, so I refrained from asking any porn or escorting questions while I said my hello to the Marx family. Malachi and I had our lunch while we chatted with his partner.

The chicken pesto panino was delicious, tender cuts of meat with a heart attack-inducing amount of mozzarella cheese and an excellent pesto to finish it off. I had some fruit on the side to try and provide something healthy to counteract the massive panini. Great stuff.

Malachi similarly enjoyed his turkey artichoke panini with a pesto salad. I refrained from snatching a taste of his food. But his son got to try some of his dad&#;s panino, and seemed to enjoy it.

The words “doting father” might sound trite, but they could easily be used to describe the way Malachi interacts with his son; very playful, keeping a watchful eye on the kid as he wandered around. Similarly, he&#;s very affectionate with his partner. I&#;m not a huge fan of public displays of affection, but I can say their relationship seemed natural, full of humor, and unforced.

But Malachi&#;s partner wasn&#;t going to stick around for the interview. By design, the couple keep the world of gay porn and escorting separate from their home life. She left to take their child off to play, and I was able to start the tape recorder.

Even though the two don&#;t talk about his current career, Malachi&#;s partner and her first pregnancy is the reason he started doing adult videos for the gay porn website Randy Blue. But escorting came first, a world in which people pay for companionship with typically very attractive men or women, with sex considered by mutual consent and not included in the price of an escort &#; a legal loophole making it a quasi-legal profession. It was primarily crippling debt that pushed him into that industry.

“I was struggling to get above water while waiting tables and doing small time modeling gigs, and it was creating a lot of stress in my life,” Malachi said. He spoke with a gay friend named Carl, a guy who was a former male for male escort turned successful photographer. Carl told Malachi that the “quickest way you can get money is drugs, dancing or escorting and porn.” Malachi had already tried some low-level drug dealing before realizing the risks of jail time far outweighed the financial benefits, and so he started to consider escorting. One thing was certain &#; he didn&#;t want to enter the higher profile world of porn.

“It&#;s just a dick”

The market just wasn&#;t there to be a heterosexual escort, so if he was going to enter the profession; he&#;d have to do it with men. One big problem: Malachi&#;s not gay.

“If I was gay, I would be a lesbian,&#; he joked. I didn’t just jump into it. I was going through a lot of emotions mixed with stress and extreme motivation to make something of myself,” Malachi said. So he turned to his friend Carl for advice on what to do.

Carl said that Malachi could probably get by initially offering nude massages to clients, but that some clients would be expecting more.

“It&#;s just a dick,” Carl told Malachi to try and make him comfortable with jerking a guy off. “When you masturbate you’re touching a dick, it’s just another guy’s dick.” Adopting this mentality &#; combined with debt problems and using a substantial amount of pot &#; was enough for Malachi to get over his strong reluctance to doing anything sexual with men.

Carl “coerced me into it and taught me the ropes,” Malachi said, first with a profile on a site called Rentboy on which male escorts can advertise their, well, companionship for sale.

And the name Malachi? He chose it because “I heard it in my dreams, it&#;s different and Malachi was a prophet, I guess I feel like I&#;ve got something to say.” A quick Google search confirms the religious background of the name, but the conversation was about gay sex for money and not worship, so the questions went back to his life as an escort.

Through Rentboy, Malachi got several clients for massages, and eventually got raunchier when some of the clients offered more money to perform oral sex on him. “It gave me a weird gut feeling and I couldn&#;t believe I was doing it,” he said. But the financial benefit &#; $ a client &#; was too much to pass up. “While I was working, in my mind I had to just keep saying the amount of money I&#;d make. That got me through it.”

After what he described as a long, rough season of learning and accepting all clientele, including women and lesbian couples, Malachi developed a strategy of taking on submissive non-dominating clients that wouldn&#;t try to force him into doing anything he wasn&#;t comfortable with. “I would only go after the easy clients, that ones that just want to suck my dick or give me a hand-job or a massage. I&#;m kind of spoiled in a way because I can really use my looks and my body” to filter out the more dominant clients that might want to push him beyond his comfort level, he said.

One surprise for Malachi was the high number of straight men with families who would hire him. “I started finding out the truth about people and relationships when I started having sex for money,” he said.

For example, there was the ex-KGB Russian client, a 6 foot 3 inch tall man who would show up to Malachi&#;s place with a gun strapped to his belt. “He was a modern day gangster and I kept thinking &#;what the fuck did I get myself into?&#;” But the guy &#; who was married with two children &#; wasn&#;t threatening. He just wanted companionship of various forms.

“I had no life, no freedom, no girl”

Other clients were gay, including a male couple in New York who made Malachi their houseboy in Manhattan. That involved hanging around their place, spending time with them and once a day giving erotic massages to the duo. They even took him to the Hamptons out in Long Island for a gay tea party. That&#;s where Malachi met other potential clients, one who offered to pay him twice what the duo were providing. He politely turned the guy down that night &#; “I was with the couple and I respected them” &#; but he took the man&#;s business card and saw him the following week.

That didn&#;t sit too well with the gay duo from Manhattan, who wanted Malachi to be exclusive to them. “But how do you expect a professional sex worker to be exclusive? I&#;m here to make money and being a houseboy was percent of the time. After a month I couldn&#;t do it anymore. I had no life, no freedom, no girl, I was just bored.” So that&#;s when he switched to one-off meetings with clients.

Malachi&#;s escorting got bigger and progressed, and his comfort level with the work increased to the point where he was having full-on sex with men with money. All the time though he saw it as a means to an end, a way to make money to pay off debts.

Then his partner got pregnant and moved in with him. “I told her not to work, I wanted her to be a stay-at-home mom. After she got pregnant I realized I needed to make more money.”

He started scouting around for other ways to bring home cash. Straight porn offered relatively low wages for men, roughly $ for six hours&#; work. But Malachi saw a Craigslist advert from Randy Blue asking for performers to do solo masturbation scenes. He learned that the take-home pay for a few hours of pleasuring himself in front of a camera would be $2, “It was the only way to control my situation with an unplanned pregnancy and stressful debt, and I was already programmed to perform” from escorting.

Malachi performed for a solo video. After it aired, Randy Blue liked what they saw, and offered Malachi $3, for a guy to perform oral sex on him for a video on their site the following month. “They saw lots of money in me and I saw lots of money in them.” So this mutually financially beneficial relationship blossomed, leading into gay porn magazine covers and photo shoots and pushing his earnings into a previously unachievable category.

“I&#;ve never done anything gay if I haven&#;t been paid for it”

Being a Randy Blue actor gave him “leverage” as an escort. Now clients weren&#;t just going after his looks, they were also paying to enjoy the apparent fantasy of being with a gay porn star. From a few hundred dollars per session, Malachi was now able to charge much higher prices including $2, for an overnight stay or $1, for an out-visit.

The money was good and he certainly hustled. But there was one thought that returned. “There were times where I asked myself, am I gay? Is this just something that I&#;m using as an excuse? And I spent a lot of time exploring that in my mind,” he said.

This was in the thick of his career when he was making close to $25, a month, filming scenes for Randy Blue and hitting five major cities in a week to see clients all over the country (and sometimes the world). That&#;s a lot of sex. “So I explored if I could actually get turned on by a guy. I tried. But I couldn&#;t. The curiosity was answered and I knew I was heterosexual,” he said.

“I appreciate guys, I appreciate male camaraderie. I know what to appreciate out of males but I have no desire to have sex with them for pleasure. I&#;ve never done anything gay if I haven’t been paid for it. I put on a game face, a facade, a character, and I make money” being gay for pay, he added.

I asked Malachi how much longer he intends to stay in the gay for pay world, especially with the money being so bountiful. “It&#;s great money and a fast lifestyle if your mind and body can handle it. But I&#;ll be so glad to get out of it,” he said.

Malachi wants to make enough money to start some non-porn businesses, and when he hits that fiscal goal he&#;s gone. In the meantime, he&#;s writing a book telling stories about the highs and lows and twists and turns of being a sex worker. And there are stories.

For example, there was a Middle East oil prince who offered Malachi $50, to be a personal assistant for a three month period. He&#;d have a paid car and be completely taken care of. Good deal, right? Well, Malachi thought there was something a little off about it. From escorting, he&#;d developed a wide range of contacts so he asked one of his clients for a second opinion. The client read over the prince&#;s e-mails and warned him that it was an attempt to trap Malachi in a sex slavery ring, in which royalty from another country ensnares someone for a year or two &#; or potentially forever.

“Money turns me on”

Malachi suspected what might happen if he went with the prince, so he devised a plan. The prince&#;s assistant picked him up one day in Los Angeles and they went out to Beverly Hills for suit shopping on Rodeo Drive. The assistant even gave Malachi $8, in cash, stuffed inside an envelope. He was meant to meet the prince after that for dinner, but the assistant said there had been a last-minute change of plan and that they&#;d have to drive straight to the airport and fly out to the Middle East.

This is where Malachi&#;s plan kicked in. The car doors were locked, so he asked the driver to wind down the window so he could have a cigarette. The driver complied and the car rolled along toward the airport. Then it stopped at a red light. Not wasting a second, Malachi stuffed the envelope of cash in his pants, threw the burning cigarette on the assistant&#;s lap, jumped out the window, and ran.

He kept on running. He could hear tires screeching on the pavement as the driver frantically tried to turn around and catch the runaway sex worker. Malachi rushed to find a hiding spot, climbing a hotel stairwell and staying out of sight on the building&#;s rooftop for three hours, shaking with adrenaline and fear. Eventually he thought it would be safe to take a peek to see if the prince&#;s men were gone. They were. After deleting his email account and changing phone numbers Malachi gratefully realized he got away from what he said was one of the most dangerous escort situations he faced.

That story might make it into his book, which is still in the works &#; although he originally intended to have the book out by December last year after announcing his retirement from the gay porn and escorting world one month earlier. But problems ensued. Writing the book was much harder than he anticipated, and money woes meant he had to step back in front of the camera in January. After that, he once again announced his retirement and was focused on finishing off the book.

That&#;s when he found out his partner was pregnant again. So money and other needs pulled him back into the escorting and gay porn industry, just as they first got him into it.

Malachi has apparently received some criticism for claiming he “retired” from Randy Blue and the escorting life once or twice before in the past few months. And he notes there is frustration from people who had pre-paid for his book expecting to have read it by now. Malachi is fine with giving refunds to anyone who asks him for one &#; and there have been two such requests &#; but he said most of the people who have paid are willing to wait a little longer, and he wants to deliver.

“I should have waited to announce it later on, I shouldn&#;t have got so excited about it. But I know there&#;s a fun story to write, and it is coming.” He&#;s fixated on finishing the book by September for two reasons; one, it&#;s a contractual deadline to have it out by then, and two &#; more importantly for Malachi &#; “it&#;ll be a healing process for myself to get it all out there.”

Given his general dislike for the work that he does and his declarations of quitting, he acknowledged that it looks odd to retire and return, retire and return. But he said each time he finds himself back in front of the camera it&#;s because of bills to pay and the need for a quick and easy funding source. It&#;s never because of boredom or a desire to be adored by gay men, he said.

Instead, it&#;s just a job for Malachi, who never treated his life in the gay porn world as that of an artistic statement or creative endeavor, and instead looked on it strictly as work.

“Money turns me on, and life without it is off,” he said.

To his critics, Malachi has a simple response. “Fuck yourself.” His more elaborate response, “Everyone has a background, everyone has had problems and everyone has bills to pay.

“You have an expiration date”

“For every one that has some debate or that dislikes me there are that like me. People ask me, &#;How can you be straight&#;? You can. It&#;s just like anybody who worked a job they didn’t enjoy. It&#;s like being a laborer. I was not a laborer in my mind when I was working construction jobs. I didn’t enjoy it. Who enjoys 10 hours of construction in the blistering heat and you’re burned out? I did gay for pay for money. It pays a heck of a lot more and it’s a job. I can program myself to do a j-o-b, especially in these hard economic times.”

Malachi filmed his most recent scene for Randy Blue earlier in July, and he says this one will really be his last for them &#; barring the need for more funds.

He said it was stressful getting back in front of the camera, surrounded by blinding fluorescent lights while getting it on with another man. “It was difficult. There&#;s this intense heat from the lights shining on you, and four crew people are watching you, and it&#;s stop-go, stop-go. I had the biggest headache and I came home and I threw up. It fucked me up.”

For Malachi, the experience brought back the lowest points about being gay for pay. “There were times when I&#;d come home sick, I didn’t know who I was.” He said he managed to clear his thoughts up and stay focused by concentrating on the money he&#;d make from a client or video. During those sessions, he&#;d mentally fixate on the various girlfriends he had (which his partner allowed and had often participated with) and earnings in order to get through it.

Still, he had some positive experiences from his career, meeting people from all walks of life and professions and learning a lot about being a businessman because many of his clients were self-made millionaires. “It was so beneficial to listen to their successes and mistakes,” he said.

“Sex sells”

Now he&#;s focused on getting the book out the way and putting the gay for pay world behind him for good &#; and not as another temporary retirement.

He&#;s been offered thousands of dollars from a well-known porn producer (not Randy Blue) to do a scene, and an even more substantial sum to do a video that would involve urinating on guys. Apparently that pays well. But not well enough to keep him doing it forever. He&#;s ready to get out, ready to finish his book and be done with the world of gay for pay. From the start, he made a conscious decision to make an “extreme separation” between his home life and his work life. He also devoted a lot of his time to his family whenever he was off-camera or not with a client.

“A lot of guys that get into gay for pay don&#;t have an outlet like a family, and they get off on people really liking them and/or they have a vice or addiction they need to fund, but you need to have a plan of action,” he said. “You&#;re going to hit 40 and your sexy looks won’t sell. You have an expiration date.”

Malachi is keenly aware that the sex industry is superficial and that once his book is done and he&#;s permanently retired, people will soon forget him. “In a few years nobody is going to know who I am. There will be a fresh face, a new great looking guy, a new kid in town. Yeah, there will still be Malachi videos, but that will be in the past. Nobody will know where I am or what I&#;m doing.”

What about his family? Suppose one day the Marx children are browsing the Internet and stumble upon information that leads them to discover what they dad did for work?

He sought advice from other escorts and porn actors on how to prevent his children from finding out, and one of those tips was to make a clear separation between his home and work. Even so, most of Malachi&#;s family knows what he does even if they&#;re not too comfortable with it. And if his children find out, he said it&#;s kismet and he will explain that he did it as a way to make money for them. “If it happens, it&#;s supposed to happen, I love them so much and that&#;s why I do everything I do” he said.

It was time to wrap things up. I thanked Malachi for the interview and said goodbye to his partner, who had since returned. As I was leaving Malachi told me one of his favorite phrases, “Money comes easily and frequently.” It seems like being gay for pay brings money frequently, but not necessarily easily. Still, it appears that the lucrative side wins out.

“Sex sells, that&#;s the truth,” Malachi said.

Sometimes I think about the universe&#; they say that it&#;s so big we can&#;t really measure it. The part we can see has a radius of 47 billion light years.

And I think about how in this universe, there are supposedly at least million galaxies.

And I can’t help but think to myself, “Wow. We live in just one of those galaxies.”

But then I remember how even in this galaxy, our constellation, our sun, is just one speck inside the huge dust of it all. In fact, there are billion other stars in our tiny corner of space.

And as I think about how our solar system is so tiny compared to the Milky Way, I can’t help but realize that our earth is just a tiny speck in relation even to that sun, which is just a speck in the galaxy, which is just a speck in the universe.

And even so, even after all that, I can&#;t help but think just how huge the earth seems in comparison to me. And how wondrous.

And after all that, I start to think about what’s on this earth. All the varieties of animals, and how even if we&#;re just counting ants, there are 10 quadrillion walking around.

And how there are 5, species of mammals&#;

And I realize how within all those huge numbers are us humans. A ridiculously low number relative to all the ants and mammals. And even more ridiculous if we are compared to the universe and the galaxy and the sun.

When I was young, I used to get to this point and stop. I would realize how small we are, how pathetically tiny, relative to it the quadrillion ants and the trillions of galaxies and all that&#; and there wasn’t much more to say.

Most of us live our lives trying not to think about this tininess. It’s uncomfortable to remind ourselves of all this.

But, recently, I’ve been thinking about it more. And I think&#; this is the thing: we’re missing a huge element of all this. A part of the equation isn’t being taken into account.

Like what?

Well, let’s start with looking at all the things humanity has created.

From art:

To literature:

To beautiful buildings:

But all that, all that is just a beginning. Because we don’t just create. We also seek to understand. We’re driven to understand. To dig deeper.

From exploring the very space that scares us so much:

To delving into the atoms themselves and beyond:

All that, all that is a sign: a sign of something more going on. That you can’t just look at us as material beings, that live in a material universe (there’s a song about that, right?). No, we’re something more.

Because all of that art, and all of that science, and every other creative and intellectual pursuit we undertake&#; it’s all a reflection of something deeper going on.

What’s that deeper thing? What’s going on beneath it all?

Self awareness.

It’s what takes us from creativity and intellectuality&#; to spirituality.

Because inside us all, we’re aware. Aware that our thoughts and our art and all that, it’s a part of something deep. Beyond the materiality. Beyond the numbers.

And that’s why we’re willing to fight and die, destroy our own materiality, for something deeper:

It’s why we are willing to sacrifice our own material security to create new life:

It’s why we meditate, pray, dream of a better world:

Because we know that time and space are one thing. But souls are something else. And when we erase “soul” from the equation of the universe, we’re essentially cutting ourselves out.

When we cut out souls from the cosmic equation, then we lose the most important truth of all when we realize how small we are.

We forget that it’s not that we’re small. It’s that we’re actually big. Huge.

Out of the quadrillions of animals and organisms on this planet, we’re the only ones with this awareness. This awareness that allows us to create and understand, and ultimately connect to something higher.

Out of the light years and light years of the universe, even if there are others like us, we’re still a rare breed. We’re the only things created with this awareness. With this specific kind of soul that encourages us to delve deep. Even out of all those stars and galaxies, there’s still an insane amount of darkness. To then possess a soul that not just lives in a world radiated by a star, but also to be able to reflect that very light and use it, and make things with it, and use it to help us understand it all&#;

That’s singularly unique.

So, when you take into account our own awareness, our own souls, and realize how insanely unique they are relative to the immensity of the universe&#; when you rip apart all the materiality and see our inherent spirituality&#;

Then you realize we’re not one of the same out of a vast sea of uniformity.

Nope, we’re more like lottery winners. Lottery winners that have won a contest with impossibly low odds. Like as if someone on earth won a billion lottery contests in a row. Literally. That’s how lucky we are.

We’re like the celebrities of the universe. We stand out, above the crowd, so totally more impressive than everything, so unique, so beyond, so special&#;

&#; that we have no choice but to accept that none of this is a coincidence. That this isn’t about math or chance or being lucky, or lotteries. No.

This is about something more. Something deeper. Something that was meant to be.

And that “something” we call G-d.

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

An easy recipe for making the best slow cooker black beans you&#;ll ever taste!

I&#;ve been told I make the best slow cooker black beans ever, but I can&#;t take all the credit. When we were still dating, my husband taught me how his family made Brazilian-style black beans when he was growing up.  His aunt showed me how to make black beans in the slow cooker.  Before that, I thought beans had to cook them in a pressure cooker to get them soft like the canned beans we bought.  (I still remember trying to chew on the crunchy beans we&#;d try to cook at my house when I was growing up! Ha!)

Over the past 16+ years, I&#;ve perfected it.  (High five!)  It&#;s not too difficult, but because I make slow cooker black beans about once a week or so, it was important for me to get it right and I had ample opportunity for practice.  We eat them throughout the week either as a side on top of rice, in soup, or one of my favorite ways, mixed with quinoa and salsa for breakfast.

There are a few secrets to making awesome slow cooker black beans, and it applies to other types of beans and legumes too.

Let&#;s get started!

Flavoring Slow Cooker Black Beans is Important

The difference between the beans I make and other recipes is that I rely heavily on aromatics to flavor the beans as they cook.  It truly does make all the difference.

The aromatics I use:

• Yellow, white, or red onion &#; chopped or halved, it doesn&#;t matter as long as it&#;s in there. If you don&#;t want chopped onion in the cooked beans, use larger pieces so they are easy to remove after cooking. I like to use onion halves while cooking, then add sautéed chopped onion to the beans before we eat them.
• Whole garlic cloves &#; remove after cooking; add fresh garlic when using the beans in a recipe (same as above)
• Bay leaves &#; these are integral!!! Don&#;t be tempted to bypass the bay leaves. The flavor they add is unmatched and really make these the best beans ever. Promise.
• Salt &#; ADDED AT THE END OF COOKING TIME!

In the comments below, you can read what other readers have added to make the recipe their own. Totally add cumin, oregano, paprika, chili powder, or other chopped veggies like celery, chilies or bell peppers. I prefer to make a large plain batch of beans and add those other spices and ingredients when I&#;m making a recipe with the cooked beans. I think of them and use them the same way I do canned beans. But by all means, spice it up!

One of the best things we do is add a ham bone to the pot. (Yes, there&#;s salt in that, but it hasn&#;t made too much of a difference like adding plain salt has.) It becomes the base of Brazilian feijoada (black bean and meat stew) to which we add other meats and sausages.

But, what if you add salt to beans at the beginning of the cooking time?!

Do Beans Have to Be Washed Before Cooking?

Yes! It&#;s VERY important to sort the dried beans and give them a good rinse before before cooking them.

Before you rinse the beans, sort out any small stones, broken, wrinkled, or otherwise misshaped beans.

I will place the dry beans into a large bowl or on a large plate and go through them. I find that black beans are more notorious for stones than other varieties of beans; probably because they are smaller. Dried beans aren&#;t usually washed before they are packaged up. I&#;ve bought dried beans from a local farmer&#;s market that were covered in dust from the field, tons of small rocks, and even bits of grass, weeds, or grain. I don&#;t like eating dirt&#;I don&#;t know about you!

To rinse the beans, you can do one of two things: 1) place them in a large colander (with small holes) or a fine-mesh sieve and rinse under running water, or 2) my preferred way, place the sorted beans in a large bowl of cool water. Agitate the beans with your hands to loosen any dirt, drain through a sieve or colander; repeat until the dirt is gone. The black beans will color the water, so it won&#;t ever &#;run clear.&#; But you should be able to see that there is no longer dirt at the bottom of the bowl.

Do You Have To Soak Beans Before Cooking? What About Boiling Beans First?

Ah, the most frequently asked question! I used to think you HAD to soak beans before cooking until I didn&#;t one time and they cooked in the same amount of time as when I soaked them. This got me to thinking that it probably wasn&#;t an issue when using a slow cooker. I&#;m not sure how much it cuts down on cooking time on the stovetop.

Soaking is thought to help remove anti-nutrients or the extra starches that can cause gas and bloating commonly associated with beans. Personally, I don&#;t believe soaking them makes them all that more digestible, nor do I believe the part of anti-nutrients. Eating beans often will help your body become accustomed to the fiber and starches in the beans and you&#;ll probably end up with less gas and bloating.

This advice (remember I&#;m not an expert per se), does not pertain to kidney beans. They should be boiled first in water, drained and rinsed, then placed in the slow cooker with fresh water. I&#;ve never been sick from eating beans that weren&#;t soaked or boiled, but some may have more sensitivities than I do.

My advice: Do what you think is best for YOU and your family. The slow cooker I use is a high end one and I know that it heats properly and cooks at a high enough temperature. I also use HIGH rather than LOW most often. Like I said, we have never been sick from a pot of beans &#; not even once. I&#;ve cooked hundreds of batches of slow cooker beans with no problem at all.

Read this article from eunic-brussels.eu for more info.

That being said, please read the comments below and inform yourself based on the experiences of others.

Now We Put The Beans, Water, and Aromatics in the Slow Cooker

Everything goes into the slow cooker, except the salt, and is covered with water.

My slow cooker is very large (affiliate link), so I can make 2 pounds or more at a time.  I use around 6 cups of water for each pound of beans.  That is more than enough water. It may seem like too much water, but if too little water is added, the beans might absorb what water there is and burn.  (This may or may not have happened to me a few times.)

You can always drain them later. We like to ladle a bit of the cooking liquid with the beans onto rice &#; it&#;s very flavorful. If I make black bean soup, I will also reserve some of the cooking liquid to flavor the broth.

How Long Do You Cook Slow Cooker Beans?

• For my particular slow cooker(s) I cook the beans on HIGH for 3 hours, or LOW for 6+ hours.
• This varies a little if the beans are older or if I am cooking more than one pound at a time.
• Different brands, sizes, and shapes of slow cookers may vary slightly. Use my directions as a guide and take notes the first few times until you get it just right.

When Do You Add the Salt to Slow Cooker Black Beans?

About 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the lid of the slow cooker and remove a few beans with a spoon and blow on them.  If the skins peel back, the beans are done.  They may still be a little firm. Taste one to be sure. If it&#;s still a little crunchy, the beans need more time. Another hour on HIGH, or a few hours on LOW.

How Much Salt Do You Add To Beans?

I use 1 TABLESPOON per 1 POUND of dry beans. That sounds like a lot of salt, I know! But that salt will absorb into the beans and be just the right amount. Now, if you are on a salt restricted diet, of course you can omit the salt completely or use less. We&#;ve found we like the 1 Tablespoon per pound and that the beans are well-seasoned and ready to eat or use in a recipe.

After stirring in the salt, replace the lid and let them continue cooking for the additional 30 minutes, or longer. If the beans cooked more quickly, I will remove the insert, add the salt and put the lid back and let the beans absorb the salt off the heat.

 

How To Store Slow Cooker Black Beans

The beauty of making a big batch of slow cooker beans is that you can use some now and save some for later.

After cooking the beans and seasoning them, I let them cool completely before transferring to containers or resealable freezer bags for storage.

The beans freeze very well separated into quart or gallon-sized bags. Freezing them in flat layers helps with both storage and thawing. They stack nicely and are easy to slip into a bowl of warm water when you&#;re ready to use them.

The slow cooker black beans will keep for about a week in an airtight container in the fridge. They will keep several months in a normal freezer, or even up to a year in a deep freeze.

How Many Cups Does One Pound of Dry Beans Equal?

One pound of dry beans yields about 5 cups of beans (minus the liquid), which is the equivalent of about 3 (ounce) cans of beans, give or take.

Recipes Made With Slow Cooker Black Beans

These are some of my very favorite recipes that I make over and over again using slow cooker black beans:

• 

  And from some of my favorite bloggers:

  Which Slow Cooker Should I Buy?

  I have owned a few different slow cookers over the years. I started with a CrockPot given to me by a good friend. I loved that slow cooker and used it often until it stopped working. Boo! I then purchased an All-Clad Quart Slow Cooker with a non-stick metal oven- and stovetop-safe insert. I loved that slow cooker dearly, but unfortunately the non-stick coating bubbled and peeled and I believe it became hazardous to keep using it. It also stopped working shortly thereafter or I would have replaced the insert. (Or it might have been our wonky old house and it&#;s crazy electrical system that did it&#;)

  

  Next, not wanting to give up completely on All-Clad, I bought another All-Clad Quart Slow Cooker, but this time with a ceramic inserts. I ADORE THIS SLOW COOKER. But it is a bit more expensive and not always practical for everyone. It&#;s huge, basically. As far as price goes, they have come down a lot. They used to sell for around $ and now you can find them under $

  Because I use my slow cooker numerous times a week, and because I sometimes photograph cookbooks and recipes for clients, I needed an extra slow cooker to keep up with all the slow cooker recipes I photograph. Ha! I added a CrockPot 7-quart slow cooker because they are affordable and work well. (Not as well as my All-Clad, but a decent second place.)

  I have yet to purchase an InstantPot or pressure cooker. I have used one in the past, but I have an irrational fear of both pressure cooking and deep frying. I&#;m trying to overcome both. ;) This year () I will buy an InstantPot and add directions for those that have asked.

Troubleshooting: My Slow Cooker Black Beans Aren&#;t Soft! What Did I Do Wrong?!

First thing, take a deep breath and before you leave a nasty comment, a few things: 1) it&#;s not the recipe. I&#;ve literally made this hundreds of times successfully, as have numerous readers and friends. 2) it&#;s probably not you! I&#;ll explain more below.

Here are common reasons your slow cooker beans didn&#;t turn out:

• The beans were old. This is a tough one because you never really know how long a bag of beans has been hanging out on that grocery store shelf or in that bulk bin. My advice is to purchase beans from somewhere that has a decent turn over of their products. Dust on a bag is a good clue it&#;s been there for awhile. And still, you may get a back of old beans despite your best efforts. They may never get soft even if you cook them for three days. Sorry, it&#;s not you or me, it&#;s the beans.
• Your slow cooker may not be cooking at the proper temperature or there may be something else going on. (Raise your hand if you&#;ve forgotten to turn it on or plug it in&#;just me? Ahem.) Slow cookers wear out. You may have bought a lemon. Your electrical circuit may not be functioning properly. Who knows? If it&#;s not bubbling under the lid when it&#;s on HIGH, you&#;ve got a problem.
• You added salt at the beginning and weren&#;t one of the lucky ones for whom it didn&#;t make a difference. Boo! I&#;m sorry. You can try draining off the water and starting with some fresh water and try again. Or you can cut your losses and remember to save that salt for the end next time.
• Um, it&#;s not any of those things above!!! Yeah, well, I&#;m so sorry I can&#;t be of more help. Sometimes recipes flop. Don&#;t throw your slow cooker out the window or sent me hate mail just yet. Give it another try with another bag of beans and see if that helps.
  

  One Last Thing&#;

  If you have made this recipe for slow cooker black beans and you enjoyed it (or maybe you didn&#;t!) please leave a comment below so other readers can gain from your insight. And if you feel inclined, please rate the recipe as well. Thank you!

   

  Print
  

  • 1lb. black beans, picked over to remove broken or wrinkled beans or small stones
  • 6cups water
  • 1 onion, halved or diced
  • 2&#;3 whole garlic cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tablespoon salt (this seems like a lot, but is fine with this much water, you can use less)

  1. Place the beans in a big bowl, cover with water, agitate the beans a few times to remove any dirt, drain in a colander and rinse again.
  2. Place black beans, onion, garlic cloves, and bay leaf in a slow cooker. Add water.
  3. Cook on high for about hours, testing after 3 hours. To test doneness, spoon out a few beans and blow on them. If the skins peel back, they beans are ready. Taste just to make sure. If all of the water has been absorbed, add more. Beans must stay completely covered to prevent them from burning. If cooking on low for hours, test the beans at the 6 hour point.
  4. Add the salt and let cook, or sit with heat off for another minutes, to absorb the salt. Remove the bay leaf, garlic cloves, and onion before using, if desired.
  5. Use immediately, or allow to cool before transferring beans and some of the cooking liquid to a zipper-lock freezer bag or airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze up to 3 months. If freezing, flatten bag in freezer&#;it makes for easier defrosting. Defrost in warm water.

  Notes

  Variations:
  White beans (Great Northern, Cannelini, navy, black eyed peas)
  -add to the slow cooker: chopped vegetables (carrots, fennel, celery), rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, onion.
  -use in salads, soups, purees, braised (side dish)

  Pinto
  -add to the slow cooker: a few sprigs fresh cilantro, dried oregano, a diced chile (serrano, jalapeno, etc), ground cumin, onion, garlic, bay leaf.
  -use in chili and soups, salads, refried, etc.

  Kidney
  -cook the same way for pinto or black beans
  -for use in Italian soups&#;proceed as for the white beans

  • Author:Lindsey Johnson
  • Prep Time mins
  • Cook Time:4 hours
  • Category:side dish
  • Cuisine:Brazilian, Mexican, American

  Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  

By now we all know we need a vitamin C product in our facial skincare, right? It&#;s a powerhouse ingredient in skincare and a triple threat you should have on your counter right now. Vitamin C is, first of all, an antioxidant, which can help with our skin&#;s natural regeneration process and in repairing damaged skin cells, while fighting damage from UV rays and pollution. It also helps with the appearance of fine lines and skin texture. We we apply vitamin C topically, the acidic reaction on the skin accelerates healing, which promotes production of collagen.

I have reviewed a few of my favs vitamin C products, and happened to find a dupe for one of my favourite more spendy ones. I can&#;t choose a favourite here and love them all &#; in other words I will use whatever is in my drawer and closest to hand, happily.

Jouviance Restructriv Vitamin C Serum is fantastic and one of the best serum formulas I have ever used. 20% stable vitamin C in an opaque dropper bottle that is also spill proof &#; brilliant, with vitamin E to boost the effectiveness of the Vitc and 2 types of hyaluronic to boost hydration. The tiniest drop of product spreads all over my entire face and feels lush and soothing. After a couple weeks of use skin tone is definitely brighter and more even. A FAV, and at $65 CAD for a 30ml bottle it is exceptional value. A must try.

Skinceuticals Phlorectin CF Serum is one of the OG vitamin C products and a real heavy hitter that works really well at improving skin tone and is ideal on oily or acne prone skin. It works beautifully and I definitely It is well suited for oily and acne prone skin however it is at the top of the price point at $ CAD for 30ml. I would have to say that unless you love this formula in particular, there is no reason to spend that much money to get an effective vitamin C serum.

DUPE ALERT!

Indeed Labs Vitamin C24 is not only an incredible and effective vitamin C product, it is also a dupe for another popular vitamin C serum. The instant I squeezed out some Indeed Labs Vitamin C24 into my hand I realized it had a similar texture to the Kiehls Line Reducing Concentrate, which I had used in the past. A quick google showed me the Indeed version contains almost 2 x the effective ingredient. Indeed&#;s has 22% ascorbic acid plus 2% hyaluronic acid, while Kiehl&#;s has % ascorbic acid and 2% hyaluronic acid. The Indeed Labs Vitamin C24 is $ CAD for a 30ml tube and the Kiehls is $82 for 50ml. I don&#;t know why one would pay more for a product with less of the effective ingredient but stranger things have happened. I ADORE Indeed Vitamin C24 and it is a staple in my skincare routine. Use it for a week then tell me how your skin is glowing.

Vivier CE Peptides is more along the lines of the Skinceuticals serum, but in a richer serum that also contains vitamin E combined with peptides to help heal damaged skin. I adore this serum, which is again, at the higher end of the items I reviewed. I started using Vivier CE Peptides after I had IPL treatments and I was babying my virgin skin. I also wanted to be sure I zapped any sun spots in the knick. At $ CAD for 30ml yes this is spendy stuff, but it is a very rich formula and a few drops spread easily over the face and neck. Worth it if you really need to address sun damage on your face.

Related

 For those of you who have read my gear reviews before…you know that I am skeptical of those dudes you see that have all the best gear and look like they just stepped out of an Orvis add…or Sitka…or First Lite…eunic-brussels.eu know the folks I am talking about….I think in Texas they call them  “All Hat & No Cattle”.    Now I love cool gear…light gear….I love things that make my trips in the woods easier and more comfortable.  But I am not one to waste money.  I am not one to outfit myself for an artic expedition when I am just hunting white tails in the Appalachians.    I also am part “cranky old nostalgic guy” (even though I am just in my early 40’s….).  By cranky I mean that I grew hunting in crappy boots and jeans.  When I was in the boy scouts we did not have Gortex and high performance underwear….we had cotton….and some wool….and we froze to death….and we liked it…..

So with all my crankiness behind us….I was cruising Amazon for a light backpacking tent.  A one man, possibly a two man.  I needed room for me, my pack, and my gun.   Cost was a factor…a big factor.  I am in all sorts of social media groups where guys show off their kick ass back country tents that weigh nothing and have stoves and 4 season this and that.  As I said above…I don’t need that.  I needed light weight, I needed a small packable size,  I needed protection from snow and rain, and I needed an affordable price.  After checking out a few dozen tents and reading hundreds of reviews…I settled on this River Country Trekker 2 Tent.  $50 bucks.  Really….I think I paid $69 dollars as I opted for the combination package that came with the trekking poles.  The price was right…for sure!  The reviews were mostly positive.  I had a hard time believing that for way under a hundred bucks I could get a tent that was well under 3 pounds.  I took a chance, ordered it up, and sure enough Amazon Prime shipped it in 48 hours.

Here are the vitals:

• Tent, stuff sack, and 8 stakes are 2 lbs & 12 oz. 
• When packed up, the tent is a littler bigger than a football.  About 12” by 6” by about 6 inches around.
• 42 inches tall, 7 feet long, and 5 feet wide.
• Tent material is PU coated polyester.
• This is not a free standing tent, you need to use two trekking poles or you can use any sticks that are at least 43 inches tall. I think you can do a ridgeline set up with rope in between two trees (I have not done this as of yet).
• Current pricing on Amazon is $ for tent/poles/stuff sack or $ with carbon fiber reinforced aluminum trekking poles check my links below…(I am an amazon affiliate…so if you use my links I can earn a few bucks…thanks in advance).

Please check out my review on YouTube…it may be easier to watch than reading my rambling opinions…eunic-brussels.eu  Here goes.  Seven trips in the past year.  From scouting turkeys, to a brutal rain filled solo turkey hunting trip, fishing with my son Beau, to a few back country deer hunts in the mountains.  This tent has seen degree heat, lots of rain, and falling snow at 30 degrees.  I feel pretty comfortable that I have enough time spent with the Trekker 2 to voice my amateur opinion.

Next, one of the main reasons I bought this tent was the reviews on River Country’s customer service.  Time after time on Amazon, folks that had issues raved about the excellent customer service.   It seemed to me that this company stood buy their products and was genuinely interested in having happy customers.  Well, I like that…and that was enough for me to give them a shot.  Almost a year later, I can raise my hands and testify that River Country does, in fact, have kick ass customer service.  After my summer fishing trip, I realized that I had bent one of the trekking poles.  No big deal really, my fault…eunic-brussels.eu the end of the world.  I emailed customer service to ask if I could purchase the poles direct from them.  Just needed one pole really…but I was fine with buying a new pair.  River Country’s customer service emailed me back in about a day and told me not to worry about paying, they looked up my address from the Amazon order, shipped me two brand new upgraded trekking poles……for free.  Done deal.  Just like that.  And don’t think I am special, read all the on-line reviews of their products.  Never have I read a review where someone did not rave about how great River Country is to work with.  So, if that is not enough to start a little love affair with this company…I don’t know what is.

Next….functionality.  We talked about the weight…and size.  I can tell you that this tent took up minimal space in my pack.  Big marks for size and weight!!  How about the set-up time?  The first time I set up the tent it took me about 4 minutes.  After that, I can set this thing up in about 2 minutes.  Pin down 4 stakes on the corners, prop up the ends with your trekking poles, and secure 4 guy lines.    Again…big marks for simplicity and ease of use.  Now, let’s talk about comfort.  I am 6 feet tall, pounds, and I fit in this tent easily.  They say it is a 2 man eunic-brussels.eu it is really a one man tent with plenty of room for your gear.  Two grown men in this tent would be a little “intimate” if you know what I mean.  For me and my gear….I have to say it is perfect…Big marks again on comfort.  Now for my first beef…eunic-brussels.eusation.  This tent is a single wall tent, so no rain fly.  When the temps were super cold, I had a bunch of condensation inside the tent as I woke in the mornings.  I adjusted the vents on the rear of the tent and positioned my sleeping bag so my head was by the screened door…and this helped A LOT…eunic-brussels.eu the condensation down by about half.  All kidding aside, I have condensation issues in my dollar tent too.  Some super smart guys say you exhale the equivalent of a pint of water while you sleep…so that moisture has to go somewhere.  So, while I am complaining here about condensation….I don’t think it is an issue that is solely with this tent.  Also…I read that using a small candle lantern in your tent at night can cut down on condensation, so I am going to pick one up and give that a shot.  Lastly, is the Trekker 2 waterproof?  Yep!  It is!  I bought some Gear Aid Seam Grip and sealed every seam on this tent before I took to the woods.  I also sprayed it with a normal silicone water proofing spray from Wall Mart. With the super “tub” like floor on this tent and using that seam sealant, I did not have one water intrusion issue…not even in summer South Carolina gully washing thunderstorms.  Big marks again!

Alright…that is all I got&#;.thanks for reading, thanks for watching, leave a comment if you can about your experiences with the River Country Trekker 2.  I was so impressed after using this tent for a year that I just bought the Trekker 2V.  River Country is shipping as I am typing this and I should have it in a day or two.  I will put up a review of the 2V after I get some time under my belt.  It looks totally cool…..a two wall version of the Trekker 2 with a vestibule.  If the 2V can hold up like the Trekker 2….it will be a killer tent for an amazing price.

Thanks, and check us on Facebook, Flipboard, Instagram, and Twitter,

C

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During Lindsey Stirling’s set I was thinking, “Damn, this is a hard act to follow!” So powerful and surely inspirational to every one at Walnut Creek last night.

Lindsey StirlingI wasn&#;t sure what to expect with the full orchestration for Evanescence, just how it was going to play out after being pummeled into paste by Stirling’s bow.
However, Evanescence was truly magnificent, extraordinary and magical. I just wish we had more than the proverbial three songs to shoot…there was a lot going on!
For this performance, we were shooting from “The Soundboard” which means at Walnut Creek, about 40 yards or so out from the stage. Understandable as you need some distance to work out whats going on here. So, when ever I hear “The Soundboard”, I pack my Canon mm , and I brought the as well to get a few shots of the whole stage. The exposure settings were in the range of a shutter speed of at F with an ISO of during Lindsey’s opener to accommodate daylight mixed with spotlights, and the same for the more dramatic lighting with the spots for Evanescence.

Evanescence