4th of July Beans

For many years my family spent the week of the 4th of July over at my parents place in Eastern Washington. A lot of time was spent at the farm playing games, eating, playing the bean bag game out in the backyard, playing baseball in the front field, eating, laughing and more eating. Many hours were spent down at the Snake River too, complete with waterskiing, swimming, fishing, playing games, and of course, eating!

One of the dishes we had every year was the great side dish of baked beans that my Aunt Janice always made. They were SO good, but boy were they powerful in another way. So I named them 4th of July Beans for 2 reasons. One, because we had them every year we got together for the 4th of July, but also for the "fireworks" that happened awhile after eating these beans. Oh, those were fun times at the river. What a gas!



This picture doesn't show the hamburger or the onion, but these are the other ingredients.

Listed here are all of the ingredients:***

1.5 to 2 pounds ground beef
1/2 C chopped onion
1 large can pork-n-beans
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1/2 C brown sugar
3/4 C ketchup
1/2 C BBQ sauce
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp. chili powder

I love to use a Dutch oven because you can brown your hamburger and then make the rest of the dish in the same pot.

Brown your hamburger. While it is browning add your chopped onions. When the hamburger is browned throughout, drain it, if needed.

To the browned hamburger add all of the other ingredients and stir frequently over medium-low heat. Reduce heat to low after about 20 minutes and let it simmer, stirring frequently. It will be ready to eat in less than an hour, but if you want you can put it into a 300 degree oven and let it further bake for another hour or so.



Once in awhile I add some bacon to this, and of course that's great.

This is ALWAYS a big hit.



***For those of you that have this recipe from our family cookbook, this is a slight variation from that, but generally the same. Both are great.

My dear Aunt Janice passed away 5 years ago and I miss her a ton. She left me with lots of great memories and some great recipes too!