Pat Conroy and some beans

First I will share a baked bean recipe with you. Sometimes I just like to eat baked beans. I don't know if it is the salt or the sugar...or both. Maybe my body is calling for fiber or the silly things are on sale. This time it was the later.
We encounter huge display as we entered the store.

.99 cents a can.

So I grabbed two.

Later that night as I whipped up some delicious canned ravioli (they all like it) for the children, I made myself some beans. I knew Paula Deen would have a bean recipe in her cookbook The Lady and Sons and she did.

I found a doozy :o)

Southern Baked Beans

1/2 pound bacon
1 large onion, diced
One 16-ounce can pork and beans
3 T. yellow mustard
5 T. maple syrup
4 T. ketchup

Preheat oven- 325 degrees
Fry bacon. Saute onion in bacon grease. Combine bacon, onion beans, mustard, syrup and ketchup. Bake until hot. (The recipe says to cover...I didn't and they were fine)

These are very yummy baked beans. I mixed them right in the 8x8 pan I cooked them in. Only messy part was frying the bacon.

Good beans!


I am still reading Pat Conroy's cookbook. I needed to borrow it again from the library. It is a charming book.

since you are not here for me to read thus out loud to you I will post it :o)
I would much rather read it out loud to you tho!


On arriving home with a newborn daughter, Pat has a talk with his older adopted children;

"Pat, the girls are worried you won't love them as much now that Megan's been born," my mother said. "It's natural. You just need to reassure them."

I found the girls on the couch in the living room. They ran to me, and I took them up in my arms...

"Peg says you two need to talk to me," I said.

"The girls looked at each other, and the Woo nodded for Jessica to speak.

"Do you like Megan more than us?" Jessica was up front.

"Nah," I said. "Have you seen her? She cries all the time. Poops in her britches. It's awful. I don't know how we are going to survive this one."

"But she's your real child," Jessica continued. "And me and the Woo aren't"

"No girls. I got a piece of paper saying you're my real kids. And I had to pay a lot of money to get those adoption papers."

"You love us that much?" the Woo asked. "More than Megan?"

More," I said. "I love you a lot more."

"Why?" both girls asked.

"Because I've known both of you a lot longer." I said. "Megan's a pain in the butt. She can't even talk. Can you believe that? And she's so dumb, she doesn't even know I'm her daddy."

"She's just a baby," Jessica said, defending her sister's honor.

"We've got a lot of work to do," I told her. "We've got to make Megan as nice and smart as you two girls."

The family is a big focus in many of Pat Conroy's books. The Prince of Tides and Beach Music both center around families and siblings. The movie The Great Santini has one of the greatest, most memorable father's in all cinema. And some very tender moments between mother and son.

I can't remember Beach Music very well. But I can recommend The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini as fabulous books. Perfect summer reads!

And Pat Conroy's Cookbook. It's funny and sweet and well written.

Try those beans. And a Pat Conroy book!

Encourage one another,
Donna