what’s for dinner: brazilian beans with banana. 

Chris’ uncle is from Brazil and I (mostly) followed his recipe.  Here’s what i did:

Throw the following into your slow cooker:

• couple of large cans of black beans (drained, but not rinsed)
• sauteed garlic and onion (i used two each)
• small can of green chiles
• some tomato sauce (i used half a jar of pasta sauce i had open in the fridge)
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook for several hours, seasoning along the way.  Then serve over rice and top with sliced banana or plaintain.  Voila! 

(you could also add meat.  you could also do the whole soak/rinse game with the beans if you don’t want to use canned.)

and ps - thank you all for the rice cooking tips!  i tried the knuckle thing and it worked!  no more rock-hard rice here :)