Beans beans, the photographable fruit

I love making beans. Such fascination changes occur to them as they are soaked, then cooked, and then after they've sat a bit. Above is soaked pinto beans, drained, a bunch (as in a single bunch) of minced cilantro, a halved and peeled onion, two tablespoons each of cumin and sea salt, a dash of dried Mexican oregano, a tea infuser containing five juniper berries, five chopped garlic cloves, a dried Scotch Bonnet and a dried Carribean Red. So pretty!

Water added above. The onions are halved so that I can remove them easily later. I hate chunks of cooked onion in my food!

Nearly done, although not quite.

Mmm, done. The broth looks so pretty in freshly cooked beans.

Pretty shapes, pretty colors, I love cooking beans!

About three hours after cooking. They're a really ugly greenish brown right now. That's from all the cilantro. By tomorrow they'll be a normal brown and they may be a bit thicker if I haven't used too much water to cook them. Cooking beans is like a science experiment!

Too bad I didn't make Anasazi beans, they're GORGEOUS before you cook them, pretty pretty pretty.