Sophie vs the Beans

   The Ward Christmas party was last Sunday and I needed to bring a dish to pass. Since I was going to be working that entire weekend, it needed to be either something simple that C could make or something that could be made in a crock-pot. The main dish was going to be ham, so we needed something that would go with ham. We had talked about several possibilities. We could bring homemade macaroni and cheese or some sort of potato dish. I told C to let me know as I would need to buy some items. I needed to know by the end of the Thursday evening shift.
   The deadline came and I did not hear anything from C. He was swamped with several other projects and was feeling overwhelmed. I was facing an entire weekend of work and the shame of attending a church party empty handed.
  On Friday night in desperation I looked in crock-pot cookbooks for something we could bring. It had to be something that didn't require a shopping trip and it had to be easy. It came down to two choices, black-eyed peas or baked beans. I chose the baked beans. All I needed was dry pinto beans,brown sugar, molasses and water.
  There was just one problem. You had to cook the beans on high for two hours. Let them set for eight hours and then cook them on low for 10-12 hours. I didn't have that kind of time. I remembered that you could soak beans overnight and then cook them. I washed the beans and put them in water to soak.
   The next morning I mixed the beans with the ingredients and put them in the crock-pot. I set the pot on low and told C to check the beans and put them on high at 4 pm if needed. I hope that would be enough time.
   C called me later that day. The beans were not cooked, so he had put them on high. He was also going to buy a container of potato salad as a back up plan. That sounded good to me.
  When he came to pick me up after work, the beans were in the back seat. It was dark and I couldn't see them, but they smelled good. We drove to the chapel.
   When we got there I checked the beans. They were floating around in the sauce which was dark and watery. I hoped they tasted better than they looked. I put the crock-pot and the potato salad out with the other food.
   I got a plate and sampled the some of the other food. I took some of my beans. The looked worse on my plate than they did in the pot. I wasn't sure they had cooked at all. Fortunately it also looked like the meal part of the party was about over. Most of the people were close to finishing their food. The desserts would be put out shortly and my beans were not needed. When I sat down, I tried the beans. They were revolting. Not cooked anywhere close to enough and the sauce was too watery to have any kind of flavor. I was grateful that C had thought to grab the potato salad. I was glad we came a bit late.
  Now I had to figure out what to do with the beans. I could have just tossed them. They were cheap. My experiment didn't work. However I didn't want to. I was determined that I was going to cook and eat those beans. I was not going to let them go to waste. Generations of cooks had successfully cooked dry beans. I was not going to give up.
  I let them sit in the crock-pot overnight on Saturday night. Sunday morning I got up and turned on the crock-pot setting it on high. I checked on the beans before I went to work and they were simmering away. I told C to turn the crock-pot down to low when he got back from church.
  Later in the afternoon I got a call from C. He had turned the beans down because he thought they were going to burn. They were still cooking when I got home from work. I decided that I was going to let those beans cook. Then I forgot about them. We were just settling down to sleep when C asked me if I had turned the beans off. I hadn't. I got out of bed and turned them off.
  Monday morning I checked on the beans. They looked like the picture in the cookbook except darker. I sampled a bite. Not bad,pretty heavy on the molasses though. They weren't like the canned beans I'd always had. The texture was going to take some getting used to. I decided that it was a success. I put the beans in plastic container in the fridge. I had won.
   Now that I have cooked these beans, I'll have to try other. Maybe black-eyed  peas next. It is getting close to New Years.