Tonight's dinner is Ham shanks, collard greens, navy beans and corn muffins.


The corn bread recipe is from the back of Quaker corn meal box.

This is how the beans and pork shanks were cooked

Wash and sort Navy beans, put in a pot big enough to cover with 3 times as much water, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, cover; remove from heat and let sit for an hour.  Drain add one small onion chopped, 1/2 Cup brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste a couple pinches cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon dried or 3 Tbs. fresh parsley and 5 or 6 meaty ham shanks. cover with water and simmer about 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.

For this meal I used canned collard greens but I usually cook them from fresh with this recipe.  I usually cook these greens with black eyed peas but the family really enjoyed the navy beans.

    Collard Greens

5 bundles collard greens

4 cups salted water

3 large smoked ham shanks

1 cup sugar

Salt

 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Thoroughly wash collard greens. Be sure to pull leaves apart and remove any sand. Chop collard greens.

In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups of salted water to a simmer. Place smoked ham hocks in salted water and cover for about 90 minutes. Cook ham hocks until slightly tender. In the same saucepan, add remaining ingredients and collard greens.

Cover and cook greens for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

*Cook's Note: Make sure at least half of ham hocks are covered with water. If not, add additional water.