2 Hour Buns

Homemade Pork And Beans

This recipe I have adapted over the years from many I have found in different cookbooks, so can't really attribute it to anyone.
I used to make a huge batch of these when my boys were eating copious amounts, I baked them in the oven and canned them in jars and then we had them to just grab and use.
 I remember my oldest son bringing home some of his buddies one day just as I brought them out of the oven, so naturally they had to eat. The batch that I usually got 8 quarts out of to can, that day only produced 4 quarts!! Amazing what teenage boys can pack into themselves when they like something!!

The only commercially canned Pork and Beans that I like are Heinz brand, which are not available in Mexico and to me this homemade recipe comes pretty close to them. The only American brand that I have found even remotely edible are Bushs baked beans and of course they are not available here either, so I am back to making my own; although with no teenagers in the house I now make much less and use my crock pot to do them.
It is a fast and easy recipe to prepare, you just need to remember to start them the day before you want to eat them.


My Homestyle Baked Beans With Molasses


I use about 1 kilo, (approx. 2.2 pounds) of dried beans, pinto, peruano whichever kind you like best.
I clean and wash them and then put them to soak in boiling water for 6 or 7 hrs..  (The water starts out boiling and cools down, I don't cook them for this amount of time only soak them in what starts out as boiling water).


While they are soaking I prepare the sauce so that I can just drain the beans, dump them in the sauce and put them in the frig. to soak overnight.


**REMEMBER**** when you drain the water off of the beans to reserve the water for use in the sauce.


1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup ketchup or tomato juice
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 chopped onion, (I love onion so I use a large one)
? garlic cloves, chopped fine and smashed, (I also love garlic so I put in 2 or 3 cloves)
Cut up raw bacon, as much as you like or you could finely cube any type of pork cut.
Some Chili Powder, sorry I don't measure this.  Use as much as your family likes or leave it out.
Approx. 2 cups of reserved bean soaking water.


If you want it vegetarian, leave out the bacon/pork.

I mix all the sauce ingredients right in the slow cooker, (which I also spray liberally with PAM first), then when the beans have soaked for 6 or 8 hours or when you remember them, drain them, dump them into the prepared sauce and add enough water to cover the whole mess.  I then stick the crock pot into the frig. and let the whole thing soak overnight.  First one up in the morning plugs in the crock pot and by lunchtime you have a tasty pot of baked beans.  We eat our main meal here at mid day so adjust your times and crock pot settings to accommodate your schedule.

**I don't add salt until they are cooked as salt supposedly toughens the beans if you add it during cooking, sometimes it doesn't need it.  Taste just before the cooking is done and decide for yourself.**

Adaptations for things you can't get in Mexico.  At the moment I actually have real Molasses; but when that runs out I will use Piloncillo which you buy in a cone shape and is actually brown sugar with the molasses in it.
Dry Mustard Powder: not available in my city; but I suppose you could try prepared mustard.  I have some dry stuff yet so haven't tried it with the prepared stuff.

If you don't have Ketchup or Tomato Juice use Tomato Sauce.

**Additions you might want to try:

Any type of peppers to your personal taste.

Finely chopped, peeled tomatoes, finely grated carrots.

My cooking is not done by following recipes the majority of the time, unless I am baking.  When I am cooking something and have some veggies that need to be used soon, they will get chopped or grated and thrown in, especially in a spaghetti sauce.  You can hide a lot of veggies from kids in a slow simmered spaghetti sauce, my kids never knew how many veggies they ate lol.



Photos tomorrow after they are cooked.

Cream Sauce For Pasta

I found the original recipe for this on Allrecipes; but changed some of the ingredients.
Roy likes this sauce a little thinner so add a little milk also if it is too thick.

Cream Sauce for Pasta

1 cup cream

3 Tbs. butter

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 Tbs. Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Heat cream and butter (don't boil), add cheese and stir until melted.

Serve over pasta

Corndogs

Corndogs were never on my menu in Canada, I think they are more of a USA food. Nevertheless I wanted to try this recipe off of the Allrecipe site and so the other day I did. Naturally I made homemade french fries to go with them.
I use Rosarito brand meat hot dogs as I do not like the chicken or turkey hot dogs.
I am not able to buy cornmeal where I live in Mexico; but the bagged Maseca works fine for most things that call for cornmeal.

Corndogs

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup white sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 - 16 oz. packages of hot dogs (weiners)

Mix dry ingredients, add egg and milk. If you have sticks stick them into one long end of the weiner. I don't bother buying them for us; but if you have children you might want to. Roll wieners in batter until covered and deep fry until golden.

Chocolate Pudding Cake ll

I got this recipe off of the Allrecipes website and tried it. When I lived in Canada I used to buy this type of cake desert mix in a box and prepare it. (It was one of the few boxed type things that I used to make as I am not in love with the preservatives that the prepared type foods have in them.) Since moving to Mexico I hadn't had it as there are few boxed pre-prepared type products available in our town. This is mostly a good thing and I don't miss not having things like that available as I rarely used them in Canada anyway.

Chocolate Pudding Cake ll

Cake Batter

1 cup flour

3/4 cup white sugar

2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup milk

2 Tbs. oil

1 tsp. vanilla

Sauce Mix

3/4 cup brown sugar

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ cups boiling water

Recipe says to use an ungreased 9 " cake pan, I sprayed a bit of Pam in mine to keep it from sticking.

Stir together the flour, white sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add milk, oil and vanilla. Mix with fork until smooth and smooth out in pan.

Sprinlke with brown sugar and cocoa. Pour the boiling water over top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until cake part is cooked. The recipe says 40 minutes; but mine only takes about 20 minutes so watch and adjust baking time to your oven.

Let stand 15 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Bran Muffins

I love bran muffins, they are my fast food and I eat them at any time of the day.

I have no idea where I got this recipe.

Bran Muffins

1 ½ cups wheat bran ( not cereal, real wheat bran either regular or toasted)

1 cup buttermilk ( I can't get buttermilk where I live in Mexico so just use regular milk and they turn out well)

1/3 cup oil

1 egg

2/3 cup brown sugar

½ tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ cup raisins or any dried fruit ( I sometimes used dried cranberries) or if your family doesn't like the fruit in them just leave it out.

Mix bran and milk and let stand for 10 minutes. Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to milk mixture.

Sift flour, powder, soda, salt and add to milk mixture.

Fold in raisins and nuts and spoon into greased muffin pan or use the paper muffin liner cups.

Makes about 12, depending on the size of your muffin pan.

Bake: 375 oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I believe that I found this recipe on the website Allrecipes. It is a good tasting cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp. soda

2 tsp. hot water

½ tsp. salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugars, beat in eggs and add vanilla. Dissolve soda in the hot water and add to the batter along with salt. Add flour and chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Note: I don't bother with the nuts as we prefer our chocolate chip cookies without them, I add a bit more flour instead. I usually spray PAM on my cookie sheets even when the recipe says "ungreased sheet".

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until done depending on your stove.

(My stove is the cheapest/smallest Mabe (Mexican brand) gas stove that you can get, so I need to watch things in the oven carefully as the temperature tends to fluctuate a lot.)