Boston Baked Beans

 

Ingredients: two pounds of dried northern beans, 14 cups water, 1 large onion diced (I would have used two onions but I only had one), 4 vegie brats diced, 1/3 cup molasses, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 10 second squirt of ketchup, 1 10 second squirt of mustard, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tsp. turmeric.

Method: Rinse the beans thoroughly. Put the beans in your largest oven safe pot. Add 14 cups of water. Cover and bring to a roiling boil. Allow beans to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover the beans and wait an hour. When the hour is up add all the other ingredients to the pot of beans. Some people would use fresh water in their beans at this point but I didn't. Open your oven door and arrange the racks inside so your pot can fit into your oven. Don't do what I did and move the rack lower but kittywhampus causing bean water to spill all over the oven floor. Put the rack in straight and you won't make such a mess. Put the pot of beans into the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 4 to 6 hours. Stir the beans every hour and add more water if you think the beans look dry.

This is the recipe my mother-in-law taught me. I still smile when I think about asking her about the quantity of ketchup and mustard and she answered with a loud squirt of the bottle and said, "This much." She was funny and she was a good cook. These beans are delicious but very bland for my taste. Most people like them bland but I will add hot sauce to mine.

My neighborhood had a party last night. Bright posters were put up on the telephone poles on Tenth street and Parkland Avenue giving details about the gathering. The pot luck/party started at 4 p.m. I went outside at 4 p.m. yesterday and found the party just two doors away. I brought my Corning ware container of Boston Baked Beans. Hamburgers and brats were on a grill. People brought potato salad, kale salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad, corn salad, Russian tea cakes, a home made apple pie, carrot cake, biscuits, pickles, five kinds of jelly and a black bean dish that was delicious. I met hair dressers, retired people, teachers, people who work for the DNR, people who work at colleges, people who work at Holiday Station Stores, kids of all ages and six dogs. The six dogs had a great time because at one point they were all off the leash and tearing around the crowd at top speed. I met a baby boy who weighs 20 pounds and he is only six months old. He looks like a Sumo wrestler if a Sumo wrestler wore a tie dyed onesie. I met the guy who maintains the Superior Hiking Trail behind my house. I met a guy who studies the bats in the Tower Soudan mine. He said there are bats in there that were tagged by a woman doing research since 1980. He saw a bat with a tag that was 40 years old. He gets to go into parts of the mine that the public is not allowed. He said the mine closed suddenly and with no notice. In the break room he saw coffee cups and tins of Copenhagen snuff that the miners were not allowed to go back in and retrieve. He said going in that break room was surreal because the newspaper on the break room table read December, 1962.