Stephenson Family Ties The Barn Burnt Down
And Now I See The Moon
Making dinner tonight for Anna and David and Benjamin-- wish MyBuilder were here too!!


White Bean and Ham Soup


White Beans and Ham
1 pound bag Great Northern white beans, picked over and rinsed
1 ham hock
½ tablespoon salt
12 oz bacon ends and pieces, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
In a large soup pot add the beans and salt, and add water to cover plus about 2 inches. Add the ham hock, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 2-3 hours, or until beans are tender and creamy. Meanwhile, cook the bacon ends and pieces in a heavy bottomed pot (like enameled cast iron) over medium-low heat until they’re dark brown, crispy, and most of the fat has rendered out. Using a slotted spoon, take the bacon out and set aside. Pour out the bacon fat, reserving two tablespoons in the pot, and save the rest for another use. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic, cooking over medium heat until tender – scrape up the browned bits of bacon from the bottom of the pan – about 5 minutes.
Add the beans and enough of the cooking water to create a soup-like consistency (I used all my water) adding more if needed. Let the ham hock cool enough to touch, and strip all the remaining meat off the bone and add to the soup. Add back in the bacon pieces. Bring the soup to a simmer and let cook, uncovered, until the soup is the consistency desired. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper as desired.
Serve with warm cornbread and butter.
Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 4 sweet potatoes
  • 4 tsp olive oil
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • Goat cheese, for serving
  • Thyme Vinaigrette
  • For Vinaigrette
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 tsp mustard (I use creole, a spicy brown mustard)
  • 1 Tbsp finely chopped shallot
  • leaves from 1-2 sprigs of thyme
  • 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
  • Salt

Instructions


Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

  1. Preheat oven to 425.
  2. Wash and pat potatoes dry.
  3. Rub each potato with a teaspoon of olive oil.
  4. With a sharp knife, cut slits almost to the bottom (but not all the way through) of each potato.
  5. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme leaves.
  6. Cut butter into chunks and place on top of each potato.
  7. Bake ~45 minutes, or until the center is tender. Crumble goat cheese over top and drizzle with Thyme Vinaigrette.

Thyme Vinaigrette

In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, mustard, shallot and thyme leaves together. Stream in the olive oil while whisking. Salt to taste. Divide among 4 hasselback sweet potatoes.

These were delicious!! Maybe a little more trouble to eat...but very tasty!!! Found HERE

3 comments:

Anna said...

Yummmmm! That's all I can say!!! Thanks mom!!!

mindy said...

I made these both tonight - yum!! I looooved the potatoes (which was surprising - I was more excited to try the soup). Thanks for the yummy recipes!

mindy said...

And congrats to Anna!!