It was warm the other day in Seattle, and The Boyo and I decided to go on a picnic. I decided to make all kinds of picnic food, and then we met at the Rose Garden in Myrtle Edwards Park. Or actually, by that place, it has become Elliott Bay Park. The night before was a lot of preparation for me. I set the menu:
Baked Barbequed Chicken Breast
Potato Salad
Coleslaw
Baked Beans
and fresh cherries for dessert.
Most of the work was just simple. I threw the chicken breasts in the oven, and when they were almost done, I slapped some barbeque sauce on them. I used the food processor to make the coleslaw, and put an Oriental dressing on it to give it a different flavor. I dislike being bored with the same old thing all the time. Anyway, the dressing was based on oil, not mayonnaise, so it was lighter. Once again, the salad dressing comes from the Food Processor Bible by Norene Gilletz.
I gave the potato salad some kick, too. I like to do this by adding stone ground mustard and creamy horseradish to the dressing, and then sprinking it with celery seed.
Once the beans are cooked, and I undercooked them a little because I knew I was going to bake them, you put them in your bean pot with all the goodies. The recipe I have calls for dry mustard, maple syrup, and other things. I made this particular recipe because when I first wanted to make baked beans I didn’t have any molasses. Besides, The Boyo will eat anything make with maple. Once you have them in your bean pot, they take 2 ½ hours in a slow oven. Fortunately, they don’t need a lot of looking after. I usually just stir them once an hour.
Baked Beans
This recipe is from the 1989 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. I hope they won’t come after me for using a recipe from a twenty year old cookbook.
1 pound dry navy beans or great northen beans
¼ pound bacon or salt pork, cut up
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup molasses or maple syrup
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Cook beans until almost tender. If you soak them overnight, rather than in the pressure cooker, it then takes about 1¼ hours to cook them on the stove. Save 1 cup of cooking liquid.
Mix all the ingredients together in a 2½ quart casserole or bean dish, add 1cup of the reserved liquid. Bake in 300° oven for 2½ hours, or until most of the liquid is gone.
Personally, I use smoked ham hocks for the pork, and I use a lot more than they do. I like pork in my beans. Unlike my old Catholic days when you couldn’t eat meat on Friday, and we used to dig the miniscule amout of pork in the can of pork and beans so it would be legal.
