Black beans are a daily staple in south and central Mexico. They're also really good cooked this way. If you got beans & rice, you don't even need meat for tacos. Plus you can freeze leftovers easily.

If you rinse 'em in a colander before they go into the slow cooker, they won't stick together.

Put 'em in on any setting, really, 4 hours or ten doesn't matter much. Add enough water to cover 'em by a few inches. You don't hafta measure 'cuz you're gonna drain 'em later.

This is a piece of fatback I had in the freezer that I'm reusing from the last time I made beans. Whether salt pork, fatback, leftover bacon fat, whatever, good beans require pork fat and salt!

This is epazote. It's a traditional Mexican herb that adds a totally distinctive flavor to beans. Use a nice big handful.

Then all you need is one chopped onion in there and you're good to go. Garlic not required this time!

I kinda went crazy with the meats, but this will be a good example for you of the kind of variety you can get. Here's a great Guatemalan chorizo in handy taco-size links.

This is a more traditional Mexican chorizo. This'll have a big flavor and brick red color.

This is a store-made fresh chorizo with chicken, which is gonna be drier but with a firmer texture.

Longaniza is another traditional Mexican sausage (also made by Filipinos) which comes in a long coil. It's got a totally different flavor than chorizo.

Now you're making the rice. This is a technique you might not be familiar with. You're gonna use a wok to fry it so the grains stay separate and it's got a cool nutty taste.

Put some peanut oil in your wok over medium high and add a cup and a half of medium or long grain white rice. Goya is a good brand for this. Stir fry it while it changes color.

See that nice color? That's done.

Preheat the oven to 350, put the rice in a casserole dish and add about a cup and a quarter of any old salsa. You can use the dregs of open bottles you have in your fridge, and it'll still be good.

Stir well to mix, cover and bake for about a half hour or until it's the right consistency for you. When you take it out, fluff it up so it doesn't get sticky. Then let it sit with the cover on.

So now you got beans and rice and you got sausage. Let's make the fixins!

Fresh corn tortillas! The tortilleria I use sells 'em by the pound in butcher paper. Find a place that makes them daily and you'll be glad you did.

Invest in one of these at your local Bed Bath & Beyond. It'll keep your tortillas from going stale for several days.

Just wrap 'em in paper towels and you can reheat however many you need each time.

Crema is a very liquid type of sour cream used in Latin cooking. I suggest keeping it in a condiment squeeze bottle in your fridge.

Queso fresco, which is a soft fresh cheese, and queso seco, a hard aged cheese, are both traditional Mexican cheeses good for crumbling on these tacos. Both are salty so a little goes a long way.

Make up a fixins plate with the cheeses plus some onion, lettuce and tomato, an avocado, and lime wedges.

Plate up your fillings and bring 'em to the table.

And there's the payoff! You got warm tortillas, beans and rice, sausage, fixins, cheeses, crema, and hot sauce! Crack a few beers with your sweetie (or grab a good book) and dig in.