Beans, Greens, and Things

After yesterday's raw food fast, I gained a whole new appreciation for cooked food. I'm pretty sure I could never go 100% raw (or even 50% raw). Raw food is nice and all, but nothing beats a steaming, hot soul-soothing bowl of beans and kale with cornbread. So that's exactly what I whipped up tonight:


Everything in this bowl was grown within 100 miles of my apartment (well, except for the seasonings). The beans came from Northeast Arkansas. My Granny gave me a bag of what she called "agriculture beans" the last time I visited, and she got them from someone's garden. I'd never heard of an agri bean before, but they taste like a regular brown bean. The green stuff is kale I picked up at the Memphis Farmer's Market on Saturday.

Seasoned with a little Liquid Smoke (yea, not local but whatev), Cavendar's seasoning (made in Arkansas, but not likely sourced there), and Greens Seasoning, this was one delicious bowl of beans.

Of course, you can't eat beans without cornbread! I needed to test the Whole Wheat Buttermilk Cornbread recipe for my cookbook anyhow, so this was a great opportunity.


I'm not going to give out my secret recipe, but I will say that I was pretty impressed with this cornbread. I developed the recipe before giving up white flour, so this was the first time I made it with whole wheat pastry flour. I dare say it's actually better with whole wheat...and of course, I baked it in my cast iron skillet. I also add frozen corn to my cornbread although growing up, we never ate it that way.