Creole Butter Beans

For the past few days, I've been un-enthusiastically searching for good sounding recipes for butter beans.  I got them in my CSA last week, and was excited about them until I discovered that butter beans is just another name for lima beans.  I've never met a lima bean that I actually liked.  In fact, I've hated them since I was a kid.

So what in the world was I going to cook with them.  In searching online, I found a lot of recipes for cajun or creole butter beans.  They all had pretty much the same ingredients - onions, peppers, cajun seasoning, tomatoes, hot sauce, sausage - and I figure if you throw enough of those goodies into a recipe, it'll make anything taste good.  The other problem I had with creole butter beans was that it's a thick, hearty stew-like dish.  Its been close to 100 degrees all week, a stew is the last thing I am in the mood for.

CSA is Finally Here!

I got the first delivery of my first CSA last night, and I couldn't be more excited! 

For those of you unfamiliar with this type of program, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Basically, you buy a share in a local farm, then every week or two you get a basket of goodies from the farm.  Given their recent surge in popularity, there all sorts of options out there.  Some programs require you to do some amount of work on the farm.  Some programs deliver while others make you pick up your goodies at the farm.  Some even let you go online ahead of time and choose what types of veggies you want that week.

The CSA I joined (A Country Affair Farm in Williamsburg, VA) gives me enough produce for 2-3 people each week, and I pick it up at a restaurant near my apartment.  I don't get to pick what I get each week, but I don't have to do any work up at the farm.

Memorial Day Cookout!

I took the long weekend to go visit my family down in North Carolina.  It was a great break!  Callie got to spend the weekend with her favorite playmate.  As an added bonus, some family friends were at the house for dinner Sunday night.  

My dad decided we needed cookout food since it was a holiday weekend, even though they weren't over on Memorial Day.  So I took over preparing dinner and drinks.  The usual dishes were there - sour cream potato salad, corn, baked beans, brisket, sweet tea - along with some things I wanted to make - sangria, watermelon lemonade, vinaigrette-based potato salad, and grilled fruit salad.