Baked Barbecue Lima Beans

I love baked beans, and for years I've been trying to replicate the baked lima beans that my family used to get at a local farm market near Pennsylvania's Amish country. I mostly loved the sauce because the beans were always too hard for my taste. Now I know why they were always hard; you must cook the dried beans until they are tender to your liking because once you add tomato-based sauce to the beans they won't get any more tender no matter how long you cook them. Not sure why, but they just won't. I'm sure Alton Brown knows and maybe you can Google one of his shows and find out. In the meantime, you can take my word for it.

Here's my latest attempt and my family thinks it's a winner!

Start with a pound of dried lima beans. Pour them out on the counter and check for any foreign debris (often you will find a pebble or two) or blemished beans and discard those. Scrape the beans into a colander and rinse well, then put them into a pot and cover with at least 4 inches of water. They will swell as they absorb the water. Set the pot in a cool spot over night.

In the morning, drain and rinse the beans again, then continue on with my recipe.

Baked Barbecue Lima Beans

Serves 6

1 lb. dried lima beans
8 oz. bacon, chopped and cooked crisp (reserve 2 T. bacon fat in pan)
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 can tomato soup (14 1/2 ounce)

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Pick over, wash, rinse dried beans and soak as described above. Place beans back into stockpot and cover with water. Salt water heavily (about 1 T.) Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce to medium low and simmer for 1 hour or until just tender. As beans cook, skim the frothy buildup from the surface of the water and discard.

Remove from heat and pour cooked beans into a colander. Rinse with cold water and pour beans into a large bowl. Add cooked bacon to beans.

In same skillet as the one you cooked the bacon, heat reserved bacon fat over medium-high heat and sauté peppers and onions until tender. Add these to the beans and bacon.

Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Gently fold sauce mixture into the bean mixture until incorporated. Pour into a greased 3-quart baking dish. Bake until hot and bubbly, about 1 hour. Enjoy!

Bon Appétit!
Chef Debbie

Day 2 & Two Eggs!

Our little Carolina Wren added another egg to her nest today! Look at the photo below and you'll see the picnic basket that I used for a planter on the front porch, and if you look very closely, you can even see the nest containing the two little eggs. This is exciting!

Cheers!
Chef Debbie

Carolina Wren Nest

While we were at the lake last weekend, a Carolina Wren built her nest in a picnic basket planter on my front porch, and today we found her first egg! Will keep you posted on future egg-laying!

Cheers!
Chef Debbie

One Yummy Thing to do with Squash

Squash is really coming on strong now in my garden and we are loving experimenting. Even Bob's gotten into the swing of things in the kitchen, with his Southern Fried Squash. He tosses sliced squash and Vidalia onions with corn meal and fries it in a tiny bit of canola oil in a heavy skillet. That is how his Aunt Margie always cooked it and she was famous for her fried squash.

I was laid up for a couple of days with a sinus infection and that's all the time it takes for patty pan squash to go from quarter-size to dinner plate size. Patty Pan squash is the pretty white saucer-shaped squash in the photo below.

One of my favorite ways to prepare squash when it gets a bit big is to slice it, dredge it in bread crumbs, and fry it. It makes a bit of a mess in the kitchen, but it's really worth the effort.



Breaded Fried Squash

Serves 2-4 (depending on how hungry your crowd is!)

2 Medium size zucchini, yellow, or patty pan squash, sliced lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup plain flour
2 eggs, beaten with 1/4 c. milk
1 1/2 c. fine dry bread crumbs
Salt & Pepper to taste
Canola oil for frying

Put the flour, egg mixture, and bread crumbs in each of three shallow bowls. Lay out the sliced squash and salt it lightly.

Fill heavy skillet with 1 inch of canola oil. Heat over medium-high heat to frying temp. (See note below about frying temperature.)

Dredge each side of each slice of squash in flour just to dust, then in beaten egg mixture, then in the breadcrumbs, pressing to adhere. Place in the oil as you go and repeat until you have the pan filled in a single layer with the squash. Fry until golden on one side then turn and fry on the other. Drain on a rack-covered baking sheet and keep warm in a 200 degree oven while you fry the rest. Salt lightly before serving.

Note: One easy way to tell when the oil is the right temperature for frying is something that I learned years ago from "Sarah's Secrets," a show that was on the Food Network when the Food Network was worth watching. If you stick the handle end of a wooden spoon straight down into the oil, when it is the right temperature for frying the oil will bubble up all around the wood. Works every time and is spot-on!

Bon Appétit!
Chef Debbie

Breathe...another great post by Leo Babauta

If you haven't subscribed to Zen Habits yet, you are missing some great posts by blogger Leo Babauta. This is one of my favorites and so worth sharing that I'm reposting it (with permission) here today. Enjoy and BREATHE.


Breathe.

Posted: 05 Jul 2009 12:27 PM PDT

Post written by Leo Babauta.

Breathing can transform your life.

If you feel stressed out and overwhelmed, breathe. It will calm you and release the tensions.

If you are worried about something coming up, or caught up in something that already happened, breathe. It will bring you back to the present.

If you are discouraged and have forgotten your purpose in life, breathe. It will remind you about how precious life is, and that each breath in this life is a gift you need to appreciate. Make the most of this gift.

If you have too many tasks to do, or are scattered during your workday, breathe. It will help bring you into focus, to concentrate on the most important task you need to be focusing on right now.

If you are spending time with someone you love, breathe. It will allow you to be present with that person, rather than thinking about work or other things you need to do.

If you are exercising, breathe. It will help you enjoy the exercise, and therefore stick with it for longer.

If you are moving too fast, breathe. It will remind you to slow down, and enjoy life more.

So breathe. And enjoy each moment of this life. They’re too fleeting and few to waste.

—

Tip: Put the word “Breathe” as a screensaver or desktop pic, or put it up as a note on your wall or fridge or on your desk. Then do it every time you see the word.

Cheers!
Chef Debbie

Cancer Boost from Whole Carrots

Sometimes I come across a story that just makes good sense, and this is one of them so I want to share it with you.

If you've ever boiled a red beet you know that if you cut it before boiling it, all the red coloring leeches out into the water....and it stands to reason that many nutrients are moving right along with the color, too. You don't see this as well when you cook carrots because the color is not as vibrant, but the water does take on an orange tinge.

So, when I read this article about why carrots are more nutrtious if they are cooked before cutting, it was one of those "slap your forehead" kinda moments. Of course! And another added benefit is that they are much easier to cut, too, when they are just tender instead of rock hard.

Read on and change the way you have been cooking!

Cancer Boost from Whole Carrots
By Sharon Barbour BBC News

Chef's tip: Chop after cooking

The anti-cancer properties of carrots are more potent if the vegetable is not cut up before cooking, research shows. Scientists found "boiled before cut" carrots contained 25% more of the anti-cancer compound falcarinol than those chopped up first. Experiments on rats fed falcarinol have shown they develop fewer tumours. The Newcastle University study will be presented at NutrEvent, a conference on nutrition and health, to be held in France.

Lead researcher Dr. Kirsten Brandt, from Newcastle University's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, said: "Chopping up your carrots increases the surface area so more of the nutrients leach out into the water while they are cooked. "By keeping them whole and chopping them up afterwards you are locking in nutrients and the taste, so the carrot is better for you all round."

The Newcastle scientist, along with colleagues at the University of Denmark, discovered the health benefits of falcarinol in carrots four years ago. Rats fed on a diet containing carrots or falcarinol were found to be one-third less likely to develop full-scale tumours than those in the control group.

Since then the scientists in Newcastle have been studying what happens when carrots are chopped and cooked. The latest findings show that when carrots are heated, the heat kills the cells, so they lose the ability to hold on to the water inside them, increasing the concentration of falcarinol as the carrots lose water. However, the heat also softens the cell walls, allowing water-soluble compounds such as sugar and vitamin C to be lost via the surface of the tissue, leading to the leaching out of other compounds such as falcarinol. If the carrot is cut before being boiled, the surface area becomes much greater - and so the loss of nutrients is increased.

Dr. Brandt added that in blind taste studies the whole carrots also tasted much better. Eight of ten people favoured the whole vegetables over those that were pre-chopped. This is because the naturally occurring sugars which are responsible for giving the carrot its distinctively sweet flavour were also found in higher concentrations in the carrot that had been cooked whole.

Dr. Brandt said: "The great thing about this is it's a simple way for people to increase their uptake of a compound we know is good for you. "All you need is a bigger saucepan."

Dr. Kat Arney, of the charity Cancer Research UK, remained unconvinced that keeping carrots whole would have any impact on cancer risk. She said: "When it comes to eating, we know that a healthy balanced diet - rich in a range of fruit and vegetables - plays an important part in reducing the risk of many types of cancer, rather than any one specific food."

Mrs. Lochman's Salad

A couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of conducting a wine tasting at the home of one of Charlotte's nicest and most gracious hosts. She invited me to share her beautiful buffet table with her friends after the tasting and then emailed me the recipe for her delicious vegetable salad, which will always make me think of her and the wonderful evening I spent with her and her friends.

This salad makes the best use of all the vegetables that are available at our farmer's markets right now. If you can't get good fresh corn, then substitute it with frozen. This just tastes like summer.

Mrs. Lochman's Salad
(a.k.a. Fresh Zucchini and Corn Salad)

1 ½ lbs. medium zucchini
2 tsp. salt, divided
1 cup fresh corn kernels (cut from 2 ears)
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. sugar
¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
¼ cup thinly sliced basil leaves

Trim off ends of zucchini. Cut into ribbons using a vegetable parer. Place strips in a colander over a bowl. Toss with 1 ½ tsp. salt and let drain, covered in refrigerator, for at least 1 hour. Rinse the zucchini in the colander under cold running water to rinse off some of the excess salt and then drain on paper towels.

If using fresh corn, husk and clean corn. Bring water to boil in large pot and add a tablespoon of salt to the water. Immerse the corn cobs in the water, cover, return to a boil and boil for 10 minutes or until just tender. Remove from water and cool to touch, then slice kernels off cob with a sharp knife.

Whisk together lemon juice, sugar, pepper, and remaining ½ tsp. salt in large bowl. Whisk in olive oil in a slow stream.

Add all veggies to dressing and toss well before serving.
Adjust seasoning if needed. Can be made 6 - 8 hours in advance.

Our icy cold Kakadu Ridge Unoaked Chardonnay was delicious with this salad!
Serves 6.

Cheers!

Chef Debbie