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When I was in high school I spent a couple of summers in Mexico and Guatemala. We stayed in small towns and took accommodation and meals in small, cheap, family-run establishments. We snacked on triscuits and peanut butter and canned cheese that we'd brought from home and most of our restaurant meals were built around Zucaritas, jarritos and cokes (poured out of small glass bottles into plastic sandwich bags with a straw for drinking), and a lot of scrambled eggs, frijoles, and tortillas (both corn and wheat flour). And then I went to college and was broke, so by the time I finished my first year as an undergrad those trips, combined with having lived in Texas for my entire life, meant that I never wanted to eat a meal built around just beans and tortillas ever again.

I'm so, so over it. My mom's here and she brought fresh flour tortillas from Texas, so for the last two days I've been eating pinto beans and hot, buttered tortillas for lunch. GOD, THEY'RE SO GOOD, and it's a pity I've not been able to enjoy them more for the last 15 years. My kids are addicted to pinto beans so I make them pretty often, but it's the combination of the two that I haven't been able to face and have newly recovered.

To-die-for pinto beans are a snap to make, provided you don't mind eating lard. Because, seriously, this is where the flavor is and it is simply NOT replicable using other oils or flavorings and believe me, I've tried - for real depth of flavor you need good old bacon grease that your granny might have kept in a jar. If you're willing to use it, it's shockingly easy to get amazing beans - two or three good tablespoons of bacon fat, a pound of rinsed and picked over dried pintos, a diced (pretty rough) small onion, a good teaspoon or two of minced garlic, and enough water to cover the beans by an inch or two. Put all that on to boil and let it simmer for a few hours and omg so good! There's no need to presoak if you don't mind letting them cook for a good while, and they make an excellent base for killer refried beans. Basically, to get refried beans from this, you mash about half of these beans with some of the bean liquor and then mix up that smashed up stuff with the cooked whole beans and some spices and peppers in a big skillet.

Anyway. I've never made flour tortillas because I've always lived somewhere where every supermarket has their own in-store tortilleria and they're always fresh and very tasty. There's a restaurant here that has v. good inhouse tortillas, but I don't make it by to pick some up all the time. I think it's time to start making my own. Anybody ever made them before or have a good recipe to share?

There are many, many things I don't miss about Texas but one thing I do miss is the food - especially in east Texas, we're caught between the influence of the Cajun and Creole cooking traditions and traditional southwestern cooking, and we have our own style of cooking and food and it's important to us. One of my colleagues is another Texan transplant and she and I are scouring DC together for the right chili, passable barbecue, and workable Tex-Mex. One of my favorite food blogs, Homesick Texan, is from a woman in NYC talking about the food she grew up with. (And

jlh, that photo at the top ought to look familiar - I'm pretty sure that's the place we stopped for barbecue when we were driving to Austin a few years back.) So, you know, it's an odd sort of comfort to be able to enjoy that most basic of hearty meals again, especially when it's so cold here.

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There's a place I like in my neighborhood called La Mexicana. However, while I lived in Austin as a child, I spent several years in New Mexico and thus my taste is west Texas/Santa Fe style when it comes to Mexican food.

On the other hand, it's probably the only place I know where I can always get a cashew agua fresca.

It's posts like this that make me wish I'd grown up with more authentically Texan cooking -- my mom did most of the cooking, and so my knowledge of Tex-Mex is actually pretty limited, beyond knowing that I love it. Even when my dad cooks, it's barbecue, not Tex-Mex.

It also makes me wish I enjoyed cooking, so I could learn to do this for myself. :p

Randomly, I am making your beans today! I'm glad you posted this recipe, because I have never been successful at fixing dried beans, and my mother -- bless her -- is a terrible cook. She'd make chile and the kidney beans would still be kind of hard. ;P~~~

Oh, I'm so glad it's useful! Keep an eye on the water level, because you may end up having to add more. But, seriously, this is pretty foolproof.

Beans yay! My kids like them with cornbread and over rice.