Beans, Beans, the Pandemic Fruit...

When we were stocking the pantry over a month ago, ahead of the pandemic, we bought a big bag of dried beans.  We do eat a lot of beans, especially since J is a vegetarian, but I don't typically cook them from dried because I have a terrible problem planning meals ahead - I do pretty good planning everything else though.

I forgot to soak the beans last night (again), so I tried the "quick soak" method today:  cover the beans by about 1 inch with water, bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Cover, remove from heat and let soak for 1 hour.  Drain beans and then cook as normal.

This seemed to have worked!  I had this pot of pintos simmering (with tomatoes, onions, garlic, chili, cumin, salt and pepper) for about 3 hours, and they are tender, creamy, and delicious.

Back before Christmas, J's friend was like the bean fairy, leaving dried beans in random places.  I found several in my car, and my purse, and recently some came through the washer.  I planted them, and they have been growing on my window sill for months.

They have been looking much worse for wear lately, because they need more room to grow (and actually 2 of them died, I'm sorry to say), so I planted them outside in my flower bed this morning.  We got a good rain after that, so hopefully they will survive and thrive out there to create more beans for the pandemic!