Easy Baked Beans

More beans.  Are you KIDDING me?  You know how I feel about the "musical fruit", but it summer, this is America and we all know, no summer bbq or picnic is complete without them!  I have succumbed to the pressure of my family to learn to make them.  I can recall my dad eating them out of the can, cold, and oh, yuck.  My memories were validated when I was at my parents a couple of weeks ago and my dad wanted cold pork and beans and hot dogs for dinner. 

I have said it before...  Even though there are foods I don't particularly care to eat, I love knowing how to make everything I can.  While I can down a couple spoonful's, just to be polite, I don't like actual onion in mine, so I go with onion powder.  Get the flavor, but none of the sliminess.   I also like my bacon not real crispy in baked beans, that is my preference, you go with yours!  These are awesome to make ahead, I mix mine up sometimes a day or 2 in advance, put the bacon in before baking and there ya go!

*omit the bacon for a great vegetarian side*

3- 15oz. cans pork and beans (I use the cheapo brand, use your favorite)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2T ketchup
1T yellow mustard
1T molasses
1/2 tsp. onion powder
4 strips of bacon, diced. 

Preheat your oven to 350.   In a skillet, fry up your diced bacon.  It doesn't need to be super crispy, but if it is, that is fine too.  Get it fried up and drained on a paper towel.  In a large bowl combine all ingredients and mix to combine.  Add in bacon and pour into a casserole dish that will hold your mixture, I used about a 3 quart and it was obviously plenty big.  Pour the mixture in and bake uncovered 50-75 minutes.  It will thicken a bit as it cools. 

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe, that just gets better the longer it sits!  Warm, cold, steaming hot, I have seen these eaten every which way!

ENJOY!

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