Calico Baked Beans - perfect for non-cook

I totally love various kinds of baked beans. It's so great to stick stuff into a crockpot or oven and have some tonight and then for lunch and supper the next day while you accomplish some long project.

This particular recipe was from a Lions Club Cookbook. As I get older, I find it a bit too sweet, so if you are serving just adults, feel free to cut the brown sugar to 3/4 of a cup. The original recipe says to use 1 tbsp garlic salt. I think that is a misprint and should have been 1 tsp. garlic salt. I use minced garlic because, well, I like minced garlic and don't feel the recipe needs so much salt.

This recipe also works for the non-cook. Tips for that person are below the recipe. One final tip. Instead of throwing away drained liquid from the various cans of beans, freeze it in ice cube trays or some other container. Use it for gravy or soup.

Calico Baked Beans

By Sharon Thornby

1/2 pound bacon
1/4 cup diced onion
1 cup brown sugar
1 (21 oz) can Boston type baked beans
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 (15 oz) can lima beans, drained
1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (15 oz) can butter beans, drained
1/2 tsp dry mustard

Fry bacon. Cook onion in bacon fat. Drain off excess fat. Combine sugar, vinegar, garlic salt and mustard and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir together all ingredients in Dutch oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or cook in crock pot on high setting for 1 hour. Serves 12-16.

If you have no dry mustard, use 1-2 tablespoons of yellow prepared mustard.

For the non-cook. Buy precooked bacon and chop. Chop onion. Mix all ingredients together and put in fridge for at least 2-3 hours (even overnight is fine). This allows the molasses flavor to meld into the beans. Remove from fridge and bake or crock-pot for one hour or until thoroughly hot. If using a microwave, use 80% power for about 20 minutes. Stir, then 80% power for another 10-15 minutes until thoroughly hot. If you use full power, it often boils over and that is one heck of a mess.