I love to can and bottle food! It makes me happy! (Weird...I know.) There is just something so satisfying about it. One thing I have done every year at the end of "canning season" is bottle some of my dry "food storage" beans in glass jars using my pressure cooker. By doing this activity one day each year, I can just run to the shelf, grab a bottle, open it up, and throw it into any dish, warm and they are ready to go! It's just like using the canned beans from the store. (But helps me use and rotate my food storage) Because I have already rinsed, soaked and pressure cooked, sealed them; they are ready when I am. Before I started doing this yearly, I rarely used my "food storage" beans because by the time I thought about it, it was too late to soak overnight, they took too long to cook and I needed them NOW! So this ritual has really helped me to use those little beaners more often. Yes, it does take some time to prepare and bottle them, but it's just one day and then they are ready for fast dishes for many days in the future. They make chili fast and easy, I add them to soups and my taco/burrito meats for extra texture, fiber and nutrition. They have so many uses. (I even have a special "how to use beans food storage cookbook" so if you want to make everything bean!) You must use a pressure cooker for this job. The recipe/canning instructions I use come from the USU Extension Service Canning Guide see page 4-5/6 for dry beans, here's the link:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE%204%20Home%20Can.pdf
My kids also love baked beans, which I have made and bottled using the baked bean recipe from this guide, also good! (This Guide is my Canning Bible, I printed it off and have it in a 3 ring binder, it's used much!) Beans, beans the magical fruit, makes your....oh never mind. (Sorry! I couldn't resist, saying beans just makes that song come to mind!) Happy Tooting!
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