Refried kidney beans

Needed to use up some slow cooker salsa, pork tenderloin and pinto beans the other night, and wanted to make sort of a homemade version of the now-extinct Taco Bell Enchirito (yes, theirs used ground beef), but then realized we didn't have any refried beans in the pantry. How did that happen!?!? We had plenty of kidney beans, but I wasn't looking to make chili.  Did a quick search, and this was the first recipe I came across, and it looked good...works for me for a starting point!

I finely chopped a tiny onion and got it going wit some olive oil, then when it was all translucent I added a few minced cloves of garlic, a tiny jalapeno I'd minced, and some salt and pepper.

Gave that a few minutes, then blopped in a tiny bit of chicken stock paste, stirred that in, then added a can each of light and dark kidney beans, half a cup of water, and cranked the heat up for a few minutes before dialing it down to a simmer.

After about 10-12 minutes the beans were more tender, so I started crushing them with a potato masher.  Ummm....sure, the pic's out of focus, but that's not looking real desirable to me.

Brought out the immersion blender, and that made pretty fast work of all those skins.  I'm thinking maybe I should've simmered them even longer since the skins were a bit tough.  We like our refried beans a bit more creamy, so following what I've seen Brett do plenty of times with a can of fat free beans, I stirred in a pat of butter.  For a little extra flavor, I tossed in a pinch each of chile powder and cumin.

These tasted really good!  They're not the same as your standard issue refried beans, but they sure worked out well.  Brett felt they tasted a bit Italian with the garlic, onion and spices (odd...there's nothing especially Italian about what I added).  You could JUST get a hit of spice from the jalapeno...  The beans worked really well with the "enchiritos" I made.  I heated medium (10"?  12"?) flour tortillas over the gas stove flame briefly for softness and added flavor, smeared some beans in a stripe down the middle, the tiny bit of leftover slow cooker pork, a small bit of steamed white rice leftover from Chinese carry out, and a slice of Colby Jack deli cheese.  Rolled 'em all up, put in small casserole dishes, covered with some canned medium heat enchilada sauce, and sprinkled on our last bit of Mexican blend cheese.  Covered with foil so they wouldn't dry out, they warmed up nicely and the cheese was perfectly melted after about 20 min in the 350 oven!

Yum!