The simple things

They're so often so wonderful, right? Two for today:

First, I discovered that Jupiter loves prunes. Not pureed or boiled or steamed or any of the other ways you're supposed to feed a baby prunes. I bite the end off of one and squeeze the fruit out, and he sucks it dry. Like a little prune vampire. Adorable and healthy. And a nice easy treat.

Second, tonight we're making a simple pot of beans to eat over rice for dinner. We had this same recipe on our recent visit to Chicago and it was so simple and tasty. Thought I'd share. It's plenty for one dinner and lots of (frozen or refrigerated) leftovers.

Easy Peasy Black Beans

3 cups dry black beans, picked through and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
lots of minced or whole garlic, whichever you prefer
many cups of broth: chicken or veg or beef, or some combination
salt and pepper

Start by filling a pot with the beans and water and bringing it to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and soak the beans for at least an hour. This will reduce the, ahem, aftereffects of the beans.

Once they're soaked, drain the beans and put them in a large stock pot with the onion, garlic, and enough broth to cover everything. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, partially cover, and get on with your afternoon. Every so often check on the beans and add more broth to cover - this is the key to having just enough liquid to cook the beans with lots of flavor, but not so much that you end up with super watery beans. Cook until they're done (this is subjective - they should be mushy). Salt and pepper to taste and eat over rice or in tacos or whatever you like. Yum!

[UPDATE: It's 9PM and the beans are still cooking. We ended up having veggie burgers and oven fries because we had no idea the beans would take more than 4 hours to cook, especially having soaked them for two hours prior to cooking. Here's the thing: if you're like us and have had that bag of beans sitting in your pantry for two years, not ever thinking ahead enough to cook them in time for dinner, throw them away. Beans are cheap and old beans, like ours, take FOREVER to cook. Just learned this tonight. Now you know. We'll turn the burner off when we go to bed in an hour or so and let them sit overnight. I'll let you know how they turn out...]

[UPDATE #2: The beans taste wonderful, but the texture is off. It's like the skins never softened fully. Rather than risk a terrible experience with the, um, potential aftereffects, we're going to throw this batch into the trash and try again with some fresher beans. But the recipe is a good one.]