Spilling the Beans

Now that year-end holiday lights are on in town, I thought it wouldn't be too early to announce here one of My 10 Tiniest Yet Most Eye-Opening Findings of the Year 2005, which is...

"Cooking dry-packed beans can vapor away the most stubborn stress."


Okay, here's how it happened:

1. On a debilitating weekend in September, I was cooking dry-packed feijao preto beans.
(instead of S&W cans, to make my first feijoada)

2. As some of the black beans started "dancing" in heating water, I immediately but carefully turned the heat low to simmer, when

3. I felt my face muscles sort of twitching. (Palsy or bug-bite?)

4. Not palsy. Not a bug-bite either. I was pouting and smirking into the pot, like a red-cheeked farmer taming little perky chicks in a barn. (Shhh...! Good, gooood.)

5. "No. Oh no. Finally I've come to that point. I mean, to bean-sit."

6. "But hey, see how my tight frowned uni-brow is going apart back into two brows at the same time? It must be that the bean-induced face-jerk reaction is not a sign of insanity, but a good sign of relieving stress! (Smirk)

And now I even wonder if "coddle your beans" has ever been/will be used as an idiom meaning relax.


写真のは Great northern beans といいます。
乾燥時の大きさは黒豆と同じくらい、けど
なんせ「グレート」なだけに
調理中「アメリカーン！」に膨らむのでは、となんだか不安。
でも結局、仕上がりサイズも黒豆どまりでした。
しかも　色ツヤも味も優しげで。