Sue's Good Ole' Boston Baked Beans

Sue's Good Ole' Boston Baked Beans
(Meatless)

It's Saturday and when I was a kid, Saturday was baked beans and hot dogs for dinner.

I grew to love baked beans;  Dad told me that they were "cowboy beans."

I loved cowboys thanks to Rex Trailer, a real cowboy who was a local TV personality in the 60's.  It was a kids show on both Saturday and Sunday morning.  Rex and Pablo were cool and I wanted to be like them so I ate beans.

Here's a recipe that I made up yesterday.  The beans came out really great cooked in a dutch casserole in the oven.

4 cups of organic dry beans (any beans will do, navy beans are traditional)
1 large onion diced
4 Tablespoons of organic molasses
1 teaspoon dry mustard
3/4 cup organic ketchup (Muir makes a good ketchup - get a ketchup that has only tomatoes as the ingredients)
2 Tablespoons organic Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup Organic dark Agave Nectar
1 teaspoon Turmeric
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Soak the beans in a lot of cold water (6 - 8 cups) for a few hours in a big sauce pan.  Start this early, this is a slow cooking recipe that is well worth the time.

After about 3 or 4 hours, turn the heat on under the beans and let them cook until they are soft.  This is an important step, nothing worse than a hard bean that looks like it should be soft.

The water will absorb into the beans.  Transfer the beans with any remaining liquid into a large Dutch Oven pot.  Mix in all the ingredients listed.  Put the lid on the Dutch Oven and let it cook in a 325 degree oven for 3-4 hours.  Stir occasionally; adding more water as needed so that the beans don't become dry and hard.