Boston Black-Bean Soup and Bacon Corn Bread

Black Bean Soup?  Sounds healthy--until you add the butter, flour and cream...

After soaking the beans overnight, boil them for a couple hours.  Then drain most of the water, saving it to add back to the soup.  Puree the beans with a little of the water, add back to pan with the saved water.  Simmer this while making a roux with butter, flour, chopped yellow onion, dry mustard, black pepper and cream.  When this is thick add to pureed beans.  Simmer without scorching.  Serve in a shallow bowl with a slice of lemon (which I didn't have), a slice of boiled egg, and a whole clove.  This soup was very rich and creamy.  It could be made with skim milk instead of cream for a more healthy soup.

The Frugal Gourmet said this soup has been popular in Boston for generations and is a good way to make it through a New England winter (or even a Midwest winter, I would guess).

Now what goes with bean soup?  I thought bacon corn bread sounded delicious.  You use the same basic corn bread recipe I wrote about a couple weeks ago, but with a small change.  Fry up about 5 pieces of bacon, saving the bacon fat.  Then instead of using oil, add the bacon fat along with the bacon to the batter.  Yum yum!!!  I cannot begin to explain how good this smelled when I took it out of the oven.  It tasted even better.  Doesn't need any butter on top, but I intend to try a bit of maple syrup on a square from the leftovers.  What could be better than a bacon, corn bread, and maple syrup combination?