New Recipe Monday — Refried beans, a makeover

A few weeks ago I was searching for a homemade refried beans recipe that I could make for our family. I came across this recipe and was fairly pleased with the results, while they were missing the fat of traditional refried beans, they also lacked a little flavor for my part.
This last week I made a slightly different recipe that I got from a woman at church. It’s not without the fat, but they were easy to make and have tasted so much better than the first batch. Here is the revised recipe… (unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of measurements because she didn’t give me any and it’s kind of a “taste” thing anyway).
4 cups dry pinto beans, cover with water and soak overnight in crockpot. In the morning…
Make sure beans are still covered with water, just enough to cover…you can add more if needed throughout the day (I didn’t drain mine, but I suppose you could and then add fresh water to cover).
Add some lard (yes lard, I have some on hand as I use it for a few things when I’m baking). I added a square that was equivalent to about 1/2 – 3/4 cup.
I added salt, about 3-4 tablespoons worth. To be honest I didn’t measure it, I made a little pile in my hand about the size of a quarter and dumped 4 of those in.
Then I added some garlic powder, about 1 tablespoon and some onion powder about 1 tablespoon. And cooked on low all day. I used garlic powder because I didn’t have fresh garlic and onion powder because I was in a bit of a hurry that morning and didn’t have time to cut one up.
I stirred the beans every so often and would taste to make sure it tasted okay. I didn’t add anything save for a bit of salt during the day.
When the beans were done, I didn’t drain any of the water because the last batch I made was a little too dry when I froze it. I just mashed up the beans with a hand masher (think old potato masher) until it was the consistency I liked. I like to have some partial beans in my refried beans, so I didn’t mash them in to oblivion.
Overall, I like this recipe so much better! Yes, it has the fat the other recipe was lacking, but it has the flavor too. Much more traditional flavor and you could add less salt although I think it could be a little bland then. This is going to be my “go to” recipe from now on.