Black Bean Salad

This was delicious!! I've made it twice and the second time I ate the whole batch for lunch. I've been craving a big bowl of fresh . . . whatever and this really hit the spot. I used fresh corn since it's available right now. One ear of corn cut from the cob and cooked in my cast iron pot with some butter and olive oil.

Black Bean Salad

adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, thoroughly rinsed, and drained (or 1 1/2 cup of freshly cooked black beans)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn, defrosted (or fresh corn, parboiled, drained and cooled)
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
  
• 1 fresh jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1 avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 2 Tbsp lime juice (about the amount of juice from one lime)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Make sure to rinse and drain the beans, if you are using canned beans.

In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, onions, jalapeno chile peppers, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, basil, lime juice and olive oil. Add sugar and salt and pepper to taste. (The sugar will help balance the acidity from the tomatoes and lime juice.) Chill before serving.

Serves 6 to 8.

Have fun at work, Dad.

I'm not feeling so hot tonight. I am ready to climb into bed, but I have to get this written down first. It's nothing major- chills, sore throat, achiness... Franny has noticed and has been really sweet, asking me how I'm feeling, telling Sophie to leave me alone, etc. Bobby is on call this weekend and we were happy to have him home with us since about 10:00 this morning. Well, the pager went off about 8:15 PM. Bobby was saying goodbye to the girls and Franny said, "Have fun at work, Dad. We'll take care of Mom." It was the sweetest thing. After that she came in to the room I was laying down in and kind of tip-toed over to see if I was still awake. She brushed her fingertips down the side of my face and looked at me sympathetically. Then she kissed her fingertips and rubbed my arm that was outstretched across the bed. I was so touched by her concern. After that it got very quiet. I called out from the bedroom I was in and asked what they were doing. Franny said, "I'm just waiting for Sophie to finish her treat." Then a few minutes later I heard them walk into their room and shut the door. A few minutes after that, I was able to drag myself into their room, where I discovered that Franny was taking it upon herself to put her and her sister down to bed so that I wouldn't have to get up. Sweet girl.