Can you get excessive vitamin K from the amount of EVOO you would get in a bean salad? I'm wondering same with salt, if your beans are homeade. I often make a big pot of beans over the weekend and freeze them in 1 pint jars. Right now I have garbanzoes, red beans and black beans in the freezer, so very easy to throw my own "canned" beans instantly into a dish. I found out the beans thaw pretty fast in the microwave (if I take off the metal lids!). And I use maybe 1 tsp. salt for the whole batch. But I also cook them with an onion, maybe stuck with a few cloves, bay leaf and epazote, all kind of resinous flavors. I also add no salt vegetable bouillon cubes. I save the bean broth for soups. I don't know the sodium content but I'll bet it is 1/2 if not 1/4 what the canned stuff is. Since I cook all the homeade stuff I am like you Lirio, I find most pre-packaged and restaurant food way too salty for my palate. Same with sugar, I almost routinely cut sugar in recipes by 1/4 and often up to 1/3, and never notice it. I don't know for sure, but I think a lot of those dietary guidelines come about because they say "X" is good for you, and then some people eat nothing BUT X, or take super high concentrate supplements thinking that will work. And then they get the bad side effects from the nutrient taken in excess, without the fiber and other nutrients that would go along with it if you found it in a natural form. I know that is the case with vitamin C, and I think if I'm not mistaken some of the B vitamins are toxic, like maybe B6 or niacin? But anyway, I'm sure you've been round the block on all of this! But I can see where a person could overdose on garbanzo beans, I LOVE hummus! Here's Annie's Bean Salad recipe, I know she's at a huge wedding this weekend, where she made hor'doeuvres (or however you spell it) for 600! All Purpose Southwestern Corn and Black Bean Salad from "Cooking Light" magazine Makes 12 servings and keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days. Can add shredded chicken and serve as a filling for tacos or enchiladas, tostadas, whatever. Great with baked tortilla chips as an extra chunky dip. Or serve on a bed of lettuce for a salad. 1 lb. dried black beans 11 1/2 cups of water, divided 1 tsp. olive oil (I think you could get away with canola on this part) 2 tsp. cumin seeds 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 cups fresh corn kernels 2 cups chopped seeded tomato 1 cup vidalia or other sweet onion, chopped 1 cup chopped red bell pepper 1 cup chopped green bell pepper For the Dressing: 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes) 1 TBLSP chili powder 3 TBLSP olive oil 2 tsp. salt (I'll bet you could get away with one, or 1.5) 1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin 2 tsp. honey 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and minced 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley if you don't like cilantro, I love it!) Sort and wash beans. OK, at this point, cook however you like. The directions say combine beans and 5 1/2 cups water in a 6 quart pressure cooker. Close lid securely; bring to high pressure over high heat. Adjust heat to medium or level needed to maintain high pressure; cook 1 min. Remove beans from heat; place cooker under cold running water. Remove lid. Drain beans; rinse with cold water. Drain and cool. Lpink: "Um yeah, right. Or soak in the water overnight, and then drain off the water before cooking in new water in the crockpot." Heat 1 tsp. oil in cooker over med. heat. Add cumin seeds and 2 garlic cloves, cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add beans and 6 cups water. Close lid, do the whole pressure thing again, adjust heat to maintain cooking at high pressure. Cook 12 minutes. Remove from heat, place cooker under cool water to lower prssure. Remove lid, drain beans and rinse with cold water. Lpink: "Or, use ground cumin instead, and throw the beans and a couple veg. bouillon cubes in the crockpot and cook on high for about 3-4 hours, or on low for about 5. Drain the broth into a tupperware container and label it "bean broth" for chili later." Meanwhile, make the salad with the cooled beans and the chopped veggies. Then make the dressing and pour over the salad. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 min., but I would say longer. I know a pressure cooker is the BEST way to do beans, but I have never gotten the knack of it and can't be bothered. Maybe if I got on of those new fangled ones that are just for cooking I might like it, but no money and no room in the kitchen, so that's not going to happen. I like the slow cooker method though, I can make them over the weekend and forget them until they are done.

I've used oil to season skillets, as well as shortening. Never use Pam. I am sure everyone has their own way...personally, I scrub mine really good, and use soap on them all the time. The best way to season a skillet is to use it repeatedly. When I get a new skillet...which is in reality, an old one because I never buy new ones...I have over 100 pieces of cast iron cookware, and I use the new one until it is well seasoned. A well seasoned skillet is like black glass on the inside, and washing it will not remove it. Just make sure it is always dried properly. The way I dry mine is to sit it on top of a stove burner for a few seconds. As soon as it is dry, remove from heat. Do not rub more oil or anything on it. Put it away and keep it dry. I see differences of opinion on how to do it....but that is the way I always do mine and how my mother taught me. If you have one that has a lot of buildup on the outside, you can burn it off. I do it by making a fire and putting it in the coals. Once it has burned off, I scrub it very good and then heat some oil in it and swish around. Wipe it out and repeat the process and then wash it and start using it.

The roots look healthy. The bulb looks that it should be salvageable, but it is not possble to certain. Sometimes bulbs feel soft because it is dehydrated. Remove all the outer dry bulb layers. If the inner layers are white or greenish, then everything is probably OK. If there are wet, mushy parts that are reddish or brown, that is a problem and should be removed. Either way, the red spots on the outer scales indicates that the bulb has red blotch (Stagonospora) fungus. It is manageable, but those those dried, red, warty areas of the dried tissues contain spores that can spread the fungus to growing leaves under wet conditions. So try to remove all of the red dry parts.

The cardboard didn't help with maintaining a moist root area, but isn't totally responsible gor what happened, either. It's very tempting to put down something like cardboard, newspapers or landscape fabric to suppress weeds, but they really do more harm then good. Weeds grow through them and root into them and become harder to deal with in the long run. It would be best to remove the cardboard, bite the proverbial bullet and pull the weeds by hand. Once the area is reasonably weed free, it's not that big a chore to keep it that way. Declined really is a better description than died. The branches showing the most extreme drooping will not revive, but the stems themselves should be fine. Cut them back to an area showing green cambium and they should put forth new growth. There is still ample time for lots of regrowth before fall. There are some root diseases which can cause this kind of rapid collapse, but I am reasonably confident that you will find very dry root balls. Should they prove to be nicely moist, you are then dealing with a more serious condition for which there is really no cure. Fingers crossed.