The Native Iowan

The sun is shining, the wind is brisk, its 7c out, and I’m wrapped in a blanket drinking coffee. This old farm house is hollow and cold. The windows and doors rattle when the wind howls. I tell the grandkids “its the ghosts”, when the wind howls n screams through the loose window panes.

Its a grand old house. A great big, high ceiling-ed, wood floored, double story affair. impossible to heat or cool. And this being Queensland, there is no insulation, no double panes, no attempt to build the house to be “weather proof”. Nope. This house reflects, if not magnifies the outdoor temps.

Hot in summer, cold in winter.

I am moving slow today.

One thing positive about the chilly weather is that it is easy to stay in bed in the mornings. Maybe correct to say, “hard to get out of the bed in the mornings”.

The newz this past week has been mostly about the bullshit-hearing about the January 6th “insurrection”. And I find it perplexing, sad, frightening…

Are the people in the USA, the general populace, the average mom n pop so easily led that the BS and drivel expounded by the general media becomes gospel? That the words of shisters and crooks and dishonourable people (the elected leaders) are trusted and listened to, when deep down we know they are false?

It might be an age thing with me. My disagreeable nature. My lack of trust and support for these supposed “leaders”. It might just be age…

I have too much time on my hands. I read a lot. I do watch/ listen to the newz, but more for entertainment than for content. I dont like being fed. I prefer to prepare and consume my meals on my own, and such it is with the newz, the bluez… the entertainment channels posing as purveyors of public information.

Nope, I dont think its wise to fill up on the fluffy bullshit called news. It’ll give you indigestion. Stop being lazy and put more effort into you consumption… newz and food.

As I have aged I find I am better, healthier, happier when I eat simply, sparingly. For a long time I have been on a -one meal a day- diet. I find I enjoy being hungry, feel good if my body is empty, at least part of the day. I find I can do with out most starchy foods… bread, pasta, potatoes, and such are not required much any more. And once Ive gone off the starchy foods I feel a lot better. Same with fried foods. And large quantities of meat.

I grew up at a “meat and potatoes” table. It was good honest food. Mostly “home grown”, always very tasty, always with massive amounts of salt and butter. And bread. My mother baked fantastic bread.

But that was in the days when meals were made “from scratch”. All the veggies we had came from our own garden. We worked hard to feed the family. All of us, the folks, the kids, everyone worked in the garden(s). The meat we had came from local farms. We had a freezer or two filled with packaged meats… chicken, pork, beef. It all was home grown, locally butchered and packed.

Those days are gone. Most everything these days is “processed” in some way shape or form.

My mom’s home made noodles were to die for.

These days I eat red beans. Almost every day I have beans in some way shape or form. I use beans as meat replacement in most dishes. I do often add meat to my beans. Its hard to make beans bad. They are born and conceived as an almost perfect food.

My buddy, BigG, has recently asked me to teach him how I do my beans. Noting well there are many recipes in play, but my daily food intake is 80% comes from a humble pot of bean soup. I produce a simple recipe here for Big G…

Standard pack of red beans bought off the shelf. Beans can be softened in a large pot of boiling water. An hour gives you stronger beans than 2 hours of boiling. I like the beans soft so I boil well over an hour.

Once boiled I drain and wash the bean real good. In the same pot I add a couple nice cuts of beef (I prefer beef but pork or goat works too). I like cuts of meat that are fatty. I want the fatty oils to be part of the dish. The cubed beast goes into the same big pot, on high heat, with a bit of olive oil. I want the meat to sear, start releasing its oily goodness.

I chop up fine and add to the pot… a big pile of celery, at least 2 onions, a shit load of garlic, a big leek or two, a couple nice capsicum – red or green or both.

I cook the stew type concoction for a long time, let the veggies degrade and turn to moisture, let the onions burn. burnt celery has a flavour of nuts.

Eventually we have a fair bit of stock building up. I stir a lot but still want the mixture to burn a bit too. The meat and veggies all charred up is good. To this I add the drain beans. Stir it all up. And add a packet of beef or vegetable stock. Cover the mixture, put the heat down, and let it simmer for a long time.

I dont often add salt or other spices. I do often drop a couple whole, hot chillies from my garden in. I like to crush up a handful of fresh basil. If I use whole chillies the soup is not too hot. If you want it hot you can crush one of the soft chilies in your bowl. If you dont, leave the chilies alone.

As it cooks taste it and add what you want. I like a couple spoon fulls of balsamic, or Worcestershire sauce. I do like full pepper corns that burst with flavour after you bite them. Bay leaves are good too.

A pot lasts me days. The pot on my stove is only on its third day, now, but thats because Gracie has been joining in. The cold weather suits a nice bowl of soup.

And the beat goes on…

Smiles