Mama's Soup Beans

Over at Frugal Upstate the frugal recipe talk has moved on to beans. When I was a kid, my mom made what she called 'soup beans'. I now know everybody else in the world calls them Ham&Beans, but at our house it was Soup Beans. (Of course we also ate Cheese Toasties v. grilled cheese.) This is one of those things I make which needs no real recipe. It is comfort food though, that always reminds me of my mom.

Soup Beans

1 pound navy beans(soak these overnight)
10-12 C water(depends on how soupy you like it)
1 meaty ham hock(you can throw in ham instead if you have it but hamhocks are pretty cheap, or use the leftover one from a ham)
a few good handfuls of chopped onion(1/2-1 onion)

Bring it all to a boil in a large pot or dutch oven. Turn to a simmer and let cook a couple hours (beans should be soft and splitting)

Serve with the obvious cornbread (we like ours a little sweet, sorry southerners). I eat mine with a sprinkling of fresh chopped onion and tabasco. Everyone else just eats them with the cornbread broken up in the bowl. This is good stuff people.

Camp

My Boys are at this camp. My DS is the one towards the beginning climbing the rock wall in the green shirt. He's a star, LOL



In random thoughts, Mel has been painting alot to fill the hours of not having three brothers at home to bicker with.
Me-"Is that a tree?"
Mel-"No, it's a masterpiece."

Very Superior

If I didn't schlump in pj's and use profanity I might be darn near perfect!

118 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Tuna (fish, not a piano)

Over at Frugal Upstate, the topic is tuna. Well, actually it's cheap meals. Last week was eggs. I could have contributed this recipe then too. Eggs and tuna, two, two, two cheap protein sources in one. This I got from a hawaiian site but I changed some things.

12 large fresh eggs
1 whole fresh clove of garlic-smashed, peeled, and minced fine
1 medium round white or yellow onion-peeled, sliced, diced, and chopped fine
1 large ripe red tomato-sliced, diced, and chopped fine
1 green pepper, diced fine
2 cans tuna fish packed in water
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 pinch salt


canola oil for frying
Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and remove any shell particles.
Open 2 cans tuna and water from can into another small bowl. Use a fork to smash up the tuna into mashed tuna flakes.
Add flaked tuna into mixing bowl with eggs and scramble with a wire whisk. Add salt, pepper and mix well. Set aside.
Heat large frying pan and add enough oil. About 4 Tbsp or so.
When oil is almost smoking add onions, garlic, tomatoes, and green pepper. Saute until vegetables are cooked down and wilted. About 5 minutes.
Add scrambled tuna egg mixture to frying pan. Stir it to mix in veggies.
Keep scrambling the eggs until they are set.
Add more oil if needed. Cooking will continue for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Serves 4 I serve this with
a) toast
b) rice (in which case I add fish sauce)
c) pasta (in which case I add anchovies and capers)

Summertime

and the living is easy. If you weren't the one setting up the pool that is.

Too Much

The kids are out of school and evidently we had to cram all of summer into this first week. Swimming, biking, library summer reading (yes, they are nearly done), ball games, cook outs, whew! I'm looking at the calendar amazed. Next week is Bible school and Cub Scout day camp, the next week Girl Scout Day camp (oldest is helping, 9yo is camping), the week after all three boys go to Church camp, then it's the 4th and our town's festival, Boy Scout residence camp for the oldest two boys, then our little vacation and finally the two oldest girls go to church camp (one to camp, one to be a counselor). Then we wind down with summer band. Oh and we have to finish soccer and softball/baseball season, and 4-H. Oldest dd has a babysitting job every other weekend 2-10 and oldest ds is mowing yards for cash. Lazy,hazy days? No one kid is doing that much, it's just the steady stream when you have more than one or two that takes up time. And it's really not bad when you're doing it, but when you start marking days off the calendar it hits you just how busy we are.

Weekend

Finally, after lots of storms Friday night, we had a nice weekend for weather. It almost felt like May just in time for it to be June. Saturday was 3 soccer games, 1 baseball game and my first sunburn of the season. The baby's too. Ooops!
Flowers are friends, not food!

Sunday was Brownie Fly up. As much as being a leader can be a pain, it's been really cool watching these same girls from kindergarten Daisies to now third grade graduate Juniors. They were all so proud of their program.