Florida Fourth of July (Corny Bean Salad)

Crunch, slightly sweet and so refreshing

To say this was a unique 4th of July is an understatement. Four months into social distancing and staying at home.  Eight months into our new life in Florida. Two months without Will and Chantal, who went first to Tampa and then to California for Chantal’s job as a travel nurse. We are working our core to stay upright and steady as our world is rocked.

Being new to a new state in the midst of a pandemic is challenging. Thankfully, we’ve become good friends with our neighbors, Anthony and Birgit who are now in their second year as Floridians. They both still work, like me, and play golf, like Steve. Plus they’re great folks who are fun to get together with for social distanced driveway happy hours and backyard BBQs. 

As the Fourth grew near, we decided the time was right to introduce our new friends, including Anthony’s Uncle Anthony (Unc) to one of our favorite meals, my Carne Asada Tacos.  Anthony, Birgit and Unc are from New Jersey and while they’ve had plenty of Mexican food, they were new to Carne Asada Tacos. I love seeing folks’ faces when they bite into their first one…. So not a Taco Bell taco!

We served up the tacos with juicy slices of watermelon and another Barnett favorite, Corny Bean Salad. I recently discovered Trader Joe’s Everything but the Elote Seasoning Blend, which combines the flavors of Mexican street corn (salt, chili pepper, cheese, chipotle and cumin) in a totally addictive seasoning. I thought it would be great in this salad — judging from the comments around the table, I was spot on!

If I do say so myself, dinner was a hit. Good friends, good food, lots of laughs, six feet apart as much as possible. No fireworks, but like any Florida summer evening, there was plenty of thunder and lightening. Not exactly Moxi’s favorite, but a great light show nonetheless.

Since you can find the Carne Asada recipe in my post from July 31, 2009, I’m sharing the recipe for the salad today.  I hope you enjoy it.

Corny Bean Salad

1) Combine in a large bowl 

• 1 can black beans, rinsed and well drained
• 1 can corn, drained
• 3 scallions, sliced (both white and green parts)
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup finely diced sweet onion (look for onions labeled "sweet," "Maui," "Vidalia," or Walla Walla
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• Large pinch of salt and 10 grinds of pepper

2) Combine in a small jar:

• Zest and juice of three limes
• 1 TBS Trader Joe’s Everything But The Elote seasoning blend

  

  My latest obsession

• 1TBS Honey
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Add olive oil equal to the amount in the jar and shake well. Taste and add salt to taste.

3) Add the dressing to the bean and corn mixture, stir well. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Chill at least 2 hours to overnight. Stir well and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper or more Elote seasoning if needed. Serve with a slotted spoon.

Enjoy.

Final (hopefully) New Home Improvement Project (Super Easy Chili Verde Soup)

The fresh uncooked corn from our local farm stand
adds the perfect pop of sweetness and texture

If you’ve been following along, you know that Steve and I answered the parental siren call, sold the place in Durham and moved to Boynton Beach, Florida — just 15 minutes from both Will & Chantal and the beach. A pretty sweet deal.

I’m fortunate to work for a fantastic company that supported my move, so work pretty much continued without missing a beat. We’ve joined a new country club (very nice, but it has some pretty big shoes to fill with Croasdaile!), met a few of our full time and snowbird neighbors and are getting into a nice routine. 

Loving sunrises and feathered
friends at the beach!

Yesterday was Presidents Day and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I actually took the day off. And a fine day it was…. blue skies, temps in the 80s and the plantation shutters for the master and guest bedrooms were delivered! A big day in deed. With many renovation chores done, we can now sit back, relax and enjoy our new Florida vibe. Sigh.

As we often do, a day around the house meant a slow cooked meal. We love love love chili verde and I’ve been noodling on this one for a while, so I decided to give it a shot. It was tasty yesterday, and I ran a quick jar of it over to the kiddos (so love being close by). But tonight it was down right amazing. Especially with the raw corn, fresh from our local farm stand. Yup, I’m gonna like this place.

I hope you give it a try. 

Super Easy Pork Chili Verde Soup

Ingredients

• 3-4 lb picnic pork, pork butt or similar large cut of pig, trimmed of most visible fat and cut into 1-2 inch  cubes.  If there’s a bone, cut as much meat off as you can and save it to help flavor the broth as you braise the pork
• 1 cup onion, 3/4 inch dice 
• 2 large cloves garlic, rough chopped
• 1 large bunch of cilantro, washed, dried and leaf portion separated from the steps. Finely chop the greens for a garnish and keep the stems whole. You’ll use them when braising the pork
• 1 16 oz jar of green salsa, medium or mild heat
• 1 10 oz small can of green enchilada sauce
• 3/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 box chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• Salt, Pepper
• Cooking oil (corn, canola, etc.)

Method

Heat your oven to 325 degrees

You’ll need a heavy pot, I like a dutch oven

• Season the chunks of pork with kosher salt and pepper  Don’t be shy, it’s gonna cook for quite a while.
• Heat a medium-sized dutch oven with about a half inch of oil over a medium high heat and start browning the pork in batches. Add more oil as needed. Don’t worry about the brown build-up on the bottom of the pot— it’s amazing flavor.
• Remove each batch to a bowl. If you’re lucky enough to get a bone in piece of pork, brown it as well. 
• When all the pork is browned, wipe out the remaining oil with a paper towel  (leave the browned bits!) and lower the heat to medium.  Add another table spoon of oil if you need it and sauté the onion and garlic until soft.  Then add in the cumin seed and coriander, and stir to toast in the oil for about a minute.  
• Now stir in the broth, a little bit at first to scrape up the brown bits, then pour in the water, pop on the lid and bring the liquid to a boil.  Once bubbling away, add the pork cubes and bone (if using) as well as the cilantro stems. Bring this mixture back to a light boil, turn off the heat, put the lid back on and tuck the pot into the oven for 1-2 hours (check it at 1 1/2 hours, if the pork is super tender, your’e done. If not, put it back in and check back in 30 minutes. If it’s not tender at that point, give it a bit more time (and find another source for pork. Seriously.)
• When pork to your liking, remove the pot from the oven, pull out the cilantro stems and let the pork and broth cool for a 20 minutes or as long as it takes for the grease to come to the top. If you need to serve right away, lay paper towels atop the liquid to blot away the grease. If you can put it in the fridge for a while, do so and then lift or spoon off the solidified fat. 
• Now comes the verde part! Stir in the salsa and enchilada sauce, move to a low heat on the stovetop and cook, uncovered for 45 minutes. When the cooking process is done, check for seasoning (add salt if needed, but I doubt if you will) and you’re good to go.
• Serve with a squeeze of lime and any combination of toppings such as diced avocado, chopped onion, uncooked cut-from-the-cob corn, white cheddar, jack or Mexican queso fresco cheese — anything that floats your boat!

Enjoy!

Shutters in - the guest room is ready for
our next round of guests!