Blue Cayenne

For me, baked beans hit all the right flavor notes–sweet, savory…a bit of tang.

As a home cook, I love the long slow baking process and the wonderful aromas that waft through my kitchen when I bake beans.

I’m not alone in this romance with baked beans. Baked Beans have been enjoyed for a very long time. Europeans were making cassoulet beans as far back as the Middle Ages. Native Americans  were enjoying their own version of baked beans when the European colonists arrived, baking their beans in underground “bean holes” in a sauce composed of maple syrup and bear fat.

This pot of beans is based upon Joe Yonan’s recipe for Homesteader-New England Baked Beans from his wonderful cookbook Cool Beans. (Cool Beans is available from your local bookstore or from Amazon here.)

Here is the recipe for the beans as I prepared them in my kitchen–no bear fat but a whole lot of deliciousness.

In Spain,  Esta es La Pera is a popular idiom used to describe a particularly enjoyable experience. Literally translated, it means “This is the pear.”   

So, in the spirit of this season when pears shine, here is a “no fuss” dessert that showcases one of the best fruits of the fall/winter season–pears. 

This recipe for Pears Poached in Red Wine and Cassis is a Martha Rose Shulman recipe from The New York Times. You can find the link here.  I am a long-time admirer of Shulman’s recipes. One of my favorite cookbooks is her fine 2007 cookbook Mediterranean Harvest. The book is long out of print and copies are pricey but you can find copies on Amazon here.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. Esta es La Pera, for sure!

Milk Duds. Abba Zaba bars. Sugar Daddies. Atomic Fireballs.  (Atomic Fireballs?! Yikes!)

Candy memories and Retro Candy. Who knew it was a thing?  I didn’t.

But, then, I recently came across this recipe for a Banana Cake With Malted Milk Ball Garnish. Malted Milk Balls! I hadn’t thought about malted milk balls for decades. Back in the day, though, they were a decadent pleasure I enjoyed a lot; that smooth chocolaty goodness always promised the sweet crunch of the malted milk ball that lay below. 

So, I made the cake and thoroughly enjoyed it. The recipe is from Snackable Bakes by Jessie Sheehan. Her book is available at your local bookstore or on Amazon here.

Reacquainting myself with malted milk balls got me to thinking about all those olde time candies that have disappeared or almost disappeared. I discovered that there is an Internet site to address those candy cravings of one’s youth: Old Time Candy. The site allows you to sort candy by the decade it was popular and to order decade-focused packs of candy. As I read through the lists of candies,  I quickly realized that candy is not only a gustatory experience but a reflection of the history and even the propaganda of the times. For example, in the 1930s, people (who could afford candy) were eating a bit of optimism when they enjoyed 5th Avenue Bars and Good News Candy Bars. During the anxiety-driven 1950s of my youth, the candy story sometimes took a dark turn with candies like Atomic Fireballs, Sugar Daddies and those Bubble Gum Cigars that  encouraged kids to mimic their  tobacco-loving elders. (For my part, I can’t help but wonder what PR genius thought up atomic fireballs anyway? I still remember those scary drills where we hid under our desks at Long Beach Wilson High School to practice what to do in the event of a Russian nuclear attack.)

Here is the Banana Cake With Malted Milk Ball Garnish recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.