Working with what you got: beans and sausage

This is a tough time of year for cooks. If you go to a farmers market, and anyone is there, you find: apples. Potatoes. Turnips. Maybe a cabbage or two. Turnips. It ain't much guys. So you work with what you have and, also, the bounty of dried foods.

We're talkin' beans here boys and girls. Some call them "the musical fruit" for, ahem, well known reasons. Well, if you eat them regularly, they aren't musical. See, Annalena used to be a biochemist and she knows these things. You're about to learn some fascinating biology: what makes beans "musical" is a sugar that is part of them. And that sugar breaks down into a very small molecule, which is held together by a bond that is not commonly found in sugars. Bonds, in sugar, are broken up by enzymes. Your DNA (yes, YOURS!!!) can make that enzyme. But it can only make it, if it's stimulated. And to stimulate it, you need to provide the gene which makes it, with small amounts of that sugar, on a regular basis. Giving it a huge load of it, at once, with no supply for months, won't do it. So, eat your beans. They're good for you. Low cost protein, no fat, deal with soaking them, it's not hard. And then, you can make something like this.

See, I had prepped some teppary beans a week ago. I have a new found, favorite vendor for beans: Rancho Gordo. The yield was amazing. I made crostini for a party, and soup, and had scads of them left over. Beans do ferment if you let them sit too long, and then you've got to toss them, and they're not a cheap food anymore, just a smelly, messy one. So, there they were, begging to be used. If you don't have small beans like this, use lentils. Lentils you don't even have to soak. Just read the package directions. In half an hour, you've got a wonderful batch of lentils.

Ok, you've got your cooked beans. OPTIONALLY, you use some sausage, as I did here. I had left over chicken sausage from the lunches the week before (a result of having lunch with two of my favorite people in the world: Brad and Chris. Having lunch with both of them in a week is like, well, a bath in barolo for Annalena. ). But if you don't have them, leave the sausages out, or fry some up. Slice them into thick coins.

Finally, get a small onion, and peel it, and slice it into half moons. Chop up a few stalks of celery too.

Cover the bottom of a pan with olive oil, and add the onions and celery. Fry them up just until they begin to soften, and add a teaspoon of salt, Stir that up, and then add 2-3 cups of beans or lentils. Again, stir it all up. Now, add a few tablespoons of tomato paste or tomato sauce or even chopped up sun dried tomatoes. They really push the flavor. Finally, add your sliced up sausages. I didn't give quantities, because it doesn't really matter. And if you don't have sausage, but you have ham, or something like that, go right ahead and substitute. Mix the whole thing together and know what you got?

LUNCH. Cheap and good. If you cook up some rice, even better. Some will prefer this with noodles, and that sounds good too. I can't help thinking that this would really be good in a sliced open popover, so if you feel like making more than one of my recipes, go ahead. Let me know how it turns out. Annalena is a curious gal. (I know... interpret as you like).