Do you remember the first real recipe you cooked? Not just helping Grandma bake cookies or opening a can of soup or even making your first PB&J but the first time you looked at a recipe and followed the instructions without assistance?

I remember it well because Mom made baked beans every weekend. One Friday when I was in the fifth grade, I came home from school and Mom asked me to make dinner. It had been a difficult day as the babies had been “fussy”. My little sister was two and my brother was probably teething at the time.
Fortunately, we had hotdogs and buns in the refrigerator. Easy to just fry or boil the hotdogs but we needed something to go with them. I pulled out Mom’s recipes and pulled out her baked bean recipe. (Nope. I did not add the hotdogs to the beans.)

Mom usually opened the cans and just dumped everything into the casserole dish with two or three strips of bacon on top – so it was easy to do. That’s what I did – exactly the way I had watched Mom prepare her recipe every week.

After years of practice, I  have made a few changes to the recipe. I began stacking uncooked bacon, slicing them into bits and frying them – drying the bacon bits on a paper towel while I sauteed the onion in the bacon drippings. Bits of bacon left on the bottom of the pan came off nicely if the juice from the canned beans is added and stirred with a wooden spatula to loosen what is left. It gives a nice flavor to the beans. Also, I have learned to simmer the beans a long time for a nice, thick sauce.
I only bake them once or twice a year now since they are so sweet. I just decided to make some at the end of this month for my sister’s birthday. They go well with fried chicken!

Kathy’s Baked Beans
(A variation of Mom’s Recipe)        

Ingredients

1 med to large onion – diced

(Green bell pepper optional)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp molasses (I use Karo Dark Syrup)
1/4 cup hot water
1 cup ketchup
1/4 tsp. of dry mustard

(prepared mustard works in a pinch)

1/8th tsp. of vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
Bacon
2 cans pork & beans

Preheat 350@ oven
Cut several strips of bacon into smaller pieces, fry in frying pan. Remove the bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb grease. Saute’ the onion in the bacon drippings.

Open cans of pork & beans and pour into large casserole dish or dutch oven. Add bacon bits and onions. Stir.

In sauce pan, mix the rest of the ingredients on medium heat until it almost comes to a boil. Add this sauce to the casserole dish and stir.

Bake covered 2-3 hours or Uncovered until the desired consistency.

Moms, what are your children learning by watching you? Are you following God’s Word as your recipe for life or are you throwing in a little bit of this and a little bit of that as you go along? What do they hear when you speak?

“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt,

that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”

Colossians 4:5-6