Beans.

I've been experimenting with beans this past week. Thus far, I've only made the one dish (which was on the back of the bag of beans) though.

The directions for the black beans gave two options for preparing them: either soak them overnight (which I did not want to do), or pour hot water over them, boil them for two minutes, then set them aside for an hour. I did the latter one, and I do not think it worked very well. The beans are still rather tough, though more in a "not quite as cooked as they could be way" as opposed to a "not cooked at all" way. So I spoke with one of the vegetarians at work, who has been known to bring in bean-based dishes rather frequently, and he recommended the soak overnight method. This is what I'm going to do next time.

The recipe I used was pretty strait forward. Onion, green pepper, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, white wine or apple wine vinegar, and the special spices. I gotta say, it smelled very nice while it was cooking. Alas, the taste is still pretty bland. It might have something to do with my not being able to find the correct vinegar while I was cooking (I could not find out white wine vinegar, which I know we have, so I used Balsamic instead, and not as much as the recipe called for to account for the difference in the taste), but I think it has more to do with the spices melding themselves to the bottom of the frying pan instead of mixing into the onion/pepper mix.

Gotta say, it works okay on a corn tortilla. Steamed rice and the beans with shredded Swiss is okay, but tastes a bit better with lettuce and tomato. Very filling, too. And, despite that lovely little children's rhyme about beans, they have not given me any digestive issues.

The recipe still rates a taste fail this time around, but I have hopes for the next time being better. For one thing, Mom found the correct vinegar for me - it was on the floor in a one-gallon jug by the cake pans cabinet, instead of in the cupboard where I expected it to be. 9.9 Like I'm going to look fof vinegar there! Yeesh. I shall also be soaking the beans overnight for the next time, and might add a bit of hamburger to the onion/pepper mix. I, after all, am not a vegetarian. ;)