While it’s been a quiet off-season here on the site, Football Foodie Industries has actually been quite busy lately saving the Pro Bowl, having our heart broken by reckless Pens team, staring at the Pirates standings, testing out recipes for a new project and getting the prep work out of the way for the 2012-2013 football season. And since we’re less than a 100 days away from actual football, I figured it was about time to get everyone thinking about their upcoming tailgates, barbecues, Fourth of July parties, beach cookouts, or even just having some decent snacks for the All-Star Game.

I had so much fun last season with all the submissions for the Super Bowl Guacamole Extravaganza, before it was even over I knew wanted to put out another call for recipes again this year.

This time, the recipes amount to a hill of beans.

I myself love making Cuban-style black beans since they’re easy and delicious, but I also make decent smoky pinto beans in the slow-cooker and a pretty mean red beans and rice, but I am sure there are better recipes out there because most bean aficionados have very strong opinions on what they do with their legumes. Do you start with canned beans or dried beans? Put a couple of ham hocks in your beans? Some seared tri-tip? No meat or fat at all? Vegetable stock? Chicken stock? Barbecue sauce? Bay leaf? Cinnamon? Liquid smoke? Cumin? Crushed red pepper? Cayenne? Absolutely everything in your spice cabinet including the almond extract mostly because you feel like you need to use up that bottle of almond extract?

Do you use a slow-cooker or a big dutch oven over the grill? Stockpot? Do you cook your beans one day and then reheat them the next day for maximum taste? Tell us how you make your beans!

Just like the last call for recipes, be sure to include the reasons why you love your beans. If it is an adaption of another recipe, be sure to include a link or a reference. Do you also have a sports or food blog? Feel free to post your recipe over there and send me a link, and I’ll include those recipes too.

Email your favorite bean recipe to sarah@sarahsprague.com and over the next couple of months I’ll make a batch of each submission to post when we get closer to the football season kickoff.

We have all summer, so let’s say the deadline for recipes is oh, August 16. Not that you should wait that long if you have a recipe now, but if say some new person stumbles on this post in late-July and they have the most amazing bean concoction ever, they shouldn’t be left out.

Questions? Concerns? As always, feel free leave them in the comments.

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2 Responses to Football Foodie minicamp call for recipes: Let’s see your beans!

  1. daktx2 says:

    Gallo Pinto is where it’s at. It’s a Costa Rican version of Black Beans and rice with diced peppers, onion, garlic, and most importantly, Lizano Sauce (most delicious condiment ever). I pretty much follow the recipe on the bottle except for using bacon grease instead of vegetable oil.

    • sarah sprague says:

      Thanks for the tip! Just looked both the dish and the sauce up and it looks great. If you get a chance, let me know if you use the exact same amount of bacon grease as vegetable oil. Email me any other changes you make with your Gallo Pinto! Interested to know more about it.

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