Not My Comfort Food
I’ve mentioned on occasion that Joe’s mom cooked many more classic American dishes than my mom ever made. She also made the traditional Italian favorites, but I can tell that American family food was firmly planted in her recipe rotation by the nostalgia certain dishes elicit from my husband. Over the course of our years together, he has requested certain dishes which I had never had and didn’t know the proper procedure for preparation. Take franks and beans (what else would I be talking about with this photo at the top?); my mom certainly cooked us hot dogs when we were kids, and at times she served a side of canned baked beans with them. But she never put them together! Why not? I’m not sure, but they belonged side by side on our plates, not all mixed up like some crazy food rave.
But since franks and beans were on Joe’s hit list, when we were in our early married years he prepared them for me once or twice. So the basic concept was stored in my food memory banks. And yesterday, with the girls home for the holiday, I didn’t feel like going food shopping when I had better things to do with them like go to the movies instead. I pondered what was in my freezer and pantry that could be turned into dinner and VOILA! It dawned on me that I could make franks and beans and introduce the girls to this classic comfort food.
Is this too long a story, yet, for something as basic as franks and beans? I’ll understand, readers, if you go off to do something more exciting at this point like watch the local evening news.
Anyway, back to my tale of franks and beans. I told Joe the news over breakfast of what I had planned for dinner, and the expected light shone from his sweet brown eyes. Ah, that little boy is still in there. When it came time to whip up this culinary classic, I discovered that my pantry contained neither baked beans in the can nor pinto beans. But that wasn’t going to stop me! I used a couple of cans of cannellini beans. I fried up some bacon and onions, added the beans, mustard, brown sugar, molasses, and cayenne. Finally, I mixed in the diced hot dogs and baked it until Joe arrived home.
I’m pleased to report that the girls were suitably satisfied with this American classic, enough so that it may make a future appearance on our table. Maybe it will even become a comfort food classic in their nostalgic minds as adults. (Like, remember that one time mom made us franks and beans for dinner and promised to make them again but never did?)
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4 Responses to “Not My Comfort Food”
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I guess when the prep time for dinner is shorter you have more time to write.
“There’s Something about Mary”
You actually turned a fast food classic into a gourmet dinner by creating your own baked beans. Now that you’ve done it the hard way, will you ever repeat it by opening a can of prepared baked beans???
I’m missing the connection to the movie. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. Did they eat franks and beans?
Good question Zoogirl. Possibly not because I really liked my rendition. However, could I possibly ever duplicate it? Not sure since I didn’t measure anything, just threw it all together by taste.