beans and the bird bath............


Miss Hilda's Baked Beans
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2004
Show:
The Essence of Emeril
Episode:
Backyard Eats

1 pound dried navy beans, picked over and soaked overnight in water to cover 1 1/4 teaspoons cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon salt 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 pound salt pork, trimmed and cubed 4 ounces chopped bacon 1 1/2 cups ketchup 1 1/2 cups reserved bean liquid 1 cup chopped onions 1/2 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 1 tablespoon dry (powdered) mustard 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Drain the beans and put them in a pot with 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, salt, and the bay leaves. Add 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the beans are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain the beans and set aside. Reserve the cooking liquid.
Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Add the salt pork and bacon and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the ketchup, 1 1/2 cups of the reserved bean liquid, onions, celery, sugar, mustard, garlic, black pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon cayenne. Cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the beans and stir gently to mix. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Transfer the beans to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 2 hours. Remove from the oven and serve hot.

Ok I tried this recipe twice. The first time I missed the step about boiling the beans. But, they were so pretty, nice and dark brown, and tasted yummy (after using about 1 bazillion mega watts of electricity cooking them for 12 hours). This time, they were not hard, but they never got pretty and the taste was kind of ok, but not great. So, this is my dilemma, do I promise myself never to try making baked beans again, or do I perservere?

My friends think I have lost my mind. One even gave me a can of beans from her cabinet and said try this, it's easy, and good. I guess she doesn't get it, but she does have a kitchen with two ovens that Emeril would envy and she doesn't cook. Anyway, enough about the beans.



This is what I made yesterday. I have been making this in my mind for years. It hasn't been easy not sewing or doing anything creative for the past few months. It was just making me crazy. I needed to do something that I could finish in a day or so and not trash the whole house in the process. I was inspired by a browse through the galleries in Matlacha when I went with Calamity Kim last month. I saw one and it was $400. It inspired me to make this one. I went on HGTV and searched for some ideas. I found a few and took bits and pieces from a few of them added my own ideas and here it is.

I used three terra cotta flower pots. The bath part is a large terra cotta saucer. I painted the pots and decorated them with those glass things they use for flower arranging and glued them on the pots. I bought a few tiles from Home Depot and put them in a canvas bag and smashed them with a hammer. Bob helped me with the copper pipe and mounting the bird on it. I really like the copper paint on it. The paints are made for painting on these pots and are weatherproof. I can't wait to put it outside and hopefully attract some bathers. Do you think they will know what this is? That's why I put the bird on it, maybe they will get the idea.


It was pretty easy to made and of course I did it in one day. If you know me, you know I am an instant gratification type of crafter. I am all about the finished product not the process. It would be ideal if I could just come up with ideas, shop for the stuff, then get someone else to make it for me. Oh, but then my name would be Martha, not Debbie!