It’s always a little scary to try a product like [Rancho Gordo](http://www.ranchogordo.com/) beans. Rancho Gordo (which is Spanish for “fat farm”) is in Napa Valley, and proprietor Steve Sando grows a stunning variety of beans, as well as some chiles and corn. My mom brought me back a pound of Gordo’s Red Nightfall beans from San Francisco, and I cooked them today.

It’s scary to try something like the Gordo beans not because they might be bad, but because they might be good. Probably I would have been better off never having tasted a Pralus chocolate bar, because they really are better than my usual Valrhona bars, and they’re three times the price.

Maybe this could be a diet strategy, though. If there’s something you feel you eat too much of, find a rare and exorbitantly priced gourmet version of it to put you off the regular stuff.

Anyway, the Gordo beans were delicious, and I look forward to ordering more. Red Nightfalls are a small, beautifully speckled bean, and when you cook them they turn the beans and sauce brick red. Laurie thought I’d put tomatoes in, but there were none, just mirepoix and beans. We ate them with pork chops. Iris wasn’t eating her bites of pork, so I offered her a bite of mine. She ate it and said, “Iris would like some more Dada’s pork chop.” I pointed out that she had some on her plate, and she made a face like, “I knew that,” and gobbled it.

Some of the leftover beans are going to turn into refried beans. I’ve never actually made homemade refried beans that I thought were any better than canned, but I have a feeling that this time might be the charm.