Quote:
Originally Posted by senior citizen
You're welcome. Sometimes the simple things in life are remembered.
About a month ago, a young 40 year old friend of ours (our son's old schoolmate) was telling me how she literally brought tears to her dad's eyes when he walked in the door of their home in New Hampshire.........she had spent all day slowly simmering "home made" Boston Baked Beans in a large Dutch oven and served it with the Boston Brown Bread with raisins, from a can..........and you'd think she gave him a million dollars. It was his own mother's recipe that she had made every Sunday after church. They were French Canadians and I guess it's what their family did........it's what her grandmother did, without a doubt, and it brought tears to the son of that lady, now deceased.
When we first came to Vermont in 1970 I learned all about the tradition of making the baked beans on Saturdays....and that was predominately their supper.........no hot dogs, etc. JUST BEANS. Made from scratch.
Back in New Jersey, after my "boyfriend" at the time, told me he loved baked beans, I got a recipe and again, made it from scratch in a Dutch oven........well I made enough for an entire ARMY. I had no idea how much I would end up with.........after soaking the dry beans overnight, etc. I had never ever cooked before. They were tasty, for sure.
But not enough people to devour them.
I later found out his mom just used the canned beans...........ha ha.
So much easier. But, homemade always tastes better. Now I give him Bushes baked beans from a can.
|
I'm also a NH native, and I think the first time I had anything
other than home baked beans, hot dogs, and the brown bread you described for Saturday night supper was when I went to college! My folks made it interesting by sometimes using navy (pea) beans and sometimes using yellow eye beans for variety, but other than that, exactly the same. My wife Sue still makes home baked beans using the same recipe from time to time, and so does our daughter! Yesterday, on Sue's birthday, our son called from NYC, and he was all excited because our daughter, who also is in NYC, had just stopped by to drop something off for him, and she brought him some of the beans she had made the day before using, as he put it, "Gram's Recipe"! So the tradition of the greatness of home made baked beans continues with new generations and even outside New England!