The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

I told readers that to get rid of the mid winter blues, I had been cooking recipes all of February that Laened Black had given me years ago. Funny thing about the recipe here, I don’t remember ever eating these beans at her house or at her beautiful Clear Creek cabin.

I cooked the beans for Super Bowl and can tell you they are as good a baked bean that I have ever cooked. The recipe serves 25 and is almost impossible to cut down. But the beans freeze well.

If you love baked beans, you are going to love these.

Turn oven to 350. Have a roaster for the beans and a Dutch oven or very large frying pan for the sautéing.

2 pounds ground beef

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 can tomato soup, undiluted

1 small can tomato paste

½ cup catsup

1 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

Sauté the hamburger, onion and celery. Drain if needed. Add all the rest of the ingredients above and mix will. Simmer for a good twenty minutes.

Meanwhile you are dumping the rest of the ingredients in a roaster. They include

1 can green beans, drained

1 can lima beans, drained

1 can wax beans, drained

1 large can of Chile beans undrained

1 large can of pork and beans, undrained

Mix all together in the roaster. When finished simmering, dump the frying pan mixture in the roaster. Stir well. Bake uncovered for an hour at 350.

Makes for 25 very happy people!