Beans!

[pluckyduck]

I am big on the beans, big on the beans. Good, inexpensive and really good for you.

It's taken awhile to work them into the family's palate. We started out with baked beans being okay and everything else being highly suspicious. I don't cook the everyday dinners, so it's been maybe two years of cooking on the weekends when I had time, to get the point where there are requested bean dishes.

I'm making my version of Calico Beans today and I thought I'd share. If you have good bean recipes, please post them.

Calico Beans aren't the healthiest bean recipe I have. (I have a Lentil Soup to die for, I'll post that later, that is also very healthy. And mmm, Minestrone with lots of beans. Also Black Bean Soup!) Anyway, I have a tough, critical crowd, believe me , so if all three of them ask "when are you making that big bean thing again?", it's a winner.

The Calico Beans depend on bacon, and I use the real thing, not a healthified version of it. Still, it's good beanage and makes an excellent, male appetite filling entree with lots of leftovers.

Original recipe from Recipezaar and then what I change at the bottom.

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Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 6 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can pork and beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can butter beans

Directions

1. Fry bacon until crisp.
2. Drain.
3. Fry ground beef in fat until tender.
4. Combine onion, ketchup, salt, mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, and partly drain beans in a 3 quart oven container.
5. Mix well.
6. Add hamburger and crumbled bacon.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

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I've made it both with and without the hamburger. Without the hamburger, I double the bacon. Depends on what I have.

I use Busch's Vegetarian Baked Beans... I don't know why with all of that bacon I feel compelled to pick the veggie baked beans.

Instead of butter beans, I've ended up using what I have on always have on hand, white cannellini beans. The dish looks gorgeous, white beans, red beans & brown beans. Really beautiful.

Also, I don't know how your cans of beans measure, but mine never come out to match the 15 ounces called for, so I just dump them in and adjust. This kind of recipe is very forgiving.

Enjoy! This is great barbecue cook out food! (I'm making it either today or tomorrow so I'll try to take a picture and post it.)

Bring on your beans, please. I'd like the family to eat them at twice a week.

(Also, I make these half the time in a crockpot, unless I'm pressed for time and then I'll use the oven. You know, just dump everything in and *crockpot* it. Yum.)

[mtomm[$]]

Hamburger cooked in bacon grease is yummo!

[pluckyduck]

mtomm said

Hamburger cooked in bacon grease is yummo!

It's so decadent.



(DH came back with some healthier Wegmans bacon this morning. Not cured? check this out:







Wegmans Food You Feel Good About Uncured Bacon

Applewood smoked. Great-smokey sweet taste. Gluten free. Lactose free. No nitrites or nitrates added (except for naturally occurring nitrates found in celery juice.). Not preserved. The true taste of bacon. Our Food You Feel Good About yellow banner is your shortcut to great-tasting foods with no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or trans fats. This bacon also has no added nitrites, no antibiotics and 38% less sodium (than Wegmans regular thick sliced bacon). Just natural, uncured bacon cut into thick slices and smoked with applewood. We're proud of this product and we hope you'll agree. Remember, your satisfaction is always guaranteed with Wegmans brand products. The Wegmans Family. US Inspected and passed by Department of Agriculture.
Ingredients:

Pork, Brown Sugar, Celery Juice Concentrate, Salt, Sodium Lactate (from Corn Source), and Lactic Acid Starter Culture.

So, maybe my kharmic guilt o meter will even out on this? Or not?

Anybody ever heard of uncured "real" bacon? I never had until this morning. We'll see how *that* turns out. )

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Yup. Uncured bacon and ham are full of awesomeness.

[mtbat]

I don't think I've ever had uncured bacon or ham... sounds yummy.

[pluckyduck]

mjfrombuffalo said

Yup. Uncured bacon and ham are full of awesomeness.

Yay! I feel better already. Full of awesomeness is just what I need today.

[mtomm[$]]

Side pork. Gah!

I must part ways with this.

[pluckyduck]

mtomm said

Side pork. Gah!

I must part ways with this.

Oh dear. I didn't think about the lovely creature in the tutu. I'll whisper this part:

The Wegman's bacon was awesome. Just awesome. I don't think I can ever eat another kind again.

[conradd]

Here's a good recipe for a white bean soup/stew (depending on how much stock you use):

4 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 quarts chicken stock (I use Knorr chicken boullion)
2 cups cannelli beans (can use navy beans if that's what you have - white beans work best here for some reason)
1 can italian tomatoes
A pinch of oregano
Salt and pepper
freshly grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top

Soak beans overnight in water to cover - change water several times. Drain before adding to soup. (If you don't want to start with dry beans, use 2 cans of white beans).

Fry bacon until crisp and without draining, add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until soft but not browned. till translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer till beans are tender. Add more chicken stock as necessary to get the consistency you want. I've also added skinless boneless chicken tenders during the simmering phase with good results.

Serve with grated parmesan and JP's recipe for no-knead bread.

[Helen_B[$]]

I have to add my receipe for baked beans for pot lucks here. Everyone loves it, and it looks like real baked beans from scratch.

Sneaky Baked Beans

1 #10 can beans in tomato sauce (the big can like they use in restaurants)
Brown sugar-maybe a tablespoon or two?
Brown mustard-good sized blob. I like deli style mustard, too, and yellow is ok.
Catsup-not too much, don't make it soupy.
1 chopped cooking onion
Saute the onion in a big pot with a little oil, mix in all the other ingredients, and heat. (Don't make it too hot, because it's going in your crock pot, and you don't want to crack it.) Dump everything into your crock pot on low, and leave it for a while, maybe overnight. If you start it first thing in the morning and preheat the ingredients, it should be ready for lunch. In that case, you might want to put the crock pot on high. If you don't want to dirty a stew pot, saute the onions in a small pan and dump them into the crock pot with everything else. Just allow more time for the beans to cook until they look like baked beans. (Don't just put in raw onions, eeeeew!)