I should have begun this blog using this recipe, but I couldn't find the essential ingredient for the blog: her own testimony. Last fall while she was in the assisted living facility, I had this grand idea to create a cookbook for all of the residents to give as gifts to their families. None of them drove, I reasoned, so they were not likely to be able to select gifts for their loved ones. I was going to interview each and ask them to tell me a story about the recipe they remembered cooking and include those thoughts with the typed recipe.
I thought it was a great idea and fairly simple to do..... until I mentioned it to some of the residents who gave me a good longgggggggg, silent stare. Hhhmmmm, I thought quickly. Where do I go from here? It was only when one brave sweet little lady chimed in as the collective voice of all that the situation became crystal clear. "I don't remember any recipes."
This was going to be more difficult than I thought!
But, I decided to begin with my own momma because I had a bit more confidence that I could coach her along or find the recipe she suggested. Of course, I knew right away which one she would choose and she did! Beans.
It's funny how certain details stand out so vividly among the plethora of random memories we all hold in our heads only to be retrieved at just the right trigger. But I remember the pot she always used to cook them in. It wasn't a heavy pot. Just an aluminum dutch oven with a dome lid. But to us, it meant beans. And I particularly remember how she would "pick" the pintos (a term used for culling the rocks and bad-looking beans from the good) and wash them. I sort of laugh now at how meticulous she was when she picked them. I think beans were sold in the olden days in bulk and had miscellaneous debris mixed into the lot. She probably chomped down on a rock or two in her time, an experience sure to spur careful "picking". You don't find much debris in packaged beans now, but habits are hard to break.
You know the proverbial story of the woman who always cut off the end of the ham before cooking it because her mother had always done it? She eventually asked her mother why she had cut the ham off and she replied that it didn't fit in the pan she had to cook it in. I suspect that is why Momma always used two pans to wash her beans, not a colander, although she had one. Her momma probably didn't own one and would use her hands to scoop the beans from one pan of water to the next, changing the water each time until the water stayed clean. I guess it never occurred to her to use a colander after she acquired one.
She would put them on early in the morning without soaking them and let them simmer most of the day. We could usually expect fried potatoes and cornbread to complete the meal. In the summer, okra might be fried with the potatoes.
She cooked her cornbread either in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove or in a pan in the oven, but either way had to have bacon drippings added for flavor and crunchy surface. While she made her own from self-rising corn meal with just a little flour most of her life, later on she found that Jiffy Cornbread Mix was just fine! (As a matter of fact, in her later years, she though Bush's Pinto Beans were just fine, too!) Oh, contar!
I am including her bean recipe as she remembered (with a little of my help from watching her lo those many years, which are included within brackets []), followed by her thoughts on it.
Momma's Pinto Beans
1-2 lb. dried pinto beans
Pick the beans and wash them.
Cover with water .
Let beans cook for a while [on medium-low heat] before you put the seasonings in:
1-2 t. sugar
Salt [Remember that old recipes often don't have amounts. Probably at least 1 T.]
Bacon drippings.
Simmer most of day.
Mandy Williams
October, 2009
Pick the beans and wash them.
Cover with water .
Let beans cook for a while [on medium-low heat] before you put the seasonings in:
1-2 t. sugar
Salt [Remember that old recipes often don't have amounts. Probably at least 1 T.]
Bacon drippings.
Simmer most of day.
Momma's Story Behind the Beans and a Memory Attached to It:
"When I grew up that's all we had. Day in, day out. Three times a day if we ate three times a day. We raised potatoes and beans so we always had it.
One time the table was set next to an open window (no screen). A cow came up and got hold of the tablecloth (oil cloth) and chewed it until it pulled the dishes in the dishpan off. Probably tin plates, but it scared her to death.
Raised on them [beans]. Still love them.
Momma was hard of hearing so I wouldn't leave her alone. Saturdays my brothers left for town. Momma got her guitar down and [would] sit in the doorway by the road and play and sing. The Rainwaters [neighbors] would sit at their house on the other side of the road and listen to her.
We were raised the hard way, but it was a good lesson."
[Her mother was widowed at an early age with four children to raise when it was difficult for women to get jobs. They would live in tents and go from one farm to the next working the crops. This would have included the Great Depression.]
One time the table was set next to an open window (no screen). A cow came up and got hold of the tablecloth (oil cloth) and chewed it until it pulled the dishes in the dishpan off. Probably tin plates, but it scared her to death.
Raised on them [beans]. Still love them.
Momma was hard of hearing so I wouldn't leave her alone. Saturdays my brothers left for town. Momma got her guitar down and [would] sit in the doorway by the road and play and sing. The Rainwaters [neighbors] would sit at their house on the other side of the road and listen to her.
We were raised the hard way, but it was a good lesson."
[Her mother was widowed at an early age with four children to raise when it was difficult for women to get jobs. They would live in tents and go from one farm to the next working the crops. This would have included the Great Depression.]
Mandy Williams
October, 2009
Momma's dream meal:
Beans
Fried potatoes
Cornbread
Amen! One of mine, too.
I tried cooking them her way and they actually did taste better than my usual offering and very much like hers. The juice was thicker by adding the water gradually. I normally don't have time to watch them the entire day, so I usually soak them. But, Mom, I'll have to give it to you. Your way makes better beans!
I prefer my cornbread a bit more bread-like, so I make it with half cornmeal and half flour. But I suppose my kids will blog about my cornbread. Ya think? Nah!
Beans
Fried potatoes
Cornbread
Amen! One of mine, too.
I tried cooking them her way and they actually did taste better than my usual offering and very much like hers. The juice was thicker by adding the water gradually. I normally don't have time to watch them the entire day, so I usually soak them. But, Mom, I'll have to give it to you. Your way makes better beans!
I prefer my cornbread a bit more bread-like, so I make it with half cornmeal and half flour. But I suppose my kids will blog about my cornbread. Ya think? Nah!
