Miffy's Baked Beans

This large casserole dish was maybe two-thirds of the batch.
This particular batch didn't use beer, however, it tastes
even better with the beer.

When my mother-in-law told me that she had made baked beans from scratch, Meredith and I were excited to try it. We were equally disappointed to find that they were already gone.

Fortunately, it didn't take much pleading for her to make a batch for us. The beans arrived - slow cooker and all - and there was much more than expected. But we didn't complain - more for us. We're big fans. Sausage and beans, potatoes and beans, beans on toast, beans and Kraft Dinner. Not that we usually eat these meals consecutively.

I've never made baked beans from scratch myself. My slow cooker just isn't big enough, and the bowl doesn't remove for easy cleaning. Still, I was very reluctant to part with it because it was a gift from my (now deceased) grandparents.

A couple months later, I stumbled upon a large slow cooker for $10 at a garage sale and I I finally got the recipe from my mother-in-law (the beans pictured in the photo are hers).

The recipe is mostly based on a Chatelaine recipe. I read the reviews and they were mixed. I suspect that several readers cooked the beans on high and quickly dissolved most of the liquid in the cooker. Unfortunate for them, but great for me. The beans we feasted upon tasted great.

Miffy's Baked Beans

1 onion, finely chopped
4 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red-chili flakes
2 cups dry navy beans, rinsed
3 1/3 cups water or 2 cups water + 1 bottle of beer

1. Combine onion with bacon, molasses, ketchup, Dijon, salt and chili flakes in the slow cooker and stir gently until thoroughly mixed.
2. Stir in beans, water (and beer) until combined.
3. Cover and cook on low until beans are tender, about 10 hours.

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Yogurt Cereal Bars

Meredith was looking for something relatively healthy to give Jeremy as a snack - preferably something not terribly messy. We're still working on it, but these yogurt bars still hit the spot.

Meredith first attempt used oats the first time and although they tasted great, it was more of a falling-apart crumble. And Jeremy found them a little dry. He stuck his tongue out until the bits fell back onto the plate. Whoops.

The second attempt, using corn flakes (more along the lines of the recipe our friend gave us), turned out much better. The cut nicely into bars and held together. Jeremy loved them - the most important part.

Yogurt Cereal Bars

2 cups corn flakes
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 cup butter
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 tbsp flour

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. Combine corn flakes, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
3. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form.
4. Press half of the mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 8-inch square pan.
5. Mix yogurt, egg and 2 tbsp flour in another small bowl.
6. Spread yogurt mixture over cereal mixture in pan and then sprinkle the remaining cereal mixture on top.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Let cool and cut into bars.

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Secret Recipe Club: Soft Pretzels

It's Secret Recipe Club time again, and June's assignment is Karen Cooks. Karen blogs from Montana and has all sorts of great recipes that we'd love to try, including chicken marsala, grilled pineapple guacamole, venison stew, and a really tasty looking cheesecake.

After reviewing Karen's recipe index, I knew exactly what we were going to make right away. Soft pretzels. We'd conquered bagels in a previous month, and it was time for the next baking challenge.

We only changed a couple of things out of necessity: we ran out of white flour, so we substituted in 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, and, and instead of Kosher salt, we substituted some lime-infused sea salt were were given as a gift for such a special occasion.

Forming the pretzels was fun as well. Our eldest son used the pretzels as an opportunity to shape them into numbers.

These pretzels are best served immediately and don't fare well as next-day offerings. That wasn't a problem for us - they were gone by the end of the evening.

Soft Pretzels

Dough
2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp yeast
3/4 to 1 cup warm water

Topping
1 cup warm water
4 tbsp baking soda
sea salt
3 tbsp butter, melted

1. Prepare the topping (soda wash): in a small saucepan, combine 1 cup water and 4 tbsp baking soda and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve baking soda and let cool.
2. Start the dough: place all ingredients for the dough in a stand-mixer bowl using a paddle attachment and mix on low. When a ball starts to form, switch to a dough hook and knead for 5 minutes or until dough is soft and smooth and no longer sticky.
3. Put dough into a greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 500-degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick lining.
5. Transfer dough to a pastry mat and divide into 8 pieces. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes.
6. Roll each piece of dough into a long rope and shape into a pretzel (or numbers as we did). Dip each pretzel into the soda wash and place onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt, cover in plastic and let rest for 10 minutes.
7. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes, until the pretzels are a golden brown (note: keep a close eye on them - ours were slightly over-done).
8. After baking, immediately brush with melted butter and serve.

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