String Beans

Thanks to my generous sponsor (Maria), who gave me fresh string beans from their garden. I enjoy these as I cooked them in different dishes.

These string beans are way better than the common string beans that you can find in the stores here.

Dining @ Mom's (last Saturday)

Mom invited us to have dinner with them last Saturday. We had a lot to eat for sure. Look at what we had...

Garlic Bread... one of my favorites

French fries...

Baked Beans.

Devil eggs

Smoked Ribs.

Dan made his very famous smoked ribs which Andrea love so much. Even when Andrea was younger, she will love to munch this ribs. Dan's ribs is the best ... even better than any restaurants we have been to.

Crispy Beans

Jack and Ate Fe visited us today. They live in Florida but they were traveling in different states all the way to Toronto, Canada. On their way home, they wanted to see us, so they spend a night here in Alabama.

We decided to eat out tonight, and we ended up in New China Buffet. I love this buffet because it is very clean and the food is really good. They have many choices. Dinner rolls with honey butter, whole mushrooms, shrimps, sesame chicken, coconut shrimp, fried shrimp, crab legs and so on...

My favorite in their buffet is their crispy beans. I just can't cook something like this. I really wish I can...

Fresh Lima Beans

Thanks to Mom's Garden I have fresh Lima Beans. Since I lived in the South, I learned to eat different beans and peas.... they are part of a southern meal.

We harvested some lima beans when we went to Mom's last weekend. She only planted one row of lima beans and it didn't produce a lot not like the green beans and the purple beans. We were able to harvest enough to cook for a meal. I shelled the pods of the Lima beans and cook it as part of our dinner last night.

Here's my boiled fresh lima beans recipe:

Ingredients:
Lima beans
water
garlic powder
pepper
1 cube of chicken cube
2 slices of bacon

Directions:
Wash the beans thoroughly. Combine all ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer until lima beans become tender. Remove the lima beans from the water through a slotted spoon. Serve.

Baked Beans

Baked beans is one of my favorites. I am always excited when Mom Lori will cook this when we have get together at their house.

I know that I have to learn this recipe if I wanted to eat baked beans at my own dining table. So, this recipe is from Mom Lori that I learned to cook at home and enjoyed eating.


Ingredients:
1 can bake beans
1 medium onion (diced)
1 red bell pepper (diced)
1 green bell pepper (diced)
bacon (cut in small pieces)
sugar
black pepper


Directions:
Cook bacon until light brown. Sautee the onion with the bacon. Add the bell peppers. Cook for a minute. Add the bake beans. Season with black pepper and add sugar (amount of sugar varies depending on how sweet you want your baked beans be). Bring to boil. Remove from heat and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve.

Sauteed bacon, onions and bell pepper

Ready to bake

Baked beans

Black Bean Soup

Black bean soup needs a lot of time before you can eat it. But, after all the time you will spend for cooking this recipe, I am sure you will agree with me that it is worth it. This is a very tasty soup. What is good with this recipe is you can eat it alone and you will be full. Actually, we ate this for our dinner and the left over is still so good that we still eat it the following day.

Ingredients:
1lb black bean (soak overnight)
1 medium size onion (diced)
1 medium size bell pepper (diced)
1lb smoked pork hocks
black pepper
bay leaves
1tsp cooking oil
powdered garlic
salt (to taste)

Directions:
Soak the black beans overnight. Throw half of the water ( if there is a lot left). Put in the big casserole. Sautee onion for a minute. Add bell pepper. Seasoned with black pepper, powdered garlic and salt. Add the sautee'd bell pepper to the soaked black beans. Add pork hocks and bay leaves. Bring to boil. Cook slow for 4 hours. Mix it once in a while and add water if necessary.




Soaked black beans


Sautee'd onions and bell pepper (still steaming hot!)


All the ingredients for black bean soup. Ready to be slow cooked for at least 4 hours


The finish product... introducing black bean soup!