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So I have not had baked beans in a long time.  I probably have not made baked beans since Jim was in graduate school.  Some one gave us a baked bean pot for a wedding present, so I felt I had to make baked beans.  We carried that pot through several moves until I gave it to goodwill.  Anyway, it would not have worked for Ina Garten’s recipe.  They were very good.  We ate them for 2 nights with hot dogs.  The day I made them they took longer than I thought.  Be warned that it is a long prep and then 5 hours of baking.  If we would have eaten them the day I made them we would have eaten at midnight.  Thank God for Panda Express at the end of the street. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2# dried cannellini or Great Northern white beans

1/2# pork belly(rind removed), 1/2” diced

1/2# slab smoked bacon, 1/2”  diced (I used thick smoked bacon)

1 1/2 C light brown sugar, lightly packed

2 C chopped yellow onions (2 onions)1/2 C 

1 1/2 C light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 C catsup

1/2 C molasses

1/2 C maple syrup

2 T apple cider vinegar

1 T dry mustard

1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes

Kosher salt and black pepper

Directions:

1. The night before you plan to cook, place the beans in a large bowl, add enough water to cover by 1 inch, and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next day, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. (I think this is in the wrong sequence.  My oven heats very quickly and would have been burning for hours.)
3. Drain the beans and place them a medium (10-11 inch) Dutch oven.  Add enough water to cover the beans by 2”, bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer uncovered for 45-50 minutes, until very tender,  Skim off any foam that rises to surface while they cook.  Drain and return the beans to the Dutch oven.  
4. Meanwhile, bring 4 C of water to ad boil.  
5. Heat a 12” saute pan over medium heat and cook the pork belly and bacon together for 5-7 minutes, tossing often, until lightly browned.  Remove t a plate with a slotted spooning drain off all but 3 T of the fat.  
6. Add the onions and cook over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender and lightly browned.  (I found her timing to be off.)
7. Add the onions and the reserved pork mixture to the beans along with the brown sugar, ketchup, molasses, maple syrup, vinegar, dry mustard, red pepper flakes, 4 t salt!, and 1 t pepper (I deleted the salt, the bacon and pork belly will be salty enough.) and combine.  Pour in enough of the boiling water to just cover the beans, cover and bake for 5 hours, checking the liquid level every hour.  (If the beans are too dry, add a little more boiling water.)
8. Remove the lid for the last 15 minutes so the beans turn a warm mahogany color.  
9. Check seasonings and serve hot.  

I was at the hairdresser the next day and we got on the subject of recipes.  He made chicken wings for the first time.  I asked him where he go a recipe and he said, “Tick Tock!”  I have close to 400 cookbooks and he uses Tick Tock!

Sometimes you just need a change.  I have a bunch of placemats, but you have to wash and iron them when someone spills.  Jim spills.  So we use the same fake wood, but wipeable placemats all the time.  Went to Williams Sonoma to buy chocolate chip pancake mix and these were on the display up front.  I asked the clerk if they had 2.  They really brighten dinner, and they are wipeable. 

I made our favorite shrimp and portobello mushroom pizza again.  

The next night I chopped up the remaining Napa cabbage, added dried cranberries and used blue cheese dressing for the sauce.  Accompanying the “coleslaw” was baked salmon.  I can't remember what sauce I used. It was something I boughtl.  

 

This recipe comes from Edible Nashville.  I changed it up a bit just because I had a lot of turkey burger.  I always use my own broth.  I rarely serve beef, so I don’t have homemade beef broth.  I do however have a ton of turkey/vegggie broth I made after Thanksgiving.  This was delicious.  I thought it would last for 2 nights.  Alas, it is all gone.  Jim ate 5 meatballs; I ate the remaining 3.  Stuffed cabbage in the old days, you had to have boiling water and dip the cabbage leaves in one at a time as you stuffed them.  I have always loved the dish.  The first meal I made Jim after we were married was stuffed cabbage.  He sat down at the dinner table and said,”I used to throw up over this.”  The dish took me all day to make.  I answered, “If I cook we eat what I like.  If you cook, we will eat what you like.”  He has eaten everything put on the table since.  Everyone who says, my husband won’t eat this or that, cook it correctly and he will eat it.  

This was the most delicious version of stuffed cabbage I have ever eaten.  I will post the real version and my changes in ( ).

Ingredients:

1# large head Napa cabbage 

1# ground pork (ground turkey)

1 C cooked jasmine rice

2/3 C thinly sliced scallions

1 T fish sauce

1 t white pepper (black pepper)

1/2 t kosher salt

1 large carrot, shredded

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 C unsalted beef stock (homemade turkey veggie stock)

1/4 C oyster sauce

1 T toasted sesame oil

Chili crisp (optional)  (hot stuff, no)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F with the rack placed in the center.  Coat a 13 X 9” baking dish with cooking spray.  
2. Prepare the Napa cabbage; remove 18 large leaves from the head of cabbage.  Trim off 2-3 inches from the bottom of each leaf, where the vein is the thickest.  Pile the leaves on a microwave-safe plate.  cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Carefully uncover the plate and cool the cabbage slightly.  
3. Place the pork in a large bowl.  Add rice, scallions, fish sauce, pepper, salt, carrot and garlic, mix well with your hands (I use surgical gloves on my hands).  Divide the mixture into 8 equal balls.
4. To stuff the leaves, arrange 2 leaves cabbage on a work surface with the narrower rib ends overlapping by and inch or 2.  Pace a meatball in the center of the cabbage leaves.  fold the left leaf over the filling and roll over to the right side to enclose the filling in a cylinder.  Arrange the filled leaves seam-dust down in the prepared baking dish.  Repeat with the remaining cabbage leaves and filling to form 8 cabbage rolls (you should have couple of extra leaves in case of tear.)  (The microwaving of the leaves is so much easier than the boiling water method of old.)
5. Whisk together stock, oyster sauce, and sesame oil in a medium bowl; pour over the cabbage balls.  
6. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil.  Bake until the tilling is thoroughly heated, flavors are married, and pork is cooked through, 1 hour.
7. Uncover the dish and bake until the liquid is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes; the sauce will be more like broth than gravy.  
8. Serve with chili crisp on the side if desired.

Active time:  25 minutes! Try 5 hours

Total time:  1 hour 40 minutes.  I think this was made up to get fools like me to make it.  

Serves 4, 5+3=8, all gone for 2 people.