Fall River, Massachusetts

Today is the 4th of July and I tried these beans. From now on, it'll become annual fireworks fare for us. Not that the beans are firecracker hot. They're just so good! To the pound of soaked-overnight beans, I added 32 ounces of water and 2 tsp. of Beef flavor Better Than Bouillon (comes in a jar) and 2 tsp. of Chicken flavor Better Than Bouillon. Also used extra cumin and garlic, an extra onion, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. The beans were perfect after 5 or 6 hours in the crockpot. At the end of cooking time, I was going to add a can of diced tomatoes and chili powder, as suggested by other reviewers, along with the green salsa. But after one big taste of the beans, I couldn't take time out to finish those steps. The beans are absolutely delish, and no salt was necessary after adding the Bouillon. My husband and I had some for a mid-afternoon snack, and now I have more beans soaking for tomorrow. BTW, I did add 2-3 slices of bacon to the beans while cooking. Okay, so I didn't follow the recipe 100 percent, but this one is a keeper.

I have been on the hunt for passion fruit after seeing this recipe, because I want to impress my friend from Brazil who is coming for dinner tonight. (I've dipped a pinky into the refrigerated finished product a couple of times, and already, after chilling for only an hour, it's an out-of-this-world dessert!!) Did not change a thing, except that I added half a pkg of gelatin, as one reviewer suggested. The mousse is of perfect consistency, but I also whipped the cream for a long time, as someone else mentioned. I feel that the 1 TBS of sugar is perfect too, because I used only fresh fruit (not frozen concentrate). Later, I will transfer the mousse to individual dessert cups and garnish with fresh mint from the garden. Now for the best part -- I spent half of today combing my city for passion fruit pulp, passion fruit frozen juice, passion fruit anything, to no avail. I finally found the fruit itself at a high-end grocery store and purchased 8 of them for $12. Pricey, and will need to locate more economical sources. The 8 fruits equalled almost 1/2 cup of juice. I had some fresh mangos on hand, so squeezed part of one mango to make a tad over 1/2 cup of juice. I will try other juices in the future as well, to experiment. BTW, the main dish will be Picadinho'A Brasiliera, a rather rich Brazilian meat dish, so this light and fluffy mousse will be perfect! Thank you VALERIEKOOKA !!!

these are a little strange... but good.. but strange. i wasn't sure what to eat them with. i decided in the end that they might do well as crepes filled with marscapone/cinnamon/sugar mixture... we'll see :)