Chicken and Butter Beans - smothered chicken cooked in a roux with baby lima beans, pictured here with creamed brussels sprouts.

Chicken and Butter Beans

I have been busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs y'all!! We have the grandkids everyday now after school - which I love, love, love, don't get me wrong. Since our move to be closer to them six months ago, we have seen and spent more time with them from since they were born. It isn't that we were all that far away from them to begin with, but where we did live was off the beaten path and far enough away to be inconvenient for everybody. It does leave me with a small window of time in the mornings to get everything done though, and believe me, it goes by quick! I suppose that some of you moms know exactly what I mean.

A summertime Southern favorite, fresh speckled butter beans are stewed down with a ham hock enhanced broth.

Southern Style Speckled Butter Beans

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my deep freeze, I have some ham hocks. But... The Cajun handled the transportation of our freezer from the old house to the new, along with the contents of it, all scattered about in massive coolers, and frankly, I just crammed it all back in there with no manner of organization once it arrived.

Needless to say, I now can't find a thing.

Old Fashioned Slow Stewed Southern Style Green Beans

Fresh green beans, slow stewed in the Southern way with cubed or sliced fatback, salt pork or bacon and shown here with potatoes.

Old Fashioned Slow Stewed Southern Green Beans

I make my speedier version of green beans the same way most of the time - a little bacon, a little onion  and a little chicken broth or plain water. Sometimes, new potatoes are added. Doesn't matter whether the beans are fresh, frozen or canned - I use the same method for them all, and each of those elements add so much depth and flavor to green beans. I love them.

But when I have the time, this is the way that I love them the most. Fresh green beans, snapped and cooked in the old-fashioned way - a low and slow simmer in water, with a little fatback or salt pork and pepper is all there is to it. I don't even add onion to these, because, as much as I love and use onion, I want the pure flavor of the beans and fatback to be predominate and not the onion. Once they are done, I like to stir in a tablespoon of bacon fat or butter to add just a little extra richness. Taste them first, then add other seasonings as you like.

Classic Southern style pinto beans, stewed with salt pork and cayenne pepper and always served with a side of cornbread.

Classic Southern Pinto Beans

We've had so many days of rain now that I've literally lost count, and according to our weatherman, there's more to come this week. Generally speaking, I don't mind the rain at all, well, so long as I don't have to drive anywhere in it at least. It's relaxing and cleansing, sort of washing away the world's residue and making everything fresh once it moves along.

Boy don't we need that in this world today!

Old School Ham Bone Beans

Somewhere between a soup and stew, all thick and creamy and soothing, this full bodied and flavorful pot of white beans is all due to the ham bone.

Ham Bone Beans

I don't know about the rest of y'all but I sure have had a difficult time getting back into the swing this week. I've been busy enough writing new recipes and even cooking, but it's the post writing part that has me pulling off my best procrastination act this week.

For instance, I fully intended to have this recipe up on Monday... and here it is already Wednesday. I had it mostly done, I just kept putting off finishing the final cut and the coding that goes with all this website business.

Slow Cooker red beans & rice made with dried beans, and cooked with a ham bone, bacon and smoked sausage.

Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

Though it's a tradition in the Deep South, we don't have red beans and rice every single Monday of every week at my house, but, I admit that when we don't, things do seem to feel a little out of sorts for me!

It's just a routine that has been part of the culture down here for all of my life really. Even as a career woman working outside of the house, red beans and rice were the special of the day, every Monday, at local restaurants we frequented for lunch.

Baby lima beans, stewed down to creamy perfection and seasoned nicely with bacon and ham, are as at home as a side dish as they are a main dish, when paired up with a nice garden salad, cornbread and iced tea.

Stewed Baby Lima Beans

I mostly prepare frozen baby lima beans as a side to be honest, like in succotash, but we don't eat them as often as I like, because they do require some advance planning for cooking, and unfortunately I tend to forget about them!

Unlike my beloved butter beans, it's a rare occasion where I make them from fresh or dried, but I don't know why, because they are just so much more delicious and worth the effort.

White beans, seasoned with the Trinity, garlic, green onion, parsley, bacon and andouille sausage, and served over white rice.

Cajun White Beans with Andouille

White beans are a common dish in this part of the Deep South, second only to red kidney beans for our red beans and rice.

I love these beans and I especially love to take the leftovers, simmer them on the stovetop with some chicken stock for one mighty fine soup y'all! Delish.

Southern Creamy Butter Beans (Large Lima Beans)

Large lima beans, or butter beans as we refer to them in my part of the Deep South, have a lovely creamy texture, and with this mix of seasonings, are just pure comfort food.

Creamy Butter Beans

Good old-fashioned, creamy butter beans, are a southern favorite for sure!

Not to be too confusing, Southerners refer to both large and small lima beans as butterbeans, although there is also butter peas to consider too, a smaller pea-shaped cousin, and a pea that is actually a bean and not a pea, akin to other Southern peas, such as lady cream and zipper, and that some Southerners also call butter beans ... but not to be confused with buttered peas which is a whole 'nother thing - just to confuse the rest of the world, as we Southerners love to do.

Whew! You just gotta love The South.