Red Beans and Rice

Red Beans and Rice, originally uploaded by hannahcooks.

My sister is getting together a book of all my mom's holiday recipes, which made me think of red beans and rice, which we have every night before Thanksgiving so we have leftover cornbread for the stuffing.

So I requested my mom's (most likely from the back of a bag of beans but delicious) recipe and decided to try my own in the meantime. I cribbed from River Road Recipes, but made a few changes, and oh man was it good.

So. You take a can of red kidney beans and tump it in your dutch oven with some water and salt and a teaspoonful or so of bacon grease. Start it simmering while you finely dice a celery rib and equal amounts onion and green bell pepper. Saute those in either butter or more bacon grease until translucent, and then add to the beans along with a bay leaf and some Tony Chachere's. Let the whole mess simmer for an hour or more. Add more water if needed.

About ten minutes before you are ready to eat, add sliced andouille (or TJ's chicken andouille-style, if that's what you've got) sausage. Serve over rice, garnished with parsley. Make sure you have cornbread (or in this case crazy corn muffin things from Cooking Light) on the side.

Leftovers reheat beautifully.