Beans then, beans now

Did you grow up eating beans? I did. My mother sometimes apologized to me and my sister for cooking and serving beans so often when we were little. Pinto beans, great northern beans, navy beans, black-eyed peas, field peas, crowder peas, butter beans, lima beans, red beans... I can't name them all.

Here in France, we eat a lot of beans too, not because we can't afford anything better, but because we like them. Flageolets, haricots blancs, haricots noirs, haricots rouges, cocos blancs, lingots, mogettes, soissons, pois du cap — they are all delicious. The beans in these two pictures. The beans in these two photos are French white beans cooked with smoked pork lardons and saucisses de Toulouse. They could easily be made into a Southwestern France specialty, cassoulet, or they could be eaten as they are. That's how we ate them yesterday.