Blogger Action Day – Year of the Bean

Today my friends at WhattheDucks is celebrating Blogger Action Day in Celebration of Year of the Bean!  This is what their blog said on 1/27/2016:

“To join in, all you have to do is post something about beans, legumes or pulses on your own blog that day .  Share a recipe, upload a photo, write an ode to a chickpea!  Beans are good & blogging is good fun.  Hope to hear from as many bloggers as possible.  Even if some folks don’t know beans about beans, maybe you do!  Happy Year of the Bean, peeps!”

With that being said and being from the South – you just know that my mom is going to celebrate The Black-Eyed Pea.  Black-eyed peas are a staple here in the south.  On the first day of the new year, you have to serve them and collard greens for dinner.  It’s a tradition.  It’s thought by doing so, it brings prosperity to the new year.  And between you and me, mom makes sure they are on the table… you know just in case.

Now dad is not a huge fan of the black-eyed pea.  Therefore mom has to ‘doctor’ them up and give them such a flavor that dad eats an entire dish and then says that was wonderful without knowing what he ate… snorts – sounds like my mom huh?  Well, I’m going to head out because mom says that I don’t need to know how these are cooked.  She has a glint in her eye and I’m thinking it involves pig.  So here you go my friends – mom’s recipe.

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Now, I wasn’t able to make these before today – I know – I know.  There’s been so much going on here at the Hotel Thompson that it’s been unreal.  But I wanted to share with you my recipe for these wonderful understated beans.  Now this picture to the right is off of the internet under a google search of images.  Doesn’t it look amazing?!   They really are – if you’ve never tried them, you *must* at least once.  Now, I’ve asked Bacon to leave the blog because it does involve P.O.R.K. products which we don’t use here unless Bacon is out for the day.  Here’s the recipe to my Spicy Black-Eyed Peas:

UPDATE:  Lori brought it to my attention a very important step that my fast fingers left out – LOL.  The day before you make this recipe, you want to soak your package of black-eyed peas.  Shaking my head – how could I leave this step out?  What I do is the night before, before I go to bed I take a pot and fill it with water and add some salt.  I pour the package of black-eyed beans in the water – enough to cover – and then put the lid on the pan.  I leave this pan on the counter over night while we sleep.  The next day, I will drain them dry for cooking them at brunch/lunch.  The beans absorb the water softening them for cooking this recipe.t

Take 4 slices of any type of bacon that you like.  We prefer the thick cut or pancetta – which ever you have on hand.  I find it easier to go ahead and cut the bacon into small pieces and fry up in your iron skillet – we all have one here in the south 🙂  Once the bacon is done, scoop it out of your skillet and put on a napkin to drain the excess fat.  Put this aside for later.

Take one 16 ounce package of dried black-eyed peas that you have washed and add them to iron skillet that still has your bacon drippings.  Add fresh or a 12 ounce can of diced chilies and stir the two together. Add fresh or a 12 ounce can of diced tomatoes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add 3 cups of water and combine everything together.  Cover the skillet and cook for approximately 1 hour.   Now some people also add a diced onion to the party – we don’t here because Jim doesn’t care for them.  It’s a personal preference what you put in your beans.  While they are cooking, I will usually make some cracklin’ cornbread.

When the beans are done, scoop them out into a bowl and top them with some of your crumbled bacon.  Enjoy.