Well, Elery's favorite is just a "mess of beans", which is a chopped onion, chopped celery and carrot, the beans, water, cook it for several hours in the crockpot. Add a ham bone if you have one. Actually, we have that at least once a week and I'm getting tired of it, but he still loves it. Leftovers can be made into "refried beans" instead of pintos, and they make pretty good bean dip.

I actually like baked beans more than any other kind of beans.

Annie

I use them in Pasta e Fagioli. The cooking liquid is incredibly delicious!

Thank you, Annie. That "mess of beans" sounds a little like the way my BF does pinto beans, and he also wants chopped onion, mashed potatoes, and corn bread along with it. Definitely a southern thing and I've come to love it. Not every week though! lol! Oh, yes, I love baked beans too -- and what they call BBQ beans down south, I guess. We went to Savannah for BF's HS reunion a couple years ago and the group got fabulous takeout BBQ pork and the best pan of BBQ beans I've ever had in my life... loaded with all kinds of beans and hunks of smoked meat. The closest I've found is this recipe from Serious Eats, which I love, but when I make it I use a variety of beans and I like to add chunks of [smoked] ham instead of using bacon. Now I'm craving bbq beans and I have that ham from Easter, so I'll try adding some cranberry beans when I make it. :)

cactusmockingbird, thank you, pasta fagioli is a great idea! Haven't made it in a while so it sounds really good too.

I make a succotach with fresh corn and fresh shelled cranberry beans . I double cut the corn and use chicken broth as a base. Usually sauted onion and celery added. Slow cook for hour.

marcopolo, thanks for the suggestion. I wish fresh corn was available! I also wish I had more freezer space because the first thing I'd load it with is sweet corn! :)

We have been on a bean tour the past year. Then recently joined the RG bean club for crazy bean people.

I've been categorizing beans as Fall/Winter and Spring/ Summer. A sturdy bean like a garbanzo being a year-round bean.

Cranberry beans are on the Winter list. A 'gravy' bean. They make such a nice naturally flavored broth when cooked. And a thickener. Good for soups, chowders, chili, baked, etc.

I use ALL beans year round. And use combinations for soups/chowders. Like any big pot of beans, a mix will give a good gravy as well as well as some still holding their form. A Summer bean will hold its shape when cooked.

So much information on the RanchGordo bags and the website about the best uses.

Last Sundays Easter salad I used a Summer combination.

A cranberry/pinto type creamy bean I use like Annie/Elery. And in soups, chowders. Onion,celery,garlic, etc. (still corn in my freezer. I need to make a spring chowder!)

I make Boston Baked Beans with the mature ones. At the end of the growing season, there are always immature ones left and those are my favorites. They make the best hummus!

wow, sleeve, that all looks fantastic! I once tried cranberry beans in a bean and kale soup, if I remember correctly. I had to order them. We don't get much choice at all in dried beans in local stores.... it sometimes takes me 3 trips before I can find split peas. :p

moosemac, I was thinking that the creamy texture might make a good hummus! Do you use the same ratios as you would with garbanzos? the cranberry beans I tried were very mild tasting to me.... about the size of pinto beans, I think.

Annie, those beans are beautiful!!!! Apparently we don't have any beans here because Michigan has them all. lol! Actually, I think this area is a top producer of garlic! And we're in dairy country -- so the only other thing grown large-scale is corn for feed. That explains a lot, if you think about it.

Re the pizza, I think I'd pass. I love beans but I wouldn't want them on a pizza.

party_music50 ,

Here's the recipe I use:

Finally a Good Hummus

½ lb. immature dried Vermont Cranberry beans, dried white beans or garbanzo beans

3 garlic cloves

Olive oil

½ cup smoked roasted red peppers or 1/3-1/2 sweet red pepper

2 tbs. Tahini

Salt.

Juice & zest of a whole lemon

Cook beans in water until tender, drain and rinse in cold water. Into the blender with remaining ingredients.

Garnish with a little more olive oil and diced yellow and red smoked roasted peppers and serve with homemade flatbread.

Great. Thank you, moosemac!

Since I have lots of ham & bone, I'm currently making a "mess of beans" w/ navy, red, and cranberry beans, and I'll make a cornbread to go with it.

So you made my day Annie, finding out there is a Michigan Bean Commission. I hope they are keeping good count! ;)

Moosemac, I cooked a pot of cranberry beans this morning. Some are destined for pasta e fagioli tonight, but the rest went in the freezer. I'll either try your hummus with those or wait till I cook another pot. Thanks!

I ended up making a 3 bean soup, loaded w/ ham, and had a crispy garden salad on the side. It's been a cold, windy, unpleasant day here, and the soup was perfect for it. I definitely understand cranberry beans now! :)

Now y'all got me craving pasta e fagioli! I've been eating bean soup with ham all week!

lpink, I didn't say Michigan Bean COUNTERS, I said Michigan Bean Commission, LOL.

PM, you just had to do it, didn't you? Elery wanted beans today and when I got up this morning he'd already started a "mess" in the crockpot. I made chicken enchiladas with some of AnnT's green tomatillo sauce to go with them.

Last time I was at the market where I buy beans, they had Mayacoba, a 15 bean "chili" blend, black beans, Great Northern, some lentils and cranberry beans, all grown about 20 miles from me. Want me to pick some up for you?

Annie

I buy a mix of dried beans for soup which also has lentils, split peas and I don't know what else. And with the ham bone that I had thought I would cook into a potato bisque soup, I think I just might make the bean soup instead. DIL says she is hungry for potato bisque, so I might bring her a big Tupperware container of it when we go up to babysit our 5 week old grandson next weekend. She wants to take son out for his birthday, but since it falls on Mothers' Day this year, the date may change for their dinner.

I make my pasta fagioli with bacon -- is that common? I saw Maryanne Esposito make it on TV and that's the recipe I've used ever since. I remember telling a coworker how good it was, gave him the recipe, and he loved it so much he started making it for himself every week. Lol!

Annie, I'm so sorry. Would you like me to start a new post and ask about your favorite way to use lobster, jumbo shrimp, and heavy cream? With NY strip steak?! :O) The beans must be a southern boy thing, although my BF doesn't make his pinto beans nearly that often. Enchiladas Verdes sounds great!!! But BF makes his fantastic red enchilada sauce by the gallon, so he makes the red enchiladas lately. :). Re your bean selection, that's amazing! Here, if all the store shelves are fully stocked, my choices in dried beans/peas would be black beans, pinto beans, either small navy or great northern (never both! Sometimes neither), rarely red beans, and usually green split peas... maybe brown lentils. No mixes that I've ever seen!

Party-music, I don't have much selection in beans, either. (Central Wisconsin)...but I can get dried red beans at Wal-Mart and, occasionally, Aldi has Mayacobas. Aldi routinely stocks Great Northern, black beans and pintos.

ci_lantro, the Aldi here only sells black beans and pinto beans, and I've seen them run out of the latter. I think they're limited in what they carry because it's a small store. That's why I like it! I'm in and out in no time at all. :)

I make my pasta fagioli with bacon -- is that common?

No meat in mine.

PM, we also have split yellow peas here, but that's something that's relatively new to me, I'd only seen the green ones before.

Yes, please post ANYTHING except that mess of beans, LOL, I keep trying to find new ways to make beans but Elery always reverts right back to that same old pot of beans! Tonight we had leftover beans....

Annie

catticusmockingbird, I've never had PF any other way... There's something about the way the smokey bacon combines with the garlic and other flavors that really does it for me. :)

Oh, Annie, yellow split peas means only one thing for me... My grandmother's kapusta with xmas-eve dinner. It was thicker than a soup, so served as a side dish. After she died, everyone realized she never told us how she made it! My attempt was closest, made with yellow peas, sauerkraut, and mushrooms as the main flavor components. I think she used a dried mushroom, but I did not. It may be an acquired taste. Lol! Sorry about all your beans. We should trade partners so that I could get a break from all the big food! My BF has been on meds that require food and make him hungry all the time. :p

My Italian MIL taught me to make pasta fagioli. I've tweaked her version over the years, but never added meat. Not tempted in the least. I'm glad it works for you.

Kapusta? I've never had that, I'm off to google.....

Well, maybe I HAVE had it, at least a version. (Yes, I'm back, editing) I often make "fried" cabbage with onions and bacon and that was the first recipe I found. I found one with yellow peas on "polishyourkitchen", I'm definitely going to pick up yellow peas and try that!

Annie

Cool website for me -- foods from my childhood! Kapusta means cabbage, which is part of the confusion. That kapusta is similar to my grandmother's but with cabbage vs sauerkraut and no mushrooms -- it is therefore seasoned differently. (Re allspice, etc). I hope you like your batch!