Pioneer in a Year: Happiness is a Crock of Beans

If you're from Kansas and have driven west on I-70 heading to Colorado, you might have noticed a large sign over a set of silos featuring a gentleman stirring a pot with a sign that says, "Happiness is a crock of beans." We quite agree.

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Lofgren, by the way. Thank you, Google Images.

Now before you go rolling your eyes and think, "You haven't blogged for three weeks, and now you're talking about beans!?" - allow us to explain, or rather, give our excuses. There are none. These beans are awesome. The homemade beans and cornbread, which we'll feature in a future post, are delicious, filling and simple. And relatively healthy, if you don't count the bacon fat.

So here we present Ree Drummond's Beans (p.100).

We started by rinsing the beans and placing them in the Dutch oven.

Pour enough water to cover the beans by about an inch.

Bacon was sliced into one-inch pieces and added to the pot.

These simmered for approximately three hours, really four, because Jo added more water when she didn't need to. At this point the house was smelling quite wonderfully.

We stirred the beans to make sure they were soft. This is where you get to start having fun. Imagine your beans to be a blank canvas, upon which you splash colors of your favorite spices. Ooo...how gourmet.

Ree suggests chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and oregano. We added the first three, and since we didn't have oregano, we decided on Senor Chipotle Powder, our spicy boyfriend. Never a dull dinner with El Senor. Or Lou and Jo. We also added kosher salt to taste.