Homemade Baked Beans

Last Saturday I ran my very first half marathon! I know. Craziness!

It was 13.1 miles of… well a lot of things, honestly. Fortunately the heat wave that had hit for Memorial Day broke the night before in a terrific tornado storm. I woke up that morning to 66F and sunny. Could I ask for better weather, I think not!

All-in-all I was really happy with my performance. I kept my pace and didn’t stop too much. The only time I got really itchy to be done was miles 10.5 – 12. Arrreeee wweeee theeeerreeee yeeetttt???? That’s what my feet were screaming at me. Literally. That and Why why why why why???? Once I got to mile 12 it was all downhill from there. Actually, uphill technically speaking. And speaking of that, who's idea is to have the last mile be up-freakin’-hill? Hmm? Let’s work on that for next year shall we?

I decided after running more miles than I probably ever will by 10 am on a Saturday I got to eat whatever I wanted that day weekend. Yay!

There I am at mile 12. Still got a smile on my face!

That included these baked beans. Holy moly. These are good. And easy. Again throw a bunch of stuff that you probably already have into a crock pot and walk away.

Did I mention that these involve bourbon and bacon? Yep, now I got you sold.

First, cook up some bacon. And by some I mean like 10 slices or so. Keep the bacon grease to cook the onions that you just diced. Once the onions are caramelly looking add the garlic for 0.2 seconds. No more. Then take off heat. If you go for 0.3 sec bad things will happen. True story.

Why hello Mr. Beam!

While the bacon does its thing, you can grab the ingredients to go into the crock pot:

 I'm not sure why I included my phone in this picture, it did not go into the crock pot. That would be bad, plus I'm sure I would have already told you if I had something like that. I know that you care about stuff like that!

You might be wondering why I couldn't manage to get all the ingredients in one photo instead of taking 3 millions. Honestly, I'm not really sure, but after you run 13.1 miles you don't always do things that make a lot of sense.

Anything involving this combination of stuff is just bound to be delicious.

Mix everything together into the crock pot, turn it on low, and step away. Go read or better yet, go to bed, because this needs a while to become this:

Homemade Baked Beans:

Serves: more than enough!

1 lb Navy beans, dried and soaked overnight

10 slices Bacon, cut into pieces

1 medium Onion, diced

1 clove Garlic, grated (because we all know by now that I can't be bothered to ever mince it)

2 c Water

1 c Bourbon

3/4 c BBQ sauce

1 c Brown sugar

1/4 c Ketchup

2 Tbsp Molasses (I totally forgot this and used honey instead)

1 Tbsp dry Mustard

1/4 c Apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Soak the dried beans overnight in a big ol' huge bowl of water. Drain and rinse before using. Place in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

2. In a medium pan cook the pieces of bacon till brown and crispy. Using a slotted spoon place on a plate lined with a paper towel. Cook the onions in the remaining bacon grease till golden brown and soft. Add the garlic briefly at the end and remove the pan from the heat.

3. While the bacon and onions cook, mix all the remaining ingredients in the crock pot. Stir well until everything is incorporated. Once the bacon and onions finish add the beans, bacon, onions, and garlic to the liquid.

4. Turn on low for 10-12h. You can also turn on intermittent low/high for 8 hours and get the same effect. Once the beans are done and the sauce has reduced, keep the lid off, and the beans on warm to allow the liquid to further reduce. The bean mixture will become thicker and gooier.

5. Enjoy!

What did I enjoy these with? Well, I made another slaw recipe. I know. I know. What is my problem?? I have no clue.

I will say that I think this recipe is a real keeper. For today at least!

I used the rest of the Korean Beef slathered in BBQ sauce and piled it on top of the beans.

This was totally worth running 13.1 miles!