Beans, The Magical Fruit

With over two feet of snow just outside my door, today is a perfect kind of day for soup.

Not only does it sound warm, but I love the smell in the house as the soup boils over the bright blue flame, making me feel very domesticated. I am no chef, but somehow a large pot of fresh (or frozen)veggies mixed with spices and a whole onion gives me a sense of profound accomplishment on a cold day.

Today I decided (when I found a hunk of ham in the freezer), was a perfect day for old fashioned bean soup. The kind that I always remember on the back of the stove in this very kitchen when I was young. I thought when gramma lived here when I was a child, that she had invented bean soup. I was really surprised when I grew older and heard of other families that grew up with the savory goodness that I remember so well.

So, I chop the ham into pieces, pour water over the bag of pintos, and realize one bag just won't do it. I have checked every cupboard twice, along with the whole basement storage shelves where extra food is stored, and other than 4 bags of dried kidney beans (yuck), I had just washed the last bag of beans in our house. One bag of beans. That would never work for this hungry group of 9.

What to do...?

The answer came from above.

No, heaven didn't call, but when I looked up on my high kitchen shelf, behold, an antique jar full of mixed beans hovered just above me.

I quickly grabbed a chair, reached up to the jar and....oops, there are also kernels of corn laced in between the variety of beans.

As I stood beside the counter, sorting kernels from viable beans, I remembered the cause of the mixup. Another winter day my children anxiously searched for a remedy to their snow crazed bordem, I handed them glue, a jar of beans, a bag of popcorn and construction paper. The end results are long time gone, but the remnants of their extra supplies lived on in the antique jar.

Now, the beans are boiling, good smells wafting in the air, with the hope of a warm evening meal, and the extra kernels of corn are in the antique jar. I could have thrown the kernels away, but we still have a lot of snow coming in Southwest Michigan, and as far as I know, when my kids are bored they will be asking me for an idea of a craft.

Gee, how about a kernel mosaic, kids?