Mmmm, tastes like providence.

Tonight I'm making beans and cornbread for dinner.

This burbling cauldron contains: dried Anasazi beans (thanks, Mom and Dad!), cubes of defatted salt pork, an onion, garlic powder, a bay leaf or two, some liquid smoke, what was left of a lunchtime tomato, and my mom's secret addition (a tablespoon or two of ketchup). The great thing about Anasazi beans is that you don't have to soak them before cooking, so this all came together pretty fast.

Of course, you have to eat this stuff with cornbread. It's a moral imperative. Also tasty. Today we are trying a new (to us) variant made with half-white cornmeal and half-grits.

Cornbread, before cooking...

...and after. I think this recipe may be a keeper.

I asked Captain Midnight to cut it into nine pieces, "like tic-tac-toe."

He took these instructions a bit too literally.

Miss V likes to refer to this dish as "poor man's stew" for some reason. And I always respond the same way: "No, it's food for people who want to be rich."

Gourmet fare this ain't. But delicious? Yes, yes it is.