My name is Zoe, and I’m roommate number 3 to post. The challenge is to keep us all straight! But even if you can’t, you’ll read some great recipes. I grew up in a mostly Greek family in Washington D.C., with parents who both worked a lot and cooked a lot. That’s pretty descriptive of my cooking style now, I think. Feeding the people around my apartment is important to me, as are big pots of things that get better as leftovers. Here’s one now.
The weekend-long sugar high is wearing off, and this week, I’m keeping my distance from the oven. I want savory food, filling, but food that has some complexity of flavor. Lucky for me, this recipe is also uniquely comforting: I’ve known how to spot the tell-tale bean soak that precedes this recipe since I could see above a counter top.
We aren’t cuban, but as far as I’m concerned, these are my mother’s black beans. She makes big batches on a rainy weekend and we would eat them with rice and salad once a week for a few weeks afterwards. When I started cooking for myself a few years ago, this was the very first recipe she sent me. Now that I’m thinking about it … I’d love to know where she got the recipe to begin with. Last week, all four of the roommates were still home for the holidays so I made myself a big batch. I was in New York studying for my last big project of college feeling a little lonely. The beans in my fridge attracted several friends for dinner and accompanied me around the city packed as lunch for days. I love the vinegar and sugar and the infusion of green peppers.
The Cooks and the Curious 
