Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Dark Days 7: More Greens (but dessert too!)

If I wasn't documenting a Dark Days meal, I would never post these photos. They're terrible, taken at suppertime in the dead of winter. The meal was good, though, and it was all local food, so I'm posting it.

Menu: organic black eyed peas, cornbread with local cornmeal, eggs, milk, and butter, and collard greens with local organic bacon; dessert was Peach Kuchen (local peaches from the freezer, local organic whole wheat pastry flour, butter, egg, and homemade yogurt from local milk).


The black eyed peas were cooked long and slow, salted, and then thickened at the very end with a little milk and flour batter.  They were plain and creamy.  Then the collards were spicy, meaty, and touched with vinegar.  A lovely counterpoint.


Family's opinions:
Husband:  Great supper.
Ben, age 3:  I liked the cornbread.
Genevieve, age 6:  I liked the beans.

10 comments:

Naomi Weaver said...

Margo, not only is your peach kuchen delicious, the photo is attractive--worthy of a cookbook actually!

Rhonda said...

I like your "real" photos and the thrifty things you do. The blogs that look like a professional stylist and photographer did them just don't appeal to me.
aren't you up North? blackeyed peas, cornbread in a skillet and collards are so Southern.

Margo said...

Rhonda, yes, I'm up north. But I adore Southern food and my husband and I lived briefly on a farm in red-dirt Georgia. That's where I really learned to make greens.

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

All sounds yummy to me.. but then I am from Mississippi,ha.
Enjoying your blog.

Beth said...

Great comfort food, all of it! Sounds wonderful!

Rebecca said...

Where'd you get your bacon? I fried some local, organic bacon this morning and it never got crisp. It was, bizarrely, like a very, very thin, vaguely smokey pork chop.

Sarah Barry said...

mmmm....i love this meal. we had it on NY.

Polly said...

Yum. That is the food of my childhood, I love it!!!! (Well, not really greens, though I am accepting them as an adult. But beans and cornbread? uh-huh!)

momma-lana said...

I don't know if you will see this or not so late after the post. In the south where I live and black eyed peas are such a staple we thicken them by mashing some at the end of the cooking and then cooking them down to a creamy goodness with the lid off for 20-30 minutes. If they seem to be too wet before the mashing part I just drain off some of the liquid-pot liquor. Then get in there with my potato masher and do a bit of mashing. The mashed beans then thicken the pot and you end up with a creamy gravy like liquid. Yum! If you will be reheating leftover peas then the drained liquid will come in handy for loosening them back up as you reheat.

Margo said...

momma-lana, I get each comment in an email - I don't miss any of them! Thanks for the technique. I'll remember that next time. I do so love simple peas/beans.