Practical Beans and Things

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend.  My thoughts go out to those that are here after being there, those that are still there, and those that are gone.


I had a pretty fun and uneventful weekend myself  - boyfriend had a birthday and we celebrated by throwing our heads back and yelling "Meat! And Fire!" and a grand old time was had by all here, but I have friends and family going through tough times right now.  I am down to pennies in my coin jar but that's normal for me so we'll survive.  Some advice for them - I learned that in tough times it's good to get back to basics. 

For those that are stressing about things a good hearty bowl of soup, even in the middle of hot summer day, can be soothing. If you don't have one, I suggest picking up a crockpot at your local discount store.  Long and slow really defines a thick soup or a good broth and in summer you REALLY don't want to be using that oven or stove if you can help it.  If you have a grill, that can also be used with a good old fashioned cast iron Dutch oven to pull this off. Even consider an electric hotplate. 

If you have pressure from other stuff don't add to it by filling your house with unnecessary heat if you can help it.  Of course if you're poor and in need of one it can make for a good cheap sauna substitute.  Wrap me in a terrycloth towel, put in my earphones and shimmy while stirring and singing to Bananarama, but then I'm OK with scaring the neighbors.

My crockpot started to do it's thing around nine this morning.  I was looking through my freezer and spotted the last of the ham I had stuck in there.  It seems that when I buy a ham that sucker lasts forever unless I force myself to use the last bits.  I have so far made ham and navy bean soup, ham casserole, ham and eggs, ham salad and ham sandwiches out of it.  I try to stretch that out over a long period of time though.  I can get hammed out pretty quick and it seems to do very well in the deep freeze.

I decided to make soup again and even add more beans, but this time I used my dried black beans. I wash them and then just throw them in.  I never parboil them or soak them over night and the soup comes out just fine. You prep them however you want but I don't have time to be intimidated by a bean.  In goes tons of onions, bell peppers, celery and chives (I have tons of chives from my mom's garden.  They are free and extremely tasty.)  Add beef broth, 1 dried chipotle pepper, oregano, black pepper, cumin, chili powder and the shredded ham.  This simmered all day on high for about 14 hours.  The beans are tender, the vegetables are completely soft and melded in flavors, the ham has worked it's way in ready to caress your taste buds and scented it's way through my kitchen like a ham fairy's kiss.  It's magic time.

I didn't add tomatoes this time around but after the beans are tender you can add a can of diced or crushed or chop up some fresh, however you want to do it.  It's your refrigerator and your leftovers.  Have fun with necessity.


Milton has gone to sleep.  I'm about to.  I'll post a pic in the morning, for now you can just have that image of me scaring the neighbors burned into your mind's eye for the night.