This cold spell we are having makes me hungry for some good old comfort food. Not to many people these days likes soup beans but when I was growing up we always had good food that was inexpensive and still healthy for you. One thing for sure we could count on good old soup beans and corn bread at least twice a month and sometimes more if things were really tight. But when we were kids I can’t remember sitting down to the dinner table and saying we didn’t like something. We were just glad to eat after a good day! I’m sure we didn’t like everything but I am equally sure that we knew to appreciate what the good Lord had provided us with and we ate whatever we had. Even though we didn’t have a lot of material items, we always had food on the table and plenty of it. Grandma would spend most of the day washing and soaking those beans and picking the gravel out of them, and then she would let them cook for several hours. She would fix a big skillet of cornbread, fried cabbage, and okra, and there were plenty of green onions and tomatoes. Sometimes we would have a big piece of ham on the side or she would season the soup beans with the ham. I hope you all enjoy this as much as my family does.



SOUP BEANS



1 pound bag pinto beans

10 to 12 cups water

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 onion (chopped)

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce



Rinse sort and soak your beans and then place your beans, water onion, garlic, salt and pepper in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer until your beans are tender, a couple hours or so. I always take a couple cups of beans when they are almost done and smash them with a fork and put them back into the stock to make the stock a litter thicker. ENJOY