Southern, Hippie, Peasant Cooking

Call me an old hippie, call me a peasant, call me Southern gal. All part of the glorious mix of the mongrelness that is Ms. Moon.
I love long, colorful skirts, can't abide jeans that don't say Levi's, love to get my hands in the dirt and my favorite meal is made up of beans, greens, rice and some sort of bread.
This morning I told my husband that really, I didn't feel like making dinner. Morning might seem a bit early to be thinking of dinner but one of the first things I do every day is decide what our evening meal will be. Yes, I am food-obsessed and I know it.
Of course as soon as I said that, I decided that what we really needed to eat tonight was my favorite meal and I went out to the garden and picked some collards, some mustards and also pulled a few cabbage leaves to put in the pot together. I thought to make another pot of black-eyed peas, but could only find half a bag, which I'm sure would have been enough for me and the man's supper, but I cannot bring myself to cook only one half of a small bag of beans. What's the point?
I found some dried soybeans and started those in a pot with some Dale's Seasoning (I love this stuff- it's like soy sauce on steroids) and a bit of olive oil. Soy beans, being the king of all beans, need plenty of time to cook. Hours and hours and hours. So they've been simmering away for quite some time now and will be ready for tonight's meal. I make a goop (honestly, this is what I call it) to go on them which I base loosely on a recipe from a very old and very cherished cookbook I own called The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook and although it sounds weird, it is extremely yummy. You just mix up some mayonnaise (they use that vegan kind but I use regular-people kind, only low-fat), soy sauce, a little balsamic vinegar, and garlic powder. I usually use fresh garlic for all of my garlic needs, but for some reason, I use the powder in this recipe. Put this sauce on top of your soybeans and brown rice and you will have a delightful dish of goodness. Well, unless you use too much of the goop, in which case you've negated all the nutrition with fat.
But really, the beans are great with just some soy sauce and/or hot sauce of your choosing, as are all beans.
The greens I wash very carefully (mustard greens can TRAP some sand, folks), cut then into bite-sized pieces and put in a pot with water, a little olive oil (my oil of choice) and a cut-up onion. Today I also added a can of diced tomatoes. Sometimes I use fresh. I just like the flavor of the tomatoes and greens together and as a matter of fact, the vitamin C in the tomatoes actually makes the iron in the greens more available if consumed together. Did you know that? Cool, huh?
I also cook them with a bit of the Dale's and some balsamic vinegar and I'm sure I cook them too long but I do not like a crunchy green and think they're unnatural. Don't you remember your granny's greens? They were so good and she cooked them all day.
I am taking poetic license here. If my granny ever cooked a green in her life I don't know about it but if she did, it was probably spinach and no, that should not be overcooked. My granny believed in the goodness of the canned green bean and also the nutritional value of the iceberg lettuce leaf. But in my imagination, my granny simmered greens all day long on a big old woodstove in her country kitchen while she sat and made quilts.
I'll probably make a pot of brown rice to go with this meal and I have leftover bread from last night which I made from such an improbable mix of grains and other ingredients that you wouldn't believe it if I told you and it wouldn't sound good, either, but believe me- it was FINE bread and it will be tonight, too.
And that'll be our dinner.
What are you having?