You Don't Know Beans

Baked beans were always the only fashionable meal for Sabbath noon in Massachusetts. A minister who is a very correct mathematician, and a bit of a wag withal, has computed that he preached regularly every Sabbath afternoon to fifty-five bushels and three pecks of baked beans, while their owners were asleep. –From a nineteenth century magazine as quoted at The Old Foodie

During the last few days before school began, I went to two different barbecues. I've now eaten my quota of hot dogs for 2013 and got to make my two favorite pot luck dishes. I took potato salad to one barbecue and my favorite baked beans to the other. These are the best baked beans you'll ever have. My aunt brought them to family gatherings and I loved them so much that when my mom planned out a little family lunch after I got home from my mission in Brasil, she asked her sister {the aforementioned aunt} to bring her baked beans. But after eating beans and rice every. single. day. for 16 months, I couldn't look another bean in the eye. Not even the best baked beans ever. It actually took a full year for me to like beans again.

While I was cooking up a big dish of beans for the barbecue {a double recipe}, I snapped a picture of some in a dainty little china dish I inherited from a neighbor to entice you to try this tasty dish. Trust me. You don't know beans until you try these beans.

Linda's Most Excellent Baked Beans

8 strips bacon
3 cans {15 oz. each} pork 'n beans — about 5 cups
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon mustard
½ cup onion, finely chopped
½ of a green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
½ teaspoon hickory flavored liquid smoke
¼ teaspoon pepper

• Cook and crumble bacon.
• Combine pork 'n beans, ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, onion, bell pepper, liquid smoke and pepper in a 2-quart casserole dish.
• For quick beans, cover and bake for 30 minutes; remove cover, stir and bake for an additional 30 minutes at 350˚.
• For slow cooked beans, cover and bake for 2 to 3 hours at 225˚, stirring every 30 to 45 minutes. Raise oven temperature to 350˚, uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes.