Beans and Rice Recipe

Yesterday I made a great beans and rice recipe, and I wanted to pass it on to you because it turned out so great! I had everything I needed except for the sausage, so it was a very cheap meal for us. I was proud of myself because I took an allrecipes.com recipe for red beans and rice and added my own flavor to it, partially because of what I had in my pantry and partially because I thought it might taste good. The picture to the left is not of my beans and rice, and actually uses red beans instead of pinto like I did, but it looks pretty close. I eyeballed all my measurements, which means it'll probably never taste the same again, but it'll be close.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried pinto beans
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 2 t salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 t white sugar
• 1/2 t Tony Cachere's
• 2 t celery seed
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 t gumbo file
• 1 t paprika
• 1 can Rotel, undrained
• 1 lb jalapeno sausage, sliced

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients except for Rotel and sausage in a large pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. (I started with just beans and water and used the 35 minutes to get everything chopped and stirred in. That made it fun because I really don't like the smell of cooking beans, and then it just got better and better and better!)
2. Transfer everything into a crock pot. Stir in Rotel and sausage. Add enough water to cover ingredients. Simmer on low for 6 hours.
3. Skim grease off the top (I used slices of bread to soak it up), and serve with rice.

Notes:
Jon and I like things a little spicy, so we added Tabasco to our individual bowls, leaving it a little milder for Caleb. Today instead of Tobasco I used more Tony's on my leftovers. This would be great with corn bread (I forgot until too late), and a fruit salad, to temper the heat and heaviness of it.