What do we do with beans?

Ok, so I canned the beans.  I bought the pintos and then went home and found some red kidney beans and some white navy beans too.  All together I had over 5 lbs. of dried beans.  I dumped them all in my tupperware fix and mix bowl and covered them with water to soak overnight.  They reminded me of river rocks when they got wet.  It brought out the colors I guess.  Olivia called them fish and snakes.  Hmm.

After they were canned they certainly lost their pretty.   They've turned kind of mushy.  But I know what's in 'em!

This morning I took my last chicken out of the freezer. I put water, three big smashed garlics, some peppercorns, some salt, and a bunch of dried parsley in my biggest kettle.  And then the chicken.  I put  a heavy lid on it and put it on the stove with very low heat under it. 

Awhile ago, on a cooking show, I saw somebody blanching a whole chicken.  They stuffed a whole bunch of fresh herbs under the skin of the breast, sewed it shut, covered the whole thing with water, put a towel on the surface of the water, and cooked it with low heat - just below the boiling point.  The idea was to make the meat very juicy and infuse it with the flavor of the herbs.  Last summer I was getting leeks, onions, carrots, celery, whatever I could find out in the garden and putting it in with the chicken like this.  I think the meat is good, but the resulting stock is wonderful.  Especially if the chicken still has its skin.  I'm not afraid of a little natural occurring animal fat. 

So when I get home tonight I am planning to make Southwest White Chili.  But mine won't be so white because I will use pinto beans, instead of navy beans.  The recipe:

 olive oil
chicken
onion
chicken broth
chopped green chiles
beans
chopped tomatoes
green onions
garlic
cumin
oregano
cilantro
red pepper

The recipe I go by does have measurements, but I don't necessarily use them.  It also calls for dried stuff.  I'm not too snobby about dried stuff unless I have access to the real thing.  Which brings up another subject: garlic.

So many recipes start with a "holy trinity".  That is, say, olive oil, garlic, and an herb, or onion.  Most cooks have their pet trinity. I usually do the classic oil and garlic, at least.  But I recently read that garlic looses most of its health benefits through heat and that its benefits are "activated" by air. So now I'm experimenting with either waiting to add the garlic until almost last, or else using it twice - in my trinity and at the last, after it's been sliced on the cutting board for a few minutes.

And the cilantro.  You can freeze it.  Straight from the garden.  In plastic freezer bags.  A bunch per bag.  It's kind of gross when you take it out of the freezer.  Mushy.  But the flavor is better than dried and cheaper than the grocery store.  But I'd improve on this if I knew how.  Any ideas?