Screw It! We're Doing Beanie Weinies Java Style for Dinner

The weather affects my mood.  My normally bubbling cheerfulness gruff forbearance, becomes downright grim when winter stretches through spring. The first week in June and Sacramento hasn't even seen the 90s.  We had a week of cold rain and tornadoes--in June, in northern California.  June usually finds me struggling to be heard over the roar of the rattling air conditioner in my classroom.  Monday the radiators were gurgling with steam.  Anyone tries to be perky around me these days--I'll gut them, make them eat their own livers. 

After putting together all the dishes for my 24 x 24 entry last week, I was looking for something less taxing.  Normally, I would be grilling in June.  The weather has put me in such a funk that I decided to go old school, cooking some baked beans with some homemade beef dogs.  I made the hot dogs earlier and had to find a way to use them up.  They were good dogs, smoky with a good snap, but how many hot dogs can a person eat?

Beanie weinies--a favorite of my brother-in-law, PapaBob--is a traditional American comfort food.  Baked beans with bacon (or salt pork) and hot dogs in a sweet sauce are a great dish for a cold, wet winter day.  So it's June; I don't care anymore. The days are dark and the rain is puddling in the streets. 

Baked beans call for cornbread. Cathy, over at Gastronomy, had a posting featuring some cornbread muffins recently. They got me salivating.  I had some corn to use up, so I decided to make up my own batch.  They didn't turn out quite as cheesy as I'd like, but they were very good.  Even with the miserable weather I managed to improve my mood. 

 

Soon we'll be in the 100s.  Good.  Great.  Bring on the heat.  As good as the beanie weinies and cornbread muffins were, I'd  prefer not to have an excuse to eat them until November.  It's time for margaritas and grilled meats.

Javanese Beanie Weanies

printable recipe

1 lb. small white beans, soaked overnight in 10 cups water

1 onion, peeled and diced

1/2 lb. bacon, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup kecap manis

1 cup coffee

1 cup pineapple juice

100 grams gula merah or dark brown sugar

3/4 cup tomato ketchup

2 tsp mustard

6 to 8 hot dogs, sliced in 1 inch pieces

In a 6 quart pot, fry the bacon until it is maybe half way cooked.  Add the onion and cook until softened.  Drain the beans, reserving the water.  Stir in soaked beans and the remaining ingredients except for the hot dogs.  Add reserved water to cover by about 1/2 an inch.  Cover the pot with foil and bake in 300º F oven for 5 to 6 hours, stirring every 90 minutes or so.  

Add sliced hot dogs and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes.  If beans are too liquid, remove the foil.  If too dry, add more of the reserved water, stir well and cook longer.  Serve with rice or cornbread.

The cornbread muffins recipe is adapted from Dorie Greenspan's which I found at  Serious Eats.

Corny Cornbread Muffins with Bacon, Jalapeño and Cheese

printable recipe

1 cup yellow corn meal

1 cup all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2  tsp baking soda

kernels from 2 ears of corn, or 1 cup of frozen kernels

4 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp, crumbled

4 jalapeño peppers, seeded and diced

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

6 TBS sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

3 TBS bacon grease

3 TBS vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400º F.  Grease or spray 12 muffin standard muffin pan with no-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients.  In a large measuring cup mix the liquid ingredients together, beating the egg and egg yolk to mix thoroughly.  Add corn, cheese and bacon to the flour mixture.  Pour in liquid mixture and stir to make a thick batter.  Ladle or pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan.  Bake in middle of the preheated oven for 15--18 minutes until done.  Cool muffins on a wire rack.