Day Thirty-six--Beans and Cornbread

I'm back in the saddle again. I am posting right after dinner instead of passing out and blogging the following morning. *fist pump*

Seriously though, dinner was a keeper. I call it our "cowboy" dinner. It actually worked today for a couple of reasons. The main reason was the weather was crappy today. It was damp, grey and cold. This dinner was warm and comforting. The other reason is because Connor and I worked pretty much all day on a social studies project (the last one of the year) about the gold rush. He had to draw a map of one of the major trails that led to California. He chose the Oregon-California trail. He had to draw the map and then put at least 3 landmarks on it. He put the major stops on the trail and the Rocky Mountains and a couple of rivers. Then he had to pretend he was a prospector riding on that trail and write a journal describing his travels. It had to be at least 2 pages long. It took us all day and he ended up turning in a 4 page journal with pictures. It was a lot of fun though. Both of us learned a lot and we've decided we want to go see some of the ghost towns left behind.

So, now that I've explained why this dinner was perfect for tonight, let me tell you what we had. We had a big pot of beans and cornbread.

Pinto Beans with cornbread

This dinner evolved from a quick conversation I had with my mom last week. I had the misfortune (for them) to call them just as they were sitting down to dinner and I asked what they were having. They were having beans and cornbread. It struck me as really weird because not ten minutes earlier Tim had said he had been wanting some cornbread. I think I've made cornbread 2 times in our nearly 11 years of marriage. It just all came together at once. The universe aligned, if you will.

Remember when I mentioned yesterday when I said I was procrastinating when I was making menus? Well, I googled beans and cornbread and The Pioneer Woman popped up. This is the blog that I knew my mother watched and I ended up pouring over her blog. It's like eye candy. She is so talented and I'm so jealous. Anyhow, I grabbed this recipe and a couple other ones for this week.

This meal was so easy and dare I say cheap? It was two bags of dried pinto beans and one ham steak. I got the ham steak at the dairy and it was from a local farm that raises healthy little piggies. I just chopped up the ham steak and threw it in the pot with the beans and water. It sat on the stove cooking for a couple of hours. I walked by once in a while and stirred it and added water a couple of times. That's it. Oh, I did throw some salt and pepper in at the end, but that was all. The cornbread came together really fast. I made it in my cast iron skillet. Nancy picked us up a cast iron skillet last year at an auction. I had searched tag sales all summer to find one and couldn't and then she scored one. Thanks Nancy. We use it every day. The cornbread was super easy to make and I loved the crazy sizzle it made when I poured the batter into the hot skillet. I imagined my grandmother making her cornbread the same way.

Cornbread fresh out of the oven.

The dinner was enjoyed by most. We all loved the cornbread (although I will admit it was a little too salty and will use less salt next time) and three of the four of us liked the beans. Connor (shocking) didn't particularly care for the beans. I think part of it was because he knew there were fresh brownies cooling on the counter and wanted to get to dessert. I have a ton leftover so I know what I'll be having for lunch.

I also wanted to share my thoughts about the 5 Minute Artisan Bread book that I got. I've only made two batches of this bread so far. The first time I had to tweak the recipe because I didn't have enough white flour and I had to use whole wheat. It still rose and it tasted alright. It was really salty though. It makes me wonder if our tastes are changing. I usually don't have issues with salt. It's starting to bug me when things are too salty now though. I guess this is to be expected though when we aren't eating any pre-packaged foods anymore. For the second batch, I cut back the salt and had enough flour. The bread is amazing. I've made a fresh loaf of bread every day this week. The dough sits in a container in the fridge and you grab a wad of dough and let it rise for about 40 minutes and then you bake it for 30 minutes. Out comes a beautiful crusty loaf of bread. The crust is so crispy and the inside is so soft and chewy. We are finally starting to go through some of my jams that I made last year.

Fresh out of the oven.

So, all in all, it was a good day to have the oven running because it didn't really get warmer than about 52. It warmed the house up and made it smell so good. Dinner was delish. Blogging done same day. Good day!! Until tomorrow, happy cooking!