The term “sweat equity” might be defined as an interest or increased value that results from a personal input of labor. The term is not usually associated with an evening meal. That said, home grown produce always tastes better than store bought. The grocery store product is not and cannot be seasoned with the sweat equity of having grown-it-yourself.

Sweat equity seasoning can also be found in baked goods. Biscuits made from scratch most always taste better to the baker than biscuits from a mix because of the increased personal input.

While produce grown by an individual in the family garden always serves as a good ingredient for a sweat equity produced meal, ingredient choice is not just between home grown or purchased. Occasionally, serendipitous ingredients appear. While road kill may technically qualify as a serendipitous source to some, I am speaking of other unanticipated starting ingredients.

Earlier this summer, I discovered a plastic bag filled with yellow squash and zucchini on my back porch. I used a super-sized zucchini to manufacture three loaves of zucchini bread. While more than zucchini is needed to make zucchini bread, no purchase was necessary. The zucchini bread was an unplanned treat flavored with sweat equity and serendipity — a very pleasing blend of flavors.

Now on to my most satisfying meal. This last Saturday, I was home alone. The refrigerator was empty of snacks or any usual meal-starting meats or dairy products. The cupboard was not totally bear. There was an unopened 2-lbs. bag of pinto beans. I had purchased them months ago in the event that I might experience a hankering for some. My daughter Betsy, for reasons unknown, never developed a taste for what many regard as an Appalachian staple. I did not open the cupboard door looking for pinto beans; I was just looking. My seeing led to thinking. My thinking led to hankering. Hankering led to more thinking. What might go with pintos? Why not potatoes?

I had a few potatoes on hand that I had dug a few weeks ago but there were also some in the ground which were volunteers that sprouted from unharvested 2023 spuds. Why not unplanned potatoes to go with unplanned pinto beans? Why not make the entire meal unplanned? I liked the idea but man shall not live by taters and beans alone. How about some bread? I had all the ingredients for bread on hand. My regular bread and rolls do not really qualify as an unplanned production because I plan to be ready to respond Betsy’s bread requests which are often.

Unplanned bread requires at least one unplanned ingredient. The Ranch (home of the Breeze) features a number of apple trees which sometimes produce a harvest. This year, there is one tree that is absolutely loaded and its fruit is starting to ripen. Apple bread might be a possibility.

I had never made apple bread. My initial internet search turned up several quick bread recipes but no yeast-raised bread recipes. Further searching produced some photos of flattened, lifeless yeast-raised loaves with questionable ratings. The recipes called for half-inch cubed apples to be incorporated during the kneading process. The photos of the finished product revealed collapsed regions surrounding the apple cubes. It appeared that the loaves had initially expanded and then collapsed when the apple cubes expelled juice during the cooking process.

I knew the apples which I intended to use would release lots of juice because five cups of sliced apples from the tree produced a tad under two cups of fried apples. Maybe substituting fried apples for fresh would eliminate collapsing. It was worth a try.

Back to the potatoes. There are a zillion ways to cook them. Pinto beans tend to be soft and mushy. Variety is spice of life. Mashed potatoes would not work. Oven fries, if cooked with care to avoid sticking, are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, a perfect contrast to the feel of pinto beans.

My unplanned dinner called for a bit of planning. Pintos require hours. Bread making is lengthy with uncertain rising times and would be made longer by need to produce fried apples. The apples were on the tree and the taters in the ground. The apples would require peeling, slicing, and frying, then cooling prior to addition to the bread dough. Once in the pan, bread might require three hours or more hours to double in size, 25 minutes in the oven, and an hour of cooling. Oven time would not be a problem for the potatoes. Plenty of time to cook them while the bread cooled.

Started about 1 p.m. and finished and ready to fill my tummy at 7 p.m. (any time between 5 and 9 is my normal). The pintos were perfect — soft but not mushy, seasoned just right. The over fries — crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, perfect balance of salt and pepper. The bread? Unbelievable! Noticeably sweet with a mild apple taste and a hint of cinnamon.

My unplanned meal had everything — six hours of sweat equity, serendipitous potatoes and apples, cooked right, seasoned perfectly, cost almost nothing, and leftovers for snacking and desert. A most satisfying meal.