I had a nice big blog written about the above title but Milly came by as I was writing this post and just knew something was wrong. I guess I shouldn’t grin and chuckle while writing these posts. I suppose its good that I get censored in some instances. I’ve had limited approval on the mostly appropriate information below. Texas strawberries, legumes, pulses, whatever you call them, I love beans. The beans we like best are pinto, black, and kidney.  Pinto, black and kidney beans are sweet, tender, fairly non-gaseous and delicious when done properly. They are also a great filler for my whole wheat tortillas along with any sprouts we have handy. Here is how we normally prepare our dried beans.

1. Purchase dry beans from the store (Costco usually has 25 lbs. bags of pinto beans), local bean plant (we have one about an hour from us), or an LDS cannery (there’s usually a home storage center around most areas)
2. Clean beans in a large strainer picking out mud and rocks. I’m not usually that careful in this step as the mud and dirt usually dissolve in the soaking process. Whatever is left is just added protein right? Some places say to pick out the broken beans. Yea, right. The broken ones work just as good as the non-broken.
3. Soak beans for about 24 hours. I usually do around 8 to 10 cups in a large pot. Here’s the key – drain water a couple of times while beans are soaking. This process helps to remove the fume-causing elements.
4. You can cheat the soaking time by boiling the beans for 1 or 2 minutes and then letting them sit for an hour before cooking. But, like I said above, letting them sit and draining them a couple of times is better.
5. Bring beans to a slow boil and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Add water if needed to keep beans covered.
6. Add whatever you like to make the beans taste nice. Some people add pork. The Von Trap’s add garlic, peppers, onion, etc. and then freeze the beans with the cooking water. I don’t usually add anything. I like getting unadulterated, plain beans at the end of the cooking process.
7. The beans are done when they are soft. If you take them out and blow on them the skin usually peels back if they are done. Sometimes the beans in a batch don’t cook at the same rate. I usually continue cooking until they are all soft.
8. Drain the beans and spray hot water over them. I usually let them sit in a strainer until they are cool.

This is about 8 or 9 cups of pinto beans. Here’s my big paw with some beans I’ve blown on.

1. Last step. Bag and freeze. I usually put them in a gallon freezer size Ziploc bag and lay them flat in the freezer. Usually 2 or 3 bags will hold the batch. When you want to use them pull them out of the freezer and drop the bag flat onto a hard surface to break them up.

I feel sorry that I had to cut out all the humor on this post. If you want the unrated, unabridged version ping me and I can pass it to you on the sly.   Good bean sites and links Central Bean Tigers and strawberries Harvest wizard Pulse Canada Pamphlet Bean Bible   If you know of others send them my way so I can reference them. Thanks for the Bean Bible edition DJ Jazzy Jeff.