pork verde chili

• 4 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1lb boneless pork spareribs, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 jar of good quality verde salsa
• sour cream
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Combine beans, pork and salsa in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Garnish with cilantro and sour cream.

The dish: This is an easy recipe that comes across as more difficult than it should. Since there's only a few ingredients it's important that you use only the freshest and the best as the flavors will come through. I used Santa Barbara roasted tomatillo salsa and it was awesome. It was a bit more than some of the cheaper varieties, but well worth the added expense. We're quickly coming up on that time of year when it's cold and dark when we get home so walking into a warm dish in the crock pot is a great feeling. If you don't already have one I can think of a few reasons why you should part with the $30 and buy one.

white bean summer salad

• 2 cans cannellini beans
• secret sauce
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
• roasted asparagus, sliced into bite sized pieces
• malt vinegar

Combine all ingredients, adding vinegar and sauce to taste. Stir well to mix and serve chilled.

The dish: This dish was purely the result of using up stuff I had on hand. When I made the secret sauce it took a little adding and seasoning to get it just right, and before I knew it we had about 2 cups of the stuff, so I had to find some uses for it other than a sandwich condiment. It worked well on top of a couple of cans of beans and some leftover veggies I had, but I could have used whatever was in the fridge and I think it would have turned out just fine. Kim and I have a theory with recipes: if you like everything going into the dish, then you'll most likely enjoy the finished product. This theory works especially well in the red room where Kim and I love just about any ingredient you can think of, so as a result we wind up liking most dishes.

hoppin' Juan

• 1 lb dried black eyed peas
• 1 lb chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage)
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped fine
• 1 orange pepper, chopped fine
• vegetable stock
• fresh garlic, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 serrano peppers (or any other hot variety), seeded and chopped fine
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Soak the beans overnight. The next morning, saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil for about 3 minutes, add hot peppers and turn flame off. Drain the beans, place in large crock pot. Add 1 container of vegetable stock plus one container full of water, onions and garlic mixture, and diced peppers, cook on high for two hours, then low for 6+. In the last hour of cooking add chorizo (it will already be cooked) and more liquid if needed. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

The dish: "Hoppin' John", as the bag of beans said, is a mixture of black eyed peas with Italian sausage and parsley. I had scored some great chorizo (Belmond Farms- awesome) and had designs of doing a dish like this before I ever saw the bag of Goya beans. I figured that the only material difference between hoppin' John and my dish was the slight Latin accent (not that kind of Latin) of the chorizo and cilantro instead of the sausage and parsley so I decided that "Hoppin' Juan" would be a good moniker. This was a great dish to come home to on one of the many rainy days that we've had recently and even tasted good cold as leftovers. For thousands of years people of all different cultures have believed that eating some variation of hoppin' John on New Year's Day would bring good luck in the coming year. Here we are at the midway point of this year and I hope that the good luck thing works as well now as it does in January. Have a great second half of 09 everyone!

ginger baked beans

• 6 cans of navy beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 strips of bacon
• 2 large vidalia onions, chopped fine
• 5 tablespoons molasses
• 5 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2/3 cup of ketchup
• 2 tablespoons bbq sauce
• adobo
• ginger ale

In a frying pan over medium heat cook bacon until just done, remove and blot with paper towels. In same skillet cook onion for 3-5 minutes or until translucent. Add cooked bacon and onion, along with all your other ingredients to the crock pot, cook on low for 6-8 hours. Adjust seasonings to taste.

The dish: People often think of their crock pot as being purely an appliance for cold winter nights, when the days are short and no one wants to leave home once they arrive there. Visions of stews and roasts, with a warm house filled with tantalizing aromas pop into people's heads and they feel that during the summer the crock pot should sit on the floor of the closet their parka hangs in. The closet that you rarely think of and never open in between Memorial and Labor day. All of this is true, but the versatile slow cooker can be just as handy in the warmer months as well. We try to mountain bike every chance we get and there is no better feeling than coming home after a long day of hitting the trails and having a warm dinner ready to eat, or at least a hearty accompaniment waiting to be chowed down. All of this and our kitchen doesn't get heated up one single degree. So dig it out and keep it on the ready. I showed you a German potato salad a while back, and there's few things that scream out "summer" better than baked beans, so forget turning on the oven and plan to go low and slow all summer long.

black bean and corn salad

• 3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bag of frozen corn, thawed
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• sherry vinegar
• olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Whisk together vinegar, oil and lemon juice, add a small pinch of sugar if desired, set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl, pour dressing over the top and toss to coat.

The dish: Another variation on the bean salad theme, and as I look at it, very close to the confetti salad that was posted awhile back. Truthfully, I like the confetti salad better, but that has more to do with my preference of kidney beans over black beans. Both are tasty and easy to prepare and are a great source of all kinds of good stuff, so now that's summer's here try a salad that has a base of something virtuous like beans and isn't drenched in mayonnaise.

red beans and rice

• brown rice (instant or take out works fine)
• 2 cans of small red beans, drained and rinsed
• good quality vegetable stock
• adobo
• 1 large onion, chopped
• hot peppers, chopped fine
• garlic, chopped fine
• fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Prepare rice according to package (or open the bag that your take out rice came in and read your fortune cookie). In a saucepan over a medium high heat, saute garlic and onions in a swirl of olive oil for 3-5 minutes or until just browned. Add beans and a generous pour of vegetable stock and continue to cook, reducing the flame to medium low. If the liquid cooks off, feel free to add more, but be careful not to make it too soupy. As for the peppers, go according to your taste. I used two habenaros and it was hot but not uncomfortable. If you like food more mild, reduce quantity or use a less spicy variety of pepper; if you own stock in pepto bismol, then go nuts and add as much as you like. Add the peppers and cilantro and season to taste with the adobo. Continue to cook for as long as the rice takes adding stock as needed.

The dish: If you notice that we eat a lot of beans, it's at least partly because of two unique things about me; 1. my colon is about 18 inches shorter than yours and 2. I felt younger on my 30th birthday than my 29th. You see, on my 29th birthday I was in the hospital suffering from a severe diverticulitis attack that later caused me to undergo colon resection surgery, essentially cutting about a foot and a half out of my ass (regrettably not the part that would allow me to fit into smaller pants). No matter what old wives' tale you may have heard, diverticulitis has nothing to do with nuts or seeds or corn, but rather it's a disease that's brought about by dehydration and lack of fiber. The whole episode really opened my eyes and although I'm far from the picture of perfect health I've made a few small changes like eating plenty of roughage and drinking lots of water. Needless to say I felt quite a bit younger on my 30th birthday as I wasn't towing around an IV cart (I believe I named mine Claudia when I was in the hospital). Beans are a great way to up the fiber in your diet as they are versatile and cheap- there is a recession going on you know.

gateway bean salad

• 2 cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cans chickpeas (or garbanzos for those of you that kill time in the Goya aisle), drained and rinsed
• green onions, chopped fine
• white wine vinegar
• olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Whisk together equal parts oil and vinegar with lemon juice, pour over remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Add sugar and salt to taste if you really want to.

The dish: We are officially into the time of year where the weather is great and the trails are muddy for those of us that love to rip through the woods on bicycles. Every chance Kim and I get to be on the bikes we seize it, even if it means pushing a few tasks to the back burner (read: blog not updated so often). This year we're doing an okay juggling job, but three years ago we did NOTHING other than work and ride. We pretty much ate out every night and had leftovers for lunch, leaving the red room as nothing other than a transfer station for coffee cups and doggy bags. Our favorite haunt was the Gateway diner, an oasis of cold air conditioning and cheap, plentiful food. Each huge dinner comes with soup and salad bar, which means that you take home more food than you eat, even after being famished from a long day of pedaling through the greatest trails in Hudson valley. The Gateway salad bar has many high points; stuffed grape leaves, carrot salad, hard boiled eggs, and their famous (to Kim and I at least) kidney bean and chickpea salad. Filling up on bean salad meant getting plenty of protein and carbs for next day's ride, and there was always a ride the next day. This year we are not riding quite as often (but plenty), and we're still doing our best to eat at home, so refueling with our rendition of this beloved salad feels as great as you would expect it to.

spinach and cannellini bean salad

• 3 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 yellow pepper, diced
• 1 orange pepper, diced
• 1 bag baby spinach
• fresh parsley, chopped fine
• white wine vinegar
• olive oil
• 1 lemon

Combine juice of lemon with a equal parts olive oil and vinegar, whisk until combined, set aside. Combine all other ingredients in large bowl, pour dressing over salad and toss to coat.

The dish: This is basically a variation on the theme of bean salads. They all start off with a base of beans with a few other veggies mixed in for good measure, and then they get topped with a oil and vinegar dressing. Even though this salad is only 1 or 2 ingredients different than a few others I've posted, each one tastes pretty distinctive and we haven't gotten bored of eating any of them. Beans and veggies are a great thing to load up on and these salads are an easy and tasty way to do just that. I suggest trying one for yourself, I think you'll be surprised at how much you like it.

penne with spinach and cannellini beans

• 1 lb penne
• 2 bags of fresh baby spinach
• 2 cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• crushed red pepper ( I prefer Simply Organic)
• ground nutmeg
• shredded Italian cheese (I had leftover Asiago)

In large pot of lightly salted water, cook pasta according to instructions on box, checking for doneness once a minute beginning 3 minutes before suggested cooking time. While that action is going on the left burner, warm a few swirls of olive oil over a medium high heat on the right burner (really, it doesn't matter what burner you use). Add spinach to oil a handful at a time, tossing every so often, allowing each batch to wilt. When about 3/4 of the way through the spinach, add beans and a little more olive oil to mixture. Season mixture with Kosher salt and fresh pepper and a healthy shake of nutmeg. Spinach mixture will be fully cooked by the time the pasta is al dente. Drain pasta and place serving on plate, drizzle with a little good quality olive oil, add mixture to top and sprinkle asiago cheese and red pepper flakes on top.

The dish: Popeye was right, spinach is something you should eat pretty regularly whether or not you'll be sparring with a brutish sailor thug over your emaciated beau. I can't imagine that I'd want to eat too much right out of the can, but when the fresh stuff is wilted you can eat more than you'd imagine. For a dish like this I count on one full bag per person, when just wilted as a side dish I use about one and a half. Just a point of reference there's about a bags worth on the pasta in the picture. The nutmeg trick is lifted straight from the one and only Rachael Ray; she advises to add a pinch to cooked spinach, and it really does work. The end result is nothing that tastes like Christmas, but rather it gives the spinach a seasoned flavor that plays well off its natural earthiness.

confetti salad

• 2 cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 can white corn, drained and rinsed
• green onions, chopped fine
• fresh parsley, chopped fine
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar (I'm still using that bottle of Champagne vinegar I have, but any will do)
• juice of half a lime
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Combine beans, corn, green onions and parsley in large bowl. In separate bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, lime juice and sugar, adjusting amounts of each to taste. Once dressing is to your liking, stir into larger bowl mixture, taking care not to break the beans. Serve cold.

The dish: Full and fair disclosure: I pretty much suck at science. I limped through my college science requirement by taking the extraordinary chemistry of ordinary things, which while remarkably interesting (we made polyester- it doesn't get cooler than that), was about as technical as reading the back of a cereal box. The course basically existed as a way to shuffle through finance majors who would never again think of science save studying the trading range of the pharmaceutical sector. I say this because if I tend to sound like I know something about the natural world, as I may have with the last bean salad I posted, it's only because I recently read all about legumes and how they react with our body. I typed out the recipe hoping that constant consumption of beans really helped with their side effects, but was not certain of that fact at time of posting. Kim and I both ate that salad as a part of our lunch last week, and lo and behold, the advice was true. Any discomfort or side effects that were there on Monday were all but a memory by Wednesday. If it seems like I'm going a little heavy on bean recipes recently, it's only because I'm giddy of this new found knowledge and feel the need to perpetuate this cycle as long as I am able. Fear not, I'm sure this is only a phase and as with all things when eating a diet rich in beans, this too shall pass.

chili

• 2 yellow peppers, diced
• 2 orange peppers, diced
• 1 lb ground turkey meat
• 1 can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can small red beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 small can diced tomatoes with chopped chilies
• assortment of hot peppers, finely chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 cans Coors Light (or other light domestic beer)
• chili powder
• unsweetened cocoa powder

In large skillet cook onion in a little olive oil for 3 minutes, add to crock pot when done. In same pan brown meat (I add a pinch of Chinese 5 spice, but if you don't have some don't buy it just for this recipe) over medium flame for 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks (if anyone knows a technical term for this action, please feel free to let me know), add to crock pot when done. Add beans, peppers (for the hot ones I used 2 habernaros, 2 red chili peppers, and 2 green chili peppers) and tomatoes to the onions and peppers in the crock pot. At this point the whole mixture should be pretty dry. Add a couple of generous shakes of chili powder and a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder. Use as much of two of the beers needed to get chili to desired consistency while enjoying the Rocky Mountain goodness of the third. Cover and cook for 8+ hours.

The dish: Chili is a pretty loose term that can mean a number of different things, but this variation is pretty close to what most people think of when they hear the term. You can add or omit things as they suit your tastes, don't like beans- don't add them (but I think you'd be doing a bad thing). The finished product was a little spicy, but not uncomfortable to eat. The real key here is the beer and the chocolate. Don't be scared of either as you won't taste them, but they'll give a rich taste that will make your chili a standout.

kale and friends winter soup

• 1 bunch of kale, torn into bite size pieces
• 1 cubed butternut squash
• 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup cooked chicken, diced
• 4+ cups of high quality chicken broth
• assorted green herbs

combine all ingredients in large slow cooker (or "crock pot" if you just don't give a damn about trademarks), season with kosher salt and fresh black pepper, cover, cook on low for 8 hours. Add more broth if it appears to not have a soup-like consistency. I used leftover rotisserie chicken, but any will work. If using frozen squash, wait until the final 20 minutes of cooking to add.

The Dish: This is a hearty soup, great for those busy and freezing winter nights (of which we've had many this year). I've done it several times using both fresh and frozen squash and I've determined that fresh tastes better, it's just a pain in the ass to cut something the shape of Grimace into cubes. I had leftover rosemary and parsley on hand and they added nicely to it, but just about any green herb would work, although I'd avoid dill. Good chicken broth is key here, I had some frozen homemade stuff and I supplemented it with Rachel Ray's brand, the only stock with cleavage!! I have a 4.5 quart crock pot and this recipe makes plenty for us to have at least two meals. Great when served with hot garlic bread, or my favorite: Hannaford garlic toast, Texas style.