Baked Beans

I made these for the first time this summer when we went camping with Andre's family.  This is a time consuming recipe, but very worth it as I do not really like canned baked beans nor did Andre's brother, but both of us really enjoyed these.  I made this one day ahead of time. 

You will need:

• 1 pound dried pinto beans (about 2 cups)
• 8 - 10 cups water
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 8 oz of Maple smoked bacon, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup Agave syrup or 1 cup honey or 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 disposable aluminum cooking pan (I used one measured 8 x 10 x 2 1/2)

1. Pick over dried beans and remove any stones or broken beans.
2. Rinse beans.
3. Soak beans by placing in a 9x13 glass casserole dish and covering with two inches of boiling water. Let soak for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the beans have doubled in size.
4. Drain beans and combine with 8 -10 cups water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the beans are almost tender, about 45 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 300 - 350F (300F if you live close to sea level. In Calgary, I needed to increase the temperature to 350F and increase the cooking time).
6. Drain beans, reserving the cooking liquid. Combine the beans in a 5 - 6 quart casserole dish with the onions, bacon, garlic.
7. Stir into the cooking liquid the Agave/honey/syrup, ginger, mustard, salt and pepper.
8. Pour the liquid over the beans. Cover and bake until the beans are tender about 2 1/2 hours (longer if you live at a higher altitude.
9. Once cooked serve immediately or transfer to the refrigerator and leave overnight.
10. I transferred to disposable aluminum pan to take camping and put it over the campfire and reheated the beans. Very tasty.