For the 4th of July weekend, I decided to make American food to go with all the meat Alex bought. I had a Cooking Light recipe for Bourbon Baked Beans, which seemed like it would be a good accompaniment.
I halved the recipe because I didn't want too many leftovers for us. The bacon from the Meat Salesroom wasn't very smokey, but that's what I used. I didn't have Dijon mustard (I don't eat it), and I wasn't sure if I should substitute anything for it. I ended up adding some dry mustard seed and a little extra vinegar to it.
Aside from that, I followed the recipe. I was excited to use the maple syrup I had around and to use up some bourbon we had. I had to add a little extra water to them toward the end of the cooking, and had to bake them longer to make them soft.
Overall, I wasn't too big a fan of this recipe. I thought the taste of vinegar was a bit strong (may be my fault from adding a little vinegar in place of mustard), and that the taste of maple syrup and bourbon was weak. They really didn't taste like much of anything.
Alex ate them as leftovers with grilled hot dogs, and he said he liked them when he added barbecue sauce. I think I prefer barbecue sauce-based beans as well. I wouldn't make this recipe again - I can make better just by adapting a different recipe to taste. I won't label it FAIL because it was edible, but I know that there's other, better recipes out there.
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