Red Beans and Rice

One of the benefits of an unanticipated telework day is that you can decide to make a dish that takes several hours in the middle of the day….and you can make chocolate chip banana bread to greet the children as they walked in the door after school. 

So as I read reports, I thought about what was in the fridge (meal planning has been vague this week), and Mark Bittman came to the rescue.  I wanted to make a bean dish, and use the one bratburgur from our local butcher that needed to be cooked.  So, I spent my lunch break deciding what to do… “Red Beans and Meat” was the winner.  Not such a fancy title, but a perfect meal given that there was a marching band event that started at 6:30 pm.  What was great is that I had everything I needed…except a ham hock.  So I just made the almost vegetarian version.
While the red beans were simmering,

I browned the bratburger,

and sauteed some onions, and garlic,

added some red and yellow peppers,

and let it bubble for a while.

Then I added a can of diced tomatoes, two bay leaves from our bay plant, some orange mint dried from our garden, some allspice, and the browned bratburger.

And, then we added that to the simmering red beans and let it simmer for a couple of hours….

The kids got home, and devoured the chocolate chip banana bread,

And I made some rice in the rice cooker, and it was nearly time to leave for the Marching Band Festival, and we ate quickly, and I forgot to take a picture of the finished dinner — served with Tabasco and grated cheddar cheese!!  Yummy!

Tags: banana bread, recipe, red beans and rice