Basic Black Beans

We're trying to save a bit of moola these days and with all the news about canned food being riddled with BPA, I decided that the time had come to try cooking my own beans from scratch.

It was awesome. I started with a half pound of dry black beans, on the chance that we didn't like the outcome. No worries there. Here's what I did:

1 cup black dried beans
4 cups water
4 cloves garlic, smashed
salt
onion flakes
garlic powder
cumin
chili powder

Rinse the beans, picking through for bits of wood, pebbles and broken beans.
Soak overnight in the water. (I started them right before I went to bed, at 11pm. Although I did this in a large bowl, you could probably use a saucepan)

The next day, bring the beans and a pinch of salt to a boil, then skim off the foam. (I omitted this step since I was distracted and missed the foam.) Turn the heat down very low, add the garlic and other seasonings and simmer for 3-4 hours or until the beans are as soft as you'd like.

We ate ours stuffed into burritos with brown rice, avocado and sour cream.  Claire had 2 bowls of rice, beans and a little bit of taco meat.