Crockpot O' Pintos

Ahh, so we meet again.  Me....and the bean. I mean, you and I as well, but that is a beautiful meeting.  Me and the bean have not had a relationship for 40 years.  I want to love the bean, my health wants to love the bean, and always having to pick beans out of chili at the parties of friends and family gets tedious.  This recipe, didn't make me love the bean any better. 

Let me clarify.  This is a great recipe.  It is especially great for someone who loathes beans, but wanted to learn to make a good pot of beans and has no idea what a good pot of beans tastes like.  Phew, did you get all that?  I listened to a lot of your comments and advice.  I even attempted this "method" that would make the room smell nice even after consuming the beans. 

Let's just cut to the chase.  I hope you give you these a try.  They are crockpot friendly for all of you crocky lovers out there and I hope you enjoy them as much as the beans lovers in my family did!

This is a bit of a process at first, but, well not really.  Ok for some of you it might be but just do it.  Trust me.

First off you will need:
4 cups dried pinto beans

Rinse these in a strainer.  Pick out any rocks, odd pieces, I even have heard of there being sticks in them.  Just clean them up and rinse a couple of times.  Now place in a pot, and cover with water.  Make sure the water comes up a few inches higher than the beans.  Place on high heat and bring to a boil.  Let boil for 5 minutes.  Immediately drain the water.  It will be brown and gross looking.  This is "supposedly" all the toxins that will keep your house from blowing up with gas from whoever eats these!   Now, rinse the beans again.  Place back in the pot, cover with water.  Again, make the water a few inches higher, cover and let sit for at least 8 hours.  Overnight is awesome, 12ish hours is even better. 

Now get up, get yourself going and get your crockpot out.   Here is what you will need for the rest:

1 ham bone (ham hock or bacon will work too) 
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
2 cups beef stock (use veggie or chicken if you choose)
2 cups water
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. cumin
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Place beans in your slow cooker.  Add stock, water, and all seasonings.  Stir it up and then nestle your onions and ham bone down in the beanie bed of love.  Put the lid on, set on high and let it rip for 8 hours.  If you need to add water as it cooks, please do so.  (or stock).  Serve as you wish.  With cornbread, with cheese, with cilantro, with anything you please!

You can feel free to smoosh the life outta these babies, toss them in a skillet with a bit of oil, and make some homemade refried beans!

ENJOY!

PS.  What I failed to tell you when I wrote this post was that I actually used a CORNED BEEF for the first 2 hours.  I had leftover corned beef in the freezer sitting right next to the ham bone.  I saw pink and tossed it in.  When I went to stir it, I was like...hmm, this is NOT ham.  Holy cow, it was in fact, corned beef!  Of course this was after I forgot to turn the crockpot ON for an hour.  UGH!  See, everyone makes mistakes, especially in a hurry.  Moral of the story, MARK YOUR ZIPLOC BAGS! HAHA!

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