Well, I had my first ever root canal yesterday. An interesting experience. Uncomfortable, but not painful. Now the nearly a week of abscessed tooth pain that preceded it was excruciating. I would love to know how many souls got out of Purgatory on that one. Whew. I feel so much better now. Still swollen and a bit sore, but better.
Anyway, in between doses of Tylenol I decided to cook up some Rancho Gordo marrow beans. I sort of used the recipe for "no meat baked beans" out of Fix it and Forget it
I soaked the beans Sunday night and then started them cooking on Monday morning. It's true, the fresher beans took a lot less time to get soft! After that I plopped them in the crock pot with the ingredients and stuck them out in the "summer kitchen". I didn't plan on them for supper because the whole thing was an experiment really and I knew they wouldn't be ready on time. Sometime after we had finished eating, they looked done and I brought the crock pot in and set it in the kitchen. They looked good, but I was still skeptical. So I tried a couple. Then a couple more. Then I just dished myself a teacup full.
Amazing, is all I can say. I had read about the superior flavor and texture of fresh heirloom beans, but I suppose I really hadn't believed it. They were positively silky. No mealy-ness about them whatsoever. The kids came over and asked what I was eating and wanted to try some. Soon everyone had a teacup full of beans and was loving them. Imagine, beans for dessert! The next day I snacked on them as "beans on toast", which we love despite our lack of British heritage. (I would love to show you a picture of them, but they went fast.)
We had been trying to decide on which drying beans we wanted to grow this year in the garden, (Bush beans are fall planted down here and don't go in until mid August.) and we all agreed that these were the ones to try. I also ordered some of these because I know what to do with a red bean! :-)
In other gardens news, Chip and I cranked out
