Beans Beans, the musical fruit!!

Are you all sick of my food craze this week? Huh? Huh? I know, but it's sort of a blah week, and nothing exciting is happening, and I'm COOKING!!!! Please meet my sous-chef, Mr. Perfectly!! He's chopping my jalapeno peppers for me. Isn't that nice??

Today, I'm making Ham-n-beans, or ham and bean soup......depends on what you want to call it. We probably make a soup version, as it is....well....SOUPY!! Not thick and stew-ish (if ham-n-beans can be stewish). I also make a Tex-Mex corn bread.....I used to think I didn't like it.....because overall I'm not a corn bread fan at all. Just not a corn fan in general, I guess. But over the years, I've decided that this Tex-mex corn bread is really awesome. REALLY awesome!

Oh, we also bought whole chicken's on sale today and are roasting them. For what? I don't know. We use chicken meat for ALOT of stuff.........so we can always use cooked chicken around for those quick meals, or for some of our favorites....like barbeque chicken nachos!! My in laws gave us a crock pot bbq pit--they didn't enjoy it, and thought we might. We cooked the ham in it the other night and are now trying roast chicken out.

Anyway, we decided to roast these chickens to have on hand.....I buy alot of rotisserie chickens, and they are good!! It's just nice to have stuff on hand.....

So, on with the recipe fest!!

HAM-N-BEANS

1 lg onion diced
4 ribs celery finely sliced or chopped
4 carrots, finely sliced or chopped
1 smoked ham bone, when carving, plan ahead and leave some meat on the bone!! (no ham bone? buy smoked pork shanks or hocks to flavor broth, then use a small ham steak to add some shredded meat)
2 quarts chicken broth/stock
1 lbs great northern beans or navy beans soaked overnight (or use quick soak method on package)
oil for saute

Saute your chopped veggies in oil til tender. Add broth and bones---simmer for an hour or so. Add beans and cook for an additional couple of hours....viola!! Ham and bean soup!! You may want to take out the big bone and/or hock pieces for serving.

Tex-Mex cornbread

1 beaten egg
1 c yellow self rising corn meal mix (you can use white too)
1 8 oz can creamed corn (I use full can and double recipe)
1/2 c milk
2T melted shortning or oil (I use oil)
1 T sugar (Personally, I omit...I hate sweet cornbread)
4 oz (one cup) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2T finely chopped jalapeno peppers or other spicy green chili

mix all ingredients and put into a greased 8 in square pan, and bake at 450 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Now tell me.......isn't this just an awesome fall day meal? Yummy!!

Okay, now for the weirdness of my family. You can use a small amount of prepared (or other kinds you like)mustard in your beans for additonal flavor. Mr. Perfectly and Perfectly's dad swear by this.........Me? I don't eat it like that.

toodles for now, kids!!