Hearty dishes of beans and sausages are perfect for those last few wintry days before spring that just won't seem to loosen their grasp.

After spending the last two weeks in Hawaii it was easy to forget that there are still numerous parts of the country still firmly in winter's icy grip. Also, even if it's warmer here in North Carolina than when I left - it's still too chilly to check the mail in shorts and a tank top.

But, until the days when I'm begging for air conditioning and iced cocktails, I'll continue to find a place on the weekly menu for stick-to-the-ribs meals like this one.

It calls for soaking the beans overnight and then cooking them for several hours, but I don't think anyone will care too much if you just used canned. I know I'll be using canned if I make it again - I just can't get over the firmness of dried beans and don't have the patience to boil them for three days to get the mushy consistency I prefer.

In other words, cheating is OK.

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As breakfast comfort foods go, there is no more a ubiquitous dish than biscuits and sausage gravy.

My mother makes the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had - to this day. Our house was kind like of a halfway-house when I was growing up - there was always a few extra mouths to feed at the dinner, or breakfast, table. She would make dozens of biscuits and gallons of sausage gravy and we'd plow through it all.

In one sitting.

We were hungry teenagers.

As we got older and each of us kids started spending the holidays at the houses of our respective significant others, my mother started a new Thanksgiving Day tradition. Since we were never around for the big turkey dinner, Mom would make a big breakfast for everyone before we scampered off to spend the rest of the day with whatever flavor-of-the-week had caught our attention. It never failed that biscuits and gravy were the focal point of that breakfast.

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When TA and I stopped in New Orleans on our cross country trek I finally tried red beans and rice for the first time.

It was out of this world delicious.

How has more soul food not made it to the Pacific Northwest? I feel like I've missed out on such a diverse cuisine by not experimenting more with the various regional 'delicacies' present in my own country.

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After eating that delicious roasted duckling last night I shredded the rest of the meat off the bones to make some fried rice. This is actually the first time I've ever made fried rice, and to be honest, I was a little intimidated. It seemed so complicated for some reason...a reason that I'm unsure of what it actually was.

It was easy peasy. Seriously. I see lots of fried rice in our future.

The key, apparently, is "overnight rice." Yesterday when Husband declared he wanted white rice with the roasted duckling, as opposed to the lovely roasted fingerling potatoes and zucchini I wanted to pair it with, I simply tossed double the amount I normally would in the rice cooker and threw it in the fridge overnight.

Obviously the ingredients for fried rice vary greatly; I can definitely see this as one of those 'clean out the veggie shelf' recipes. So awesome.

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