I can't seem to make black beans.
I burn them. Or they're too tough. Or they smell funny or taste gross and then I throw the whole thing away, cursing and muttering.
As much as I want to make them - cheap! healthy! meatless! child likes them! - I have no luck. I should really call Lynn Rossetto Kasper about this and I'm gonna one day. For serious.
Meanwhile, I had to clean out my lovely Dru Holland cookpot ($7 at St. Vincent de Paul's, natch!), which was full of some foul-smelling, encrusted em effers.
Figure 1: Scene of the bean crime.
So, to paraphrase Ann Wilson of the perennially-underrated band, Heart:
Who do I run to when it all falls down?
White vinegar. This shiz is so awesome and so cheap. It cleans toilets and removes odors. Dump some in yer potty overnight and then scrub in the AM - so beautiful you'll cry!
It's almost too good to be true - I worry about Dateline doing some horrible expose which reveals that white vinegar is actually made by wringing the bodies of baby seals or something horrid like that.
I keep jugs of white vinegar under the bathroom and kitchen sinks. Then it's handy whether you need it for cooking or cleaning up.
You can also spray a mixture of water and white vinegar on vegetables and fruits to clean them before eating.
Didja know that May is National Vinegar Month? Dork it up with me on vinegar trivia and uses at The Vinegar Institute!
Comments