Howard's Baked Beans

My dear friend Andrea was gifted the best baked beans recipe from her step dad. You will never use another!! 

3-15oz cans of pork & beans, drained

1 lb bacon

1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup molasses*
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 T Dijon mustard
Coca Cola

Cook the bacon reserving 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.  Saute onions in bacon grease until tender.  Pour onions and grease into a large baking dish.  Add drained beans, molasses, brown sugar, and mustard to the baking dish.  Stir the ingredients together.  Crumble the cooked bacon and stir into the bean mixture.  Add a small amount of Coca Cola.  I usually start with about 1/4 cup.

Cook covered at 300 degrees for approximately 2 hours watching to make sure the beans do not get too dry.  Add more Coca Cola if the beans get too dry and stir.  The beans can be eaten right away or made ahead.  If you make the beans ahead of time, just add more Coca Cola to the beans when you reheat them.

Found here http://thecrosseyedblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/howards-baked-beans.html

Summer Squash & Zucchini Gratin

2 medium summer squash, cut into ¼ inch slices

2 medium zucchini, cut into ¼ inch slices

2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes (that’s a 1 pint container, if you’re buying them)

2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

2 Tbsp. flour

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1/4 c whipping cream

3 Tbsp. panko bread crumbs

1/4 c finely grated parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 450F. In a large bowl, toss summer squash, zucchini, grape tomatoes, and garlic with flour, salt and pepper. Transfer to a pie plate and drizzle with whipping cream.

In a separate bowl, mix panko, parmesan and olive oil together. Sprinkle the crumbs over the veggies.

Cook until the topping is brown, the veggies are tender and the sauce is bubbling, 20-25 minutes