Magic beans

Mayocoba. Peruano. Evidently, I don't know beans. While perusing the Hispanic food section at Rosauer's with my visiting sister, I was advised to try these beans, which I hadn't noticed before. The bag had both names on the label. She told me they're better than pintos or black beans; the latter has been my go-to bean for years. Last night, I corroborated her opinion by cooking one of the tastiest batches of beans I've made in awhile. Starting with a carton of Costco chicken stock (not broth), I poured a pound bag of the unfamiliar beans into the crockpot. A diced carrot, one bay leaf, half a chopped onion, ditto of green pepper, and three cloves of garlic went in with a smoked turkey leg. The beans cooked all afternoon without losing their individuality. Along the way I added half a carton of water and opened another stock carton and added half of it. I was beginning to wonder if we were having beans for supper. I transferred the batch to my enamel dutch oven, adding two heaping tablespoons of a tomatillo salsa I'd made earlier. Wandering out to the herb patch, I contributed two giant basil leaves, three sprigs of thyme and four oregano flower heads to the pot, cut up with scissors. By 6 p.m., they were tender. I discovered that these beans do not cook into mush easily. They stay firm but creamy. Taking the meat off the turkey leg, I shredded it, discarding the sinews and skin. Wow. I am a convert. These are magic beans, indeed. P.S. Two ripe Maryhill peaches and a half pound of dark cherries needed using, so I came up with a new twist on those church supper fruit Jello mixtures Mom loves. Instead of using a commercial product, I dissolved three packets of gelatin in 1 cup of grapefruit juice and three cups of a low-sugar cranberry juice cocktail with Splenda in a saucepan, adding another couple of tablespoons of sucralose as well as a teaspoon of Spice Hunter's natural lemon extract. The dissolved mixture was poured over the peach slices and the halved cherries. To speed up the process, I draped the aforesaid frozen gel pack over the glass casserole dish. One hour later, we had ambrosial fruit gelatin for dessert.