FUN, FOOD, AND FAMILY SERIES/GIVEAWAY - ELIZABETH MARX - AUINNIE'S BBQ BEANS

Food, Family and Fun Southern Shenanigans… 

I’m a Yankee girl. I was born and raised in Chicago, but I have strong southern roots. My mother moved to Chicago with her parents when she was thirteen years old, just about the time most of the mill jobs in Alabama dried up. During the summers my grandmother’s sister, Auinnie, would come North to ‘Chicargo’ for a visit and then take me back south with her. During my mother’s childhood, Auinnie owned a little café called Blondie’s Café on Main Street in a small town in Alabama. I grew up on my mother’s stories about working the counter there, where most of the businessmen ate just as many meals at Blondie’s tables as they did at their own home.

This is a picture of me and Auinnie, I think I was 9.

Auinnie was the oldest of her siblings and my grandmother was the youngest so they had a mild sibling rivalry, but it never simmered hotter than when it concerned food. When Auinnie would come for a visit it was like a southern version of Chopped. My grandma and Auinnie would cook for days, I remember a fried chicken cook-off that not only required several cans of Crisco, but the scouring of a city block in search of another good cast iron skillet. Grandma and Auinnie each tried to get the crispiest crust and the juiciest meat. Once there was a meringue contest that actually required a ruler to determine a winner. It made me no never mind whose pie won, because I got a sliver of lemon meringue and coconut crème that afternoon. There was also a pressure cooker incident that required the painting of the kitchen ceiling. I was too young to get the whole story on what exactly they’d accidentally blown up, but when I pounded my way up the back porch steps they both smelled of highly suspicious Strawberry Hill.

So the tradition of southern food was the thing that tied Grandma and Auinnie together. It was a bind that hundreds of miles of southern cotton fields nor smoking northern factories could ever break. They did other things together like sewing, quilting, and gossiping, but the richness of their life experience was layered like a good, made-from-scratch biscuit and they were as thick as thieves when they were in the kitchen together on a summer evening.

My grandmother and Auinnie grew up as sharecropper’s daughters, and in the south pinto beans are a staple at every meal. Here’s Auinnie’s enhanced version of BBQ beans and my grandmother’s little ditty that she’d sing when I complained about beans again: "Beans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot, the better you feel. So we have beans at every meal!"

Enjoy these, they’re so good you can eat them like chili with a slice of cornbread, or serve them at your favorite outdoor get together!

 

 

Beans & BBQ

AUINNIES BBQ BEANS

6-8 STALKS CELERY DICED
2 BELL PEPPERS DICED
2 MED ONIONS DICED

The veggies

1 LB BACON SLICED INTO ½” STRIPS
1 LB GROUND BEEF
1 LB GROUND PORK (CAN USE  BREAKFAST SAUSAGE)

The meat

1 BOTTLE TIGER SAUCE

1 BOTTLE BBQ SAUCE (KRAFT/HUNTS)

1 TBL SPOON SOY SAUCE (SALT)

2 TBL SPOONS HEINZ 57 SAUCE

2 TBL SPOONS A1 STEAK SAUCE

2 TBL SPOONS LEA & PERRINS WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE

PEPPER TO TASTE

5-6 15oz SIZE PORK AND BEANS OR 2-3 LARGER CANS, DRAIN HALF THE LIQUID FROM EACH CAN

The sauces

INSTRUCTIONS: 

FRY BACON PIECES IN SKILLET AND REMOVE THEM WHILE THEY’RE SOFT & RUBBERY. TRANSFER THEM INTO ANOTHER PAN, LEAVING THE DRIPPINGS. BROWN THE DICED ONIONS, CELERY AND BELL PEPPERS IN BACON FAT (DO NOT DRAIN FAT AWAY). AT THE SAME TIME YOU CAN BROWN THE GROUND BEEF AND PORK IN ANOTHER SKILLET, DRAIN THIS FAT (WE DON’T WANT TO GET TOO CARRIED AWAY WITH ANIMAL FATS) COMBINE GROUND MEAT, BACON, AND VEGETABLES. STIR ALL INGREDIENTS.  ADD ALL THE SAUCES EXCEPT THE BBQ SAUCE: SO ADD TIGER, SOY, HEINZ 57, A1, WORCESTSHIRE AND BRING TO A LOW SIMMER FOR 20 MINUTES, ADD BBQ SAUCE & LET SIMMER ON LOW FOR ANOTHER 20 MIN. ABOUT 15 MIN BEFORE SERVING ADD BEANS AND KEEP ON LOW HEAT. DO NOT BOIL OR BEANS WILL BREAK APART.

ENJOY!!!

So my personal experience as a Yankee girl who spent a considerable number of summers down south was the basis of my novel. It’s a New Adult/Contemporary romance novel titled: STAINED.

 

If you’d like to add STAINED to you to be read list, you may do so at Goodreads.

Also feel free to visit my website to learn more about my other titles.

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Windy City writer, ELIZABETH MARX, brings cosmopolitan life alive in her fiction—a blend of romance, fast-paced Chicago living, and a sprinkle of magical realism. Elizabeth resides with her husband, girls, and two cats who’ve spelled everyone into believing they’re really dogs. She grew up in the city, has traveled extensively, and still says there’s no town like Chi-Town. 

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