october highlights

10/19/10

Organic collard greens, black eyed peas and more

This next entry is impossible to recreate exactly, but worth documenting as it can still be made in a new variation. Well, my husband Dennis went shopping and came home with a bag of frozen black eyed peas (very unusual). Next day was farmer's market and the collard greens were organic, fresh cut and just huge. I bought about 8 leaves each at least a foot long. Then a light bulb went off in my head and took out the b-e-peas. While rummaging through the freezer to get the peas out, I found a frozen piece of ham from mother's day. Took that out. I also had ½ of jar remaining from our tomato sauce I have documented in my cook book from earlier this year. I chopped the greens and place in 2 cups filtered water(little dash of rock salt), added the peas, the ham, 6 cloves of whole peeled garlic, one large onion chopped and a dash of red pepper flakes. Topped it all with the tomatoes and onions I had jarred and froze last spring. WELL... it simmered in a covered deep flat pan. When it starts to boil, I turn it off and let sit. I cooked it this way for a couple hours at the most. THIS DISH was so delicious we went crazy. Cooking is so much fun and this dish was low in fat and high in fiber and extremely flavorful. One could just add some fresh diced tomatoes on top to replace the sauce I used.