Refried Beans 101

Lately I've been reminiscing about riding my paint quarter horse, Quincy, on my friend Lolita's five hundred acre working farm in Hubbard, Oregon. Lolita and I rode most Sunday mornings and we would laugh and say that we were at "The Church of the Horse". Riding with her was a deeply spiritual experience because on every ride we would see sights that were breathtakingly beautiful and the images would stay with me the whole week. For example, on one winter not-a-cloud-in-the-sky morning icicles blanked the bare trees in the filbert orchard; they looked like glass and mirrored the sun's rays in a dazzling rainbow of light. Millions of tiny ice beads sparkled on snow white ground. The sun warmed my back and I took it all in like a sponge.

Most afternoons on the way home I'd stop at the local Mexican restaurant run by a very amicable "Senoir Lopez". The place was not exactly posh but it had a warm, cozy feel. On the cold days, I'd always order the same thing: a bowl of refried beans and a pot of cinnamon tea. The beans had this amazing nourishing, comfort food feel and they were served plain. I don't even remember putting salsa on them, they were so delicious. I do remember asking the cook what kind of bean she used and she said Peruvian. Those beans have a pale yellow hue and are creamy with a meaty flavor.

All this recent reminiscing about Senoir Lopez's finally got me motivated to make refried beans. I went onto the Rancho Gordo website (my mail order source for heirloom beans) and read a blog post about how to make authentic refried beans. Cooking them was so simple that I wondered why it had taken me over a decade to finally get around to making them. But better late than never, eh? My first batch turned out quite well and I had the same experience as when I ate them at Senoir Lopez's. They nourished my soul as well as my tummy.

Last week I visited the editor of this paper, Steve Allen, and I gave him a bag of cranberry beans. He said that he didn't cook beans from dried and used canned instead. I told him how easy it was to cook beans from scratch then tried to explain it to him. Then it occurred to me that I could write a column about how to cook them, so Steve, this one is for you!

But now I am out of room so I will start with the instructions of "Refried Beans 101" next week. Stay tuned!

I wrote Lolita a letter when she was on her deathbed and to this day it remains the best writing I've ever done.