Trina's Kitchen: Creole-style black-eyed peas in the Kitchen

Carole is struggling to make ends meet with the rising cost of food. She mentioned that she was doing like me and keeping a pot of beans on the stove on Saturdays and Sundays and that the kids were eating them. That's very good.

It may be asking a bit much to get them to eat these same beans during the week cooked the same way. However, you can dress them up. This is a black-eyed pea recipe from The Mayo Clinic:

Ingredients

3 cups water
2 cups dried black-eyed peas
1 teaspoon low-sodium vegetable-flavored bouillon granules
2 cups canned unsalted tomatoes, crushed
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Directions

In a medium saucepan over high heat, add 2 cups of the water and black-eyed peas. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, cover, remove from heat and let stand for 1 hour.

Drain the water, leaving the peas in the saucepan. Add the remaining 1 cup of water, bouillon granules, tomatoes, onion, celery, garlic, mustard, ginger, cayenne pepper and bay leaf. Stir together and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer slowly for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add water as necessary to keep the peas covered with liquid.

Remove the bay leaf, pour into a serving bowl and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately.

Remember a pot of black-eyed peas with an onion or bell pepper (or both) chopped up in it makes the black-eyed peas a little different than the pot you're cooking on the weekends.

You can also work in more than just black-eyed peas. Other dried beans would include navy beans, lentils, lima beans, etc. You can do a pot of those. You can make split pea soup -- and you can make it without ham or a ham bone. Make it veggie. Just cook the peas as directed on the bag and add carrots and onions and you've got a great soup. You can easily make dried beans seven days a week and not burn out -- or have the kids burn out -- as long as you vary it up.

You can get dried red beans and make red beans and rice. Pinto beans, black beans.

Beans are good for us. They're rich in protein and fiber. As long as you presoak, you don't have to worry about gas.

So it could go like this: Monday = red beans and rice; Tuesday = split pea soup; Wednesday = Creole-style black-eyed peas; Thursday: lentil or black bean tacos -- cook the lentils or black beans, serve with tortillas, lettuce, cheese and tomatoes; Friday = navy beans with ham -- cook the navy beans with onions and some strips of ham (you can even thinly slice up some sandwich ham); Saturday = lentils on the stove during the day for the kids to eat for snacks and/or lunch; and Sunday = black-eyed peas on the stove for the same reason. Saturdays and Sundays? You can also heat up some rolls, cook some biscuits or cornbread to go with the lentils or black-eyed peas.

There are many ways you can dress them up and vary them. Celery, bell peppers, carrots, cheese, tomatoes, etc.

Hope that helps. And I hope the economy gets better.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:

Tuesday, January 17, 2023. Iraq beats Qatar and moves on to the finals, Brett McGurk is the social disease that will not go away, Greenpeace calls out the jet-set at Davos and more.

Iraqis turned out in Basra yesterday to watch Iraq's soccer team take on Qatar.

ARAB TIMES notes, "Iraq qualified for the final of the 25th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup, after defeating Qatar 2-1 on Monday. Ibrahim Baish broke the deadlock in 19th minute, but the hosts lead did not last long as Qatari’s Amr Siraj scored the equalizer few minutes late. Iraq increased the tempo after Qatar equalizer but were wasteful in front of goal on numerous occassions. Ayman Hussein gave Iraq the lead and the winning goal in the 43rd minute to delight of the vociferous home crowd." Chenar Chalak (RUDAW) notes:

Iraq last reached the final of the Gulf Cup in its 21st edition in 2013, where they lost 2-1 to United Arab Emirates after extra-time.

The tournament, held in Iraq’s southern city of Basra, began earlier this month with eight teams from the Gulf taking part in the prestigious competition. The only time Iraq hosted the Gulf Cup was in 1979, from which the Iraqi team emerged victorious.

Despite the country’s constant state of political instability and disunity, the Iraqi population’s special connection to the sport of football has managed to unify the people at times of major regional and international tournaments, coming to the support of the national team regardless of their humble results.

Next? ARAB TIMES explains, "Hosts Iraq will meet Oman in the final of the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup in Basra on Thursday, after both teams recorded narrow victories in Monday’s semi-finals."

While Iraqis were celebrating, a virus returned to their country: Brett McGurk. The man who's been chipping away at Iraq's independence since Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House returned to Iraq because no matter how much you fail, you can never fail too much if you're an American destroying Iraq.

The President of the Kurdistan Tweeted:

Not really sure why you need an American to discuss "relations between Baghdad and Erbil" or Iraq's "role in defeating ISIS." Nor how Brett could help on the latter since he's not military . . .

Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) notes:

Brett McGurk, the US National Security Council's co-ordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, arrived in Baghdad on Monday on an official visit to strengthen relations with Iraq.

Mr McGurk, who was joined by Special Presidential Co-ordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein, met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani.

“The meeting focused on discussing the overall relations between Iraq and the United States and ways to strengthen and develop them at various levels and fields to serve the interests of the Iraqi and American peoples,” said a statement issued by Mr Al Sudani's office.

In other news, Sinana Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Iraq will seek support from the international community at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos to help to put the nation back on its feet.

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, who is leading his country’s delegation to the Swiss winter resort, says he will encourage world leaders to invest in Iraq and support its post-war reconstruction efforts.

On Davos, Greenpeace issued the following:

Amsterdam, Netherlands – As lobbyists, corporate bosses and political leaders head into the World Economic Forum 2023 (WEF), new analysis commissioned by Greenpeace International reveals the ecological hypocrisy of its attendees. While the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, its attendees arrive in droves of private jets.

Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace’s European mobility campaign, said:

“Europe is experiencing the warmest January days ever recorded and communities around the world are grappling with extreme weather events supercharged by the climate crisis. Meanwhile, the rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors. Davos has a perfectly adequate railway station, still these people can’t even be bothered to take the train for a trip as short as 21 km. Do we really believe that these are the people to solve the problems the world faces?”

The research, commissioned by Greenpeace International and conducted by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, found that during the week of last year’s World Economic Forum 1,040 private jet flights arrived and departed out of airports serving the Swiss luxury ski resort Davos, with about every second flight attributed to the meeting. 53% were short-haul flights below 750 km that could have easily been train trips, with 38% flying ultra short distances of under 500 km. The shortest flight recorded was only 21 km. Countries with the highest number of arrivals and departures out of Davos airports included neighbouring countries Germany, France and Italy.[1]

Researchers found that all private jet flights to and from airports serving Davos during the World Economic Forum 2022 caused a total of 9,700 tonnes of CO₂, equivalent to the emissions of about 350,000 average cars in a week. Researchers attribute a majority of these to private flights undertaken by WEF participants. Climate-damaging emissions from private jet flights quadrupled during the one week of the meeting compared to the weeks before and after the event.

“Given that 80% of the world’s population has never even flown, but suffers from the consequences of climate-damaging aviation emissions, and that the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, this annual private jet bonanza is a distasteful masterclass in hypocrisy. Private jets must be consigned to history if we are to have a green, just and safe future for all. It’s about time our political leaders start to lead by example instead of producing hot air in secret meetings with big business,” added Schenk.

Private jets are not regulated in the EU, even though they are the most polluting mode of transportation on the planet per passenger kilometre.[2] For the first time, in 2022, several EU countries have started to push for an EU-wide regulation of private jet emissions. Greenpeace is calling for a ban on private jets and short-haul flights with train alternatives in the EU.

The issue of private jets garnered global public attention last year after several public figures faced criticism for taking ultra-short trips by private jet. The analysis released by Greenpeace International comes days before political and business leaders head into Davos to attend the 2023 World Economic Forum, with its self-proclaimed goal of wanting to tackle climate change and other “ongoing crises” calling for “bold collective action”.

ENDS

Notes

[1] The basis of the analysis by CE Delft is data on private jet flights to and from airports in the vicinity of Davos, including the airports of Zürich, Geneva, Altenrhein, Dübendorf, Samedan, Friedrichshafen, and EuroAirport Swiss. The data of private jet flights has been provided by aviation analytics company Cirium. To determine the number of flights during the week of the World Economic Forum 2022 (May 21 – 27), researchers compared the flights in the WEF week with the flights in the weeks before and after. The CO₂ emissions of all flights in the WEF week were calculated using the Eurocontrol Small Emitters Tool.

[2] According to a study by Transport & Environment, private jets are 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (per passenger), and 50 times more polluting than trains. In 2018, 50% of all aviation emissions were caused by only 1% of the world’s population.

Contacts

Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner, Greenpeace CEE, spokesperson for Greenpeace’s EU Mobility For All Campaign: klara.schenk@greenpeace.org, +43 664 881 72267

Marianne Lämmel, Communications Lead, Greenpeace CEE, EU Mobility For All campaign: marianne.laemmel@greenpeace.org, +43 664 881 72 245

Follow @greenpeacepress on Twitter for our latest international press releases

The following sites updated: