When I was a kid baked beans were a pretty common Saturday night dinner. Not B&M, not Bush's, real homemade baked beans. My mother made them fairly regularly for Saturday nights after a day on the slopes.

Of course we had hot dogs with them: Beans and hot dogs. Yum! More recently we've had them during the summer at the cottage, with chicken grilled outside. Whenever there was a big crew there on a Saturday or Sunday my mother would make a big pot of baked beans in one of those old-fashioned bean pots.

We'd grill chicken on the big old heavy metal grille on the back deck and sit at the picnic table in the backyard. Which is kind of weird. There's a bigger deck out front that overlooks the St. George River with a view out to islands. And an ocean breeze. The view in the back yard is of the dirt road, mostly traveled by relatives, who have cottages much like ours, thanks to my great grandfather, Bumpa.

Anyway. I think it's a Maine thing, sitting-on-the-back-stoop, watching the cars go by.

Baked beans and grilled chicken are great together. Try it this summer, if you haven't already. You can even use canned baked beans if you're lazy, or it's too hot to have your oven on for a few hours.

It’s possible to fake home-baked beans. If you don't believe me ask my little sister, Wendy. (She's not really that little anymore. She's taller than I. She's still pretty little width-wise though, in case anyone's interested. She's better looking too, but not as good a cook.) Wendy lives in Florida, and she used to brag about our mother’s Maine baked beans. A few years ago a neighbor was having a pool party and asked her to bring some of her famous baked beans. Wendy had every intention of making them, but when it got down to the wire she claims she forgot, so she went out and bought some canned ones. She added some stuff and put them in an authentic bean pot, and no one ever knew the difference. To her credit she said she felt a little guilty.

My father loved baked beans. He always reminded us to smell them as we drove by the B&M Baked Beans plant in Portland on the drive from Sanford to Cushing. It was strong, that aroma, and it smelled good. I don't think it's there anymore, and I just Googled B&M and called the 800 number on the website to find out where it is. Guess what. Nobody knows. Well somebody probably does, but not the woman in South Florida with the Asian accent who answered my call. But I did learn that the company started selling beans packed in cans during the 20s. So that's something. (Insert eye roll emoticon.)

So anyway. Baked beans and hot dogs, and baked beans and grilled chicken. What's missing? Oh! Brown bread! Chances are if you didn't grow up in New England you've never had, or heard of, brown bread. And admittedly – it sounds gross. Moist, sweet brown bread in a can. The main ingredients are molasses, flour – usually wheat and rye – and corn meal. We always had it from the can – complete with ridges like you get with jellied cranberry sauce – never homemade. It was heated in the can, sliced, and slathered with butter. Great. Now I'm going to have to get some, if Hannaford still carries it.

So I started thinking about baked beans on Saturday, and on Sunday at 6:45 I pulled out a hot potful of them from my oven, after baking for 3 hours. I used my mother's recipe, which is pretty much the same as the one on a package of dried navy beans. I used yellow eye beans, my mother’s favorites. You can use navy beans too. And I just happened to have a hunk of salt pork in the freezer, left over from the time I made, and wrote about, salt fish dinner. I had stopped using salt pork in beans for many years, for obvious reasons. But you know what? When you only use it, like, once every six or seven months? So what. It’s not gonna kill you for godsake. And it makes those baked beans so ridiculously yummy.

And speaking of yummy, please make enough for leftovers for breakfast. Baked beans with fried, or scrambled, eggs, and toast, is, like, the best Maine breakfast ever!

I assume everyone has a copy of their mother’s or grandmother’s recipe for baked beans. If not you can get it off the package of dried beans you’ll use, or if you’re really lazy, just email me at: suzithayer@boothbayregister.com. I’ll probably throw in a crack of some kind, so be prepared.

See ya next week!

P.S. You don’t have to soak beans overnight. Just bring them to a boil and simmer for a while. Then add all the stuff, and throw in the oven!