Them Beans, Them Beans, Them Dry Beans …

A tale of two jalapeños found next to one another in the same bin at City Market. Exactly the same length and firmness and color. Identical twins.

My habit when cooking with chiles is to take a very small bite at the tip to assess how hot this particular pepper is. They can vary quite a bit in ferocity, and I like to know what I’m dealing with in order to avoid the spectacle of our guests dashing from the dining table to the closest water faucet with those horrified looks on their faces.

I took that small bite of one of these and it immediately tried to burn my lips away, destroy my oral cavity, and somewhere I’m sure that I could hear the concrete slab over my grave being lifted into receiving mode. I applied various cooling agents and nostrums and within half an hour the drama was behind me.

It was the hottest chile I’d ever tasted.

It was the hottest anything I’d ever tasted.

An hour later and with much trepidation I tried the tiniest nip from the second jalapeño. It was mild enough that I could have eaten it like an apple.

My problem, of course, is that now I know that there is yet one more thing out there that wants to kill me. Or worse, something that might ruin the dish that I was preparing. And the only way that I can see to sort it out is to put my mouth on the front line as I have done for years.

But having had this single jalapeño go nuclear on me changes everything. I was never afraid before.

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Robin and I share an appreciation for beans here at Basecamp. They have so many things going for them and very few drawbacks. You could live on just beans and rice. You might not want to, but you could.

Good things about beans

So many varieties
Economy
Versatility
Availability
Easy storage
Excellent nutritional values

Less good things about beans

Flatulence
Bad breath (see citation below)
Fewer social invitations as a result of the first two items in this list

When you block a fart from escaping, some of the gas can pass through your gut wall and be reabsorbed into your bloodstream. From there, it can end up being exhaled through your lungs, coming out of your mouth via exhaling.
Healthline

(Reading this short quote changed my way of looking at the world. To learn at my stage of life that not all halitosis is due to improper flossing was a mind bender and makes the thought of getting together in large groups even less appealing .)

Dry Bones, by the Delta Rhythm Boys

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From The New Yorker

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At the beginning of the pandemic, when everything seemed up in the air and the future highly uncertain, I betook myself to the grocery store and purchased thirty pounds of dried beans of different varieties. While not going full-bore survivalist by a long shot, I figured that if society went completely to hell Robin and I could last long enough on the beans to put our affairs in some sort of order.

We ate the last of those legumes this December just past.

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Below is a great recipe for preparing pinto beans for those who are into pressure-cooking. Find the original recipe at From Valerie’s Kitchen