Similar, except I rarely soak the beans ahead of time. The only thing the soaking process does is make the beans swell which help reduce the cooking time. However, I prefer my beans to "soak up" the flavorings within the crock pot with the other seasonings rather than just water. I just sort the beans out of the bag to make sure there are no "rocks" in them. Throw them into a big strainer and wash them real good, then into the crock pot. Cover with water till about 1-2 inches above the beans.

From here, I make it one of 2 ways.

1) I take some bacon and render it down in a skillet, then remove. Cut up some tomatoes, onions and jalapenos and add them into the bacon drippings and cook it down. Add that to the pot of beans. Now just turn on the crock pot and let her go. Add a little salt, pepper and garlic powder, stir. After a couple of hours, I like to "test" the flavoring in the juice to see if any additional salt and pepper need to be added.

2) If I don't have bacon on hand or want a slightly different taste, I just a smoked ham hock in place of the bacon. I add it to the pot of beans then use the same blend of onions, jalapenos and tomatoes, salt and pepper. After the hock has cooked for for hours, I remove it, let it cool and pick the meat off of it and add the meat back into the pot of beans.

I will sometimes just use add some picante sauce to the beans rather than going through the trouble of cooking up the tomatoes and onions but ALWAYS add either bacon or ham hock.

On some occasions I will add some fresh cilantro at the end of the cooking but it sort of depends on who is over eating with us as I know some folks really don't like the flavor of cilantro.

the beans will speak for themselves.