My grandmother always put oysters in hers, but I don’t like them in my gumbo.

Some of my other family members use them and various other seafood, such as lobster, crayfish, and scallops.

This recipe is for a big pot, but you can adjust as needed.

Let your taste buds lead you! enjoy!

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dishes.

Thinking back on the things my grandmother use to say to me, it brings back memories of warmness, Joy, and sometimes sadness. Simply, because of the reasons, she said certain things to my siblings and me.

Like “You will understand when you have children” or “Be grateful for what you got on your

plate” she said this whenever we complained about eating the same thing more than once, during the week.

One of those dishes was kidney beans and rice!

These delicious little pellets of energizing protein, packs a lot of flavor and goodness rolled into them. They are perfectly fine when eaten all alone, but extra scrumptious when served over white or brown rice! Yum!

I can’t believe that now as an adult I love to cook them, eat them, and serve them to my kids. I love to reminisce about those good days when I was a young girl,  racing my brother home, to get to the dinner table first.

Kidney Beans

Now when shopping, don’t get these kidney beans mixed up with red beans. I say this because my husband brought back the wrong beans one time. Just because they looked similar, but they are different.

Kidney beans are bigger than red beans and are not as strong tasting. Kidney beans do not take as long as red beans to cook. But if your local grocer does not have them, you can substitute this recipe with red beans.

This recipe kindles memories like the one I talked about up top, because, it was one of those dinners that I remember the most as a young child.

Particularly, because my grandmother seemed to always have this dish ready when my brother and I  got home from school.

We would race back home to eat, after a long day at school. The long public bus ride to and from school was extra tasking on our starving bodies.

It was as if we were starving when we stepped foot off that bus. Even though we had eaten lunch at school, it seems that we were always hungry when we got home.

My grandmother never failed use, she knew that we would be hungry, so she had our beans ready. As a mom, I now know that it took her a long time to prepare this dish.

Her Creole heritage definitely influenced her cooking and made it so delicious, and she cooked for us with a healthy dose of love in each meal.

Back then I thought that we were unfortunate and poor because we had to eat beans, which seemed like every day. Now I know it was really one of the best and one of the healthiest meals we could have eaten.

What to cook with kidney beans

This delicious dish pairs well with many things and, I eat them any time of the day. Get you some smoked turkey or smoked ham or even smoked sausage is good. The tender ham flavored meat makes it even more mouth-watering. Drizzle the thickened savory sauce over fluffy white rice, spiced with some screaming Texas Pete hot sauce, oh baby you’re talking good!

Although it seemed as if my grandmother prepared this dish for us every day, at the time, I now understand that she had actually cooked the pot of kidney beans & rice on that Monday.

It seems as if it was a kind of unspoken tradition to put a big pot of beans on the stove that would simmer all day long. Just like the tradition of frying fish on Fridays was a family ritual with my kinfolks.

My family was not catholic, but they did come from Louisiana and many of these traditions were lived out in their homes, even after migrating to San Francisco.

Sometimes we got to eat these beans with some good fried chicken, pickled peppers and freshly diced tomatoes. Which are all duplicated at my table today, when I cook  red beans & rice for my family

So, this is a meal that I have placed in front of my family quite often. Today, as a mother, that has the choice to prepare any dish for my family that I want, I often prepare red beans & rice. Yes, I could skip beans, a little more often then I choose too.  But, the fact is, my family, enjoy eating this dish, especially with a nice thick piece of cornbread, chicken or with a nice crisp green tossed salad!  Plus it is so healthy and nutritious! Yum, delicious!

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Every year my family looks forward to my grandmother’s Creole Rice Dressing for the holidays. This recipe has been in our family for decades.

It is the kind of dish that when you look at it you’re not sure what to think because it is filled with delicious meats, savory spices and scrumptious vegetables, diced just right for the tasting.

I know there is a dish out there called dirty rice, Please, do not call it that in front of my Grandmother! That is an insult to her cooking.

When my grandmother was making this rice dressing, she would work for hours perfecting her savory rice with love. She wanted each batch to be the best one of all!

I remember every Thanksgiving I would cook right alongside my Grandmother. She taught me how to dice the garlic, chop the celery, and mince the parsley.

chopped the bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and green onion just so, all for the rice dressing.  She put scores of her wisdom and her Creole heritage into her cooking.

Rice dressing love

My grandmother’s cooking was truly a labor of love. I am so glad that she took the time to pass her creole cooking heritage down to me. Thanksgiving was one of her favorite holidays because she could cook the foods that she loved to share with her grandkids, man do I miss her!

I know why she put so much effort into preparing the rice dressing because she loved seeing the joy on our faces when we knew that it was time to eat it! She talked about our greediness and it made her laugh to see our antics.

We would rush to the kitchen with our plates in hand and our mouths watering for the rice dressing, turkey, ham, cornbread stuffing, and all of the foods!

My brother Ricky and I raced each other getting to the table.

Boy, my mouth is watering right now just remembering her cooking.

It was a sacred time cooking Rice Dressing for the holidays because my grandmother put her time, money and heart into her cooking. She did not play when it came to preparing this rice dressing.

It had 3 to 4 different types of meat, Campbell’s cream of chicken & cream of mushroom soups, and a combination of herbs & spices.   There were so many different meats diced so tiny and mixed in, that the taste was unbelievable.

One sad story about Rice Dressing

When my Grandmother made rice dressing, she put oysters in it. I can remember my grandmother working all night one Thanksgiving, preparing her famous rice dressing, oysters included.

For some reason, the whole entire pot spoiled. She was heartbroken. That was money down the drain, and it meant we would not have rice dressing that year.

I do not understand what happened at that time but it taught me to never use oysters when I prepared rice dressing.

Yet, it didn’t stop her from cooking it the next holiday

This rice dressing is the kind of dish that you do not cook any other time except for Thanksgiving. But she cooked such a large enough amount that she would freeze packages for Christmas and Easter.

Cooking Rice dressing for the holidays is so special and it will be a centerpiece at your Thanksgiving feast, I promise you!

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