Baby Bowl

By Dana McMahan FoodConnect Louisville foodconnect.com@gmail.com Baby Bowl We didn’t eat out very often when I was a kid, so I easily remember the foods and places from the special times that we did. Living in Tulsa in the early 80s, my family had a low-roller Mexican place we liked to visit. I remember nothing about the restaurant other than my love for their dish called Baby Bowl. To this day I’m not sure why they called it that – maybe because it was soft, and easy for a baby to eat? It was not much more than a dish of refried beans, and probably some chips. My palate at eight didn’t extend to such delicacies as salsa and sour cream. We only lived in Oklahoma for a couple of years, but Baby Bowl ended up in our family’s dinner repertoire permanently. I realize now that’s probably because it was a quick and easy dish – imperative for a working young mother of two attending college. I didn’t know or care about the whys or wherefores, I just loved Baby Bowl night. Years before I declared myself a vegetarian I turned up my nose at meat, and a bowl piled with refried beans and cheese evidently gave me all the protein my mom likely thought I needed. I hadn’t had Baby Bowl in years – maybe not even in my adult life. Then my mom mentioned it a couple of weeks ago on the phone, and like Pavlov’s dogs, I responded with an instant craving for a soothing, creamy bowl of mashed pinto beans. That weekend we picked up a 99-cent bag of dried pintos (the economy of this dish may also have contributed to its popularity at my house growing up) and set about making my own Baby Bowl. Refried beans out of a can look and smell like dog food, so take the extra bit of time – really it’s just a matter of planning ahead on a Sunday — and cook your own beans. We cooked them Sunday afternoon and dropped them in the fridge until Monday after work. Sautéed some onions, then mashed in the beans along with a little water and some salt and there you have it. I piled my bowl of beans with shredded sharp cheddar, some green onions and a lashing or three of sour cream. With some toasty baked tortilla chips on the side (whole wheat tortillas crisped in the toaster oven) my Baby Bowl dinner was everything I remembered.