Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit

I can never really get excited about beans. This is a personal failing of mine. While I hate cucumbers and everything they stand for without remorse I feel a bit guilty about not liking beans more. I don't dislike them in the least, I can just never get excited about eating them. When I do eat them I usually enjoy them and I'm glad I had them.

I guess I feel the same way about eating beans that I do about listening to This American Life.



I got these beans from Laurel Hill a long time ago. I got them because they looked pretty, disregarding the fact that I'm not all that crazy about beans. I thought to myself, "What a wonderfully colorful addition these will make to a plate, even though they'll all probably be a dull gray-brown after cooking."



How right I was. They were quite tasty though. I would recommend, however, ignoring the directions on the bag. It says to soak them overnight then boil them for two hours! I thought that seemed like a really long time. Instead I checked them after forty minutes and they were all overcooked. Edible but overcooked.



I served the beans over some shredded kale with chopped tomato, avocado, cotija cheese, red onion, olive oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of smoked paprika and cumin.



For the main dish I made a sort of Mexican casserole. I'm not sure if this has ever been made by an actual Mexican but plenty of Americans cooking "Mexican" food like to make things like this.

I pulled the meat out of a roasted chicken, took some old tortillas out of the freezer and layered them in casserole dish with crumbled cotija, diced tomato, salt, pepper, smoked paprkika, and cumin. I baked the whole thing together in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, serving hot.



According to people that believe in beer pairing with food this dish would likely be best paired with a pale ale. Maybe a brown ale. Since I didn't really have either of those option available in the fridge I went with the Rare Vos from Ommegang.

Apparently "rare vos" is Flemish for "sly fox." I liked that. On the back of the bottle it lists instructions on how to enjoy this beer:

Pour slowly so as not to disturb the yeast sediment, but with enough vigor to create a luxurious head and release the spicy bouquet.

I didn't like that. Despite that drivel I enjoyed this beer quite a bit. I could have done without the lengthy and pretentious instructions on how to enjoy this beer. Beer shouldn't need an instruction manual. Sure, I'm a jerk who poured this into a tulip glass but that's just because I have an unnecessary fetish for food ceremony. I don't actually believe that the shape of the glass or the way the beer is poured has any real affect on its enjoyment.

Do I?

Does Nate really believe all this? Does he think glassware matters? Is he turning into an even bigger asshole than he already is? For the answer to all these and more questions tune in to Buy the Farm Share . . . Monday to find out!