Grandma's Beans

I was pretty selfish about sharing good recipes for a while.  I wasn't always that way, I used to always share but then...
My grandma Stejer was a wonderful cook, I have many delicious memories from her kitchen.  One of the dishes she always made was this bean dish.  We loved it, the sweet and sour sauce with the salty bacon and sweet onion and all those different beans.  Grandma would make a double batch and often that is all I would eat, I love them so much.
Everyone that ate them would ask for the recipe and when we were invited to dinner the request would always be, "Will you bring Grandma's beans?"
I would bring the beans and the recipe, good food is meant to be shared.
One day, I received one of my favorite cooking magazines.  I had a cup of coffee and was happily reading through it when I came across my grandma's bean recipe and the person who submitted it said, "I got this from a friend in Alaska."  Well, it pissed me off kind of made me a little angry.  She had not mentioned the fact that this dish came from my grandma, that my grandma lovingly made this for us all the time, and my "friend" had her name attached to the recipe for all the world to see.  Why this made me so angry, I don't know, but it did.  I think credit needs to go where credit is due and it was my grandma that should have gotten the credit (even thought I'm sure she got the recipe from someone else anyway).  Well, my thought process is never completely logical, jut ask my husband, and from then on I was very stingy with my recipes.
So, here is the recipe for Grandma's beans.  I got the recipe from my Grandma Stejer (her picture is here) and they are delicious.  All summer I made them for cook-outs and in the winter I make them to serve with warm bread from the oven and it is the perfect meal.

Grandma's Beans
from Grandma Stejer


8 bacon slices, fried until crisp, drained and crumbled
4 large onions, peeled and cut into half rings
1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 (15 oz) cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can green lima beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (1 lb. 11 oz.) can New England Style baked beans - undrained

Place onions in skillet, add sugar, mustard, garlic, salt and vinegar.  Cook 20 minutes, covered.  Place rinsed and drained beans in a dutch oven or roaster pan, top with undrained New England Style beans. Add onion mixture to beans, stir well.  Add crumbled bacon and bake at 350ºF for one hour.

Tips:
Start with 1/2 cup brown sugar and go up to your taste.  I love sweet and I use 1/2 cup.

Any type of baked beans will work if you can't find the New England Style.  I can't in Fairbanks and I use a country "grilling" type can of beans.  Just use something you would like, although I've never used a spicy kind.

When baking I usually bake for 30 minutes covered then 30 minutes uncovered.  It keeps a lot of the sauce but reduces it some so it is a little thicker.

In the winter, I mix this up and put it in my crock pot on low.  Add a loaf of crusty bread and dinner is ready when I get home.

July 18, 2012