I made a couple of new-to-me recipes last night that turned out great -- carne guisada and "Tejano" beans. Nothing fancy, but talk about KEEPERS! I took almost a half-hour carefully browning 2 1/2 pounds of stew beef and it so paid off.

https://thefoodcharlatan.com/t...ef-for-tacos-recipe/

https://thefoodcharlatan.com/t...-slow-cooker-recipe/

Dang Bill, I just finished breakfast and it still made me salivate!

TC: These two are really worth trying.
I recently learned the hard way that you want reasonably recent pinto beans. Made a batch of Randy's pintos and no matter how long they soaked and slow cooked in the crock pot, they never really softened. Life is too short for stale pintos!

Bill, one of 2 things happened to you. Either your beans were old or there was a large amount of calcium or alkaline in your groundwater. You can eliminate that by making sure your beans are fairly new + use bottled distilled water; that will fix it.

Try that + report, please. You have used my recipe in the past + you know those are the best beans you have ever tasted. Like Will Sonnet said, "No brag, just fact."

Randy, that sounds like a useful experiment. We do have alkaline water here in this part of Texas, but it was worse in New Mexico, where friends and neighbors were aghast that I drank and cooked with the tapwater without a softener or RO system.

Again, when you are buying a bag of dried pintos in the store, you really don't know how old they are. When they are over a year old, they tend to be a bit more crunchy.

Is there anything on a bag of beans that would indicate the date?

Not that I'm aware of. I have not seen any "best by" notations on bagged beans. I guess you just take your chances, but that being said, I have had more good luck than bad buying dried beans.

Most that I have in my pantry have the use-by date suggestion. Apologize for the photo link. I can't seem to post a normal photo this morning.

[IMG]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/b356/BillOregon/image_67200257_(1).jpeg?width=590&height=370&fit=bounds[/IMG]

I never looked, but I will in the future.

quote:

I never looked, but I will in the future.

Me too. My curiosity is now fueled. I will be checking out bags of beans in Walmart.

Bill,
Guisado is a favorite of mine, commonly known as "geso" is as good as it gets! Tejano beans is geographical as to the recipe, and all are great.

I will testify that the best Mexican food in the world starts in the SW at EL Paso Texas and goes North to about Alburquerque, NM, the best chili is grown Hatch NM.

I can honestly say I never met a pinto bean I din't like, and they are almost a daily part of my food chain....after a few days in the fridge they become a refried source of protein..and a fresh pot is in the making..

additionally if a bean is even slightly hard it is simply undercooked..If your climate is high use a pressure for about an hour or more..season with Jalapeanos, salt pork (not ham hock) celantro, salt to taste, sweet onion quarted, crushed fresh garlic ( I use 8 or more), cup of bullion, water to marker in the pressure. pressure cooker is a must in high elevations and speeds up the cooking in low elevations to about 35 to 45 minutes.

Ray, my son called me the other night + wanted his wife to make a pot of chili like I always make. So I gave him the recipe, + he had to call me back, as when he told her (She was born in Mexico City), she rattled off in her swivel-tongue, "You are a white man, you say Cumin, not comino!"In all honesty, though, we are Tejanos, + that's just damned near the same thing.

Mexico City ???

Heck, Tejano, Southern New Mexican and Northern New Mexican food vary significantly

North of the border and south an be drastically different.

One of the maintenance menin the building where I used to work was from one of the Central or South American countries.

Word went out in the building that his mother would make Tamales for some amount per dozen.

Heck Ya, I'm in for a coupla three dozen.

Yep delivery day arrived . . .
Corn wrappers . . . YES
Well formed Masa . . . YES

Fruit filling . . . . What the heck???

They did not use a "meat" filling in their area.

Good, but sure not what I was planning on eating.

We once were in a Christian church congregation here in Las Vegas, that included people from all over the world. As part of that congregation, almost every country south of the border was represented. We would occasionally have an international dinner night. Everyone would bring an authentic dish from their own mother country. It was out of this world! I get salivating just thinking about it.

I passed this along to our chef, to make tonight, we have friends coming.

Looks good, will let you know how it goes with this lot!

Vaughn, after your post, I just can't help, but I was a mind of the school kids asks to bring some me thing that regarded their religion. Well, the three kids did as requested. The Catholic kid brought a Crucifix, The Jewish kid brought a Menora, + the Baptist kid brought a casserole.

We tried it last night.

Very good!

Wow! Saeed, that looks sooooo good!

Yes, it does, indeed!

Chopped onions and tomatoes and chilies with lime juice!

Absolutely finger licking good!

We also have friends coming over tonight to watch soccer.

T bone steak.

BIG t bone.

Will post pictures.

Glad you liked it Saeed. Not in the league with a serious steak, but a fine dish nonetheless.

Thank you for the recipe Bill.

We have put it on our regular list.

quote:

We also have friends coming over tonight to watch soccer.

T bone steak.

BIG t bone.

Will post pictures.

Love it! You becoming a regular here on Recipes would be a real benefit, Mr. Nice Guy!

You calling Mr Nice Guy.

When i joined my shooting club in Houston, they gave me a name tag.

I asked if I could get another one, and was told I could have as many as I wanted, I just have to pay for them.

So I got one that said MR. NICE GUY!

I wore at shoots.

When I met someone new, they would look at my tag and say GLAD TO MEET YOU MR NICE GUY!

Brought lots of laughter from everyone else.

Back to recipes.

many of my friends like to watch soccer matches, and they gather here in my house to do so.

During the FIFA WORLD CUP, we picked a dish from each competing country for that evening.

Was a great success with the visitors.

Sadly some have rather deranged minds, and recommended dishes that did not appeal to me.

I picked the dish.

Last night steak.

That does look pretty good!

Several friends couldn't finish it!

That's why they make 'doggy bags'

I am salivating for one of those steaks here in Texas and the sun is barely up ...
Saeed, I am going to try that side you mentioned -- the tomatoes, onions and peppers in lime juice. I'll probably use a jalapeño and some sweet onion for the test drive.

A steak to die for! Wow! Steak heaven!

Carne guisada is an awesome way to cook any meat, including neck meat and snow geese, who many say are inedible. A lot of cumin, stewed slow in sauce and served on tortillas. Not as good as those steaks, but pretty good.