We had a really good, albeit short, trip to St. Louis. My dad's graduation ceremony was held at the Missouri History Museum. It was a lovely ceremony with a good keynote speaker. It was also really nice to see my grandparents from Houston, we don't get to see them enough. After the ceremony, we had a nice lunch and looked around the St. Louis Art Museum for awhile. I will post some St. Louis pictures at the end of this post.
Onto the food. As you all know, Brett and I love Mexican food, it might go beyond love, but that is beside the point. :-) Anyways, we have been trying to get a good refried bean recipe down for a couple of years. Our beans have always turned out well, but they were also always more flavorful than authentic refried beans, and something always seemed a bit off. I did a little research and experimented, and have come up with the most 'authentic' recipe for vegan refried beans we've had yet.
Brett also made a good portion of this meal. I made the beans, he made the marinade, cut up all the veggies, and marinated them for the day. When I got home from work to make the meal, all I had to do was sauté the veggies and heat up the beans. Gotta love meals like that!
'Traditional' Vegan Refried Beans
1 cup of dry pinto beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
1 serrano pepper, stem removed
1 jalapeno pepper, stem removed
1/2 medium onion (or equivalent)
1/2 bulb of garlic, peeled
2-3 tbsp vegetable (or other) oil
1-2 tbsp salt (in water)
In a crock pot, combine all the ingredients and fill the pot with water. Simmer on high for 2-3 hours or until beans are soft. (You could also do this in a pot on the stove.)
Reserve about half a cup of the bean water.
Remove the peppers, garlic, and onion, and discard.
Mash beans with a mixer or potato masher, adding bean water and salt as needed to taste.
Fajita Burrito with Refried Beans
2 red bell peppers, seeded and sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 package white button mushrooms, sliced
refried beans
tortillas
salsa
Marinate the veggies in Just Another Fajita Marinade for at least a couple of hours.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add the veggies and cook for about 15 minutes or until soft. You may want to put a lid on the pan (if you have one) to help them cook faster.
Layer refried beans and marinated veggies in warmed tortillas and roll 'em up! Serve with salsa.
We both really like this mariade, it works really well with fajita style veggies.
I'll end this post with a few pictures from the History Museum St. Louis. Unfortunately, none of them will be of my dad's graduation. For one, the lighting was difficult for our camera and we didn't get many good pictures. And for two, well, I didn't ask him if he minded living in infamy on my blog, so I didn't think it would be fair to post the pictures without asking him first.
Anyways.....
I really have a thing with public transportation, so I was excited to take a picture of one of the Metro buses in St. Louis.
The Missouri History Museum. You can actually see my family walking up towards it.
Old trolly car.
Good 'ol TJ.
These posters are from 1943. I don't think we should have ever lost these principles.
And finally, they have an exhibit at the Museum where you can stand behind this thing that looks like the basket of a hot air ballon and the TV shows you 'flying' over St. Louis, seeing the arch, all that sort of stuff. It's a pretty silly, kitchy thing, but I thought it would be fun to take a picture of it 'flying' us over St. Louis. See the Arch in the background. It felt so real...... ;-)
I will try to get back on this afternoon and post the weekly garden update, and will try to catch up on everyone's blog soon!
'Til next time.
12 comments:
You had a lot of fun last week!
The refried beans look very good indeed! I'll have to try, but I don't have anything to compare them to...
Glad that you had fun in St. Louis - great photographs !!
I always love your latest Mexican dishes - so delish!
Happy to hear you had a nice time in St Louis. I love refried beans, and the fact that you can make them in the crockpot makes me *very* happy--less heat in my non-AC apt! I will have to try your recipe soon!
Thanks
Courtney
I'm also really looking forward to trying your bean recipe. Just yesterday, after great burritos at Burrito Loco, I was telling MD I'd like to tackle making beans similar to theirs. This might be the ticket!
Glad you had a good time. And the beans sound so good. I just love refried beans!
looks like had a great time with your family! and the refried bean recipe i'm totally printing out right now. dan and i are too scared to eat anything from a can anymore (due to our bisphenol a paranoia) so i haven't had refriend beans in FOREVER! we have a bunch of pepper plants growing, too - so we can totally make these!
thanks, Jennifer!
Some lovely pictures, and I'm very happy that the graduation ceremony went fine.
The refried beans do sound really good! They look just like the beans you get at a restaurant. Totally bookmarking the recipe, although I rarely cook beans from scratch. Perhaps I should more often. And glad you had a good trip! The museum looks like fun, I like kiddy interactive museum displays.
Looks like you all had a good time. Thanks for sharing the photos!
As for the beans, they sure do look tasty. I have never attempted to make my own refried beans. I may have to make those soon.
Alice - It was a good time.
Thanks! Aw man! If you lived in the States, I would make sure you had an adequate supply of good Mexican food. I guess since you have nothing to compare it to, if they are good, well, they're good, authentic or not. :-)
Veggie Girl - Thanks and thanks.
This was really good, I'm glad to have finally found a decent, fairly authentic recipe for refried beans.
Courtney - Thank you.
Hahaha. These would be perfect for an AC-less apartment. I hope you like them.
Lisa - Haha, I hope they fit the bill.
Bianca - I know, I could almost just sit and eat a bowl of refried beans. Add some chips and salsa to that mix and I'd be one happy camper.
Jessy - :-) The news about the bisphenol a is pretty scary. I have long avoided canned foods because of the waste of materials and also the association between exposure to certain metals (such as aluminum) and an increased risk for alzheimers.
Oooooh, what kind of peppers do you have growing?
No problem, I hope you enjoy them.
Cookiemouse - Thank you, I just wish some of the pictures of the ceremony had turned out better.
Erin - Thanks so much! That is so nice of you to say. We've been working on a recipe for awhile and the beans always turn out too flavorful or too thick.
I always cook beans from scratch, but I never got in to the habit of buying canned beans to begin with, if I had, I would probably have more difficulty getting myself (or Brett usually) to take the time to make them from dried form.
I love things that are kitchy or silly, gives me something to laugh about.
Ve*gan Chick - No problem, glad you enjoyed them.
You really should, homemade refried beans are so easy to make and well worth the little effort. I wonder if you could make a bunch up and freeze it for later use. I know you can do that with whole beans. Might be a time saving idea.
Oooh I love Mexican food; the beans sound awesome!
Rach-ums - Well, you are in good company if you like Mexican food, you won't find much beyond that here. :-) The beans were really good and super easy to make.
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