Another Bag Today, This One Is Fabric Pieces

 Today I planned to use some Home Defense spray inside the house.  Unfortunately when I read the directions on the container I realized I was not prepared to do and wear all that was needed.  So I decided to go to the sewing machine for another project instead.

Over the past year as I collected weaving tools I realized I needed a better way to store them.  The other day I was at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore here in town.  I almost never stop there but about a mile before the turn-off it crossed my mind to go there that day.  So I did. I went to the craft section and book section and found two books--one on spiralizing!  As I walked through the building I thought of possibly getting a small sturdy armless chair to use while at the spinning wheel.  Nothing caught my eye but when I turned down the aisle to leave the store I saw a 2-foot long piece of 8" heavy PVC pipe.  Exactly what I have been looking for!  The price was right so I picked it up, immediately left the store (after paying, of course) and went home to see if my eyes had treated me right.  They had! 

 It was the perfect size for the heddles, pick-up sticks, stick shuttles, and several other things for both looms.  The only glitch was that there was no bottom.  I had already thought I just needed to make a bag with a drawstring which would be a bottom of the bag as well as a top closure.

This is what I made today:

Okay, so it looks pretty icky and it is not as tall as the tallest heddle, but the bottom is closed and I can pick it up and carry it around with me if that is what I wanted to do.  The fabric came into my possession last week as someone was passing along some VERY bright colored yarn and a bag which turned out to have two tablecloths and a big pile of pre-stitched fabrics. I took four of them and made this bag. 

The drawstring was also blue and part of the broken umbrella we had over the table on the back deck to keep the sun off.  I think I talked about deconstructing that umbrella a year or so ago where I used the "uprights" to put in the Money Tree plant pot.  I had kept the fabric thinking that since it is very sturdy fabric it might be good for something.  Well, part of it was good for something!!

Makes me happy!

Fun New Bag!!! With Zipper Top...

 Last year I saw a video on turning dog food bags into grocery totes.  We do not have dogs but we have been feeding birds.  We had a very large bird seed bag.  I decided FINALLY to give it a try.  This is the result:

Here is the finished bag.

Handles and a zipper were added.  They do not look very good but they will work.  Finally I just need to add a zipper pull attachment.  I think there is a 1-inch or larger split key ring that would work perfectly.

This makes me happy.  It is not a grocery tote bag. I will be using it today for a knitting bag.  I am going to a doctor appointment whose floor is not one I would like to set a cloth bag.  Too many patients in an older building.  If you know what I mean...

The Lost Is Found..

About three weeks ago the yarn arrived from The Woolly Thistle to knit the Icelandic sweater for Dear One.  I had knitted up gauge swatch hats to see how the lopi yarn worked up.  Now the yarn was on the premises and I started knitting the sleeves like a crazy person.  When they were completed I immediately started on the body.  Last weekend I was up to 11 inches plus on the body...11 inches out of 20 inches required.  Since I have never knit one of these sweaters before I decided to use the measurements suggested in the sort of pattern I am using.

Well, I am using a pattern from the book called The Lopapeysa Sweater--the Everywhere Sweater except I am making my own colorwork design. Not my design, but the design Dear One asked me to make.  He even found the name of the designer of the sweater he wanted so I could ask her if I could purchase the pattern.  She said no:  it was traditional Icelandic design,  the pattern was in Icelandic, and furthermore, she did not have authority to sell it to me...so I decided I was smart enough to make it work on my own.  We shall see.  That is why I knitted up the swatches to see how many zigs and zags I needed.

Anyway,  over the past weekend I worked some more on the design and found I needed a multiple of 11 stitches and then 10 stitches.  Such great news.  The 10-stitch zigzags will be in the back and hopefully not noticeably different from the front.

SO...on Sunday I decided I was going to give the sweater knitting my all and get to the colorwork by the end of this week.  On Monday I had some appointments and took the sweater with me so that I could knit during the down time.  It turns out the doctors were very efficient and there was no down time at all so no knitting.  

When I finished up all the errands out hat day and got home there were several bags to be dragged into the house.  I left the sweater in the car and decided to bring it in the next trip.  There was no next trip.  On Wednesday when we returned from the temple, I asked Dear One if he had brought in the sweater because it was not on the back seat.  He said, "Sweater?"  Later I was speaking with our daughter and told her it was probably in the trunk since clearly it was not on the back seat.  This morning I went down to look in the trunk.  IT WAS NOT THERE!  My stomach lurched significantly.  I could not imagine someone had gotten into the car and snatched the knitting bag but what else could have happened.  I was just sick.  The yarn cost a LOT of money.  Not as much as if we had had an Icelandic lady knit it for us but still, it was a significant noticeable purchase on our credit card.  PLUS I had put a lot of hours into the knitting.

When I dragged my distraught self into the house through the garage instead of through the front door, for some reason I stopped just inside the garage door.  There, hanging from my blue ancient platform rocker, was the knitting bag.  With the sweater in it.  You may be sure I said a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for taking caring of the bag.

The back of this bag from The Woolly Thistle--which, by the way, is going to open a storefront sometime in July in West Lebanon--says "All knitting is good knitting!"  I think that is true.

So the lost is found and tomorrow I will get knitting again, breathing many happy signs of relief and gratitude.  From this story you may begin to worry about your friend's mental capacities, but may I just encourage you to not worry.  When I get overtired I tend to forget that I have done things.  This is just a small insignificant example.

Great Start To A Day!

 This morning we got up early to go to the temple.  We needed to leave by around 6:30.  I was a little late on that one.  When I came downstairs I dropped my temple bag on the floor just inside the garage door.  Instantly the screaming alarm went off startling me completely.  I stepped over to the alarm box and disarmed the alarm. I notice a note that "in Zone 6 there was a Glass Break".  Oh, for crying out loud.  I just dropped my bag.

Fifteen minutes later I was walking out the garage door with my bag and our lunches in my arms and here came to beautiful men in blue up the driveway, though in this case it was a young woman in blue and a young man in blue.  Instantly I knew that the alarm company had called them.  I apologized and thanked them for coming.  I showed them that I had just dropped my bag on the floor--a "premium vinyl plank" floor as it happens.  The nice lady policeman said that some alarms are very sensitive.  Yes they are!  They wished us a good day and departed within five minutes.  I hope they will come again if they get the word.

This is the offending bag!  Dear One suggested I not drop the bag again.  He is really very nice to make a suggestion like that.  It is one I will try to observe...!

Busy Monday, Including Sewing Projects!

 This morning as I was immersed in Scripture study, there was a quote that caught my attention.

This is the quote, and it is a LONG one!  The speaker was Elder Ronald Rasband from a General Conference in Salt Lake City in 2017.

"Fourth, we must act on the first prompting.

"Remember the words of Nephi. “I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless,” he said, “I went forth.”

"And so must we. We must be confident in our first promptings. Sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts. When we begin to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings—and we all have—we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that if you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right nine times out of ten.

"Now a caution: don’t expect fireworks because you responded to the Holy Ghost. Remember, you are about the work of the still, small voice.

"While serving as a mission president in New York City, I was with some of our missionaries in a restaurant in the Bronx. A young family came in and sat near us. They appeared golden for the gospel. I watched our missionaries as they continued to visit with me, then noticed as the family concluded their meal and slipped out the door. Then I said, “Elders, there’s a lesson here today. You saw a lovely family come into this restaurant. What should we have done?”

"One of the elders spoke up quickly: “I thought about getting up and going over to talk to them. I felt the nudge, but I didn’t respond.”

"“Elders,” I said, “we must always act on our first prompting. That nudge you felt was the Holy Ghost!”

"First promptings are pure inspiration from heaven. When they confirm or testify to us, we need to recognize them for what they are and never let them slip past. So often, it is the Spirit inspiring us to reach out to someone in need, family and friends in particular. “Thus … the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things,” points us to opportunities to teach the gospel, to bear testimony of the Restoration and Jesus Christ, to offer support and concern, and to rescue one of God’s precious children.

"Think of it as being what is called a first responder. In most communities the first responders to a tragedy, disaster, or calamity are firefighters, police officers, paramedics. They arrive with lights flashing, and may I add, we are so incredibly grateful for them. The Lord’s way is less obvious but requires just as immediate a response. The Lord knows the needs of all His children—and He knows who is prepared to help. If we let the Lord know in our morning prayers that we are ready, He will call on us to respond. If we respond, He will call on us time and time again and we will find ourselves on what President Monson calls “the Lord’s errand.” We will become spiritual first responders bringing help from on high."

As I was reading this a thought came into my mind.  I decided it was the still small voice trying to help me have a good day and become productive.  As a result, I leaped out of my chair when I was done studying, put on clothes and socks and shoes, and headed out on foot to the closest store to get some milk.  I had two options and found milk at the closest store!  Within an hour I was home again and got some yogurt started in the Instant Pot.  This was just regular milk, not ultra-pasteurized.  It looks like it worked. It is now chilling in the refrigerator.  One productive item from the To Do list I make each day in my electronic journal (I use Day One and love it!).  That made me happy.

The second productive  item from my whispered list-- Today was the day to make a zippered bag for a small knitting project.  I ended up making three.  All of them are not that great, but they are all small bags and they do have zippers and "handles" on each of them.

The sunflower bag was first, then blue, then floral.  They all have issues but they all work.  

The third bag was more or less from this reel.  I made some of my own changes--mainly I did a French seam at the ends instead of sewing on strips of fabric to enclose the seams.

Making these bags makes me want to figure out a good bag. I used fat quarters for these, though the floral bag came from two half-yard cuts so I made my own fat quarters.

Friday Fiber Tales!

 After spinning last week at the Revolutionary War Park in Camden, I took up the challenge to spin more regularly.

About half of the singles on this bobbin was spun today:

If you enlarge the photo so you can see better, you will see that I am currently a pitiful spinner.  Even so, I am having a good time and am learning lots.  This is the fiber I purchased at Hobby Lobby,  some a month or more ago and some on Monday when they were having their clearance sale.  I am kicking myself as I write this because I was there at the store again today and failed to check if they had marked down any more of their wool.  Oh well. I do have enough.

So, one thing I think I learned is that I need to treat this fiber the way experienced knitters treat their beautiful expensive fiber braids.

Here is this photo you can see the little fiber nests I made today.  I pulled apart the fiber vertically to make these nests.  This way there is way less likelihood of me making big globs of fiber in the singles.  Less likelihood, but not a certainty!!

You can also see that, despite my best intentions, the hoe out/clean out job is progressing VERY slowly.  

Back to the fiber/yarn:  my plan is to fill this colored bobbin entirely then ply it with a bobbin of white fiber I prepared back in the old days in Vermont when a kind farmer in Thetford Center offered the fleeces from his shearing one year.  I accepted, skirted, scoured, and sent the fleece to Sallie's Fen in Barrington, NH for her to turn it into roving.  That roving is beautiful and spins like a dream.  I have a completely fully bobbin ready for plying.

What will you do with that two-ply yarn you ask?  Well, I do have a plan.  Andrea Mowry has a lot of Traveler patterns.  I plan to knit her Traveler Shawl with this yarn.  I need at least 1000 yards.  I will almost certainly need more than two bobbins of colored singles.  News breaks as they occur!

Blueberry Plants

 Over the past five years we have planted blueberries four times. The first three years the plants did not make it through the summer.  Our fault entirely.  Did not know how to grow blueberries.  Got advice from many sources and tried again.  Last year we did a lot of work amending the soil and watering and fertilizing etc following the recommendations of the nursery where we bought them.  Last fall, same story:  nothing but sticks.  I decided not to yank up the dead plants just in case they miraculously resurrected.

Early this spring I went down to look at the spot where they had died.  Nothing.  Last month I went down again and found a few green leaves on two of the plants...of course it was the plants who no longer had their name tags on so I do not know what varieties they are...but there are green leaves.  Last week they still had a few green leaves but did not look like much.

Today: 

Okay, they don't look like much but you can see there are green leaves.  I have renewed hope in raising blueberries right here!

Anyone with suggestions?  They are welcome.  I do know I should pull up all the dead grass...

Strange thing: The Ants!

 When I get out of the car sometimes the cable that goes to my phone inadvertently gets dropped on the ground and the car door shuts with the cable hanging outside.  Well, that happened today.

When I got back to the car I saw the cable lying on the ground as I came around the back. I kicked myself mentally for not checking four hours ago when I got out of the car. When I got up to the door I REALLY kicked myself! Because, you ask, well, the end of the cable was lying on a crack in the pavement and zillions of ants were crawling up and down the cable. In case you did not already know this: ants are very small and the little space between the cable and the door was enough to let them move inside the car!!!

What did I do? The first thing was I pulled my skirt up high so as not to get ants crawling on me immediately then reached inside the car and I unplugged the cable from the USB port and laid the cable across the shrubs beside the car then started pulling it through to try to strip off the ants. Only a little successful.

There was a roll of paper towels in the trunk so I pulled one off and wiped down the cable. Did not kill the ants but got them off that cable.

It turns out there were many ants inside the car!  I got out the spray bottle of glass cleaner from the same box in the trunk and sprayed the heck out of the floor and mat on the driver’s side.  They were still moving!  SO…I took a handful of paper towels and scrubbed along the floor.  I expect there are still living moving ants in the car but I had to sit down, since I used up all my energy walking off my lunch at nearly 90 degrees…just before returning to the any fiasco.

Now I am sitting in the driver’s seat with my skirt up above my knees hoping the combination of efforts will have discouraged the ants enough to leave me alone.

If you look closely you can see one ant about in the middle of the photo. It would have been much more impressive if I had snapped the picture while the cable was still connected to the car and the army was running in and out of the car.  Hopefully there will not be a ‘next time’ but if so, I will get a shot of them at that point.

Sometimes You Just Luck Out...In A Positive Way

 Last week I saw a YouTube channel of a young woman who was a spinner and a knitter.  She mentioned that Hobby Lobby in her town had been having a deep discount on some discontinued colors of yarn.  I knew that this is the week that Hobby Lobby has yarn on sale for 30% off (this happens every other week.  On the off week [next week] the fabric is 40% off.  Good things to know if you want to plan your purchases to save the most money...). I thought I would check it  out.

So yesterday morning after a doctor appointment I dropped in at Hobby Lobby. 

 Let me back up one or two steps...  On Saturday last I went to the Revolutionary War Park in Camden where there was going to be a group of spinners spinning.  They had invited me to attend.  I did attend and did enjoy spinning...though it was a bit hard using new-to-me fiber.  

The other spinner who came, and who helped me with my spinning, mentioned that there was some yarn at Hobby Lobby that one of the spinners in her group used to do a lot of spinning.  It is a roving "yarn" called Showstopper, and while it is only 15% wool, it is good fiber to practice spinning.  I thought I would see if there was any at Hobby Lobby.  THERE WAS!  And it was $2.74 for 10 ounces as opposed to the regular  $10.99.  I bought five skeins!  I think by the end of the time I finish spinning this fiber that I will know a lot more about spinning.  Hobby Lobby also had four bags of actual wool fiber that originally cost $7.99 but went for $1.62 yesterday.  I was pleased since it was the very fiber I was having difficulty spinning.  More of it meant I could learn more on how to spin that type of wool fiber.

So, here is a word to the wise...not necessarily spinners but anyone who wants to see if there is clearance yarn.  Better check out Hobby Lobby this week.  Maybe earlier than later in the week.  Most of these discounted fibers had already been purchased. I felt fortunate to purchase what I did.

Munchie Monday: Blackberry Cobbler

 The other day I stopped at the Dorr Farms booth at the Farmers' Market.  They had big beautiful baskets of fresh blackberries.  Remembering that Dear One LOVES blackberry shortcake, I picked up a basket.

Instead of shortcake, this is what I made:

Blackberry Cobbler. from The Chunky Chef

This is the recipe from The Chunky Chef.  Below it is what I actually did...

COBBLER

• 24 oz fresh blackberries
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional but recommended)
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 3/4 cup water

TOPPING

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, grated or finely cubed
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup cold buttermilk

Instructions

• Grease an 8 inch square baking dish.
  
• In a large saucepan, combine the blackberries, sugar, and cinnamon. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil.
  
• Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into fruit mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2-5 minutes or until thickened.
  
• Pour into prepared baking dish.
  
• For topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or two forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  
• Stir in buttermilk just until moistened. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto hot berry mixture.
  
• Bake, uncovered, at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve warm, with whipped topping or ice cream if desired.
  

Notes

1. Buttermilk amount will vary from individual to individual.  You want the dough to be moist enough to hold together when pinched between a few fingers, but not moist enough that it's wet.
2. For a thicker cobbler, combine blackberries, sugar, 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and cinnamon and stir well in baking dish.  Let sit for 15-20 minutes, so they can soften a little and produce a little bit of a syrupy liquid on the bottom of the dish.  Add topping and bake as directed.

WHAT I DID--

In the bottom of an 8 inch square glass baking dish I spread 1 cup sugar then a thick layer of blackberries   and left them for 10 minutes.  Nothing seemed to be happening so I started smashing the berries up with the back of a spoon then sprinkled on a few shakes of cinnamon and left them again.

Leaving the berries alone for a while I got out a nice glass bowl and poured in  1.5 cups of self-rising flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking SODA , and 1 Tablespoon sugar and mixed well.  Taking out our box grater I grated 1 stick on cold butter into the dry ingredients then mixed in with a fork until you could not really see the chunks of butter.  Into that mess I poured 1/2 cup buttermilk and stirred.  It did not seem to be enough liquid so I poured more in and stirred it until it seemed right.  In this case, I was planning to drop the batter on top of the berries so it was a little wetter than The Chunky Chef suggested.

Ater putting  9 big globs of batter on top of the berries I then spread the batter to the edges of the pan then baked for 30 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven.  After checking, I decided to let the cobbler cook some more...about 5 more minutes.

The reason I was letting the cobbler cook longer is that the berry juice was just barely coming up through the biscuits on top. I wanted more indication that they were cooked.

Looking back through the recipe I realize I did not use any corn starch.  That might have been a good thing to do--add the corn starch.  I did not do the cooked blackberries method but followed the bit in the Notes.  Still, it was a wonderful cobbler.  Fortunately, we were able to share some with friends so we did not eat it all ourselves.

We served this with whipped cream on top.  Because of all the sugar in the recipe, I did NOT sweeten the whipped cream when I beat it.  SOMEONE in the family said we should ALWAYS have sweetened whipped cream...!  Well, we shall see.

Knitting Today: Pink Chicken Started

 That Emotional Support Chicken pattern was pretty easy to do (in retrospect!) and I thought I would start another one, also using up yarn from the house collection.  I can tell you that if I keep making a chicken a week until the end of the year, I might, possibly, use up all the worsted weight yarn we have.  I would like to do that actually.  Great goal.

Of course, if I use all the yarn on chickens, what will I use for weaving?  Oh yes, I have other yarn for weaving.  Probably!  However, without getting the cart before the horse, I will just plan on working on this pink chicken downstairs and work on other projects upstairs.  And yet another project when I go out (that one is the Pi Shawl by Elizabeth Zimmermann that I started months ago then moved on to a shawl I could get done.  Which I did complete but it did not fit the way I wanted it to fit.  For some reason all these young designers of today  call a scarf/bib a shawl.   In my book, a shawl is something that you throw around your shoulders to wrap you up so you will stay warm.  A scarf is something you wrap around your neck.  A bib is something you tie around your neck and it hangs down onto your chest in order to keep food off your clothes.  THESE THINGS ARE NOT SHAWLS!!). Moving on from off the soapbox now.  But not really.  I really HATE to see people "style" a scarf around their neck and call it a shawl...both as a named pattern and as a piece of work. Gets my goat.  Every time.

Here are the pink tail feather pieces ready to stitch together:

My thought is that this chicken will take more than a week due to the amount of downstairs time I will have to devote to her.

Wednesday Works in Progress

 Among my favorite social media there are people who post their Wednesday WIPS (Works in Progress).  Some are knitting projects.  Some are crochet projects. Some are weaving projects.  Today I am going to share a housecleaning WIP.  Because I have no shame.  AND because I appreciate all the kind people who urge me onward in doing good works...!

My sister was here for a few hours over the weekend.  I had done a good deal of hoeing out/cleaning/organizing but almost exclusively so she would have a nice clean bed to sleep in and a place to unload her luggage.  That was really the extent of what I did.  The guest room was previously  really a very useful staging area for organizing but not very useful for sleeping earlier last week.  I did get the aforementioned items taken care of. (Many bins of yarn and other projects found new homes.  At least temporarily!)

When she was walking in the front door into our dining room she noted that "you have a lot more stuff than the last time we were here..."  She did say it nicely but I did grasp her meaning.  And she was right.  The table was entirely full of Ashford E-Spinner, Battery pack, Fiber basket, many strips prepared for making a quilt that has been in the works for decades (yes!), plus other partial projects as well as salt, pepper, Old Bay Seasoning, and placemats and napkins.  Since it was Fast Sunday weekend we were not going to sit down at the table for food so I did not worry about that part of the job.

On Monday morning as I was lying in bed in that stage between sleeping and waking I had the idea that now was the time to actually get the house emptied and organized so when the day comes that someone needs to clean up after my passing  they will not be cursing my bad housekeeping skills quietly to themselves or out loud so I can be humiliated as I am watching and listening from the Spirit World.

SO... I started.  It does not look like much but it is a start.

The left end of the table,  that which you see first when you enter the house, is now almost empty.  Since the photo was taken, the paper bag in the chair has gone to that happy recycling bin in the sky...or at least, the trash men cameth and took it away.  Along with the rest of the trash.  Sadly, our town does not to household recycling pick up any more.

So, each day I will do a little more emptying and organizing and maybe the next time my sister comes it will not be so horrifying to her.  I can say that her house is always immaculate when we visit.  AND I expect it is that way most of the time.

As I type I just heard our friendly alligator in the pond.  I guess the electric storm woke him up...

Recent Small Crochet Project: Mug Cozy

 Lately I have seen a lot of mug cozies.  So many of them are pretty cute.  I made a sunflower cozy!  It is not very good but it was fun to make.  If I make more, they might be better!  After all, practice makes better.

The flower was crocheted with the puff stitch.  (This is not the video I watched but it shows you how to do the puff stitch.) For that stitch you pull up yarn loops on your needle until they are about an inch long and you have 9 loops...or whatever number you want to make a plump puff.

After making the flower, if you want to make the mug cozy,  crochet a band to go around the mug.  This is the video I watched.

As you can see, it is somewhat pitiful if compared to other people projects BUT I am not big on comparing to others.  It made me happy to make it and it does look sort of sunflower-ish and that is good enough for me.  I will probably make more of these and each one will be better.  And by better I mean tighter, less floppy looking.

A word to the wise:  I used cotton yarn for this.  When I put the cozy on the mug, the cotton stretched out a lot. It then did not really fit the mug I gifted it with to my friend.  SO...probably only put it on the mug you want.  Or use wool yarn which has memory.

Munchie Monday: Fritz's Settlers Baked Beans

 Whew!  It has been a long time since I sat down to write.  All is well, just have not taken the extra time needed to write.  Plus  I had to excavate the computer from its Family History location...

Today was Break the Fast at church.  (The first Sunday of every month members of our church around the world fast for two meals and donate the money they would have spent on feeding their family to the local bishop or branch president to use to help the poor and needy.  Many people who are physically unable to fast also donate money to the Fast Fund to help those in need. It is a good thing.  We all benefit physically and spiritually.)

In our particular church unit there has always been a theme to the Break the Fast meals.  Today it was Father's Favorites.  Dear One has always loved baked beans.  I asked him what we should bring. That was his immediate response.  I asked if it would be acceptable to use a recipe we acquired in the last few months.  He was agreeable.  This is it.

Fritz’s Settlers baked  beans
1/2 lb Bacon, chopped 
1 lb ground chuck beef
1 med. Onion
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup white Sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup BBQ sauce - sweet baby ray’s original. 
1/2 tsp pepper, less probably 
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Dry Mustard 
2-16 oz cans pork and beans
2-15 oz cans Navy white beans. 

Slice bacon into half inch pieces - easiest if still slightly frozen. Brown in fry pan on low heat. Covered, which keeps the grease spatter to a minimum.

Chop onion and cook on low heat in covered Dutch oven with a little bit of oil until just tender. Add ground beef and finish cooking with it. 

Combine brown sugar, white sugar, freshly ground pepper, salt and dry mustard. Mix well with fork.

 Add ketchup and Barbecue sauce and stir. This can just be added to the cooked meats with the beans and not combined first if time does not allow. 

Rinse kidney beans/black beans if using
Rinse navy/white beans
Add to Dutch oven. Cook covered for 1 hour at 350.

These are the beans we used.  So easy.  I did not look at the labels to be scared into making my own baked beans this time...

What I Did

First I decided to double the recipe since a lot of people are there for Break the Fast and since we have a 7-quart crockpot.  

Next, I decided not to add the two sugars.  There was enough sweet in the canned beans. I did not put in salt for the same reason plus I forgot. I also forgot the dry mustard and the pepper. We can add pepper at the table.  I added a chopped bell pepper with the onions.  The beans we used were Bush's Homestyle Baked Beans plus Luck's Pinto Beans with Onions.  I did not rinse any of them.

The hamburger was from a local butcher so there were fewer steps between the hoof and our kitchen.  It was pretty expensive but only buying meat every month or two makes it acceptable to our pocketbook.  The hamburger was put into our large dutch oven then the chopped onions and peppers were added and cooked until the meat was done.  After that I added all the other ingredients and stirred well.  The addition of that small amount of bacon really made the flavors pop.

This was popular for all who ate it.  Me and Dear One most especially.  Also my sister who was on a flying visit.