Southern Baked Beans

I made these last night. And they were good! Nice and tangy and garlicky and sweet and all kinds of other flavors. Sean really really liked them. I'm learning that he tends to like a sweeter dish compared to me, who really doesn't like a lot of sweetness in my food. Guess I'll have to keep that in mind.

Anyway it wound up being a lot of beans (duh), much more than I assumed from looking at the cans. Oh well, they'll be gone by the end of the weekend. I had more for lunch today.

Let's MAKE US SOME BEANS, Y'ALL. Or something.

Here's what you'll need! Beans (notes on beans lower in post), garlic, celery, onion(if so inclined), green pepper, ketchup, bbq sauce, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, and sriracha. Oh and olive oil.

Dice up your veggies nice and small.

Then saute them in the olive oil until nice and soft.

Pour your beans into a big bowl. Look, bacon! Yay bacon!

Then add all your other ingredients, including the softened veggies. Pour into a casserole dish.

Bake for an hour at 350 degrees. At about the half hour mark, I tossed some hot dogs into the beans to finish cooking them. When it was over, I decided I wanted to give them a bit of time to bubble without a lid, so I put them in for another 15 minutes.

BEANS. And hot dogs! Num.

Now, a note on the beans. Sheri (who's blog I got the recipe from) said that she's made them with canned pork and beans and dry beans. The recipe calls for dry beans but if you use canned beans, make sure you use 2 28oz cans and omit the crushed tomatoes and bay leaf. Well you could probably put the bay leaf in if you really wanted to.

Southern Baked Beans (original recipe here)

• 1 pound dried small white beans.  I used Great Northern Beans
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped small
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped small
• 1 large stalk of celery, chopped small
• 4-6 large cloves of garlic, well chopped
• 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
• about 1/2 cup ketchup
• about 1/2 cup good barbecue sauce
• 2 heaping Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 squirt of sriracha, to your taste

Sort through the dried beans and discard bad ones or any dirt.  Rinse well and cover with cold water.   Let sit over-night.  When ready to cook, add the bay leaf and make sure the beans are covered with enough water.  Bring the beans to a boil and then lower the heat and cook, slightly covered, on top of the stove until tender, but not mushy.  Add more water if necessary as they cook.

While beans are cooking, saute the onions, bell pepper, garlic, and celery until soft, then set aside.  When the beans are done, drain off the liquid and retain it.  Add the onion mixture, the crushed tomatoes, and the rest of the ingredients.  Stir the beans and taste them to see if you need more ketchup, mustard and so forth (I always do).  Add bean broth, if necessary, to have the liquid just cover the beans.  Cover the pot with a well fitting lid, and bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.
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Beans. There isn't much more to say than that. EET BEENZ PLEESE.

Speaking of beans, I saw some nice ones at the store yesterday. There might be fresh green beans in the future. Maybe.