Beans on the Edge

Some weeks ago, Kerry brought home some beans she got from a vendor at a farmer's market that visits her work. Said beans were in a plastic bag and looked fairly nondescript, for which reason they sat, first on the counter and then (when Marilyn decided they might spoil) in the refrigerator. Marilyn has been nagging me since soon after the arrival of the beans to cook them up, and I have been procrastinating.

Until this afternoon. After much desperate urging from the wife, I finally put the beans on the range to cook. Marilyn took out some ham hocks that probably predate this decade, which she found in the freezer when she was clearing it out after our spring power outage. Said ham hocks have been waiting in the fridge, slowly growing something greenish-grey. Needless to say, they did not meet with the beans.

I kept the beans cooking most of the afternoon and early evening, adding water as necessary. I also added some dried, minced onion, a little liquid smoke, some hot sauce, pepper, and near the end, salt. I've heard that salt added too early toughens beans.

Around 1830 I had a bowl. I would have continued on with a second, perhaps even a third, but there weren't that many beans to begin with, and hence not a lot of the cooked beans. Kerry had a bowl despite her protests that they have too many points, because I told her they were her beans. She even remembered what beans. Kid is bright! "They're great!" she exclaimed. Marilyn came home from a get-together, ate the remaining beans, and pronounced them delicious. Perhaps beans age well.