1. Friday evening, I used the quick soak method and then cooked a batch of Great Northern white beans. I combined the white beans with cans of kidney and black beans. The red, white, and black beans yielded up four cups of bean liquid and into this liquid I whisked molasses, brown sugar, salt, pepper, ginger, and dry mustard. I placed chopped white onion on the bottom of a well-oiled Dutch oven, poured the beans over the onions, added the four cups of liquid, and then topped it all with chopped bacon.
I set the oven at 250 degrees and began the 7-8 hour process of slow cooking these beans.
I was ready to go to bed around 11:00 or so. I turned off the oven with the beans inside, figuring they would continue to cook somewhat even as the oven't heat diminished.
First thing I did this morning was check the beans, turn the oven back on, and let them continue to slowly cook, checking on them every ninety minutes or so.
I wanted the beans to be less liquid-y, so, early in the afternoon, I removed the lid and slowly and surely the beans thickened and when they were at the consistency I desired, I turned off the oven and set the beans on the stove to cool.
About an hour or so before going over to the Roberts' for dinner, I slowly reheated the beans on the stovetop and transferred them into a bowl and put a lid on it.
Friday evening, when I added the brown sugar/molasses mixture to the beans, I thought the beans tasted way too sweet.
By the time the beans had slow cooked for many hours, the sweetness mellowed out considerably, so much so that at dinner last night, I wanted the presence of molasses in these beans to be more pronounced.
But, Christy and Tracy both said they liked the beans. Carol accepted my offer when I asked her if she wanted some leftover beans. Christy also accepted my offer of leftover beans in spirit, but said her fridge didn't have room for a container of beans. (I just heard from Christy. She and Tracy want some of my beans for their Sunday dinner! 💪)
I've got to create more opportunities to fix baked beans and see if I can more masterfully create the flavor in reality that I imagine as I dream about how I'd like the baked beans to taste.
2. We had a great dinner at Carol and Paul's house on the patio. In the Spirit of '76 (I guess) we enjoyed slow cooked bbq brisket on a bun, grilled in the husks corn on the cob, potato salad, slow cooked baked beans, fresh fruit salad, and, for dessert, slab cherry pie with cherry ice cream.
We had a full table of people at the table. In addition to the usual family dinner attendees (Paul, Carol, Christy, and I), today we were joined by Paul and Carol's student (and local thespian) Lucille, Paul's mother, Pat, the Barnes family (Taylor, Cosette, Saphire, and Bucky), and Christy's guest this weekend, Tracy.
3. Slow cooked brisket.
Slow cooked baked beans.
My slow reading of War and Peace slowly progresses.
I read an anonymous writer's comment today that the battle scenes of Volume 1, Part 2 featured Leo Tolstoy's mastery of "gritty realism".
The thing is, though, whether the war story is Catch-22, The Things They Carried, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Red Badge of Courage, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, or any of the many more novels, movies, or poems about war, gritty realism always gives way to the realm of surrealism.
Surrealism features what's going on in the unconscious mind, often dreams or nightmares, and the touchstones for perceiving reality we rely on in everyday life give way to the logic of dreams. The battle scenes in this section of War and Peace are surreal, nightmarish. None of our usual ways of functioning seem to apply: moral codes disappear, compassion gives way to callousness, enemies who taunt and joke with each other during a truce then turn around and kill each other, some characters see the violence and bloodshed of the battlefield as self-serving opportunities that can burnish their reputations, give them the chance to considered heroic in ways they dream of.
Because the scenes of battle tend toward surrealism, they are difficult sometimes to follow. In much the same way that our dreams are fragmented and put apparently disconnected things into connection with each other, the same happens in battle and it can be confounding and even fatiguing to read.
But worth it!
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