Menu Item for the Recession

Last night I made beans'n noodles for dinner.

Beans'n noodles is a wonderful dish: homemade noodles topped with flavorful pinto beans topped with crunchy buttered bread crumbs. Oh my. Totally delish! And cheap, cheap, cheap to boot--perfect for tight budgets and healthy appetites. Just never mind the calories.

My ex and good friend T introduced me to beans'n noodles, a traditional Friday dish in D'Hanis, a predominantly Catholic community. You know, a "no meat on Fridays" kind of place. My kids loved beans'n noodles. Who wouldn't?

(Of course, when I was in elementary school, we always had fish sticks on Fridays at the school cafeteria. I never connected the fish/no meat thing with Catholicism then though. I wonder if school cafeterias still do that?)

In D'Hanis, we usually ate beans'n noodles with fried fish, but last night we didn't have any fish in the freezer. Here in the desert, fresh fish is a rare commodity.

I hadn't made beans'n noodles since the kids left home, so Steve had not ever tasted this culinary delight before last night. I would have taken a pic of the dish, except we were too busy eating. It was wonderful stuff, just as good or better than I remembered.

Anyway, here's the drill:

Noodles:
1 cup flour
1 egg
Enough milk to fill an eggshell half

Make a well in the flour and mix in egg and milk until sticky dough forms. On a floured surface, roll out dough as thinly as possible. Cut dough into thin (1/4-1/2 inch wide) strips and drop into salted boiling water (I always add oil, a tablespoon or two, to the water to keep it from boiling over). Reduce heat to low and simmer 15-25 minutes. Stir every couple of minutes to keep the noodles from sticking together.

Mr. W's Boathouse Beans:
2-3 cups dry pinto beans
handful or more of salt pork or bacon (peppered bacon is oh so good)
2 onions (one diced, the other whole to eat later--onion cooked in bean juice is veryvery good!)
2-3 jalapenos, sliced
salt

Soak beans overnight or for several hours. Drain and rinse. Add fresh water to beans (enough to cover beans plus an inch or two) with remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat to good bubbling simmer and cook until done, about 2 hours. (You'll thank me for that whole onion--mm-mm good!) Hint: if you have to add water during the cooking, heat up the water first; otherwise the bean skins will crack and you'll have UGLY beans!

Bread Crumbs:
4 slices bread (fresh, stale, whatever)
1/2 stick butter

Cut bread into small cubes. Melt butter in big skillet, then add bread cubes. Stir until crispy and well-toasted.

That's it.

This morning Mr. W asked me if we could have beans'n noodles every week or so. Hallelujah! He's a convert!

Just be careful the next day ...


Beans can be deadly.