Judy and Bob's rice and beans.

My friend Judy married Bob. Bob's favorite meal of his mother's was rice and beans, so Judy learned to make it.  When she invited me over for a dinner of rice and beans, I thought she was nuts.  I couldn't imagine it even being fit to eat.  My only other exposure to beans were baked beans. I like them baked in a sweet tangy sauce.. but bland beans and rice?  I thought I would quietly suffer through the meal.  That was at least 15 years ago... and I am still making rice and beans!  I might add, this recipe has convinced many people that rice and beans is a gourmet treat!

If you haven't visited the ethnic section of your grocery store, this is the time to do so.  Goya is a popular brand, and this dish is not very tasty if you don't use these ingredients.  The Sofrito is a tomato cooking base, and Recaito is a Cilantro cooking base.  The contents of these jars mold pretty quickly after you open them, so when I open a jar, I spoon the leftover into ice cube trays, and then pop the frozen cubes into freezer bags for future use.  The sazon Goya is in an orange box, and comes in individual packets.

3-15 oz cans dark red kidney beans
1-15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 onion, diced
1 cup diced ham
1 heaping tablespoon of Goya Recaito
1 heaping tablespoon of Goya Sofrito
1 packets of Sazon Goya con culantro y achiote

Simmer all ingredients together (except ham) for one hour, or alternately cook in a crock pot on low for 8 hours.  Stir in ham and heat through.

Serve over cooked white rice.

Alternately, if you don't have leftover ham, you can simmer a ham hock in the mixture, remove ham hock, pick meat off and put back in.  In a pinch, I've used Goya Jambon seasoning, which adds ham flavor as well.