What are These?

The picture above looks like what? Like a nice bowl of field peas with a few snaps, cooked with some peppers and onions, right? Maybe some hamhocks gave it that nice reddish sheen, right? All you’d need is some cornbread, and you’d have good start on a nice hot lunch, right? Well that’s WRONG! It’s a SALAD! Yes, a salad! Earlier this year Alice started making this Marinated Carrot Salad, where she cooks some carrots for a few minutes, then she pours this marinade over them and after a couple hours in the fridge, we’ve got this wonderful salad. It keeps for a week, at least. 

        About a month ago, I came across several pea or bean salads, and decided to try it out. The first time I cooked some dried black beans with nothing in the pot but water. I actually drained the marinade off the Carrot Salad and poured it over the beans. It was pretty good. This time I had a bag of frozen field peas with snaps, and some pork broth I had made from the bones of some smoked boston butts. I just brought them to a boil, and put the top on the pot and let them sit for couple of hours to cool. Then I drained the broth off. I made the marinade, let it cool a bit, and poured it over the peas. The next day, they were a big hit! My son didn’t know what I had done. He served his plate, tried them he said, “Hey, these are cold!” (But he went back for seconds!)

        The picture above looks like what? Like a nice bowl of Red Rice, right? Like you’d find in Charleston, right? Well, that’s RIGHT! I got the recipe from a lady at work, and she’s a Nutrition Specialist! (so it's got to be healthy, right?) You can cook it in a rice steamer, or you can do it in the oven in a covered casserole, (which is what I did.) I used brown rice, and didn’t put the 9 PIECES OF BACON in like it calls for, though I did sauté the onions in Benton’s Bacon grease.  When cooled enough to sample, we did. Then we got a bowl full of it.  There was enough left for a family meal on Sunday, but not much after that. It was a bigger hit than the Pea Salad.  It will be a wonderful new Page, that I’m sure we’ll turn to often.