Pinto Beans with Chili, Raspberry Iced Tea

Dinner tonight will be Pinto beans with a can of chili added to it. As a kid, there was a time when Mom was struggling to find a good job.. and when she did find one, found out it would be close to 6 weeks before she got her first paycheck.. The pay was great, but that 6 weeks... oh my. When Mom found out she got the job. she bought a 50 pound bag of Pinto beans. We had beans every night.. It was a good thing us kids were in school and on the lunch program. It gave us a varity of foods for the week. Mom also bought corn meal and flour. She would make bread on the weekends, biscuits by mid week or cornbread. I'm not even sure where we were getting milk and eggs from. I'm thinking we got them from a friend who had a cow and chickens on her small farm. It's that or Thom was buying them with the money he was making at the time. Even back then he was trying to help out the family as much as possible. I know Andy and I would go through the neighborhood asking people we saw if they needed a kid to do a job for them.. Andy got lawn mowing jobs that way. I helped clean a couple of houses. I remember sitting under a large table with a small paintbrush getting all the dust from the claw feet and from under the top of the table.

Anyway... Today I'm making a pot of pinto beans and will add a can of chili to it a bit before Jerry gets home and the beans are done. Since I found my jello stash, I'll make up some of that and add some canned fruit to it for a dessert. I'm still debating between corn bread or biscuits to go with the beans.

Most mornings, I try to copy a recipe from one of the church books I've picked up.. well, I stashed it and can't find it.. but since a recipe is a recipe, and I have a shelf of recipes in the living room, I thought I'd copy from one of the magazines I have, that way I can toss out, or pass along this one, once I get all I want out of it. here is the recipe I found right up front.

*****


Raspberry Iced Tea
Taste of Home,
Jun/Jul 01
8 1/4 cup Water, divided
2/3 cup Sugar
5 individual Tea Bags
3 to 4 cups unsweetened Raspberries
In a large saucepan, bring 4 cups water to a boil. Stir in sugar until disolved. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Steep for 5 to 8 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add 4 cups water to tea. In another pan, bring raspberries and remaining water to a boil. Reduce heat, simmering uncovered for 3 minutes. Strain and discard pulp. Add resulting Raspberry juice to the tea. Chill in fridge. Serve over ice.