Beans, Beans, Beans

This is cheating just a little, because it's not something I made last night, but rather last weekend. Chris wanted to have tacos out of the frozen fish planks we got, and I had some frozen shrip so I figured what the hell.

The problem with tacos of any kind is that we always pine for those tasty refried beans you get at Mexican restaurants. The canned beans at the store are a poor imitation, maybe it's something to do with the shelf stability. Of course for all I know those are actually what restaurants use and I'm just swayed by the fancy serving (styrofoam bowls at Taco Bell are totally fancy, right?)

So I decided to try making my own, using a slightly modified version of Buffy's Refried Beans, adding 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper.

Since I wasn't sure about shelf-stable lard from the store I just bought a package of bacon and saved the drippings.  I wasn't paying attention when I bought it and didn't notice it wasn't sugar cured, and damn it was salty.  Or at least I thought it was. Looking at the recipe, I thought 3 cans of beans was excessive, so I divided it into thirds. Won't do that again - it was barely enough for two since we both love beans!

I used about 3 tablespoons of the bacon grease, which was pretty much all of it, and I also added a little drizzle of vegetable oil just to make sure there was enough. I think oil or butter would be okay to make up if there wasn't quite enough of the drippings left over, but I'd be a little hesitant about using only those. They'd probably do in a pinch though.

No extra salt because of the salt level of the bacon, and I tasted them once and thought "bah! too bland! more cayenne pepper!" Naturally, my careful efforts to just add a tiny sprinkle more were dashed when a clump dislodged. Scooping out the excess didn't go as well as I thought, because those beans were HOT. Definitely hotter than they tasted at first, and long after dinner was finished my mouth was still on fire. Being from Texas failed to bless me with some kind of superhuman ability to tolerate spicy shit, but that didn't stop me from eating all of the beans. Tasty! Definitly will make those again... two cans at a time instead of just one.