My Mom's Bean Soup

Although we lived in Alabama, my parents were from Ohio. I guess the northerners eat bean soup as a sign of high and prosperity in the New Year because that's we always had come January 1. It wasn't until I married a Georgia born and bred boy that I learned the southerners ate black eyed peas on New Years Day. After being married for 30 years, I still have to make black eyed peas AND bean soup on New Years. Traditions die hard. Enjoy!

MY MOM'S BEAN SOUP (feeds 4)

Ingredients
 
1/2 lb dry navy beans
Ham with bone
1 stalk celery
1 small onion, grated
1/4 tsp soda
3/4 c. tomato juice
2 med carrots, grated
Salt to taste
Bisquick

1. Soak beans for 2 or 3 hours or overnight. Add soda to water and simmer (not boil) for 1/2 to 1 hour. Drain and rinse well.

2. Cover beans again with water and add the ham and bone. Cover pan and cook slowly for 3 hours.

3. Add carrot, celery, onion, tomato juice and salt to taste. Continue cooking for 1 more hour.

4. Add Bisquick dumplings (1 cup Bisquick with enough water to make a dough) in the last 20 minutes. Cook with lid on the pan to help steam the dumplings.

Enjoy!

Oven roasted okra

OMG!  I have a new favorite vegetable!  I adore fried okra, but for several reasons, don't like to cook it at home.  For one thing, it's messy and uses a lot of oil.  Secondly, I'm trying not to eat so many fried foods and third, the coating never stays on the way I want it to.  So, for some odd reason, I thought I'd try to bake it like you do Baked "fried" chicken.  Big mistake.  Tried it several times and never did like it.  It was too bready, or the coating got too hard, etc.

Anyhoo, one day I thought, I'll just try roasting it with olive oil without the coating and see what happens.  This is the easiest thing I've ever done and you simply MUST try it.  The taste of fried okra without the coating, making it low-fat and allergen free!

INGREDIENTS

1 bag of sliced frozen okra
1 T. olive oil
Sea salt

1.  Heat oven to 425 degrees.  I use a really dark pan, so I heated to 400 degrees.  Spray the pan with olive oil spray.

2.  Pour the frozen okra onto the pan and drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil over it.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  I like my okra salty, so I used a teaspoon and a half, but you do it to taste.

3.  Mix it with your hands or spatula and place in oven.

4.  Cook for a total of 25-30 minutes, stirring it after 15.  If the okra hasn't gotten a little black, by the end of the 30 minutes, keep cooking until a lot of the moisture comes out and some of the pieces have become blackened.

5.  Eat and enjoy!

Deconstructed Fried Green Tomatoes

Well, okay so they aren't completely DECONSTRUCTED, but I LOVE Fried Green Tomatoes and I'm avoiding fried foods...for several reasons.  I've been trying to make things I could substitute.  Last time it was an oven baked Fried Green Tomato.  The outside burned and the tomatoes weren't soft enough.  Yuck.  I mean, it was okay, but just not that comfort food feeling that Fried Green Tomatoes gives me.  The sweet and tart softness just makes a yummy right in my mouth!

This one should do the trick, though. It certainly works for me!  It's a very simple polenta (shhhh, I microwaved it) and grilled slices of green tomato. Now, you polenta purists out there will probably not like this because it's more like yellow grits than polenta.  BUT, if you like grits like I do, this is da bomb, only in yellow.

Now for the ingredients:

2 cups water (or broth)
1/2 cup yellow corn meal (the coarser, the better, but any will work fine)
1 tsp salt
olive oil
1/2 T butter
2-3 oz. of cheese (I used a mix of parmesan and a bagged mix of Italian cheese)
2 medium green tomatoes

1.  Spray your indoor grill with cooking spray and begin to heat it up. It's okay if you don't grill the tomatoes, but it gives them some nice grill marks.  If you decide not to grill, just use a non-stick pan.  Cook 5 minutes on each side.

2.  In a 2 quart microwave bowl, mix the water, salt and corn meal.

3.  Cook the cornmeal mixture, covered, in the microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Stir and cook 5 minutes more. You might want to give it a stir during the second 5 minutes a little early.  Depending on your microwave it could cook slower or faster.  You don't need to cook it until it is completely dry, though.

4.  While the polenta cooks, cut the tomatoes into 1/2" slices and coat both sides with olive oil and salt.

5.  When the grill is hot, place the tomatoes on th grill and cook for 5 minutes on each side.  If it's a contact grill, that's a total of 5 minutes.

6.   When the polenta is done, add the butter and the cheeses and stir.
 
7.   And that's it.  Serve the cooked tomatoes over the polenta. Yummmmm! 

If there is any polenta left over, you can let it solidify in a pan, then cut into squares and serve with tomato sauce.  I usually just roll mine in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.  The next time I want polenta, I just cut off a piece!