Summer Cookout Favorite: Baked Beans

Image via Google, Edited by Me.

Summer is cookout season, and everyone is forever scrambling to find a quick and easy dish that will knock the socks off your guests.

My husband's family is famous for having little get togethers for whatever the occasion, and the most recent one was this past weekend when cousins came down from Ontario for a few weeks' visit. To welcome them, we had an old fashioned, summer cookout, potluck style, where everyone brought a dish (or in my case, three. Call me cook-a-holic)

The side I brought was an instant success, and gained may compliments. It took a matter of minutes to throw together, and only maybe twenty minutes to cook up. If your're looking for a classic, down home country side dish to bring to a BBQ, then this is your post to keep reading. 

Baked Beans

Feeds 16-20 depending on portion sizes

2 Cans red kidney beans

2 Cans soldier beans (I use the Maple kind)

1 Package Bacon, thawed

1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce 

1/2 Cup Yellow Mustard

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

2-4 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 Medium\Large Tin Roasting Pan

1. Start by dumping the cans of red kidney beans into a strainer, and rinse off the "sauce" they come in. I hate the sauce and think it's icky. Rinsing off the sauce gives you perfectly tender beans without any odd flavor. Add them into the roasting pan.
2. Do the same with the soldier beans.
3. Add in the Spaghetti Sauce, Mustard, Sugar, and Worcestershire sauce, giving a little mix.
4. Cut the bacon in half. Take one of the halves, and set aside. The remaining half, cut into small square chunks. Place these and the longer strips you set aside in boiling water, and let simmer for a few minutes. This removes some of the grease from the bacon.
5. Once bacon appears wavy and pink, take out from the water, and add the small squares in with your bean mixture, and stir.
6. The long strips of bacon, lay over the mixture so it is almost completely covered.
7. Bake at 350 for about 20 or so minutes, until bacon appears crispy, and the edges are bubbling.

What are you cooking up this summer?

xoxo- Court