“Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” 1 Timothy 1:2

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5

My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race.
Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes
redeemed with a price far above silver and gold!  ~Charles Spurgeon

“I will not glory, even in my orthodoxy, for even that can be a snare if I make a god of it… Let us rejoice in Him in all His fulness and in Him alone.”  Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones

“It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.”
– Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Good day to you, friends!  It has been a lovely week at our place, although there is a sickness going around.  I’ve been sick since Tuesday but am feeling better although tired out.  Grace was home with me yesterday, and it was cozy indeed.

There is no school today for the children.  Ethan drove to the mall with Dave, Grace, and Emily (his girlfriend’s sister).  Rich and Jacob are at work.  Caleb, Seth, and Sarah are home with me and playing together.

Jacob’s girlfriend Emily was taking care of a duck yesterday.  While she was at school, she had Jacob bring it over to our house so he could watch it.  Of course we all fell in love with the duck.

And Grace wanted to keep it.  She began researching but what I told her was true; you really shouldn’t keep one duck.  It would be a very lonely duck.

So after a visit and much quacking, it went to be adopted by a family of ducks.

Easter Baked Beans

(way back in October I wrote about my intention to try all sorts of baked bean recipes.  Well, I finally got to recipe #2 and it was delicious)

First I’ll give you the recipe and then I’ll tell you everything I did differently.  🙂

Navy Bean and Apple Casserole

1 lb. dried navy beans, 2 cups
6 cups cold water
1 tsp salt
3 large tart apples pared and sliced
1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 lb. salt pork, sliced

Wash beans and turn into a 3 quart saucepan.  Add the water and salt, heat to boiling, and simmer gently, covered, about 2 hours.  Drain, saving cooking liquid.  Arrange beans and apple slices in alternate layers in a greased casserole, sprinkling sugar over each layer.  Pour in 2 cups of the cooking liquid and top with slices of salt pork.  Bake, covered, in a very slow oven (250 degrees) for about 2 and a half hours, or until beans are light brown and thoroughly cooked.  If they become dry in cooking, add more cooking liquid or hot water.  There should be enough liquid on the beans to make a gravy-like sauce over them.  5-7 servings.

*****

I saved out 2 cups of the cooked beans to use in a chili recipe.  I peeled and diced the apples and only used 2 apples because of my reduction of the amount of beans.  I sprinkled onion powder and cinnamon on the beans (about 1/8 of a tsp each).  I used bacon instead of salt pork (what is salt pork???) and I diced it instead of keeping it in slices.  It took longer for mine to bake, in fact, I let them go on for about 6 hours (I don’t know why it took so long, maybe my oven temps are off?).  I used a can of chicken broth that I had leftover in the fridge for cooking liquid.  I took the foil off for the last hour so they would thicken up and brown.  Adding cinnamon made them perfect–the bacon and apple basically melted into the beans making a wonderful flavor.  We all liked them, and Sarah had three bowls full.  They would go well with a ham dinner, which is why I have renamed this recipe “Easter Baked Beans”.