Bean recipes: From side dishes to pizza!

In honor of B&M Baked Bean’s 150th anniversary, we offer three bean-friendly recipes courtesy of B&M’s Facebook page and Gary Henault from Auburn who is so committed to a good batch of beans that he and friends dug and built a three-feet-deep brick oven in his backyard.

B&M’s Mexican pizza

Ingredients:

1 can B&M Original Baked Beans (mashed)

1 4-ounce can mild green chilies (drained)

1/2 packet taco seasoning

1 tomato (sliced)

1 8-ounce package Mexican shredded cheese

1 package large flour tortillas

Lettuce (shredded)

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a few flour tortillas onto a large baking sheet. Place taco seasoning and beans on tortillas. On top of beans, place tomato slices, salt and pepper, chilies and cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with shredded lettuce or your choice of toppings.

B&M’s cheesy bean dip

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon margarine (or oil or butter)

1 onion (sliced and quartered)

1 16-ounce can B&M Original Baked Beans (mashed)

8 ounces of Swiss cheese (cubed)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 loaf French bread (cubed)

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, melt margarine. Add onion and cook until tender. Add beans, cheese and cayenne pepper, stirring until melted and smooth. Serve in warm dish with bread cubes as dippers.

Gary’s bean hole beans

Makes a four-quart batch

Ingredients:

2 pounds great northern or navy beans, dry

1/2 cup water (for mixing)

3-4 quarts water (for soaking)

2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cup molasses

1 large onion (sliced)

2 teaspoons dry mustard

1/2 teaspoons salt

1 package unsliced salt pork

10 strips maple-flavored bacon (5 line the bottom of the pot, 5 on top of the beans)

Directions:

Soak beans for eight hours, then boil for 25 minutes on a stove. Strain and set water aside. Mix molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard and onions. Line bottom of a cast iron dutch oven pot with five stripes of bacon. Add beans, the molasses mix, the salted pork and the rest of the bacon. Top off with the retained water. Place a lid on the pot and wrap it in tinfoil to keep out ashes. Take the pot outside.

During the kitchen prep, wood has been burning in the outdoor pit for two to two-and-a-half hours. The now-red-hot coals are dug out of the pit, the pot is lowered into the pit, the coals are dumped back in, the metal cover of the pit is placed on top and dirt/sand is shoveled over it all to trap the heat. Sixteen hours or so later, it is all dug up and the beans are ready.