Breakfast Today: In Praise of the Crockpot

I love my crockpot. It's tiny and cost something like $4 on clearance at Walmart. My crockpot and I are best friends because I am a poor, busy college student. Cook dry beans overnight from 99 cents a pound, what? Anyways, I'm cooking some pinto beans right now as I go to bed and when I wake up...tasty breakfast awaits. I'll probably make huevos rancheros or something.

Last year, LittleGinger and I tried to start a new tradition after I bought a 5 pound bag of pintos: Pinto Bean Night. It was going to be a thing. Sadly, it never came into its own. However, we did come up with some inventive ways to use pintos.

That said, my favorite recipe is simple and easy: Towards the end of cooking, dice an onion and add to the crockpot with your pintos. When pintos and onion are tender and fragrant, add garlic powder and dump in equal amounts of vinegar and olive oil (maybe a quarter cup of each). Salt and pepper liberally. The pinto bean liquor tastes dreamy and is great with bread to soak it up. I used to eat this as a midnight study snack in a mug with some toast, and drink the broth. Yum.

So breakfast today: a warm mug of tender, tangy garlic pinto beans.