Boston Baked Beans

As any good Yankee will argue, their baked beans are the best.... It's kinda like chili in Texas. The few things all  baked bean recipes have in common is time, love, and beans. Outside that, it's free game.  Everyone has their own recipe, but I'm going to share ours -which is the best way to make them, by the way. If you would like to view another variation, check out my article on Old Post Road for my Grandmother's recipe.

A great attribute to baked beans, is that they can be a meal unto themselves or a sides for the whole week. A great help yourself meal for a crowd or just your family. Chock full of protein and fiber, with minimal prep and a lot of time in the crock pot, it's a true winner.  I have yet to meet a person that will willingly turn down Boston Baked Beans...

Sam & Laura's Boston Baked Beans:

2 cups 'Great Northern' beans (dry measure, approximately one 16 oz. bag)
1 tsp. Salt
2 Ham Hocks
2 small Onions, quartered
5 tbsp. Molasses
4 tbsp. Brown Sugar (dark or light)
2 tsp. Dry Mustard
------
Bacon, crisped and crumbled
prepared Mustard
salt


-Soak beans overnight. Cover the dry beans with about 2" of water head space.
-Once beans are soaked (about 1/2" of water head space should be remaining), stir in salt.
-Drain water, reserving it.
-Put beans, ham hocks and onions in crock pot.
-Taking a sauce pan, mix all other ingredients except bacon and prepared mustard. Cook over low heat until ingredients are completely combined, and warm. Do not boil.
-Pour sauce pan contents into the crock pot [with the beans, hocks, and onions], and stir to coat.
-Take your reserved salted water from draining the beans, and pour enough to cover crock pot ingredients.
-Bake on LOW overnight, or for 12 hours, stirring occasionally. Don't attempt to shorten the time by cooking on HIGH - It won't be the same, trust me. 
-When beans are done, remove ham hocks.
-Mix in crisped bacon pieces before serving. At this point if you need/want to adjust the flavour of the beans a little, add prepared mustard and salt to taste.

This is what it looks like before cooking. 

Don't worry if it looks soupy, the beans will absorb all the liquid goodness. 

Pot Roast: A Classic

Well, the Weatherbug was calling for snow today, so I planned a pot roast for dinner tonight. Murphy's Law; today is bright, sunny, and without a cloud in the sky.... Oh well! When I bought this oft overlooked cut of meat at the market, I didn't take into account that I personally had never cooked one! It is a meal my mother made quite frequently (as well as a few friends), and was dumbfounded and humbled that this morning that I honestly had to look up the basic directions! I love this meal, and can't believe I've never cooked this classic, cheap, basic meal. I had a clue of what I thought I should do, and luckily I wasn't far off once I looked it up. This is how I am doing  it  in the crock pot based off the basic themes from a multitude of recipes alongside a slight few of my own flourishes :

You will need:
A Pot Roast (any size, as this is not an exact science)
Salt
Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Flour 
Olive Oil (with bacon fat if you have it on hand)
Garlic cloves (whole, peeled)
Bay leaves
Onions, chopped
Water, around 1/2 - 3/4 cup 
Potatoes, diced large (the kind is your choosing. I used Red potatoes, my mom always used baking Idaho or Maine potatoes)
Celery Salt
Rosemary (fresh is best, but dried is fine)
 

Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder all over your roast. Cover in a light dusting of flour. Using a hot, oiled skillet, brown roast. Add more oil/fat as needed to prevent sticking. 
Remove roast, and add chopped onions to skillet. Sweat onions, place in bottom of crock pot. Place roast on top of onions; surround with potatoes, 1-3 bay leaves, rosemary, and garlic cloves. 
While your skillet is still hot, add water to pan (but keep heat turned off) and add a wee bit of flour into skillet to create a thin gravy. Pour gravy over ingredients in crock pot. Sprinkle celery salt over everything in the pot, and cook on low until done. Depending on size of roast, plan on 6 hours more or less.

A whirlwind weekend!

Phew! What a crazy weekend! It felt nice after a long lull of nothing going on, but I don't know where to begin... Pampered Chef party, taking in a new kitty, Polish-American Club dinner, shopping, a documentary interview, Daytona 500.... I guess I'll just give a quick overview.

At the Pampered Chef party on Friday night, the [awesome] representative made Artichoke cups that were divine, and super chocolaty gooey caramel brownies. I made a wonderful warm spiced Sangria that was a huge hit (recipe here), served the usual finger/snack foods, and had BBQ and Buffalo wings in the crock pots. I ordered some new nifty kitchen ware I can't wait to use... I have their garlic peeler/mincer and use it constantly as it is, so I can't wait to try out the new stuff.
That morning I was interviewed for a documentary on one of my friends seizure disorder. We'll wait and see what happens with that, but it was a good interview -even if I wasn't thrilled with the camera angle I was filmed at.

The next night we went out (after a fun time shopping in JoAnn Fabrics) to a Spaghetti dinner that the local Polish-American Club sponsored, having a wonderful time. I even won the Polish flag blanket I wanted so badly in the raffle! As you may have implied from the dinner name: spaghetti, red sauce, and meatballs were served. They also had a garden salad, garlic bread, and different types of cakes for dessert. It was all quite yummy, and hit the spot.

Next up: Daytona 500. I just made a veggie platter and beer bread with different dips to snack on while watching the race. We stayed in to watch it (Holy crashes, huh?!?) as our good friends came by with their kitty for us to adopt him. The two girl kitties we already have are making the slow adjustment to having a boy kitty in the house; though he seems utterly nonchalant, happy, and at home already.
The morning of Daytona we had a decent brunch. It's something I used to make while living on my own quite often -usually for dinner. It's kind of a personal quiche I made up. Check out my next post for the recipe and pictures.

CrockPot Coconut Curry Chicken

Tonight's dinner is Coconut Curry Chicken done in the crock pot. If the sauce is any indication it is going to be so yummy! The idea for this recipe came to me right before falling asleep last night, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, there was an actual recipe for it! I intend to serve it over rice, and I also omitted the carrots as no one in the house will eat them cooked.Oh, and it's also an excuse for me to use my new rice maker for the first time!

CrockPot Coconut Curry Chicken

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil 

4 boneless skinless chicken breast half 

8 oz. red potato, peeled and chopped 

2 large carrots peeled and chopped 

1 medium onion, sliced 

1 (14 ounce) can light coconut milk 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon black pepper 

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (or to taste) 

1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional, more if desired) 

1 cup chicken stock 

1 (10 ounce) package frozen peas, thawed

 Directions:

1 Heat oil in a medium fry pan.
2 Add chicken breasts and brown on both sides.
3 Place potatoes, carrots, and onion in crock pot.
4 Place chicken breasts on top.
5 Combine coconut milk, salt, pepper, curry powder, hot sauce and chicken broth in a bowl and stir thoroughly.
6 Add to crock pot.
7 Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours.
8 One half hour before serving, add peas on top of chicken mixture.
9 Just before serving, stir mixture thoroughly

1st snow fall = crockpot time!

We got our first snow fall in Berkley, MA this morning... It wasn't much and dissipated quickly into rain, but it was definitely snow!  If the hard frosts of last week didn't make me want to pull out the crock pot, this sure did. I should have done a stew, but I had got a good deal on some pork shoulders/Boston Butt and decided to do pulled pork sandwiches. It's probably one of the easiest crock pot dishes ever to make -it just requires time.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

1 pork shoulder roast or Boston Butt (around 2 1/2lbs)
14oz of BBQ sauce (I only use Sweet Baby Ray's)
 1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1 Tsp. brown sugar

Hamburger rolls, salt, pepper

Place pork into crock pot, season lightly with salt and pepper. Cover, and cook on LOW for 10-12 hours, or on HIGH for 5-6 hours until done.

Remove pork from crock pot and place in a shallow pan. Using 2 forks shred the pork.

Return shredded pork into crock pot along with the BBQ sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar and onion. Mix well. Cover crock pot, and cook for 2 hours on LOW, or 1 hour on HIGH.

Serve on Hamburger buns.


I love this great over-night recipe. It goes extremely well with a garden salad or coleslaw for a side.