I have my kitchen back!!!!   While not completely finished, my kitchen is functional again.  They are swapping out and installing the dishwasher next Friday, and my tiles for the backsplash above the stove are not in yet (they are a beautiful hand painted mural of an impressionist painting depicting a chateau alongside a river in France).

Today, I am cooking my first meal in my new kitchen.  Already, I can appreciate the deeper sink, the new workflow, the added counter space…  I am happy.

I have a friend that lives in the deep south.  She grew up in New Orleans.  We often talk about the vast differences in food between New York and New Orleans.  The following recipe was handed down to her from her godfather, who learned it from his grandmother.

Today, I tried making it for the first time.  Vamp (her screen name) is having a rough time right now, so this blog – and today’s meal – are in her honor.

Ingredients:

• Andouille sausage 2 pounds minimum
• 2 pounds red beans dark soaked before cooking
• 3 onions yellow
• 2 bell peppers green
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 elephant bulbs of garlic, crushed and minced
• 3 cups fully cooked black eye peas
• 1 can whole tomatoes
• peppers of your choice
• 7-10 bay leaves
• Tony's Cajun seasoning to taste....cut back on the salt
• Worstershire sauce the sausage when browning

Method:
• cut everything into coarse pieces. sausage into rounds then halves.
• Blend 1 bulb of garlic, tomatoes, blackeye peas together, adding stock from peas as needed.  set aside.
• Sautee the peppers onions, and sausage in a heavey skillet til just done. set aside all of the sausage, and half of the pepper and onion mixture. other garlic bulb into this mixture
• Cook the red beans for about 4 hours sometimes longer....with the pepper and onion mixture.
• An hour before they are done add in the black eye pea/tomato mixture...you might need to add stock...you want it thick but still liquid (served over rice) after cooking.
• 20 minutes before serving remove from heat add in the remaining pepper/onions and sausage to the beans
• Serve over rice....the rice should be allowed to be sticky...tastes better that way. cook the blackeye peas with ham hocks or ham bones to get flavor in them.  Butter will work, but not as well.

to dress it up garnish with fresh bay leaves sticking in the top amid a few black eye peas...

This dish goes very well with cast iron skillet baked buttermilk cornbread.