It has been THAT kind of day!

This has been a very craptastic day so far, and it hasn't really begun to get better.   The kids have colds and are thusly terribly whiny and terribly frustrating to deal with, so, I decided to kick the sugar away from them for a few days (which is sooooo easy at this time of year) and so they had a choice of eggs, sausage or oatmeal.  Rosie happily had an egg but Ladybug melted down with the suggestions and then it went down hill from there. Eventually she decided on sausages and then happily ate almost 3 1/2 sausages.  Then it was Rosie's turn to meltdown, poor kid lost her Playmobil Advent Calendar for 2 days.  Luckily my Mom was over so when I lost it, she took over.

On top of allllllll of that, I spilled scalding milk on my foot and all over the floor and then spread ground coffee everywhere and then as I was trying to use my lovely Aeropress and I had coffee grinds stuck in the threads and mess followed.  My day did not start well.

On a some what better note, I had decided to make baked beans that I saw on Seriouseats.com and decided that since we have friends over most Mondays, I should make something nice to eat.  If it turns out horribly we can always get pizza which is the standard unless I make some sort of awesomeness. 

You start out by simmering the beans.  It is best if you get them tender since they don't have a lot of liquid soak up to make them even softer.

Diced onions.

And then they meet the cooked beans.

Line the dutch oven with the bacon.

Place half of the beans into the pan and then place the ham hock in the pan and cover with the remaining beans.

Here is the beans, sauce, and ham hock all together.

Doesn't that look delicious.

Maple Baked Beans
From Serious Eats

2 cups dried Navy Beans
6 strips Bacon
1 Onion chopped
1 tsp Dried Mustard Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1 Pork Hock, Fresh or Smoked
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Brown Sugar


~Preheat oven to 325
~Simmer beans for 20-30 minutes until tender.  Drain beans and reserve cooking liquid.
~Line bean pot or dutch oven with stripes of bacon.
~In a large bowl toss together onions and bean.
~Place half of the bean mixture in the pot, place the ham hock and then cover with remaining beans.
~Mix together 2 cups of the cooking liquid with mustard, salt, and maple syrup.  Pour over the beans, cover and place in oven for 3 hours, or until the pork hock is fully cooked and pulling away from the bone.  Add more cooking liquid if the beans are looking dry.
~Once the ham hock is cooked, pull the beans out of the oven.  Blend butter and brown sugar and sprinkle over the top of the beans and place back in the oven with the lid off for an additional 30 minutes.