Tonight's Dinner - Crock Pot Baked Beans

Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep, and as my mind was wandering, I suddenly decided that for dinner tonight I wanted beans and weenies. The only trouble was, I didn't have any cans of baked beans! What to do?

I googled how to make baked beans in the crock pot. OMG. There are sooooo many recipes for "crock pot baked beans" that START WITH A CAN OF BAKED BEANS! WTF??

Anyway, I kept searching and finally found one that started with actual dried beans.

So I got out of bed (I wasn't sleeping, anyway) and put a pound of beans in the (unplugged) crock pot crock along with 6 cups of water to soak overnight. The recipe calls for "navy, pinto, or great northern beans". I didn't have anything quite so clear-cut, just some "mixed beans", but I figured what the heck.

A bean's a bean, right?

I also took a pound of bacon out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight.

This morning, when I got out of bed, I followed the rest of the recipe, pretty much to the letter. 

Before cooking

The only difference was that I had no molasses, so I used maple syrup instead. (ADDENDUM: I tasted it about an hour before serving & decided to add a spoonful of Marmite for umami. It’s possible that if I had used molasses, I wouldn’t have needed to do that. Could have used Worcestershire sauce instead, if I had been out of Marmite. Let your taste decide.)

Anyway, I let them cook all day -- the house smelled wonderful! -- and resisted the urge to stir them until I was ready to serve them. 

After cooking all day

When Bri got home from work, we decided not to make weenies, after all. She had her baked beans on two pieces of toast, while I had mine topped with Parmesan cheese and with crumbled saltines.

They were SO GOOD! This recipe is definitely going to be repeated!