Well, they taste fine, but they're not quite tender

even after 6 hours of slow-cooking. :(

If stored longer than 12 months, or exposed to unfavorable storage conditions, beans may never soften sufficiently, no matter how long they're soaked or cooked. On the other hand, some beans can cook up tender after years of storage.--US Dry Bean Council

So the pintos may be shot, but I may have luck with the others. And the chickpeas aren't that old. Oh, well, it was worth a try. I did eat some. Hopefully that will be alright. But the bread came out absolutely great, at least.

Happy bread

It's done.  You can also see the canisters of beans and rice in this photo. Still haven't taken that nap,  so I will now.

It's amazing

just how great pinto beans, onion, garlic, Italian herbs, and a bay leaf can smell while slow-cooking in a crock pot. I brought a friend over to my house to kill some time (he's staying at a house that's for sale, and they were doing a showing), so he made coffee, I boiled water, chopped an onion, rinsed the beans, minced garlic, and put that and the herbs into a crock pot and started that cooking. It should be ready by 7:30 pm. Since I was doing that, I went ahead and put the ingredients for my outrageously oatmeal bread recipe into the bread machine and started that. It should be ready about 6 pm. I then took him and dropped him off, came back home, and the apartment smells great. I'm figuring my beans may take the longer cooking time because while they've been kept dry in a tightly sealed container (I have several with those metal 'locks' and o-rings to seal in the freshness), the actual beans are years old. I mostly keep them because they're decorative (I have a 15-bean mix, the pinto beans, some butter beans, garbanzos, and Anasazi beans, plus brown and white rice in these large locking containers.) But I am very poor, so I'm getting into my stash. The recipe called for a pound of some sort of bean, one onion, four cloves of garlic, thyme (I substituted Italian seasoning, which has thyme in it, plus some others I thought would be good), and a bay leaf. I took the $5 I still had in cash and got the head of garlic, reasoning that it would be better than garlic powder, and some bay leaves, because while I could have 'borrowed' one from YKWIA, I have lots of beans, quite a bit of garlic, lots of seasoning, and have one more onion, and probably can get more. So I may subsist on beans for awhile. Look out world; despite not eating red meat or pork for 25 years, and only breaking down one year in that time to eat poultry before I decided that no, I can't kill a chicken myself, I never have particularly processed beans well. But they smell great, and I'm hoping they get tender and taste great, too.

I'm getting sleepy. I've done quite a bit of driving today, cleaned out my friend's litter boxes, been terrified by a beetle, and I am generally feeling lazy while sitting near a sunny window on a warm day. I also have a slight headache. I think I'll lie down until the bread machine goes off; that's in less than an hour. I've cleaned the tub and toilet today; I still need to do the bathroom sink. And I think I'll pick up some things out in the dining and living areas. I don't have to go anywhere till 11 am tomorrow, so I have some time to just hang out and work on the house some. I may do some more reading, too, and I think I'll listen to some Pandora later and maybe watch something on Netflix.

Alright. Here's hoping no bugs come and terrorrise me during my nap. I'll probably write later. :)

I seem to be

terribly incapable of washing more than a dish or two without getting soaked down my front to the skin. Tonight was worse, as a lid under the water at the wrong angle meant water in my face and on my glasses. It got everywhere. Even when I filled up the ice cube trays, I sprayed water everywhere. Plus, I have a small leak, and I tried to turn the faucet off completely in case that was it, and the whole faucet came up a tad, still attached to the pipe, but moving about. I'll call about that on Monday.

Thankfully, however, the kitchen is completely cleaned up, the dishwasher is drying dishes, the plastics and cookware are in the drainer drying, and sunflower seed bread is baking. I hope it rose okay with the dishwasher going and all my clanging about. I had just enough whole wheat flour and sunflower kernels to do the bread, and I thought it would make a nice change. Before I go to bed, I'm going to put a pound of beans to soak overnight, and then tomorrow I'll cook them with the onion and some garlic in the crock pot.

I need to head over to Facebook and wish one of my former co-workers a happy birthday. The bread has just about an hour to go, so I'll probably stay up till then, but then go on to bed soon after. Have a good night.