I Make Baked Beans!

New Years day was when we were finally able to nail down our son and his family for a Christmas and so I asked what he'd like to have me cook.


One of those requests was baked beans.


Now, each and every one of us cooks have dishes that we kind of hold and call our own and one of mine is beans. Dark and fruity, fresh from the oven with both flavors of savory and sweet and comforting? Wow!  In my mind a true farm meal would always include baked beans and I am sharing my thoughts and one of my productions.


Of course in my kitchen, nothing stays the same and my dishes all have to do with what's in my cupboards and what I actually remember to buy, so this is once again a guideline recipe.


Here's most of my ingredients

3/4 cup spanish onion

2tblsp of butter.

Chop up the onion and carmelize it in the butter. (I just think it adds so much more flavor!)

In a large ovenproof dish ad:

-A  48 oz can of baked beans. (Just use the one in tomato sauce. I just can't abide the whole soaking and simmering process to use dry beans.)

- 2 tblsp of finely chopped pepper. (I had red in the frig. You could use a hot one too.)
-1/4 cup soy sauce.
-1/8 cup of cider vinegar.
-2 tblsp balsamic vinegar.
-1/2 tsp garlic salt
-1/2 tsp paprika
-1/4 tsp dry mustard. (You can use wet instead.)
-1/2 cup ketchup, (When substituting here, remember that your canned beans already have tomato in it. Also cloves, nutmeg, etc. in the ketchup)
-3/4 cup brown sugar. (To balance the vinegar.)
-The Onions that you've just fried up.
Some pepper. I don't add salt because of the salty Soy Sauce.


Today, I had made an apple pie and had some apple slices that wouldn't fit in.

So I chopped them finely and added those too.

We still need some fat. I suppose if you're a veggie person, you could leave out the fatty meat, but I like bacon in my beans. I however forgot to buy bacon yesterday and so this batch of beans doesn't have any in it. So! I put another 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter in the pot.

Stir it all up and...

Put the pot uncovered in your 250 degree oven for up to six hours.

This batch seemed runny after 3 so I jacked the temperature up to 350 for an hour and then it was suppertime. Oh well! They could have used another hour or two!

The family still almost cleaned them totally up though! (Mommas cookin' is always the best, isn't it?)

 

Let someone experience an old fashioned home and hearth the next time you make beans and always remember that the old recipes were just always whatever a person had on hand!