Wine bottle lamps and Baked Beans

First of all let me catch up everyone on the wine bottle lamps.  I've tried to post each as I've finished them but here are all three so far....

This is my lamp....can't you tell by the name  :0)

This is Alex's lamp....his white rum from our vacay in the Dom.

This is Court's sassy little Sangria version

My friend LL may be coming over tomorrow to make hers and possibly one for her daughters room.  FUN FUN...don't worry, I'll post the pics as soon as we get them finished.   Remember...LL's wine bottle is way toooo fun!!!   I love it!!

Now.... I have made these baked beans several times before but somehow never manage to complete the recipe and all the photos at one time.  Sunday we went over to Chuck and SuePoo's house for a little preback to school get together and I made these beans and I was bound and determined to get the photos all the way through....whew...finally!!!   These beans are delish!!  They are a Pioneer Woman recipe and a new family favorite around here.  Not to mention they bake for so long the house smells deeeevine!!!!

Let's do it!

Cast of characters:

1/2 package of bacon

1 medium onion, cut into small dice

1/2 medium green pepper, cut into small dice

2 lg cans (28 oz) pork and beans

3/4 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 tsps dry ground mustard

Adjust oven rack to lower middle positition and preheat to 325 degrees. 

Fry your bacon in a large pan..... I cut my bacon in half and fry in a large dutch oven

Believe me... after trial and error I finally made sure to use a big enough pan the first time!

Fry the bacon until almost crisp and leave that bacon grease in the pan!!! But make sure you take the bacon out and drain in on some paper towels...then hide it so your family can't sneek in the kitchen and eat it all before we are ready for it.  Unless your family isn't sneeky like mine and the smell of bacon pulls them from the woodwork!

Once the bacon is all fried up and those drippings are hanging out in the pan.... dump in the onions and green peppers.  You are gonna cook those until tender...about 5 minutes.

Dumped in and stirred up in that nice bacon drippings!!

It's been about 5 minutes so I think it's time.....just give those babies a few stirs now and then while they are softening up too!

Ok...these are all ready for the beans and the remaining ingredients.

There is the beans now let's add the other good stuff

Give it all a good stir and heat until it's nice and warm all over and comes to a nice simmer. 

Then we are gonna take those babies and slap them in a big ole' oven safe dish and add that bacon to the top

slap those things in the oven and let's let them cook for about 1 hr and 40 minutes, a little less if your oven is a big furnace like mine or a little longer if it runs on the cool side.  Don't cook more than 2 hours and then take them out of the oven and let them sit a bit to thicken up.  Then share..... they're good!! 

confession..... I got pics of the bean cooking process all the way though this time but then we needed to get out the door and get to Chuck and Sue's that I forget to get a finished photo....I used one of the others, but it all looks the same!!   Try them and let me know what you think!!

Peace, Love and Yummies folks...time to clean the house!