A bowl of beans - no fancy accoutrements, condiments or even breath mints. Sometimes it is a good thing to go plain,nothing complex except the carbohydrates. I hesitate to call this a recipe posting but what the hey, you have to call it something!
I used about 2 pounds of dry pinto beans(no reason to do all this unless you make enough for a couple of good meals and to freeze or make into frijoles refritos), washed and sorted 
(picked out any little rocks) put into a large cooking pot. Add water to cover by a couple of inches. Put the pot on a burner, bring the water to a boil - then turn it off heat, cover the pot and wait one hour. VOILA!! you have perfectly "soaked" beans (without waiting overnight). Drain off the soakng water. Put beans, a very meaty hambone
, a large onion -can cut it up a little if you want, a tablespoon or so of black peppercorns and two tablespoons minced roasted garlic
- then cover with water. 
About the garlic - I don't roast and mince garlic - really I don't. I buy roasted minced delicious garlic at Wally World or your personal favorite grocery store. Adds good flavor, no big mess to use and whooeee I don't have extra nasty finger smells. OK now comes a tricky part - 
we go from the beans in my nice black cooking pot - to what is this? a red crockpot I see! Got this far and realized I didn't want to keep a propane burner going on low for several hours to cook the beans. Transferred the whole thing over to crockpot set on high to wisely not use as much energy for cooking. I don't add salt to the beans until they are already softened and tender - salt seems to toughen beans. When the time comes don't be skimpy with the salt - I use natural sea salt and tasted the liquid first to make sure the ham hadn't been enough salt. The beans smell great when they are done (we are talking 4 hours in a crockpot IF you don't lift the lid to mess with the beans). If you'll wait and refrigerate the cooked beans overnight (oops - there is an "overnight" instruction after I made the big deal about avoiding "overnight" in beans sorry). Taste will be greatly enhanced and when reheated liquid will thicken.
(picked out any little rocks) put into a large cooking pot. Add water to cover by a couple of inches. Put the pot on a burner, bring the water to a boil - then turn it off heat, cover the pot and wait one hour. VOILA!! you have perfectly "soaked" beans (without waiting overnight). Drain off the soakng water. Put beans, a very meaty hambone, a large onion -can cut it up a little if you want, a tablespoon or so of black peppercorns and two tablespoons minced roasted garlic
- then cover with water. 
About the garlic - I don't roast and mince garlic - really I don't. I buy roasted minced delicious garlic at Wally World or your personal favorite grocery store. Adds good flavor, no big mess to use and whooeee I don't have extra nasty finger smells. OK now comes a tricky part - 
we go from the beans in my nice black cooking pot - to what is this? a red crockpot I see! Got this far and realized I didn't want to keep a propane burner going on low for several hours to cook the beans. Transferred the whole thing over to crockpot set on high to wisely not use as much energy for cooking. I don't add salt to the beans until they are already softened and tender - salt seems to toughen beans. When the time comes don't be skimpy with the salt - I use natural sea salt and tasted the liquid first to make sure the ham hadn't been enough salt. The beans smell great when they are done (we are talking 4 hours in a crockpot IF you don't lift the lid to mess with the beans). If you'll wait and refrigerate the cooked beans overnight (oops - there is an "overnight" instruction after I made the big deal about avoiding "overnight" in beans sorry). Taste will be greatly enhanced and when reheated liquid will thicken. Hope you make a pot of beans, enjoy them with someone you love.
We had bowl'o'beans tonight for supper - it is good on Buhlaland!
7 comments:
If only there was a way to make pork and beans without the pork!!!
Josh and I don't eat pork and things like beans are really much better with a hamhock or hambone. We use beef bacon. Not the same!
Looks wonderful!
Blessings!
Lacy
Lacy - I understand - we go back and forth about pork but haven't banished it from the diet yet. You might try smoked turkey breast - with the bones? thanks for coming by!
they look like a pot full of yum to me.
I can imagine the smell from here...always good....glad I dropped by today
That's my favorite dish....
I've eaten in some pretty fancy resturants when I traveled for my job, but to me there is still nothing better than pinto beans and cornbread, and a big slice of onion. YUMMO
Paula - I knew we were kin somehow - related through the beans and cornbread clan!
That is THE best thing to do with a ham bone. I make mine in a crockpot too, with onion, molasses, mustard, and some other stuff. They come out tasting like baked beans. I divide it into meal-size portions and freeze the containers. It always makes me smile to see lots of homemade beans in the freezer!
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