Just Beth

*my* version of Cynthia Lair's Read Bean and Quinoa Chilli

I started cooking about three years ago.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Yes, I have a fourteen year old, a three year old and a two year old.  See, I spent most of my teen years pretending I didn’t exist, hiding in my bedroom with a novel shoved under the covers and acting like I was doing my homework.  My mom was a good cook, and she scared the hell out of me, so I stayed OUT of the kitchen and decided I wasn’t the Stay-At-Home-Mom TYPE.  (*GUFFAW*)  I entered my adulthood truly handicapped and without skills.

When I got pregnant with my eldest, his father had been working at a restaurant as a cook.  He was (is) a great cook, actually… when we were together we were going to start a restaurant and call it “Stick O’Butter”, because everything he made was delicious and he usually used an entire stick of butter in it’s preparation.  God, sometimes I miss the South.

Anyway, then when I married Andy, he was also the cook in the relationship.  I won’t get too far into it, but the man can make a three course meal including stuffed Portabello mushrooms and crab legs on a hot plate.  True story.

Don’t get me wrong; I used to cook the SHIT out of a couple of chicken breasts, topped with a slice of cheese, brown rice and broccoli for my eldest about three times a week.  I could also boil pasta and heat up spaghetti sauce, and make my mothers tuna casserole, which no one but me ever eats even to this day.

Then I met Cynthia Lair.  She is my mentor; my guru.  It was happenstance, really… see, I was attending my very first La Leche League Conference in October of ’06, and had a time where there wasn’t anything I truly WANTED to attend, and so went to her session on Whole Food cooking for the family.  It was before everyone on the planet figured out the goodness of whole foods, and I feel that I was a big part of the reason everyone is eating so well these days.  *wink*

I bought her cookbook, (which she SIGNED,  woot!!) took it home and studied it like a bible.  I picked what I thought would be yummy, made lists and lists of ingredients and spices, and started cooking.  It was hard at first, but it was like a trial by fire and now I feel like I can actually COOK.

Nothing frightens me (cooking wise, anyway!) anymore.  So when my friend Lorna started putting recipes on her blog, I tried them.  Well, OK, sorry Lorna, but I tried ONE.  This one, the one for refried beans.  And OMG, they’re DELICIOUS.  I highly recommend them!

Crock Pot Refried Beans

Ingredients:

3 cups dry pinto beans
9 cups water
1 onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and minced (WEAR GLOVES FOR THIS.  I’m not joking.  and if you don’t use gloves, do NOT use the potty for the next twenty four hours.  Trust me.)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

I don’t pre-soak these, although Ms. Lair would.  She would also add some kombu to hers… kombu is a sea vegetable (read; seaweed) that adds iron and other good for you minerals to your beans.  I bought a package and used all of it…  if you want to try, you would cook the beans and kombu and then remove the kombu before you mash the beans.  It’s slimy and difficult to get all the way ‘out’, just so you know.  And yes, you should get it all out.

Anyway, so you throw everything into the crockpot and cook it.  Honestly, that’s it.  When it’s done cooking, you’ll know because you will be able to easily mash the beans (and it will smell divine).  I will normally put mine together at night and set it on low for ten hours, that usually does it.  You can put it on high for six hours if you’re in a hurry, but I would recommend doing it slowly.

When the beans are done, drain as much of the water as you can, SAVE IT, and mash them with a potato masher.  You can put them in a blender if you’d like, but I find that the consistency is better using a masher.  You will need to reintroduce the liquid as you mash to get your desired consistency.  You will also want to have some of the liquid on hand if you are going to re-heat them.  I’ve kept mine going and good for nearly a week this way.  I haven’t had the opportunity to freeze them, although I made a double batch today and I am going to try freezing some of them.

There you have it!  Enjoy!

~xo, b!