Attempting "bulk" cooking

Last night, I put two cups of sunflower seeds in water to soak. And I covered black beans with water in the jar they were in.

This morning, I strained the sunflower seeds and roasted them. I completely forgot about them while I was eating breakfast. So I didn't shake the pan or stir the seeds at all. Mick says they are totally overcooked. Again. Grr. He didn't like them last time because, besides being overcooked, I had used a recipe that said oil and season, and he didn't like how that turned out. So I "dry roasted" them today and he thought they should be seasoned. Sigh.

courtesy Buddy the Elf via FB

After the overnight soak, I read the recipe I wanted to follow for the beans and realized that the author said you should throw out any beans over a year old. Hmm. I'm sure these are, but I already soaked them, so I sorted them, tossing out the cracked beans and keeping the good looking ones. Then I put them in the crockpot with a container of vegetable broth, a cup and a half of water, 2 tablespoons of dried cilantro and a tablespoon of garlic. I set it to low and left it. My plan is to use part for soup and part for refried beans. I'm trying to figure out what Chino Bandido does or adds to their black beans--they are the best EVER.

Mick is smoking a couple pork butts so he can take at least one for his hunting trip. It involves a lot of steps over a few days. The first day, he trims it, rubs with mustard, then seasons it with a rub we put together. He wraps them and the next day, unwraps and gets them in the Green Egg smoker. When they come off (nearly a day later) he wraps them for an hour or two. Then they get shredded and stored for eating. Yummo.

Update: the prevailing opinion is that the sunflower seeds are terrible because they are too small. I don't really know what to do about that. I guess we're growing them for the birds.