Mmmm...from Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. After all the leftovers were eaten or frozen, after all the turkey was demolished and a new jar of Hellman's mayo was written on the grocery list...it's another round of comfort food and for Gene and I, the dead mama tour. Those of you who are orphans and from the south (especially who grew up poor) will understand. What did you eat on the night before payday growing up when the larder was getting bare? Brown beans and cornbread. I don't care if it is cheap. That's what makes Gene and I think of home fires burning.
And by the way, it's not pinto beans. Beans are named by color in the Ozarks, not by names. I didn't know that a "brown bean" was a "pinto bean" until I was an adult.
If you think there is a recipe then you'll just have to come to my house and watch while I throw them in the pot because I couldn't tell anyone how to make them to save my soul. I can list the ingredients but that's about it. The only thing I know for sure is that you must use pork and it must be cured, whether that's a hunk of ham or a slab of fatback or a chunk of unsliced bacon from a hog butchered within the family when we were growing up, or now, as adults, purchased from Burger's Smokehouse which has been rated one of the best in the country and worth every penny.
Other than the hunk, chunk, or slab, you need a bay leaf, a clove of garlic, sauteed celery and onion, and I use generous shakes of a house seasoning salt and red pepper flakes.
And here's my cornbread confession: see how yellow those corn muffins are? My grandmother would be so appalled. I grew up in a white cornmeal house. I was told my whole youth that yellow cornmeal is for stock (as in animals), white cornmeal is for people, and cornbread is NOT ever never never sweet. But I bought the corn muffins at the store. I know you'e shocked.
But hey, life goes on. I was and still am in the tail end of National Novel Writing Month and I'm determined to win or get very very close. At this moment, I'm take a break at 21,000 words to write this post. Too bad I can't count it towards my NaNoWriMo entry but I'll make up the time. I'm off work today and it's gloriously rainy, the perfect day for channeling Stephen King and writing my guts out. Anyone who wants to cheer me on and see my periodic word count updates throughout today and tomorrow, click over to my personal blog www.xanga.com/Marie9949
Later gators!