We have already shared with you how he does his
pulled pork so I won't bore you with the details, but tonight's baked beans were a new recipe with a very surprising ingredient and they were pretty yummy.
Hog-Apple Baked Beans~
Ingredients:
3 or 4 slices of bacon, diced
2-16 oz. cans pork and beans
1/2 c. BBQ sauce
1 can apple pie filling, chop up the big slices of apple
1 md. onion, chopped
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. BBQ rub
Directions:
1.) Brown bacon, set aside.
2.) In bacon grease brown onion.
3.) Mix in remaining ingredients and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.
We did ours on the smoker for about two hours or so and they were really good. You can also do them on the stove and simmer for about 30 minutes but I think the depth of flavor is better when you do them in the oven or on the smoker as we did. You might have also noticed that Daniel took a few more slices of bacon and laid them on top of the beans.
Now for the cake. This is another recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. I made it several months ago for Daniel and myself and he loved it. I originally was going to make him a Carrot cake but when I mentioned making this cake again he was all for it.
Million Dollar Cake~
Ingredients:
1-18.25 ox. yellow cake mix
8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar
1-20 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
2-8oz. mandarin oranges, drained
1-3.4 oz instant vanilla pudding
1-8 oz. frozen whipped cream, thawed
Directions:
1.) Mix and bake cake mix as instructed per package for two 8 or 9 in. round layers. Let layers cool and then split each layer in half so that you have 4 layers.
2.) In a large bowl, whip cream cheese until soft and then gradually mix in confectioners sugar. Stir in the pineapple with juice and the drained mandarin oranges, reserving 5 slices to decorate the top. Mix in the dry pudding mix. Fold in the whipped topping.
3.) Place one cake layer on a cake plate cut side up; spread with frosting. Place another layer cut side down on the first one, and top with more frosting. Repeat until layers are used, spreading last bit of frosting on the top and sides of cake. Decorate with reserved oranges.
4.) Refrigerate overnight.
Now if you are like me and have a hard time following directions this is how I did it. Instead of layering the cake since my cake didn't rise the way I would have liked, we just sliced it up and then topped it with the frosting. Also, I made the frosting and just a few hours later we were digging in. No overnight marination for us. It went over really well and honestly, you could eat the frosting just by itself.
On a side note, Uncle Dan got released from the hospital and he is doing really really well. It was like a different person tonight from just a week ago. Lennon is slowing but surely doing better, still going to have his amputation done on Tuesday, but is tail is looking a little better. Tonight was the first night he and Uncle Dan had met and like I expected, they became the best of buddies.
As promised here are my quesadillas...they are so easy it's not even funny. They make a quick snack or depending what you fill them up with, a quick dinner.
