Beans and Cornbread

After a week of almost no sleep, I'm feeling a little bit desperate for some comfort food. So tonight we're having dinner with friends, and I made a huge pot of beans and iron skillet corn bread with caramelized onions. I don't really know why this is comfort food for me, but even just the smell of the beans as they're cooking makes me feel better. So Micah's longest sleep stint last night was 45 minutes, so the laundry's not done and the floors need to be vacuumed, I'm having beans and cornbread tonight...ah, the world is good!

Oh, and did I mention that Micah said "Ma-ma" for the first time today. Where? In the kitchen of course!

Black Beans Recipe
1 large sweet onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
2 TB chicken base
16 c water
4 c dried black beans (rinsed and checked for pebbles)
1/2 c brown sugar
1 TB molasses

Soak the beans overnight in 8 cups water. (Or for a quick soak fill pot with 8 c hot water, add the beans, and bring to a boil. Let boil for 5 minutes or so then cover and remove from heat. Let beans sit for at least 1 hour. Ok, so quick is not so quick but it beats letting them sit overnight!)

In large soup/stock pot heat olive oil and saute onion and garlic until soft. Add water, beans, and chicken base. (I have also simply used 8 cups of chicken stock and 8 cups of water.) Bring to a rolling boil. Stir in brown sugar and molasses. Boil for about 60 minutes on medium heat or until beans are soft. Then turn heat down to low and allow to simmer until dinner time.

Or make these a day or two in advance and let them chill in the fridge until you're ready to re-heat them for dinner. Why are beans always better the 2nd or 3rd day? Also, as a left over these beans make great "refried" beans if you just mash them up. LOVE them on tortillas with salsa.