It's All About the Pork

I'm eating one of my favorite almost immediately eatable dinners: instant brown rice and Bush's Best Baked Beans. No, it wasn't served by the President as this photo suggests (although he's welcome at our house for a can anytime), but it's a tasty dish nonetheless.

I discovered Bush's Beans as an adult. Until then my exposure to baked beans was the homemade slow-cooked dish I saw (but rarely tasted) at a few dozen church potluck dinners. Conversely, my understanding of canned beans was Van Camp's (or at times, IGA) pork 'n beans. Those I did eat. I liked them a lot. So did my brothers and sisters. When I was growing up, we would often cook up a can and then argue over which of us got to eat the "pork." In pork 'n beans, the "pork" is actually a 1/2-inch cube of fat. But we fought over it anyway because it was something to fight over. Siblings need something to fight over. That way we can maintain our belief that life isn't fair and our brothers and sisters get EVERYTHING and we NEVER get ANYTHING.

I don't remember where or when I first tasted Bush's Best Baked Beans, but I know I can never go back to the pork 'n beans of my past. My determination was really rewarded tonight when I found THREE PIECES of pork in that little 8.3 oz. can. And these pieces actually looked and tasted like pork. Good things come to those who wait.

There are days when it's just good to forget about politics, financial crises and all the other things that concern and upset us. You never know when you'll score a three-pork day.