Beans and Greens and Stuff

Hey, look at that, it's been a year! I guess I should cook something again. No, check that - it's been a freaking year. I shall cook two things. Please, hold your applause till the end of the recipe.

Thing the First: Rosemary Cornbread

This is a combination of two recipes that I found: the easy parts from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (you know, that red-and-white checked one that is probably the cookbook you own if you only own one cookbook), and the yummy parts from the MACSAC cookbook, "From Asparagus to Zucchini". Here's how it goes.

Materials
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cooking oil
• Kernels from 3 small corncobs
• A few dashes of rosemary

Methods
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Put the butter in one of those round Pyrex pie plates and put it in the oven for a couple minutes till it gets mushy.

Mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Now check the butter; it should be getting runny by now. Take the dish out and swirl it around so the butter covers the bottom and sides of the dish.

Now you can pay attention to the actual food part again. Mix together everything that's left (eggs, milk, oil, corn, rosemary) and add it to the original bowl. Stir it up but leave it lumpy - this is cornbread you're making, for Christ's sake. Put it in the baking dish and bake it for about 20 minutes (mine took slightly longer till a fork inserted in the middle came out clean).

I actually made this on Saturday night, and there was one metric crapload left over. (Believe me - I measured.) So today at lunch time, I looked around what we had left over in the house and threw something together that seemed to go well.

Thing the Second: Beans and Greens (and stuff)

Materials
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1 can of black beans
• a little vegetable oil (something flavorless, or olive oil would probably be okay too)
• smoked chipotle peppers (1-2)
• some spinach. How much? I dunno, as much as you want. How well do you like spinach?

Methods
Cut up the bacon (I use scissors because it's easier) and throw it in the pan. While it's cooking to done-ness, rinse and drain the black beans in the sink. I also opened up a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and diced 2 of them into small pieces. (In retrospect, one probably would have been plenty.) Finally, I tore up a bunch of spinach.

By this time the bacon was done; I added the oil and then the drained beans and chipotles. When they seemed to be getting hot, I added the spinach and cooked until it was soft.

When everything was done, I served it over a slice of leftover cornbread. It was kinda spicy (two glasses of water spicy, to be exact) but still pretty yummy. I bet this would be even better with collard greens instead (I got this idea from a ham, collard greens, and white beans dish I once had at Cracker Barrel, although that was a fair sight blander than what I made).

The Bottom Line: A dish long on southern charm, made without much trouble by this very northern lady.