Boston Baked Beans

Every day for the last week the news has been centered in Massachusetts.. This has me thinking about recipes and restaurants that I have experienced in that area. I would pay more attention if the news included a great recipe from the area. I don’t know how to make that happen but I think that there would be broader appeal if there was an excellent recipe for Boston Baked Beans attached. Here is a recipe that will please, however you feel about the news..

Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients:
3 cups dried navy beans
½ lb sliced bacon
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic finely minced.
¼ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 cup dark molasses
Several cups of boiling water

Preparation:
Step 1. Cover beans with cold water, cover & refrigerate overnight
Step 2. Next day drain, then put beans into a 6 quart kettle-cover with 2 quarts water
Step 3. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer covered for 30 minutes
Step 4. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Step 5. Cut bacon into chunks & place into 3 quart bean pot or casserole Add beans –stir
Step 6. Mix other ingredients without the water and pour over beans
Step 7. Add enough boiling water to cover the beans( about 1 cup)& stir briefly
Step 8. Bake covered for 6 hours stirring once every hour(add a little water if they start to dry)
Step 9. Remove cover for final 30 minutes to brown top of beans

Service: I think this recipe can(should) be served in it’s own small side dish. Relegating it to a paper plate next to a hamburger or hot dog at a picnic always leaves me thinking that it deserves a better final resting place.

Crustless Quiche

When time is rushed a fast meal can be prepared that has nothing to do with “Fast Food”. That happened over the weekend when we were faced with more commitments than a sensible schedule should contain. We answered one dinner challenge with an excellent crustless quiche being prepared and served in less than an hour. A cup of tomato soup preceded the quiche and was prepared in about 10 minutes while the quiche was in the oven.

A Quick Quiche

Ingredients:

5 large eggs
3 slices crisply fried bacon (broken up)
¼ cup diced onions
1 cup blanched spinach
Several sliced mushrooms
One cup finely shredded cheeses (Jarlsburg-Asiago-Feta)
1 cup half & half
½ tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper
1Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive oil
Several dashes of Cholula

Preparation:
’
Step 1. In olive oil, sauté onions & mushroom for several minutes add spinach for last minute
Step 2. Whip eggs in bowl –add half & half-salt & pepper –dash of Cholula hot sauce
Step 3. Butter pie dish and then cover bottom with ½ cup cheese
Step 4.add veggies & bacon to dish
Step 5. Pour in egg mixture with remaining cheese
Step 6. Bake 40 minutes in 375’oven till inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean

Service: Invert onto serving plate and cut into 6 slices

Quick Tomato soup to serve while the Quiche is finishing in the oven

In a sauce pan sauté several diced Roma tomatoes and ½ cup of diced onions
After a few minutes add a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and a can of milk along with some fresh basil.
Heat thoroughly and serve in a small bowl with a sprinkle of crumbled Feta cheese centered on the soup—Hide the Campbell’s can and no one will guess and I’ll never tell

Note: The cheeses for the quiche were what we had on hand. Use what you prefer and have at hand, but use several types if possible.
Break up the bacon but do not crumble

Farmers- A Threat to America?

At a pleasant New Years Eve gathering of friends at dinner I sparked a general conversation of some excitement by commenting on organic food production in America. I wondered how organic product growth could keep pace with our country's need for produce and other food items.

Some surprising thoughts were offered over a dinner that involved wild caught salmon as a main course. It was pointed out by one guest that nearly everything on the table was organically grown and there was a need for organic products that extended beyond the issue of healthy eating.

The surprise to me was the animosity towards farming in America that was expressed. One diner expressed the thought that farming had done more damage to America through the years than any other group.

I was bewildered by such a thought and said so.
The list of farm transgressions was produced without hesitation starting with farmers as the supporters of the slave trade, the misuse of the soil that produced the Dust Bowl and erosion of the thirties, the importation and then mistreatment of illegal aliens brought to America to harvest crops at miserable wages, outrageous political tactics to assure government crop support and stimulate an agricultural business that is continuously eliminating the family farm and locally grown produce. The expanded use of Ethanol was described as simply a political perk for farmers than made no sense in solving oil use and environmental issues. Then the nitrogen poisoning of water ways was put on the table for discussion.

It was pointed out to me that the fertilization of farms in Pennsylvania had caused pollution that ran down the Susquehanna River into the Chesapeake Bay. The increased nitrogen content of the inflow has seriously degraded various fish stocks and the oyster production in the bay.

Apparently improvements and farmer education,in the Chesapeake watershed is producing a slow improvement in the situation. That seems not to be the case in the Gulf of Mexico where dramatic change is happening. The entire watershed of the Mississippi drains down the center of the country into the Gulf and is causing a growing dead zone. Apparently this dead zone supports no life and is caused by farm fertilization with a concentration of nitrogen. No fish , no mollusks, no plant life—no nothing—and the dead zone is growing.

I had heard about the Chesapeake problem and the improving situation there. I had not been aware of the Gulf dead zone and am only familiar with the presentation I received at dinner after a glass of wine or two. The dead zone story was followed up with a recommendation that I become aware of the “acidization” of the oceans that was taking place. Fortunately I was rescued by the presentation of a beautiful Trifle for dessert and the suggestion that we save the oceans problems for another dinner gathering.

While we as a nation are arguing over the issues of global warming and Co2 emissions from fossil fuel use, there is a real and present danger that has been on the back burner of political interest. It seems that action against oil companies and the auto industry are easier targets than farmers. I think it is because we imagine farming as a family effort when that is not the typical case any longer.

I’m half way converted to organic products wherever possible to alleviate the nitrogen pollution of the water ways by the mega farms along the major rivers. I’m a big proponent of fish as a healthy dinner choice and really never connected the farms as such a threat to Grouper and other species in the Gulf of Mexico. The problem with my friends at dinner is that their knowledge and interest extends beyond just eating the meal.

Now I’ve got to think about farmers in an expanded light. In the meantime our hostess has promised the recipe for the magnificent salmon marinade that made the New Years Eve dinner so memorable. I think she offered the recipe as a consolation prize for my lack of farming knowledge but a demonstrated willingness to learn.

As a long time big city dweller I have only really had one extensive tour of a farm in my life. That was a dairy farm. I haven’t had a glass of milk since that visit which was about 35 years ago. Those cows didn’t look like Elsie which was my prior vision of what a cow was supposed to look like. I'm a bit hesitant to visit many farms. I really want to imagine that the food I eat magically arrived in the refrigerated cases after being lovingly grown and harvested by the Waltons.

Happy New Year and let me hear from the farmers both organic and otherwise. I’m sure that I didn’t get the total picture over that salmon at dinner.