Pasta Fagioli...a delicious Italian soup just like Olive Garden!

I love Italian food, next to just good southern food, it's probably my favorite to both cook and eat.  Unfortunately, in our city, which is actually very diverse to be in southern Kentucky, we lack what I would call good authentic Italian restaurants...you know those owned and ran by Italians.   We do have Olive Garden, which I realize is not what you would call authentic Italian, but I still really love it.   However, my family does not love it.  My husband and my son, when he lived at home, didn't like to eat there.  The only time I ate there was with my co-workers.  We usually went at lunchtime and we loved to get their unlimited soup and salad special.  The pasta fagioli was always a favorite.  I actually get cravings for this soup.  So, one day I decided to replicate it at home. 

 There were some copycat recipes on the internet and I just started experimenting with them and adapted them until I think I got it down.   The really funny thing is, my husband loves this pasta fagioli that I make at home, but says he doesn't like it at Olive Garden...makes no sense to me, but I will tell you what I think is the key difference as I go through the steps of making it.

I made this batch in the slow cooker, but you can make it just as easily in a dutch oven or soup pot on the stove.   I also used ground beef, but if you like a little more spice you can use  half ground beef and half Italian sausage.  

 Here is what you will need:

1 1/2 - 2 lb. ground chuck

1 20 oz. jar of Spaghetti sauce ( I used Ragu Basil and Sundried Tomato, which is so good in this)

1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning

4 beef bullion cubes

1 medium onion diced

1 Tbs. minced garlic

2 cups sliced celery (about 4 large stalks)

2 cups carrots cut in matchstick pieces or diced (about 4 carrots)

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil  (or 2 tsp. dried)

1/2 cup chopped fresh oregano  (or 2 tsp. dried)

1 15 oz. can white beans (Great Northern or Cannellini)

1 15 oz can light red kidney beans

1 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1 tsp. black pepper

2 Tbs. brown sugar (this is the secret ingredient I add that Olive Garden probably doesn't)

dash of Tabasco (optional, leave it out if you don't like a little heat)

6 cups of water

8 oz. ditalini pasta (can use elbow macaroni if you can't get the ditalini, Bertolli makes a ditalini pasta)

Shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese for garnish

Brown the ground beef (ground beef and Italian sausage, onion and  minced garlic in a skillet.  Drain any excess grease.

Slice the celery and cut the carrots into matchsticks.  You can purchase the carrots already cut like this if you short on time.

Place the ground beef in the slow cooker you have sprayed with nonstick spray for easier cleanup.  Place the vegetables over the beef.

Add the spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, beans, all of the herbs and seasonings to the slow cooker and give it a stir.   Add the bullion cubes and additional water and stir again.  Set for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.  You won't need to do anything until the time is up.  Prepare your pasta according the package directions minus 1 minute of cooking.   Drain it and either add it to the soup or place 1/2 cup in a soup bowl and pour the hot soup over it.   I like to serve it like this because the pasta stays al dente.  With the left overs, I just add the remainder of the pasta to the soup  and mix to store in the refrigerator.

I like to sprinkle the top of the soup with shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese and serve with hot bread sticks.

  

Cooking tip:  I add brown sugar to this and to most any Italian red sauce I cook I add just a pinch of brown sugar or white sugar.  It sort of cuts the tartness of the tomato sauce and I think it's why my husband and son like my Italian food better than some others they have eaten.  It's not all that noticeable to anyone who doesn't know it, but you can tell when it's left out. 







Fried Squash...a Summer Favorite!

Next to fried green tomatoes, fried yellow squash might be my second summer favorite.  It doesn't have the little tart flavor of the green tomatoes, but it's still really good.   Some folks actually like it better for that very reason.  My mother, for example, doesn't care for fried green tomatoes, but she loves the fried squash.  

We use the yellow straight neck squash if we can get them, because they are more uniform in size and easier to slice in the same size slices.  If you don't have those available you can use the yellow crook neck squash.  You will just have some smaller slices and some bigger, slices. You need the medium size squash, not the little baby squash, but not the huge ones either.  The seeds get too big in those that have been allowed to get way too big.    It is also best to deep fry these.  They can be cooked really fast in one or two batches and then need to be served as soon as you get them done.   As an option, you could pour about an inch of oil in a skillet and fry them like that, but it takes longer to cook them and they won't be quite as crispy. 

 Here is what you will need:

3-4 straight neck yellow squash or crook neck yellow squash

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour (self rising or plain, doesn't matter)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

Cajun seasoning (I use Tony Chachere's) optional

oil for frying

Slice the squash in about 1/4 inch slices.  Pour buttermilk over them and let them stand a few minutes.   Mix the cornmeal, flour, salt and pepper.   Dredge the pieces of squash in the mixture until well coated.  Heat the deep fryer to 350 degrees.  Carefully drop the squash into the fryer in batches.  You will probably have 2 to 3 batches depending on the size of the fryer.  Let them cook for about 5 minutes or until golden brown.  Flip them over once to be sure they brown on both sides.  Remove to a paper towel lined plate.  I like to sprinkle lightly with Cajun seasoning at this point, but that is optional. Serve these immediately.  They are best when right out of the fryer!

Fried Squash!





Chicken and Dumplings...True Southern Comfort!

Chicken and dumplings, like so many of the southern classics, was more than likely born out of the need to stretch a meal to feed a lot of people.   Killing a chicken for dinner was not something you did every day years ago on the farm when those chickens laid eggs, eggs that could be sold or traded for other staples you needed, but didn't produce yourself...like coffee and flour or sugar.  

So if you sacrificed a chicken it was a big deal and you probably only gave up one.  One chicken was more than likely not enough to feed a housefull of kids, mama and daddy, and maybe grandma, grandpa and at times the farm hands.   This is where using flour to stretch that chicken out and fill a big ole pot full of goodness came in.  

Nothing fills you up like all that doughy goodness and broth of a steaming bowl of dumplings.  The chicken becomes the less important part of the meal when homemade dumplings take center stage.   Weren't our southern ancestors smart people? 

Chicken and dumplings are also one of those classics that there must be thousands of recipes and techniques for making.  Nobody does it just the same.  Some cooks put shortening in the dough, some put butter, some use eggs, some just the chicken broth,  some people even make them with canned biscuits...you know what I think of that method, if you have read many of my posts...lol.  I won't elaborate on it further, but please don't do it.   

Learn to make them the right way.  It's not hard, I promise and even if they aren't perfect, they will be better than made with canned biscuits.  I get queasy even typing that canned biscuit thing. 

  

OK, I admit it, I am a bit of a dumpling snob and my mother is to blame for this (just joking..sort of ).  Mama would say, of course, "I am to blame, the mother always gets blamed for everything"..in her best Jewish mother's voice (no we are not Jewish, but maybe should have been).  She's right by the way. We (mothers) do get blamed for everything, but that is a post for another day.  However, in this case, it's a good thing, because my mother can flat make some chicken and dumplings.  

My mother credits her dumpling recipe to one of her lifelong best friend's grandmother.  When Mama first married, she moved to Louisville, Ky from a town at the time that was much, much smaller.   Her best friend's grandmother, Goldie, also lived there and according to my mother, she was the best cook in the world.  She made the most wonderful dishes with the simplest ingredients and her chicken and dumplings were to die for.  

 My mother, being a new bride, wanted to learn, so Goldie taught her some of what she knew and chicken and dumplings was one of those things.  I think this lady gave my mother something much more than her recipes at a time she really needed it and that was comfort.  

 Mama was a young girl from the country, newly married and moved to a big, unfamiliar city with none of her own family anywhere near her and Goldie looked after her to some extent.  I would say that out of all of the probably hundreds of recipes my mother cooks and knows by heart, this one might be the most special to her.  

I have been blessed to have my mother around to teach me all of her recipes and she taught me to make dumplings a long time ago and I follow her method exactly, but my chicken and dumplings are never as good to me as my mother's, which is why I went to her to make these for you all.  Here is what you will need:

 4 whole chicken breasts, with the skin on ( you can use a whole chicken, but we only use the white meat in the dumplings)  

2 carrots, peeled and cut in about 2 inch pieces

1 onion, peeled and chopped in big pieces

2 stalks of celery, cut in 2 inch pieces

3 whole bay leaves

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. chicken bouillon granules or 3 chicken bullion cubes

1 can cream of chicken soup

Dumpling Dough

2 cups self rising flour

1 cup chicken broth, chilled

Place the chicken breasts, the carrots, onion, celery, bay leaves, chicken bouillon granules, cream of chicken soup and salt in a dutch oven or similar big pan or stock pot and just cover with water.  Bring this to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook covered for about an hour and a half or two hours.  The chicken should be so tender it is falling off of the bone.  It's important to use the skin on chicken with the bones for this because this is what gives you the rich broth for your dumplings.   Remove the chicken to cool.  Once it has cooled, debone and either shred it or just sort of chop it in big pieces...not itty bitty pieces, they will get lost in the dumplings.  We only use white meat in our chicken and dumplings, but if you used a whole chicken do what you like. 

Place the strained, clear broth back in your pan. Discard the vegetables and bay leaves. This should be about 3 quarts of broth.Take 1 cup and reserve it for your dumplings.  Place it in the refrigerator to chill.  If I am in a hurry I put it in the freezer for a bit, but don't let it freeze.  Once the broth is chilled, you mix it with the 2 cup self rising flour to make the dough for your dumplings.  Mix to incorporate and knead just enough to make soft dough.  Do not over work the dough or your dumplings will be tough.   You can do all of this prep the day before you intend to serve this and the just store it all in the refrigerator overnight.  The dough rolls like a dream if it's cold actually, but I never plan ahead like that and just roll mine out as is.  I don't have a problem with them, as long as the broth has gotten real cold before hand.   Before you start to roll the dough and make the dumplings, add the cream of chicken soup to the broth and whisk it to mix, and turn it on medium/high heat to bring it up to a boil.   You probably won't need any more salt in this, because of the sodium in the canned soup, but taste the broth and season to your taste.  

Roll 1/2 the dough out on a floured surface.  My mother uses a marble slab which works great, what can I say that's how Mama rolls...lol ( okay, bad I know), but if you don't have one, like me, use wax paper, floured. Roll thin, about 1/8th of an inch. 

Sprinkle the dough with a little black pepper to your taste.  At home, I use a lot, my mother doesn't care for so much.  We use a pizza cutter to cut the dumplings.  You can use a sharp knife also.  It's so much easier taking pictures when someone else is doing the work! 

 Cut all the way across in one direction and then cut across them vertically to make sort of rectangles.  This does not have to perfect by any means.

This is a better picture of how they will look.  Pick up several at a time and start to drop them in the boiling broth.  After these are all dropped, stir them gently around ONLY ONCE to be sure they aren't sticking together.  If you stand and stir the dumplings a lot, they will break up and you will have just soup.    The dumplings will puff some during this since they are made with self rising flour.  It's normal.

Roll the second half of the dough and drop these in the broth.  Turn the heat to medium and simmer for about 5 -10 minutes uncovered. 

Add the chicken and GENTLY stir it in.  You can cover the pot now.  The dumplings are cooked at this point.  Turn down to low.  When it is all heated through, the dumplings are ready to serve.

Mama's Chicken and Dumplings!



Beef Stir Fry with Honey Ginger Sauce!

I love a good stir fry for several reasons.  They are quick, you can use just about any vegetables you have on hand and they stretch a small amount of meat into a meal that serves several people.   I usually use chicken or shrimp for stir fry, but I had this sirloin steak that was actually intended for fajitas when I bought it and I then I got this craving for stir fry.   The sauce that is used in this stir fry is the best part of it.  It's a combination of honey, soy, garlic and ginger and with those ingredients you can't go wrong.   Also, it took about 20 minutes to make, if you don't count the time for marinating the meat.   Here is what you will need:

1 1b. sirloin steak, sliced thin or you could use flank steak
1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 Tbs. garlic, minced
1 tsp. ginger powder or 1 Tbs. ginger root, minced
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 10 oz frozen stir fry vegetables or equivalent fresh vegetables (broccoli, red or green peppers, snow peas, water chestnuts, onions or whatever you prefer)
1 can sliced water chestnuts (optional)
1 cup cashews (optional)
1/4 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
2 Tbs. butter
dash of salt
dash of black pepper

2 cups uncooked rice, cooked to serve over

I bought about a pound of sirloin steak already sliced thin and cut those strips into bite size pieces.  Mix the water, soy sauce, honey, garlic and ginger in a bowl.  Place the beef in a Ziploc bag and pour about 1/3 of the sauce over the beef.  Close the bag and refrigerate for at least an hour.   Reserve the rest of the sauce for the stir fry.

Heat oil in a wok or skillet with deep sides.  Add 1 Tbs. butter to it.  Drain and discard the marinade the beef was in. Place the beef in the pan and stir on high heat for about 3 minutes or until it's no longer pink.  Keep it moving in the pan.   Remove from the pan to a plate.

Place the vegetables in the pan.  If it needs a little more oil, add it first and get it hot.  I added a cup of fresh, sliced mushrooms and a cup of shredded carrots to the frozen blend.  You can add whatever you have on hand or just use the frozen vegetables.  This is very flexible to your tastes.   Stir fry the vegetables for about 3 minutes.  Add the beef back to pan along with the other tablespoon of butter.  Stir fry together for a minute or two.  Whisk the cornstarch into the remainder of the sauce.  Pour this over the beef and vegetable mixture. 

At this point, if you are using water chestnuts or cashews, add them in now.  Bring this up to a boil and then reduce the heat.  The sauce will thicken and should coat everything nicely.  Cook together for about 2-3 minutes.  Serve immediately over cooked rice.

Beef Stir Fry with Honey Ginger Sauce!



Honey Bun Cake...always a favorite!





We have  been making this cake for years.  How many years?  I am not really sure.  I just know that it has been my oldest nephew, Brian's favorite cake since my husband and I got married and after my son was born it became his favorite cake.   We have made many, many Honey Bun Cakes through the years and they do not last long after they are made.  This is the the perfect coffee cake, snack cake or even a good cake for breakfast.   Here is what you will need for this one:

Cake:

1 yellow cake mix

 4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup light brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

6 Tbs. half and half (you can use milk)

1 tsp. vanilla

By hand mix the cake mix, eggs, oil and sour cream until it is well incorporated.  In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon for the streusal swirl.   Spray a Bundt pan well with nonstick baking spray. 

 Pour half of the cake batter in the pan.  Sprinkle half of the brown sugar/cinnamon swirl mixture over the batter.  Pour the rest of the batter over the streusel mixture, then sprinkle the rest of the streusel mixture over the batter.    Run a knife through the cake batter in a swirl motion to swirl the streusel mixture.   

 Place in a preheated 325 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until a pick inserted comes out clean.   Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a cake plate.

You can bake this in a 9"x13" pan, but I think the Bundt pan looks prettier.  Reduce the cooking time by about 10 minutes if you use the 9"x13" pan.

Mix the powdered sugar,  half and half, and vanilla and pour over the cake to glaze it.  You can serve immediately.







Waldorf Salad...or Apple Walnut Salad!

My mother has been making this salad since I was a little girl and it's always been a family favorite.  She usually always serves this with some sort of poultry...chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice, roasted turkey and the flavors really go well with those sorts of dishes. 

 When I make it I usually just call it 'apple walnut salad', because if I say to my husband (no matter how many times I say it)  "How about a Waldorf Salad" for supper?"...then he is going to say,  "Huh, what's a Waldorf Salad?"   Then, for the umpteenth time in 32 years, I am going to say..."You know, it's that apple walnut salad that Mama makes" and he is going to say "Well, why don't you just say apple walnut salad and don't put the celery in it cause you know I don't like celery and sometime your Mama puts the celery in it anyway".  To which, I roll my eyes and say "OK, I won't"  while I am getting the celery out of the fridge and washing it...lol.  

 See, I like the celery and when I serve it, he complains and I just say "Pick the celery out, it isn't gonna  kill you."  So, he picks the celery out and proceeds to eat half of the bowl.   This is a simple salad and it's really very healthy. 

 Here is what you need:

Ingredients:

4 sweet apples, unpeeled and diced (something like Romas or Red Delicious work well)

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup sliced celery

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs sugar

dash of salt

Whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar and dash of  salt.  Pour over the fruit and nuts and toss to coat.  Chill until ready to serve.  You can make this a couple of hours ahead of time, but it's best made the same day. 

Waldorf Salad!





"The Elvis"...a Divine Banana and Peanut Butter Combination!

Today is the anniversary of Elvis passing, so in honor of him I created this peanut butter banana dessert.  For those of you who are not all that familiar with Elvis, he loved grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  When his mother was alive, she made them for him and after she passed away, they were prepared by one of Elvis's two cooks, Nancy Rooks or Mary Jenkins.  Elvis loved good down home southern food, just like most of us southerners.

This dessert is an adaptation of one that we have made for years... so many years, I don't even know when we started making it.  We make a lemon version we call "Lemon Lush" and a chocolate version we call "Chocolate Delight.  We have used butterscotch pudding and it was really good also.  Now, I did add several unique things to this to make "The Elvis" so it's quite a bit different and you can adapt it to your families tastes.  Here is what the ingredients are:

Crust:

1 stick softened butter
1 cup self rising flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts, you can use pecans)
1/4 cup brown sugar

First layer:

8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup whipped cream
1 tsp. vanilla

Second layer:

2  small instant pudding mixes (I used a banana and a vanilla mixed, you could use all banana)
3 cups cold milk
3 sliced bananas

Third layer:

The remainder of a 16 oz container of whipped cream (or you can whip your own if your prefer)
1 cup Reeses peanut butter chips
Maraschino cherries to top each piece

Combine the flour, softened butter, nuts and brown sugar and press into the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick baking spray. Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, and vanilla together then add the whipped cream.  Spread over the cooled crust.

Beat the pudding mixes and the cold milk together until thick.  Spread that over the cream cheese layer.

Slice three bananas and place over the pudding layer.  If you are not serving immediately, toss the bananas with a little lemon juice to keep them from turning dark.

Spread the rest of the whipped cream over the bananas.  Sprinkle with the peanut butter chips and place the cherries on each pieces.  Be sure to drain your cherries first.   Chill for a couple of hours before serving.



The Elvis!  



Salmon Patties!

Salmon patties are an old southern favorite. They are economical and really very easy to make, but I don't think a lot of people make them much anymore.   For those who like them, they are very popular though.  There is a little restaurant near us that has a couple of daily specials and during Lent their Friday specials are salmon patties or fried catfish.  Surprisingly, they usually run out of the salmon patties early.   My husband loves salmon patties.  He could eat them once a week I am sure.  He was quite happy that a "Sweet Tea and Cornbread" reader wanted a recipe for them.  This is the recipe my mother has used for years and taught me a long time ago.  

 Here is what you will need for these:

1  15oz. can salmon (I prefer the pink salmon)

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup crushed cracker crumbs

2 Tbs cornmeal

1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

dash of pepper

oil for frying (Canola or vegetable oil)

Open the can of salmon and drain the liquid off of it.  Pour the salmon in a bowl and pick through it and remove the skin and any bones you see.  Some people just mix all of the skin and the little soft bones into the patties, but I prefer not to do that. 

Mix the crushed cracker crumbs, eggs, corn meal, and seasonings into the salmon.

Shape into uniform size patties about 1/2 inch thick.  The mixture should stick together well.  Pour enough oil in a pan to cover the bottom and heat to medium.  Place the salmon in the pan. Fry on each side until golden brown.  Remove to a paper towel lined plate.





Key Lime Pie!

I really love key lime pie as a summer dessert.  Not the frozen concoction that you find sometimes in restaurants that tastes a lot like lime Jello, but a real homemade key lime pie.  It should be mildly lime flavored, not lock your jaws lime flavored.  The key is using real lime juice and preferably "key limes"  that you take the time to squeeze the life out of one by one. 

 Have you ever seen a key lime?  Well, I have seen what they sell for key limes in the super markets here and I don't think those are a good representation of the key lime species.  They are like little bright green marbles and hard as a rock.  Key limes, when ripe, are supposed to be turning a yellowish green color.   I am sure if you were in Florida in the Keys area...get it key limes, they would be more on the ripe side and not so small and hard.  

 Therefore, I used regular limes  for the lime juice in this pie and even though regular limes are not as tart and acidic as key limes, they were plenty tart for us.   I just didn't have the time or patience to squeeze a teaspoon of lime juice at a time out of each tiny key lime and they cost twice as much.

This is such a simple pie to make and has just a few ingredients, but the results are really good. This is all you need:

Graham cracker crust (I just used a premade one, but if you prefer feel free to make your own). 1 can sweetened condensed milk. 2 egg yolks, 1/2 cup lime juice, 1 Tbs. lime zest

Separate the eggs and just use the yolks.  With an electric mix, beat the eggs, sweetened condensed milk and the lime juice until it is whipped.  Add the zest and beat it in well.

Pour that into the graham cracker crust and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. 

 

The pie will look set when you take it out, but it's not ready to serve.  Cool it on the counter and when it's cool, place it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.

, Garnish with whipped cream and a thin slice of lime!     Voila, you have "Key Lime Pie"!





Southern Ham and Beans!

In this part of the south when we cook beans, we usually cook pintos or white beans (which can be great northerns or navy beans) or a mixture of the two.   These are our equivalent to the dried red beans they cook in the deep south (Louisiana, Mississippi).  Cooking beans is just like making sweet tea and cornbread, there are many different recipes and methods, depending on how your mama or grandma or whoever taught you to cook did it.   Therefore, I am not saying this is the only way to cook a pot of beans, but it is the way I cook them and the way we like them.

So much about southern cuisine is criticized as being 'not healthy' these days, sometimes unfairly and sometimes accurately,  and now there are such trends as 'meatless Mondays' and not eating meat, it's sort of funny to a lot of older southerners who can remember not only "Meatless Mondays" but meatless Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays, heck maybe meatless weeks at a time.  Southern folks learned a long time ago to make it on what they had and meat wasn't always part of that situation.   What they did have most of the time was dried beans and maybe some ham hocks (maybe) or some bacon grease or some lard...some sort of meat grease.   The ham hocks or bits of actual country ham would be a special pot of beans back in my grandmother's day, but she had a spoonful of bacon grease or lard to drop in them or a  little jowl bacon and that would season them up nicely too.  In my humble opinion, you cannot cook dried beans without some form of meat seasoning, even if it is just a spoonful of bacon grease.   It just makes all of the difference in the world.

Nowadays, I almost always put some form of ham or such in my beans, not a half a hog or anything but some, because we eat ham and beans as our main course much of the time along with cornbread, potatoes of some kind, maybe some greens, Vidalia onion, relish...you get the picture...lol.  The beans are not usually served alone.   I am finding that cooking dried beans is becoming a lost art with the younger crowd, at least those I know, and that concerns me.  Beans are great source of protein and fiber, calcium, and iron and so many good things and they are inexpensive.  Let's teach our children to cook! 

Now, let's cook some beans!   First, decide what kind you will cook.  I cook them all, but on this day I cooked mixed beans, pinto and great northerns.   This method will work for pintos or white beans.  Pintos do take a little longer to cook than white varieties do.   

This is what I used in this pot of beans:

1 lb mixed dried beans (pintos and great northerns)

1 Tbs. salt  (taste for seasoning when done and add more if needed to your taste and depending on what type of meat you put in the beans)

1 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder (optional)

1 Tbs. bacon drippings

2 cups chopped country ham pieces (or you could use a cut up ham steak if you cannot get country ham or don't care for it)

OPTIONAL:  You can use two smoked ham hocks in place of the chopped ham pieces, if you do, you can omit the bacon drippings because of the fat content in the ham hocks)

Place the beans one handful at a time in a colander in the sink.  Pick through them as you put them in the colander and pick out any little rocks or shriveled beans.  Run water over the beans to wash them off really well.  Beans that you get now are fairly clean, but I still like to wash them off well and pick through them, because you do find a little rock now and then and it's not pleasant to bite into those.

Place the beans in a deep pan.  I like to use my cast iron dutch oven, it cooks beans so well. Cover with water about 2 inches above the beans.  Bring to a boil.  Boil for about 2 minutes.  Watch carefully so they don't boil over. Carefully pour this water off of the beans and then cover with fresh water to about 2 inches above the beans.  Bring them to a boil once again and then turn down to a low simmer.  Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder,  and bacon drippings at this point.  Some say not to salt beans until they are done, because they will stay hard and won't get done as fast.  I have never had that experience so I am not sure why some people say that and I think they season best if seasoned early in the cooking.   OPTIONAL:  Some soak their beans in water overnight and then pour that off and start from there.  It does make cooking time a little shorter, but I prefer the quicker method of boiling and then pouring the water off.  It seems to reduce the bean's, ummm explosive after effects, if you know what I mean...lol.  

I like to let the beans cook for about 2 hours and then add in the chopped ham and cook them for at least another 2 hours. Add water at this point if the beans have soaked up too much water.   This is not a quick dish, but it is fairly carefree once you get it on.  Just be sure to check your beans about every hour and see if you need to add water. They will soak up the water like crazy and there is nothing that is worse than a scorched pot of beans.   If you are using ham hocks instead of the chopped ham, put them in at the very beginning because they need all of that cooking time to get them tender.  At close to the end of the cooking time, take the ham hocks out of the pot and let them cool enough to take the lean meat off the bone to add back to the pot.  Discard the bone and fat.

If you are using ham hocks, look for ham hocks that are meaty and that you can see some good lean meat on.  If you shop where there is an actual butcher (I know it's rare these days) and they don't have good packaged ham hocks, ask the butcher if he has some good meaty hocks in the back.  

When the beans are done, taste for seasoning and add accordingly.  If you used ham hocks, you might not need as much salt due to their high salt content.