I sometimes believe my love of beans came from the can of refried beans my family would use for tostada nights in the late 1960s and 1970s. I loved the power of creating my own tostada, which at that point would not have had a hint of a fresh vegetable but oddly loaded with hot sauce. It was all good but it was the refried beans that made me a lifelong fan of beans.  I don't think there is a lot of debate about the best way to refry beans. White onion is wilted in freshly rendered lard and then...

First I will tell you that I meant to make Deb Perelman's Pizza Beans. This Smitten Kitchen recipe has been one of the most talked-about and produced recipes I've ever known. Members of our Bean Club make it constantly and collectively they've made it a classic. I have to admit that I've never made it. Last weekend I was determined to try it, especially knowing that I had a batch of Royal Corona beans sitting in my fridge. I dutifully printed out Deb's recipe and bought the needed ingredients at my grocery store. As it turns out, we suffered an...

I've been in Mexico working on a project and this dish stood out. Scrambled eggs cooked separately and then drowned in tomatillo salsa, topped with a handful of chopped epazote. I love epazote. You might know how well it works with beans, black beans in particular, but it's also terrific in a quesadilla. It likes cheese a lot. Mushrooms and octopus, too. It turns out eggs are also a natural partner. Simple and perfect. Don't forget the tortillas.

I am very fond of roasted red peppers and I've been enjoying the red ones from a jar but Irecently spotted sugar as an ingredient on my favorite Trader Joe's brand. Why? The mixed pepper version has no sugar but the best solution is buying fresh, organic peppers and roasting them yourself. The skin on bell peppers after roasting and steaming comes off even easier than poblano peppers. Roasting peppers is easy and I've written about it before. Now I tend to only use the burners on my gas stove and I put the peppers in a large mixing bowl...

Bread never goes to waste in the Sando household. As the loaf starts to get stiff, I slice it up and lay it on the grates in my oven. In the morning, it's super dry, and then it gets packed into an airtight tin until it's ready to help. I have an old gas stove with a pilot light, so the bread dries quickly, but any oven will do, it just may take longer. Beans and bean broth never get wasted either. In this case, I added some leftover chicken stock to the beans and bean broth, and then there...

I've used the recipe in The Kitchn for making ricotta cheese with milk and lemon juice for years. I know that it's worth it to make it just for the cheese, but I think it's great for using up extra milk. This time, inspired by Carlos Yesca's recipe in the current Food + Wine, I made the cheese as instructed but afterward, I added some salt and chopped epazote and then placed it in a cheese basket to let all the excess liquid drain. This might be a form of queso fresco or paneer but I'm not sure. It's not...

In our last Rancho Gordo newsletter, I made this comment: I was looking through our customer reviews on ranchogordo.com and in general, the feedback is the kind of thing most companies dream of. We have about 95% five-star reviews and the occasional clunker. Most of the bad reviews state something like this: “I've been cooking the beans in a bean pot for six to eight hours now and they still aren't soft. They were soaked for twelve hours and have been simmering in a ceramic bean pot all afternoon and evening.” Or “I soaked them at least 24 hours and...

From Julia Newberry, my co-author of The Rancho Gordo Vegetarian Kitchen, we have this great burger alternative. We tried a lot of bean burgers and this was the one that worked for us. I actually prefer these as smaller fritters. I started out thinking I would make little bean “fritters” but ended up making 3-inch patties and wrapping them in butter lettuce to eat. It turns out that the same basic recipe can be used whether you want to shape the mixture into a small ball (fritter), a small patty, or a large patty. I prefer these with Yellow Eye...

The family was invited to a great Easter party at my friend Geraldine's and with our bounty of eggs, thanks to our flock of chickens, it seemed like a natural to bring some deviled eggs. I admit to being a freak over them. I'm not clear on how many is too many. My son Nico was the egg master. One of my first cookbooks was The Pooh Cookbook. It's a great beginner's book. The recipes are simple but well thought out and only slightly patronizing. I used to love the carrot top tea. Nico has latched on to the deviled...

Like almost everyone else, I have been enamored with Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons. At first I resisted. Seasonal market cooking. Really? Again? Yes, really. The story is the seasons but in the end, it's simply a great book for people who find the produce section the most interesting part of food shopping. The recipes are simple and straightforward without a lot of chef-y pretense and my copy, less than a year old, is filthy from use. Splattered with some really good memories. One of my favorite recipes has been the raw asparagus salad. With the new asparagus coming right now,...

We all know the indulgent version of chile rellenos, filled with gooey cheese or picadillo, deep fried in a delicious egg batter. But all chile relleno really means is "stuffed chile" and if you don't feel up to deep frying, you can stuff the roasted chiles with just about anything good. You’re going to ask me for the recipe but there really wasn’t one. I took Rio Zapes, cooked potatoes and some grated mozzarella and stuffed them into plain, roasted Poblano peppers and baked them for about 20 minutes at 350F. I added a dollop of yogurt but this wasn't...

I saw this recipe in the old Dried Beans and Grain book from the the seminal Good Cook series by Richard Olney with Jeremiah Towers, among others. It seemed a little strange and forgotten and that's very appealing to me. And it used two cups of cooked garbanzos. I love garbanzos but when I cook a pot, sometimes it seems like too much of a good thing. I love hummus. I love Caldo Tlapeño. But what do you do with that last bit? The recipe has you process the beans in a food mill or food processor. I love my...