Red Beans & Rice

Red beans and rice is true Southern Comfort Food. It's also one of my husbands favorite dishes. Now just so you don't think he does all the cooking, he is actually the one that taught me how to do the red beans, but I took over.

We cook ours in the crock pot!!! The crock pot is a great invention, and I believe that we are on our 3rd in less than ten years so we use it alot! 

So story time! A few years into our marriage I went away on the church's women retreat to the beach, leaving my poor husband to fend for himself, he was over the moon to have some quiet time. Anyhow back then I didn't care for red beans, my food tastes have changed since becoming a mother, I don't know if pregnancy did something to me or simply not having the time to think about what I am eating did it. Back to the story. His survival plan was to make a huge pot of red beans. I was only gone for 3 days!!!! So while a group of us were sitting on the beach one asked me what Ken was doing for food that weekend and I told her that he was eating beans. She asked did he cook them himself and how and I told her that he used the crock pot. She had a complete fit and exclaimed that you can't cook beans in a crock pot. Well he is proof that you can because we do and usually twice a month in the form of white and red beans.

I was very proud of myself this time around because I made some homemade corn bread from scratch.

When my husband would visit his grandparents who were farmers they would eat alot of corn bread and made the old fashioned way. I turned to Pioneer Woman's cookbook and it's a good recipe but I think I would skip the cooking in on the stove top for a minute and the shortening because it had too much of a crust. Here is a link to her recipe Pioneer Woman Skillet Cornbread and buy her book, Amazon listing, it's wonderful, interesting, funny, and not just a cookbook, her photography is awesome. 

Back to the beans, I really slave hard over the store with this one, NOT! I usually put the pot on the last thing the night before we are going to eat them, around 10pm and then add the sausage around lunch time, 12pm, the day of. I love this dish because it's minimum effort cooking. And it also freezes well so if you don't fancy left overs then freeze for another night. Now tell me how is cooking something out of a box easier?

Anyhow yet again there is no exact recipe so I will do my best to provide one!!!

Red Beans & Rice

Ingredients:

2 lbs red kidney beans (dried)

1.5 lbs of smoked sausage (I use Manda Pork) cut into 2 inch pieces

Tony's seasoning

Water

Directions:

1. Empty the beans into the crockpot and fill to the top with water. It might seem like a lot of water but those beans will suck it up. Oh and use a large crockpot! Then sprinkle with Tony's, again as always do this to taste! We like it spicy so I sprinkle a lot!

2. Cook on high for at least 12 hours.

3. About 6 or 7 hours before serving add the sausage and continue to cook on high until done.

To complete the meal, serve with hot cooked rice, corn bread and a salad for something green on the plate!

Happy Home Cooking!