Two-day refried beans

Okay, the refried beans don't really take two days to make. But as usual, I under-estimated the amount of time it would take to cook the beans from dried, so by the time they were ready I had long since cooked and eaten some spaghetti for dinner. I was hungry.

But I finished the refried beans tonight, and they were delicious. A little dry, to be sure—I think I didn't use enough oil. But good.

I used Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I'm feeling a little lazy, so I won't post the full recipe here. But essentially I sauteed some chopped onions in a neutral oil (I used sunflower), added a tablespoon of cumin, added three cups of cooked kidney beans, plus some diced pickled jalapenos and crushed garlic, and mashed them until my back hurt. Since it has been hurting since Friday, I think I probably quit a little too soon. Mark (yes, we are on a first-name basis) says some lumps are okay, but as you can see in the picture, my refried beans are quite chunky. But still, it was a very tasty dinner, seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper; topped with a fried egg (look at that nice runny yolk!); and served with a large salad.

As I mentioned yesterday, although many of the ingredients were local (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, egg, onions, garlic...) enough were from afar that I am not considering this a One Local Summer entry. But still, I think it shows how often you can use local ingredients in recipes every day without much thought or effort.