Let's talk about beans. Ham & beans, Boston baked beans, red beans & rice, refried beans. Beans go in chili, soups, and salads and are turned into many other dishes such as bean dip and pork & beans. Dry beans are nutritious, delicious and best of all easy.

There are a lot of varieties to choose from too. Dry limas, pintos, red kidney, navy, great northern, black 'turtle', and garbanzos or chick peas to name a few. Surprisingly, most dry beans can be substituted for each other in recipes. If you have a really good recipe for black bean soup, try it with navy beans or limas next time. Or throw them all together and call it '15 Bean Soup.' Not an original idea, but nonetheless delicious.

Unfortunately many people avoid dry beans because of the 'flatulence factor'. Remember that the more often you eat beans the more your system becomes adjusted to the regular supply of indigestible carbohydrates. Therefore, the more you eat beans the less the 'flatulence factor'. Some people use different techniques or added ingredients to help limit the problem.

Some of these methods:

• Soak and rinse well.

• Add epazote (a Mexican herb)

• Sprout the beans

• Freezing the beans before cooking

• Freezing the beans after cooking.

I am sure there are more theories out there. By the way, I have found that pre-soaking to shorten the cooking time is unnecessary. It may take an extra 15 minutes to cook but when you are talking about hours of total cook time the extra isn't much and the beans seem to stay intact better too. For me the beans usually split open during the long soaking period. Try it and see.

Now, let's get to the recipes. The following text is from a small booklet of recipes called Congressional Cook Book. I believe it was put together as a give away by the members of Congress. My guess is it was done in the fifties or early sixties. The second recipe is Boston baked beans 'as done by me.' They are amazingly tasty. Try them at least once.

Bean Soup has been a featured item on the menu of the House of Representatives Restaurant since long before that day in 1904 when the then Speaker of the House, Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, came into the House Restaurant and ordered Bean Soup.

Then, as now, Bean Soup was a hearty, zesty, and filling dish; but it was typically hot and humid in Washington that day, and, therefore, Bean Soup had been omitted from the menu.

"Thunderation," roared Speaker Cannon, "I had my mouth set for Bean Soup"; and, he continued, "from now on, hot or cold, rain, snow, or shine, I want it on the menu every day."

Here is the recipe for this famous soup, just as it has always been made (adapted to family-sized quantity) in the House Restaurant kitchen in the Capitol:

Cover with cold water and soak overnight. Drain and re-cover with water. Add a smoked ham hock and simmer slowly for about 4 hours until beans are cooked tender. Then add salt and pepper to suite taste. Just before serving, bruise beans with large spoon or ladle, enough to cloud.

Place beans in large saucepan with water to cover by 2 inches; heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer and cook, covered, until almost done, 1 to 2 hours. Drain beans and reserve liquid. Place beans in a bean pot or 3-quart casserole. Measure 1 cup of bean broth and stir it into the remaining ingredients. Pour mixture over the beans and add just enough bean broth to be able to stir. Mix gently to keep the beans whole. Cover and bake at 300º for 1 hour; uncover and bake until desired thickness, about 2 hours, stirring every hour.