Monday Night: New Take on an Old Favorite, BLA's and Slaw

It's almost March, and we still have plenty of goodies tucked away in our freezers. Among those frozen vittles, are what seems to be an endless supply of beans and peas - lima beans, butter beans, navy beans, purple hull peas, and crowder peas. We bought many frozen ziploc bags full of them back in October, at a small farm stand in Montevallo. With hopes of lessening some of our stores, I took out a pack of lima beans to use in Monday night's dinner. I looked up some lima bean recipes on the web, but everything sounded a little blah to me. I know the beans would have been good simmered or sauteed with a little garlic and bacon, but I just wanted something a little different. And then, voila, a quick look on Epicurious did the trick. I found a recipe for Lima Bean Crostini that I reimagined into a sandwich spread- something to lend a new flair to our bacon and arugula sandwiches. Sure I could have made mayo, but I've done that before. It was more fun to think of inventing a new sandwich, the BLA: Bacon, Lima Bean Hummus, and Arugula. This recipe is simple to make, and in addition to the lima beans, it calls for a stalk of rosemary, 2 dried red peppers, a lemon (from Petals from the Past, leftover from the Alabama Supper), and a couple of cloves of garlic. The peppers give it just the right amount of heat, and the rosemary is a complimentary flavor to the limas. And not suprisingly, it goes well with bacon (but what doesn't go well with bacon?). Also, I used crostini in the sandwich instead of just plain old toasted bread. To make crostini, just brush both sides of the bread with olive oil, add a little salt and/or pepper, and broil until brown and crispy on both sides. Beware, this recipe makes a lot, and I mean a lot- enough for you to enjoy multiple BLA's, or just have a nice dip to accompany veggies, bread, or crackers. In fact, last night Andy made crackers just so we could eat up some of the remaining dip.

To accompany our new sandwich concoction, Andy whipped up a batch of spicy coleslaw with our weeks old cabbage (it stores well!), and I opened up a jar of canned peaches. With our apple supply gone, we both are going through serious fruit withdrawal. Thank goodness strawberry season is only a month away!

Here's the recipe for Spicy Slaw:

1/2 head cabbage (from a big head), cut into coarse strips
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup water (to mellow taste of vinegar, add more as needed)

Whisk together ingredients, until dissolved. Toss with cabbage and serve. Makes about 4 servings.

Comments

[littlestreetfighter's Mom]

Just started checking out your blog. Abby Lund recommended it to us. We're not far away and enjoying similar simplicity in life, though not quite to your extremes. We did just get laying hens!! Will continue to watch you experiment.

jd