#6 Beans with Bacon

Look!  It has Bacon!  BACON!

 One of the sides to the spiral ham at the holiday dinner was Beans with Bacon.  You know it's going to be good because of the with Bacon.  There ain't nothing bad with Bacon - no way, no where, no how... 


Have I ever mentioned what a fan I am of cast iron cookware?  For frying, it is extremely rare that I will use anything else.


My very first set was a gift from my (now ex-) mother-in-law.  Sage that i was, I proceeded to use lots of soap and scrubbed it a lot, rendering it a rusty, useless doorstop.  Thankfully, over the intervening years I managed to learn a thing or two about a thing or two, and now my cast iron cookware is properly cared for.

For this recipe I started with dried beans: cannelloni I think, or white navy.  Not sure. That's what I get for storing my beans in unmarked glassware. Whoopsie.

For an extra kick, I soaked and cooked the beans in the Turkey broth I made from my Thanksgiving turkey this year.*

It gave the beans a great flavor PLUS helped me reduce the copious amounts of frozen turkey stock I wound up with.

I think I had easily a gallon of stock plus a gallon and a half of turkey soup base (meaning there was a lot of meat left in, unlike the stock). I do that every year, followed shortly by wondering why the hell I do that every year.  It all gets used, though - no regrets!

When the beans were cooked I just added the rest of the ingredients per the recipe** and let the whole thing simmer until  dinner was served

Soul food. Also, bacon. Mmm, bacon.

* See? I'm not completely lost in the kitchen. I can boil water with things in it like a pro!
** I am not going to give away the recipes in this blog, just share my experiences in making them.  I wouldn't want to disrespect the authors of A Feast of Ice and Fire that way.