I'll never be as good a cook as my mother-in-law, but here's me trying.

Since I married a Hispanic guy, I realized that I would have a lot to live up to, food-wise (his mom is an awesome cook).   My first foray into Mexican cooking was charro beans, or cowboy beans to you whiteys. Traditionally they're just pinto beans stewed all day with onions, garlic, and bacon, but you can throw other meats or flavors in if you want, like jalapeno, cilantro, chorizo, etc.  I'm not very adventurous so I tend to stick with the usual recipe and maybe throw some cilantro or something on at the very end.  

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients
1/2 bag dry pinto beans (you can do it with a full bag, but my crock pot isn't that big.)
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb bacon, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 lb other meat such as ham, chorizo, etc.  (optional)
3-5 jalapenos (optional

Directions
1) You need to soak the dry beans, otherwise they can be kind of gross.  Soaking them will get rid of any weird dirt or dust and make the cooking easier.  You can do this either by throwing them in about 8 cups of cold water the night before and letting them soak overnight.  The other way is to pour 8 cups of hot water over them and bring to a boil for about 2 minutes, then take them off the heat and allow them to sit for an hour or so.  Either way works just fine.  After soaking, they should get a little bigger and the skins peel off easily, and the water will be kind of a gross brown color.  Drain and rinse REALLY WELL, then throw in your crock pot.

2) Brown bacon pieces in a skillet.  I like to use the big packages of bacon ends and pieces (just the odd bits left over from cutting the slices) because it's super cheap and you get nice meaty pieces.  You do have to pick through it sometimes to get the less fatty bits.  You want to have a nice mixture of about 1/4 fatty pieces and 3/4 lean.  Remove bacon into crock pot but leave about 1-2 tbsp of the grease in the pan.

3) Turn heat to med-low and throw in onion and garlic.  You want to soften them just a bit and bring out the flavors, getting the garlic all nice and toasty.  You can skip this step if you want, and throw the onions and garlic in as is, but I like to do it this way because it adds a little more flavor. Throw these in the crock pot with everything else.  If you want to add cilantro or jalapenos, throw them in at this point.

4) When everything is in the crock pot, pour in water until all the solid material is covered by about an inch or so.  You may have to add water if you get a lot of evaporation or if the beans absorb a lot of the water.  For fast cooking turn to high for about six to eight hours; for slower (and slightly better tasting) cooking, put on low for about 10 hours.  If you're doing fast cooking but not eating for a while, turn crock pot to low and simmer as long as you need.  The longer the better, really, because as the starch leaks out of the beans they'll create a really nice sauce.

That's it!  I love these beans plain, or rolled in a burrito with some rice and cheese, or as a side.

Enjoy!