I do a mix of the gumbopages.com recipe and paul prudhomme. I generally do it once a week.

2 Bell peppers 1 large onion chopped 7-8 celery stalks chopped 6-8 garlic cloves minced 1.5-2 lbs kidney beans fat for sauteing (doesn't matter, honestly)

7 bay leaves 3 Tbsps Paprika (I mix sweet and smoked) 1 Tbsp Thyme (dried) 1 Tbsp Oregano (dried) 1 Tbsp Basil (dried) 1 Tbsp White pepper 1 Tsp black pepper 0-1 Tsp Cayenne pepper (your preference) 1 lb sausage, andouille or kielbasa, sliced on bias 1 lb smoked ham hocks (boneless are available at my HEB and are great)

Quality spices make the difference, in my opinion. Dried minced garlic and garlic powder is an abomination, also IMO. If you have a local penzey's I highly recommend stocking up on spices for this dish from there.

Ok, so soak the kidney beans minimum of 6 hours. Drain, rinse.

Hopefully you have a big dutch oven for this, if not, that's alright. Sautee onion and celery in fat (olive oil, butter, vegetable oil, bacon fat, whatever), once onions are clear and starting to brown, add bell peppers for a few minutes, then add garlic for a bit less than a minute.

combine beans, hocks and spices to the dutch oven(and sausage if you want, or you can wait till later), bring to boil, reduce heat.

Now here is where I like to put the dutch oven in the oven (350F). The benefit is that the beans don't scorch because you aren't heating with direct fire from the stove, and you don't get nearly as much boil off because with the dutch oven in the oven you are leaving the lid on. So it's mostly a hands off affair for the next 3 hours that it's cooking. If you need to use the stovetop, though, stir often to keep the beans off the bottom of the pot so they don't scorch. If they do stick to the bottom and are scorching, don't scrape, leave them be. They'll taste bad, best not to mix them in with the good beans.

At the end of 3 hours, add the sausage if you haven't already, and add 1-2 tsp of table salt, or 1-2 Tbsp of kosher salt. Taste before adding more, of course.

serve over whatever rice you prefer in whatever proportion. White basmati is my favorite in a ratio of about 1 part rice to 2 parts beans.

This dish is great because it can be a meat eater's delight or you can leave out all the meat and it's just as fabulous completely vegetarian/vegan.