A PERSONAL NOTE...OR BEANS, BEANS, THE MUSICAL FRUIT

NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, As I have said before I should to eat more veggies but don't. I have been thinking a lot about mom's baked beans. Calvin loves beans and would love to have some at the picnic. I did send an email to all my sisters as you may remember and no one had mom's recipe. I have been looking on line and in all kinds of cook books but nothing. Then I got out the Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe like what I remember mom's tasting like. It is very hard to fix a recipe just going by what the taste in your mind tells you. It has been 40 years since I tasted mom's beans last but I knew in my mind what I wanted them to taste like. I remember mom soaking the beans over night so I did that yesterday. I remember her boiling the beans for just a minute or two and then letting them simmer while she started her laundry and other housework. I remember mom not adding onions so I too left them out and I remember mom adding extra brown sugar so I did too. The last thing mom always did was tip up the ketchup bottle and squirt ketchup till she felt like stopping. I did too. That was fun but very tricky. I then added water to cover everything in the pot. I then put the beans in the oven and waited. GUESS WHAT???? THEY TASTED JUST LIKE MOM'S. It was so cool. I even made cornbread like mom to go with the beans. Needless to say Calvin is thrilled. We will have this meal more often. I am going to make some for the picnic and now I am on the hunt for a bean pot like mom had. Haven't seen any around but I am going to start looking. I will just settle for making them in the dutch oven for the campout. I guess what I am trying to say is that even if you don't like veggies or fruit there are many ways to eat healthy and enjoy it. Some times it just takes a trip down memory lane.