It all sounds good! Y'all covered fried chicken, pinto beans and cornbread, fried potatoes - home fries not French fries. The only thing I could add is a really good oven-baked roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions.
For the fun stuff: hot cocoa made from scratch with cocoa powder, sugar, etc. like my grandmother made. Something as simple as marshmallows really thrill me. MOF I've been thinking about them for a couple of days now.
Pinto beans for a small family:
Take 1/2 pound of pinto beans; sort through them checking for rocks and half bug-eaten beans. ;0) Wash what you keep. Put in a pan and cover with water an inch or two over the top of the beans. Bring to a boil. Turn burner off. Cover and let sit at least an hour...up to overnight. The longer you let them sit, the more sugar will leach out therefore reducing the amount of gas they cause. ;0( Before cooking, rinse well.
To cook on stovetop - Put beans in saucepan. Cover with water. Add 3 or 4 slices of bacon, some ham or ham bone, or bacon grease. Salt and pepper lightly to begin with. Cook 1 - 2 hours on low simmer. After you know the meat is cooked, taste the broth and adjust seasonings. Add water as necessary.
To cook in crockpot which is what I started doing when I worked outside the home - Put beans in crockpot and cover with water. Add same meat/grease seasonings as above. Cook on low until last hour - around the 7th hour. Stir, check seasonings, turn on high and cook for one more hour.
When we have ham, I don't pick all the meat off the bone. I wrap it meat and all and freeze it. When I'm ready to cook pintos, thaw the bone and plopped it in the pot when I start the beans. Before serving, I very carefully remove the bone from the pot and basically just shake the meat off. I separate meat from the bone, fat, and grissly stuff putting the meat back in the pot. When using a hambone, be careful with your salt...it is very easy to over salt the beans.
SKM