Cooking with the Shaws - Mom's Red Beans and Rice

I know I promised I would have my first Shaw Family Cookbook post yesterday, but obviously that didn't happen. Yesterday was super busy trying to get ready to go out of town this weekend. We are going to my parents' house in Tennessee. All my cousins on my dad's side are getting together for the first time in I don't even know when. One of my cousins lives in Maryland and the other in Colorado. The other 2 live in middle Tennessee but I still don't see them often. So, I'm pretty excited. They all have kids and it'll be fun for all of our kids to play together.

Anyway, after a day of packing and cleaning, I put Joseph to bed and went to the barn for a ride...and didn't come home until 11:30. I wasn't about to post then. The barn owners and their kids were out and we just sat around riding and talking for a few hours. It was so worth the tired eyes I had this morning.

Anyway, here is recipe 1. It's for "Mom's Red Beans and Rice." Submitted by Susan and Linda (I'm not putting any last names here). For those of you who have the cookbook (since I know a good bit of my readers are family...) this is on page 156 of what I believe is the first printing.

Mom's Red Beans and Rice

1 lb dried red beans
4 qts water
3/4 c chopped onion
3/4 c chopped celery
3/4 c chopped green pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 c margarine
2 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika (recipe recommends Hungarian, but I didn't have any)
1 tsp dried whole thyme
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 lb smoked polish sausage, cut into 1 in pieces
1/2 c finely chopped fresh parsley

Ok, I didn't put green pepper in it since Michael and I are not green pepper fans. I also used 1/2 tsp of ground thyme instead of 1 tsp of whole thyme and I used smoked turkey sausage because we are on kind of a health kick.

I also didn't put in the fresh parsley because I forgot to go out to the garden and get it.

ANYWAY, all those things aside...here's what you do:
Sort, wash, soak beans (quick soak or overnight...the directions are on the bag). Drain the soak water and add 4 qts of water to the beans in a 6 qt dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered for 1 to 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Saute onions, celery, peppers, and garlic in butter until tender.

Stir sauteed veggies and next 6 ingredients into beans. Cook, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally (add water if necessary).

Bake sausage at 350 for 20 minutes, drain well (you could probably omit this if you use turkey sausage...there is nothing to drain).

Stir sausage into bean mixture and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Remove bay leaves and serve over rice.

Michael was a big fan of this dish....as I knew he would be. That boy loves beans. Joseph even seemed to really like it. It's definitely going to be joining the regular rotation in our house, because, while it is time consuming, it is so simple and not very "hands on." I like that.

Enjoy!