As a southerner, I love to sit around and listen to my mother and dad [and now my brother] and/or my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. tell stories. Any time there's a family gathering, we tell stories. And we eat.
And we tell food stories.
Seeing a recipe for baked beans on my friend Judy's blog brought to mind a story about Baked Beans.
I've never cooked baked beans in my life and I don't plan to, as long as Bush's Best continue to be available in stores. I've been to the Bush cannery [it was right near our lake cabin] and they do things right. No other kind of baked beans will ever grace our table.
My mother's friend Carolyn has a daughter, Carrie, who got married in about 1995. They didn't have the money for a big wedding, but they wanted a nice one, of course. Carrie's fiancee was British, and many of his relatives flew over to Augusta for the wedding. My parents offered to have the rehearsal dinner at their house because they had a lovely backyard with a pool, and it was a good house for entertaining.
So Mother is informed, shortly before the dinner, that many of Carrie's fiancee's British family members are vegetarians. The plan for the dinner is barbeque.
Oh dear.
Mother calls another friend of hers, Babs, who grew up in London. Babs tells mother to buy some vegetarian baked beans and heat them in the oven, with NOTHING ADDED.
Now, in my family, we never cook anything without adding some herbs and/or spices. Especially if we eat something canned or frozen, which is rare, we add stuff. (Stouffer's spinach souffle, for example, really benefits from some onion powder and parmesan cheese. Anything with canned tuna benefits from fresh lime juice.)
Babs was authoritarian, and she knew Mother well. With great trepidation, Mother bought some bland Bush's baked beans, and put them in a 9x13 dish in the oven on the night of the party. She didn't even add salt and pepper. Nothing.
She felt very uneasy. She felt like the meat eaters were getting a much better deal.
Not so the Brits. They ate ALL the baked beans, and Mother had to open some more cans and heat them quickly on the stove.
Every one of those folks went away raving about how good the food was at the party.
Obviously the lesson here is to buy a good quality product and just present it nicely. Serve lots of mixed drinks, too. [hahahaha just kidding Mom]
BTW, Carrie and Tim are still married and they have two adorable little boys.
