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<\/a><\/p>\nJanuary was always\u00a0 the cruelest month when one grew up in Northern Saskatchewan. The excitement of Christmas still a warm memory, but\u00a0 January was a biting,\u00a0 bitter, angry cold that left you weeping.\u00a0 Freezing eye lashes together.\u00a0 Turning feet into numbing blocks of ice. \u00a0\u00a0 A January\u00a0 cold that groaned and complained.\u00a0 A cold that split the ice on our outdoor rink\u00a0 into\u00a0 large cracks \u00a0 catching the blades of our skates and sending us tumbling into snowbanks.\u00a0 We loved it.<\/p>\n
Night come early in the Far North.\u00a0\u00a0 Darkness by four o’clock.\u00a0 Snow crunched with\u00a0\u00a0 every step.\u00a0 The evening sky dazzled with a light show\u00a0 of a million\u00a0 stars.\u00a0\u00a0 Scarf wrapped, double layers of hand knit mittens and socks,\u00a0 we waited.\u00a0 The\u00a0 Northern Lights\u00a0 lite up the sky with breath taking brilliant colours. They flashed, soared, danced filling our world with a\u00a0 show we never took for granted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mittens were discarded.\u00a0 Hands clapped.\u00a0 We were absolutely certain we had the ability to make\u00a0 The\u00a0 Northern Lights dance to our applause.\u00a0\u00a0 Then chilled to the bone hunger drove us home for supper.<\/p>\n
Remembrances of things past.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The crackle and smell of a wood burning wood stove.\u00a0 The small, warm kitchen filled with\u00a0 the comforting aroma of baked beans.\u00a0 Fresh bread lavished with butter.\u00a0\u00a0 A childhood recollection of home.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marcel Proust wrote of the joys of madelines.\u00a0 For me it will always be\u00a0 baked beans.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fragrant beans simmering all day\u00a0 until the pork dissolved into a rich sauce and beans become\u00a0 tender bursts of flavour.\u00a0 This is the baked beans of my childhood. \u00a0 The remembrances of things past.\u00a0 This is not an exotic recipe.\u00a0 The ingredients are those of more than seventy years ago.\u00a0 Most important is –\u00a0 what is not in this\u00a0 Northern Saskatchewan recipe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No molasses. \u00a0 Ginger gives the beans a\u00a0 counter balance to the sweetness of the sugar.<\/p>\n
Quoting Proust\u00a0 wrote “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy;\u00a0 they are the charming gardeners who make our souls bloom.”\u00a0\u00a0 May you be happy with this simple recipe.\u00a0 May your January skies be filled with Northern Lights, and may you enjoy\u00a0 the simple pleasure of skating on an outdoor rink in the mysterious darkness of the night.<\/p>\n
The preparation for OLD FASHIONED CANADIAN BAKED BEANS starts about 24 hours before you plan to serve it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You spend\u00a0 just a few minutes assembling the ingredients, and the rest of the times requires the beans to spend overnight soaking in water, and then most of the day quietly simmering away unattended in a slow oven.\u00a0 (275F)<\/p>\n
Serving beans with grains like wheat, rice or corn makes it a completely protein.\u00a0 When you leave out the pork it makes a delicious vegetarian supper.<\/p>\n