Refried Beans

A simple item. Available in cans for your convenience. Delicious in tacos and nachos. You'd think this would not change due to a mild relocation process that I have recently undergone. But guess what! Apparently, there are no refried beans in the Midwest (a large generalization on my part due to the fact that I only visited one grocery store in one Midwest city, but whatever)!

So I was at the grocery store yesterday and I spent ages in the bean and Mexican isles. No refried beans. You've got hot chili beans, black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, vegetarian beans, kidney beans, and a bunch of other beans I'd never heard of like white-something beans. I swear I examined the area around pinto beans for an eternity. No luck.

Well, I wanted beans for my nachos for my Bible Study group this week (several people can't make it so the rest of us are having a game night... and of course there must be food... and I've been craving nachos so there you have it). So in the end, I bought two cans of pinto beans and decided that I'd smush them up or something.

I decided to tackle the issue today (knowing that I won't have very much time tomorrow), so I opened one of the cans. I dumped them into a bowl and tried stirring them but they weren't very smushable (yes, I believe that word should be in the dictionary). Then it dawned on me, "RE-FRIED beans"... I'll just cook them some more! So I dumped it all in a small pot and turned on the burner.

After 15 minutes they looked just like refried beans and I was very impressed... but when I opened the pot, they didn't smell like refried beans. So I tried to look up a recipe online for refried beans thinking that there must be some seasoning besides salt that gets added.

The ingredients that I found in those recipes that were likely missing from my own were things like sugar, garlic, and onions, none of which were consistently listed between recipes, and I'm sure that all of them are not found in the refried beans I am used to purchasing in can form.

So I called my dad, who frequently fragrants the house with the same smell I smell now when he makes refried beans from scratch. He suggested garlic and onion powder (which I unfortunately don't have), so I e-mailed Shaun (because that's where we'll be tomorrow night), and am now waiting for a response while cooking the other can of pinto beans.

Stay tuned for the outcome! I'm sure you all are at the edge of your seats. And I bet you never thought that such a long story could be told about refried beans... ;)