May 18: Chili Barbecue Beans

I've never made baked beans from scratch, but I guess there's a first time for everything. I started these pretty late last night. It was about midnight when I gathered all the ingredients. I had been letting the beans soak for 6 or 8 hours.

After soaking a cup each of great northern, red beans, and baby lima beans, I rinsed them and put them in the Crock Pot. then I added 4 cups of water, 8 crumbled slices of cooked bacon, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons minced onion, 2 beef bouillon cubes, a tsp. each of dried mustard , chili powder and minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and two bay leaves:

I cooked that overnight on low, about 8 hours. Then I added 1 cup of barbecue sauce and let it cook for another hour.

We had a potluck at church today, so I kept it on warm during the service. I tried them, and they were pretty good. Beans have never been my favorite, but these weren't the worst beans I've had! DH liked them, but he thought they were a little sweet. It was the perfect recipe for a potluck, though. They got eaten all up!