Butter Beans

I and my baby brother grew up with all of our cousins on a stretch of a land called Looneyville.  My mother’s father, Bob Looney (Paw) and our grandmother Emma (Granny) had bought the land when our parents were young. When they were older and married my mother and each of my aunts and uncles got a portion of the land for their own this resulted in the creation of Looneyville.

(Me, my brother and all my cousins with my Paw
and Granny Looney) 

Looneyville was a wonderful place to grow up at in the 1960’s and 70’s. It had lots of wide open pasture land, a lake for swimming and pond for fishing. I and my cousins roamed free from house to house playing with each other, spending the night with each other and answering to our aunts and uncles as though they were our parents.  We were not rich people but we were blessed and happy.

Every year when the summer school break rolled around it meant two things for me and my cousins---we would have lots of garden work and if we finished our work we would get to go swimming in Paw’s lake. Garden work was a community affair we all helped each other hoe, weed, gather, shell, string, shuck and put up the goods gathered from each other’s gardens.

 I remember sitting on my Granny’s porch with buckets full of beans and a bowl in my lap. My favorite bean to shell was the speckled butter bean. I loved opening it up and seeing the unique multi-colored tapestry of purple, blue and cream each bean would have. No two beans were ever the same color pattern. But it always amazed and disappointed me that when we would cook these beautiful unique colored beans they would lose their one of a kind beauty and turn into one common uniform brown color.

I think back now I know without doubt my life in Looneyville was my training field for raising a blended family.  We were like a big bowl of speckled butter beans all bunched together each of us unique and special in our own way but we learned to live, work and play together as one big delicious pot of seasoned brown beans where everybody helped each other.

If you are like me you want to make life easier for your children because you may feel guilty for your own mistakes or the mistakes of an absent parent. We over compensate in giving and filling their lives with dance, ball practice and activities so there is no time for them to give, no time for them to serve. 

Uniqueness is important but a lot can be said for learning to serve and giving to others.  When we dwell on just encouraging our children to be “one of a kind” and we fail to also teach them to serve others we end up with a unique beautiful but hard butter bean with no taste.  When we teach them to serve and put others first they have a wonderful flavor and can be used to feed others.

I have included my recipe for Speckled Butter Beans and Lime Lima Beans. I hope you like my version.

 Speckled Butter Beans

1 (32oz) package Fresh Frozen Food Speckled Butter Beans

1       Tsp. canola oil

1       Tbsp. Lawry Red Pepper Seasoning Salt

Salt and Pepper to taste

Place speckled butter beans in pan. Cover with sufficient amount of boiling water and bring to a boil. Add canola oil, reduce heat and cover with lid and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add Red Pepper Seasoning Salt and let simmer 10 – 20 more minutes or until beans are tender.

Lime Lima Beans

 Spray Oil

 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

 1 Tbsp Tones Lime Pepper Seasoning

 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

 1 (16 ounce) package frozen baby lima beans

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, and spray with cooking spray. Saute onions until soft and translucent. Pour in chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Add lima beans, lime pepper seasoning and enough water just to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until beans are tender.

Middle Biscuit Comfort

When I was a girl my grandmother would make a big pan of buttermilk biscuits and she would let me and my brother have the biscuits that were baked in the middle of the pan---the coveted “middle biscuits.” She did this because to her the middle biscuits were the best biscuits in the batch. They are softer and would rise higher than any of the other biscuits.

She would take that hot middle biscuit slice it open and put lots of butter inside of it. Once the butter had melted she would open the biscuit up and spread a great big heaping spoonful of homemade blackberry jam on both sides. Yummmm……

I have so many wonderful memories of times with my grandmother.  She was always so comforting, loving and encouraging. Cooking for her family was just one of the many ways she showed her love for her family.

My mother passed down the love of cooking for family to me and I hope my girls will continue the tradition. There is great comfort in sitting together around a table with family and enjoying a good meal together. It is extremely important for families to crave out some relaxing time together.

I think one of the things that helped us to keep our family together through the hard times is we ate supper together every night. Even when my cousin and her twin daughters moved in with us for six months we would all gather around the table to share our day and fill our bellies.  

Now don't get me wrong there were nights when we were hissing and taking heads off left and right---you have to remember at one point we had 3 teenage girls, one pre-teen and a pre-menopausal woman all under one roof. Poor Bobby he deserves a purple heart.

Life is hard for all families. Getting along with each other requires effort. It takes communication and the dinner table is a wonderful opportunity for families to come together and share. Make sure when you are at the dinner table together you are like my grandmother's middle biscuits soft around the edges so you are able to offer comfort and encouragement  and that you rise high so when criticism or someones bad attitude is present you can keep your head and emotions above it.

I learned to make biscuits when I was twelve and went on to win first place in the state 4H competition for the best biscuits when I was fourteen. I have included the winning recipe for you. Enjoy!

Self-Rising Biscuits

                                                

2    cups Gold Medal® self-rising flour

1/4  cup shortening (solid not oil) 

3/4  cup buttermilk                                           

• Heat oven to 450°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. Place flour in large bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk; stir with fork until soft dough forms and mixture begins to pull away from sides of bowl.
• On lightly floured surface, knead dough just until smooth. Roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with floured 2-inch round cutter. Place biscuits with sides touching on cookie sheet.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Serve warm.

Introduction

Welcome to my first blog post.

 (Daughters back to front Andrea, Amber, Jessica and Bre and our Granddaughters --Ruby Ellis in back and Paisley & Reagan with Bre)

                                        

I am the mother of four beautiful, creative and accomplished young women and the grandmother of three absolutely gorgeous granddaughters---they call me "Nannie."

My husband Bobby and I have been married for over 23 years and we raised our four daughters in a blended family. Bobby brought our oldest daughter who was 6 yrs old into the marriage and I brought our two middle daughters who were 4 & 3 years old. Two years later I gave birth to our youngest daughter and our family was complete. None of us refer to each other as steps or halves. We are a whole family with cracks and stains.

Our daughters are all grown now ranging in ages from 30 to 21. Our oldest daughter has been married for 6 years and they are the parents of our youngest granddaughter. Our second daughter is currently divorced and a  single mom to our oldest granddaughter. Our third daughter is the mother of our second granddaughter she is also divorced but currently engaged to a man who has two daughters  of his own from his previous marriage. Then we have our fourth daughter she has never married but is dating a very wonderful young man.

I know how hard it is to raise a family especially a blended family. I know how hard it is to be a single parent (been there done that got a t-shirt). Then there is the complications of being the grandmother in this multi-family fun!!! But it is all good! It really is when we learn to love.