Southern Ham and Beans

A treat tonight- one of J’s Southern family-style meals! Pan-fried ham steak with red-eye gravy, red beans and rice (a mix from a package, but they are damned good), and a pot of J’s family heirloom Virginia half-runner beans that have been passed down for at least four generations by now. They’re a little tougher than your typical haricôts verts, so J puts them in the old-school pressure cooker with some bacon (we’re out of salt pork) to tenderize and flavor them. They’re delicious and grew so well in the garden last year, we’ll be planting more soon.

J baked a skillet cornbread from scratch with onions and Sriracha in it. We started off with a California-syle green salad (lettuce, tomato, avocado, cucumber, carrots and green onions) with the vinaigrette dressing I made the other night. (Did I mention there’s a tutorial on making a vinaigrette salad dressing coming up?)

And to finish off, PIE! Blueberries, cherries and peaches mixed together, with Ben & Jerry’s cinnamon bun ice cream to top it off. Sometimes it really is better to be cooked for than it is to cook!