Four Corners and a mushroom bean soup

What is on the plate is simple. What is in the bowl is complex. Let's have a look.

These are pinto beans that were boiled with chopped poblano pepper and mushrooms. It has a little chopped garlic (couple of cloves), and cilantro-salt seasoning. A dollop of hot salsa (the petin). Crumbled costeno cheese on top. 

I was really happy with how it turned out. Had a unique, earthy flavor to it. I'm going to be coming back to this one for awhile.

Now for the 4 Corners. Four toasted corn torillas lay the foundation. One one, I put turkey with some Jack Daniels barbecue sauce. On the second, I have grilled zucchini. On the third, my last (shed a tear) HEB mesquite smoked all beef sausage. And the fourth tortilla has grilled onions. There's a little bit of chopped fresh tomato in the middle.

It's kind of Spanish tapas style serving. Just picking that the assortment and making an occasional taco. Buen provecho.

Mesquite: the best of all things hardwood smoked

In Texas, mesquite is our hickory. It is the sweetest of all woods for smoking meats.
There are so many sausages to choose from in a Texas supermarket. You won't see these sights in a Florida grocery:

The sausage aisle covers a good 15 yards of floor space in the meat section at an HEB market.

Most of the brands come from sausage makers in Texas. The out of state brands fill maybe a third of the open coolers.
 

But there's more.

Take a walk across the floor.

The chorizos are located separately.

Apco, Garcia, Hill County Fare, San Luis, and others are packed in floor to ceiling.

Back to mesquite!

When I cook with a mesquite smoked sausage, I try to keep things simple. I want to use fewer ingredients. Less salt, less or no black pepper. I may even skip the onions altogether.

Mesquite smokes sausage is a meat I can eat straight. It doesn't need any help.

I picked out the store brand: HEB Mesquite Premium Smoked Sausage.

Normally, I would offer a link, but I couldn't find one. This is a fine product, but HEB has so many store brands, they don't bother to list them all individually.

This first dish is a simple dinner. I slow-grilled a split mesquite-smoked sausage link and paired with with some baked beans topped with a thick slice of grilled onion.

The bread is multi-grain toast with whole cooked cranberry. No butter. No salt. No dessert.

It looks pretty! Don't it?

Buen provecho!