To just cook plain beans, you can pick through and clean them. Then rinse them. Put them in the crock pot covered with water and leave them to simmer all day.
Once they are cooked, you can freeze them in whatever size container you are most likely to use. You can do that with any type of bean...
Yes, I make chili with dried beans.
I use pinto beans, but I've seen chili made with black beans. Pintos are the usual beans to make chili with, if you are going to use beans. There is some argument that beans don't belong in chili, but I like them.
I pick though the dry beans, clean them...