DD's Baked Beans

Nothing like a good batch of baked beans to warm you up on a cold March evening. I'm really happy with how these came out. I have never been much of a baked bean person, but I think that a lot of that had to do with my primary experience being eating them from a can. In addition, when your rent is dangerously close to half your monthly income it is important to conserve where you can. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients
3 15.5 oz cans of white beans
1 15.5 oz can of red kidney beans
1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion rough chopped
12 slices of turkey bacon (or regular if preferred)
2 tablespoons of molasses
3/4 of a cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of BBQ seasonings (optional)

In a pan, cook the turkey bacon until crisp and set aside.

Pour the white and red beans into a strainer to drain out the majority of the liquid and add to the crockpot. Add in the tomatoes, onions, brown sugar and BBQ seasonings. Roughly crumble the bacon and top and stir the mixture until the ingredients are evenly mixed.

Set your crockpot to low and cook for 9 hours, giving it a quick stir after 4.5 hours.

If I got to do this over again I would have added 1/2 cup of ketchup for a little more flavor and texture. I think these bean go great as a side dish, but can also be the main even accompanied by some bread for dipping. I through a little hot sauce on mine for spice, but they are great as is if you like things a little more mild. Sour cream would also probably go well also.

This recipe will easily feed 4-6 people as a dinner and freeze and reheat really well.

Peanut Bombs

A special thanks to http://mommascookbook.blogspot.com/ for inspiring this recipe. As promised, I am adding some desserts and sides to go along with the meats. I love BBQ as much as anyone, but even I can't eat pulled pork and brisket everyday for lunch and dinner. That in mind, I present my recipe for peanut bombs, and easy to make and great tasting dessert!

Ingredients
16 oz of salted peanuts
12 oz of milk chocolate chips
4 heaping tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
1 cup of m & m's
2 cups of mini marshmallows

Pour the peanuts into the crockpot and top with the 4 tablespoons of peanut butter. Add the chocolate chips on top and set your crockpot to 2 hours on low. I would recommend taking a look every 30 min or so to make sure you don't burn the the chocolate.


At the end of 2 hours (or sooner if your crockpot runs a little hotter) you should see something like this.

Although the chocolate chips may not appear be fully melted, they will coat the peanuts readily when stirred. Once you have stirred up the peanuts, add in the m & m's and stir again. Finally, add in the marshmallows and stir one more time. The marshmallows will disintegrate quickly, but will give the mixture a nice texture and color.

Using two spoons, form roughly rounded spheres of the mixture (make sure you turn your crockpot off to stop the chocolate from cooking any further) and place them on waxed paper to cool.

Put your tray into the fridge overnight to allow the peanut bombs to fully harden. You will be rewarded for you patience on this I promise.

After cooling down, your peanut bombs are ready to be enjoyed. The great thing about these is how flexible the recipe is. Dark or white chocolate can easily be swapped in as can all different types of nuts (almonds, cashews and walnuts to name a few). You can also easily swap out the m & m's and marshmallows for raisins, dried cranberries and other dried fruits. My roommate suggested I try graham cracker pieces for a smore like creation. As you can see, the combinations are endless.

What the heck is Molasses anyway?

A few weeks ago I bought a jar of molasses, not so much because I knew what it was, but because it seems to be a staple of BBQ cooking. I always thought of it as a sort of sugar based version of honey, thick and sweet. I have vague recollections of my father putting it on his pancakes when I was a kid.

A quick check on wikipedia gave a pretty good description. Molasses is a by product from the processing of sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. The word is derived from the Portuguese word "melaco" which come from mel, the Portuguese word for honey. Some common uses of molasses are gingerbread, gingersnaps and other desserts. Plain molasses has a really sharp taste to it so I would say it is not really suited for eating as is. At least not the kind I bought anyway. There a couple grades of molasses ranging from 1st grade (sweeter) to Blackstrap (more bitter). For more details on molasses go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molasses

I bring this up only because my upcoming baked bean recipe will contain molasses and I had purchased this dark syrup product without having any idea as to what it was and what it should be used for.

In other news, I have completed my first dessert recipe that I have dubbed "peanut bombs." They are in the fridge right now cooling down, but I will be posting the results and recipe later on.

2 Crockpots are better than 1

Given my rash of new ideas and expansion into the dessert and side dish arena, it seems logical that I buy an additional crockpot. For one, crockpots are really cheap (mine was about $40) and are extremely durable. Additionally, one draw back to crockpots is that you can any only make one thing at a time and each thing can take upwards of 10 hours to cook. It would have been handy a few weeks ago to have been able to cook the brisket in one pot and the sweet potatoes in the other. Everything could have been ready at the exact same time.

I may be going out on a limb here, but it seems like crockpots develop a inherent flavor after awhile. I always scrub out the bowl carefully, but I still feel like the meats sometimes leave a little flavor behind. This is not necessarily a bad thing unless you would like to make a dessert. Pork and brisket flavored chocolate peanut clusters don't sound like they would be that great. Most of the folks I have talked to use a two crock pot system, one for meats/savory and another for desserts/sweet. I don't really know where I'm going to fit another crockpot in my kitchen, but I'll just worry about that later I guess.

Mixing it up

I have been making primarily meat lately, but I think I will try in incorporate more sides and even desserts going forward. I think of BBQ as a genre, as opposed to just the slow cooking of meats. Some of my favorite things at BBQ restaurants are the sides such as sweet potatoes, creamed spinach, cornbread and baked beans. Brisket or pulled pork without the sides wouldn't be the same. It is really important to try to incorporate a variety of flavors and textures in a meal.

Some things I will be making down the road include bourbon peaches, sweet cornbread with strawberries, and chocolate-peanut butter cashews. Looking forward to trying these new recipes out. Just need to find some folks to eat them so I don't eat the whole thing myself.

Easy BBQ Chicken

Having had great success with beef and pork I decided that I would give chicken a shot even though I had some reservations about the meat drying out. As it turns out, dark meat chicken has plenty of fat and moisture and works great in the crockpot.

Easy BBQ Chicken




















Ingredients

8 boneless/skinless Chicken thighs (about 2 lbs)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 Tablespoons of BBQ rub of choice (store bought or homemade works great)
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar 1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Medium Onion, chopped
3-4 tablespoons of your favorite BBQ Sauce


In a large bowl, combine the chicken thighs with the Worcestershire sauce, honey, brown sugar and bbq rub and stir until the chicken is evenly coated.

Rough Chop the onion into bite size pieces and add to the chicken and top with your BBQ sauce of choice.





















Give everything one final stir before setting your crockpot to low for 9 hours


After the meat has finished cooking remove the chicken and onions from the crock pot and put into a bowl or plastic container. Shred the chicken with two forks and spoon the juices left in the crock pot back onto the meat along with a little BBQ sauce if you so choose.




















Stir everything together one last time. The chicken can be served on it's own or on a roll with BBQ sauce. A couple dashes of apple cider or white vinegar also gives it a nice flavor as well.

Quick and Easy BBQ spice rub

In the event that you do not have access to a store that sells spice rubs, below is a pretty good recipe for a basic spice rub. This goes well with chicken and pork, but could be used with beef as well.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons of chili powder
2 tablespoons of black pepper
4 tablespoons of paprika
1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

I would recommend buying pre-made rubs individually if they are available to you because they are pretty cheap and effective, but if you have a fully stocked spice cabinet, this works great to.