Good red beans

Cook your own.

1 lb Red Beans
1 lb Bacon (cut in half)
1 large onion
salt and pepper to taste

Put beans, bacon, and onion in a 5 quart pot...cover with water. Boil the hell out of them until they start to turn soft. Lower heat, stir often...add more water as needed. When stirring mash up the beans...as gravy thickens continue to stir. Once it is nice and creamy...serve over Uncle Ben's rice.

NOTE: When you taste the beans they should be a little on the salty side...they will taste perfect when served over rice.

This should take about 6 hours...but it is well worth it. You can cut this time by 66 percent with a pressure cooker...but that can be another post!

We had guests last weekend from La - they brought a care package for us including a few bags of Camilla red beans. They also brought some pork tasso from Borque's.

Cooked it all up yesterday - soaked the beans overnight. Fried a strip of bacon, sauteed orions and garlic in the bacon juice. Mixed it all up (including the tasso) - cooked for a couple of hours.

NOW THAT'S SOME RED BEANS!!!

The tasso and the bacon add plenty of salt - (and I add salt to the rice I cooked). No need to add any salt to the beans at all.