Friijole beans (easy ones!)

So, refried beans are a necessary accompaniment to a lot of the eating we do around here.  Sadly, I only recently stopped buying the canned stuff.  In the years that I've been cooking I've never really gotten the recipe down right.  Last Summer a friend of mine made some great cooked beans (not refried) that went really well with the barbecue chicken and rice.  So I took his recipe and changed it a bit and now we eat them all the time.  They fry really well and the recipe is pretty adaptable.  Cooked slowly with garlic, onion, and cilantro (and a bottle of beer) the beans take on a nice rich flavor.  Right before I mash them I add a little butter, cumin, and dried chile powder.  Extra bonus, they freeze really well for future eating.

Ingredients
1 lbs pinto beans
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped cilantro
3+ garlic cloves, minced
1 bottle of beer
freshly ground pepper
2 t. guajillo chile powder

extra possibilities for flavoring: reserved bacon fat, cumin, butter

Rinse beans and sort out for stones or the dried up, cracked beans.  Put in a large soup pot and add onion, cilantro, garlic.  Add pepper and chile powder.  Empty beer into the pot and add about 15 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and then turn heat to low.  Simmer for 3-4 hours (if I'm going to mash them up, I generally let them go about 4 hours). 

(No worries, I still have ones to drink).
When they're soft, stir in a tablespoon of sea salt (at this point I also added a tablespoon of bacon fat). 
To re-fry: Put two cups or so of the beans into a pan with a little liquid.  Mash them with a potato masher over medium heat.  If there's a little excess liquid, just continue to heat until liquid has reduced. 

Another good thing is that you can freeze beans (with a little liquid) for future use.  No more canned beans!

Enjoy!