Okay…so…I’ve been blogging for about a month now and I realize that in order for me to really appreciate the concept of a “blogisphere” is to continue to blog. To me, this feeling could be compared to the trite-yet-infamous “I think therefore I am.” I have so many occasions where I find that I want to solely make the food do the talking. This, to me, is a cop-out. Yet, I cannot always find the words to put forth, but I want the poorly taken photos and the experimental culinary experience to some how get out there. Am I conflicted? I pity the…person who would use an obscure Mr. T reference here. So…I won’t. I can use the bard as an inspiration, can’t I? “If music be the food of love, play on! Give me excess of it.” Now that is a concept I can wrap my head around. The bard as well as the Poe man give me inspiration to “tell it"; quote the raven, “nevermore"! And no, I am not the sweet Lenore knocking at the chamber door. I am quite possibly the one who is pondeing, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.

Enough of the musing…

...

Here is a dish, and I mean a delicious “dish!” that Becky and I raved about. And I actually made it. I found that Heidi was on to something when I found these beans on her site. The Ranch Gordo beans. Despite being quite simple to prepare, sometimes the best tasting dishes, al least for me, are the simple ones with fresh components.

I bought a sample set from Ranch Gordo that included their Black Calypso beans in it. I have to say that these beans were scrumptious! They had a buttery flavor while having the consistency of a smooth operator. In other words, they were some good-ass beans!

I bought a bunch of stuff from La Tienda when I decided to make paella and I found these sausages. After having viewed this post at Tamarind and Thyme, I got an idea to use the botifarra sausages to my advantage.

Although I have never been to Espana, I have every intention to get there. This dish, considered a staple in Barcelona, helped my wife and me get close on the cold weekend. Eventhough the botifarra sausage is a pork sausage, in Spain there are several varieties including negro, which is blood sausage and they even make these sausages with chocolate!

No real recipe here as this was an experiment, but it will be repeated.

I washed and soaked the beans for four hours. Apparently they don’t need and overnight soak. I put together a base for the beans that consisted of flat-leaf parsley, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, one half a medium Spanish onion diced, and four slices of Serrano ham diced. Into a pot of shimmering olive oil, about a tablespoon, they went. I topped them off with 4 cups of low sodium chicken stock.

They were cooked over medium-low heat for about 2 1/2 hours and were tender but not mushy. I added about a teaspoon each, onion powder, white pepper, coriander, and cumin.

Since this day blessed us with an outside temperature of 30 degrees-f. Normally I will fire up the Brinkman regardless of temperature, but for this task, the stove-top grill will do just fine. So I fired it up on high heat for about 7 minutes.

I sprayed the grill with non-stick spray, lowered the heat to medium, and laid the sausages on.

They took about 15 minutes, turning periodically to keep from burning.

Add some toasted bread and a good white wine for a tasty, tasty meal!