Photograph by Luisfi Mrs. Homegrown here: I̵7;ve never figured out why sometimes the body craves junk food (e.g. salt and pepper ruffle chips dipped in sour cream with a side of home baked brownies) and other times it craves good food. But fortunately for my system, I̵7;m craving good food now. I dream about fresh cooked beans, succulent greens and garlic laden pickles. The image above makes me salivate. Yet…dried beans are also...

Continue reading…

Welcome back to Bean Fest 2010, our ongoing celebration of the humble dried bean. Last week we got a lot of great tips and hints in the comments. If you haven̵7;t read those, I̵7;d encourage you to take a peek. We also got a couple of recipes via email that we̵7;re going to test out. Thanks, ya̵7;ll! Again, if anyone has a favorite bean recipe, please send it this way ([email protected]). One lesson to take away...

Continue reading…

arian set is that they are traditionally fried in lard. But vegetable oil can be used just as well, and I̵7;d add for the sake of fairness, that real, home cooked lard from well-raised pigs is not such a bad fat. For what it̵7;s worth. To make refried beans you just need to have some cooked beans on hand, the classic choice being pintos.  In Tex-Mex cooking the pintos meant for refritos are first cooked with onion, garlic and a pork rind....

Continue reading…

Mrs. Homegrown here: Welcome back to Bean Fest, our Friday focus on the wonderful world of beans. Our friend, Walton, sent in this recipe, which he got from friends. I don̵7;t know anything about its Serbian-ness–whether this is a traditional dish there, or what. Maybe some of you can enlighten us. (I forgot to ask Walton.) [ETA: Walton wrote in. It is a genuine Serbian dish. The recipe was given to Walton by his friend's mom, Mrs. M...

Continue reading…

allment comes from a cookbook we̵7;ve been trying out over the last week called Vegetarian Dishes from Across the Middle East, by Arto der Haroutunian. These recipes really fit well with our kitchen just now, considering its emphasis on classic summer vegetables (like eggplants, cucumbers and tomatoes) and bulk bin foods like beans and grains. This black-eyed pea appetizer (meze) is of Syrian-Lebanese origin and is easy to prepare. All you...

Continue reading…

photo by wollongonger Welcome to Bean Fridays, our ongoing series highlighting the beautiful bean. We had a brief hint of winter here this week, three days of chilly grey skies and lingering drizzle. I was in heaven–but it didn̵7;t last, and we̵7;re heading into another heat wave. But anyway, that taste of winter put me in the mood for soup. So today I̵7;m going to share my favorite soup recipe. I̵7;m stretching th...

Continue reading…