Grandmother's Cowboy Beans

This recipe is one of my favorites.
{Not your ordinary Baked Beans}. 

It connects me to some wonderful memories.
AND, it might be the recipe I'm asked for the most, next to Apple Brickle Dip. {maybe I'll share that one soon}! 

My Grandparents had a farm I loved, where they grew wheat and raised cattle and did other farm things that are magical in my childhood memories. 

Mud pies from trash dishes, swinging on vines, building forts in the hay barn, bottle feeding baby calves, riding in the back of pick up trucks and throwing "cake" to the cows, delicious meals around a big round table, giggling at uncles misbehaving, chasing cousins and siblings down the hill just next to the house, sleeping over and wearing Pap's tshirts for jammies....

My memories of family times at their place are some of my very favorites. 

Early cooking lessons, MUDPIES!

One of my favorite all-time pictures of my Grandmother, me, and my mom washing dishes.

In the fall my grandparents would host cookouts. My grandpa (Pappy, we called him), would rig up the most fun hayrides. After he drove us all over the pasture and through a path he made in the woods, we would all pile off the flatbed trailer we'd been riding and gather around a campfire toward the end of the pasture, almost to the tree line. 

Next to that campfire was a stove.

A stove.

I get so tickled now thinking back that it never seemed strange to me that there was a white stove/oven combo out in the middle of the pasture. Isn't that one of the joys of childhood? It didn't matter how it worked and I never really considered it, I just knew that there was my Grandmother and her Cowboy Beans there by that stove in the pasture. 

No family is perfect, 
but I had a place with lots of people who loved me. 
A place where innocent, trusting childhood was protected. 
It was a gift I didn't know to appreciate in those days.
That's what childhood should be.

We would roast hot dogs, which I loved and always have, but the Cowboy Beans were the real meal. This recipe is a sweet Baked Beans recipe with the delicious savory addition of hamburger meat browned and seasoned with onions. It seems familiar, but is also unique.

This is also a really versatile recipe, you can make it ahead and take it for tailgating or cookouts in a crockpot. 
You can bake it and wrap your pan up super tight in foil and beach towels (that's how my mom and I do it) - and it stays hot for a LONG time. 

If my Grandmother can make it work magically in the middle of a pasture, then surely these beans can be served anywhere!

You start with two pounds of ground beef, start it browning and then add a large onion, chopped up really fine (because believe it or not, there are folks who don't like chunks of onion). I use lean meat that I don't need to drain, so I also season my meat with seasoned salt and pepper in this stage.

Then you mix 4 cans of beans (2 pork n' beans, 2 Ranch Style beans) with some ketchup, some brown sugar and some maple syrup....

Now about the beans, my Grandmother's recipe instructs me to drain all but one can of beans. Maybe the products have changed some, but it seems to me that in recent years draining has been less necessary. Whatever you do, don't rinse the beans....lots of the flavor comes from the sauce they are packed in. Just pour any extra watery juice off the top of the can. 

Oh, and that little bit of fat at the top of the Pork N' Beans can, take that out. Ick.

This is my handy jar of maple syrup. I keep one on hand for two recipes; Cowboy Beans and my friend Amanda's Cake Cornbread recipe. 

Next you mix in the meat with all the yummy saucy sweet beans you just made. 

Right here is when these actually start smelling like a memory. Have you ever had that happen?

Pour the whole thing into a large baking dish (9x13 or bigger) and bake.....uncovered. 

Sooooo Delicious!

Here's the official recipe.....

Grandmother’s Cowboy Beans

2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2—16 oz cans Pork and Beans

2—16 oz cans Ranch style Beans

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup maple syrup

2 cups ketchup

Brown beef with onion until onions are soft and meat is no longer pink, season well with salt and pepper.  Drain all but one can of Ranch beans.  Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until hot through.

Enjoy!!

Jamy