Bean Update

Sorry for the lack of posting. Let's just say wicked Shakspearean art project. Ok back to the beans. My family loves them!!!! The coolest thing is soaking them overnight in the crockpot, rinse in the morning and cook all day. Its the easiest (and one of the healthiest) methods of one pot cooking ever. Our favorite accompaniments are cornbread, salad, biscuits, sopapillas, jello, greens, homemade bread. My secret: liquid smoke. This is powerfully good stuff. It makes the beans have a smoky flavor without adding any meat. Brown sugar is great with pintos and white beans for sweetness. The two combined is a tummy filling heaven.

The basic idea is to throw in the pot whatever you have. I found these recipes and adapted them to what I had in my kitchen:

http://www.recipezaar.com/1100

http://www.recipezaar.com/17250

http://www.recipezaar.com/27786

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegan-Baked-Beans/Detail.aspx

Basic bean cookery notes:

1. Always soak your beans! Some people say you do not have to do this but I disagree. It really makes cooking them easy, it helps you to plan a bean meal and it doesn't require anything but time.

2. Cook them a long time. The crock pot or pressure cooker are your best bets. I'm a little afraid of my pressure cooker so I am still tentatively using it. The crock pot is your bean's best friend. Slow, even cooking, no work in the kitchen and delicious smells, not to mention it doesn't heat up the house in the summer.

3. Cook beans in just broth all day and then jazz them up to go with dinner. They can be frozen in 2 cup amounts to be used whenever they are needed. I did this with a batch of black beans because I wanted to be able to feed them to the baby and didn't want any seasoning. I took out a couple of cups of beans, added them to a skillet with a can of diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, and 1/2 pound of ground beef...there were 0 leftovers.

4. Rice and beans actually go really well together but there are other ways. Look for soups, wraps, casseroles, even breads. We also love chalupas Kirk family style. Fry tortillas in oil so they puff up, spread with mashed pintos (or canned refried if pressed for time)and cheese and bake for about 10 minutes. Then we cover with all the fixin's: lettuce, tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, bell peppers.

Beans, Glorious Beans

Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't know beans about cooking beans. I have a lot as you can see in the picture but I've had the same stash of beans for a very long time. They are sort of mystical to cook since we can get in them in a can and they are ready to use. For some this isn't rocket science. For me, it is. I haven't often tried to use dried beans. I worry about the time it takes, I worry about seasoning them well. Usually, I abandon the process and get out my trusty can opener. The problem with this is cost. Dried beans are a tiny fraction of the cost of canned. I can purchase 1 lb of beans for around $0.70 dried. That same pound of beans yields about 6 cups of cooked beans. I can buy a can of beans (around 16 oz) for around $1.00 ($0.50 if its a good sale). That is only 2 cups of cooked beans! We are talking a major savings by planning ahead a little bit. Dave Ramsey often tells his callers to live on beans and rice, rice and beans. This is why.
So, in an effort to learn how to function in the kitchen with this little mystery I am undertaking beans. I cleaned out my bean cabinet in order to attempt to get aquainted with them. I have alot more than I thought. Given how often we eat these this amount would probably last another five or six years. I'm hoping to correct that though. First, I realized that we don't ever eat pinto beans but that is what I have stored the most of. I definitly need to increase our black bean stash. They are our favorite. I also have pink beans, what the heck are these and how do you cook them? If you know please tell me.


I have these two bottles of white beans. I bought the bags at the grocery store and put them in these bottles. They have the PETE symbol which means they are safe for food storage. They also work well for water (I'll get to that later). I like white beans too, once again cannot for the life of me make them taste the way I like them.

This is a picure of my bean cabinet. I like to keep like items together. This allows them to play with their friends and for me to find them easily when I go hunting for them. This is one of those cabinets that is wasted space in my kitchen (I actually have a lot of that). It isn't wasted in my house. Every cranny is filled with #10 cans. This keeps the food in my kitchen where I will use it and it also fills space that would otherwise be infuriating.