Courtesy of Tammy Algood’s new book: The Complete Southern Cookbook
Prepared and Served By: Beth Knott

I am not a cook. I don’t pretend to be. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just don’t particularly like to, and so I choose not to. However, our dear friend, Tammy Algood wrote a cookbook, because she’s an amazing cook and a true Southern woman, and so I bought a copy and decided that on the occasions that I needed to cook, I would try recipes from this book. I took my very first one to a pot-luck Christmas party last week, and I have to tell you it was easy to prepare and was a hit at the party…
Here’s the recipe: (straight from the book, but don’t be cheap, go buy the whole book)

From Tammy:
“When our friend Tom Harper told us about this casserole, I thought it sounded dreadful. But thankfully, he simply insisted that we give it a try. We did and we love it! Leftovers freeze well. “
Yields 8 Servings:
4 bacon slices
½ pound ground beef
½ white onion, peeled and chopped
1 (15-ounce) can pork and beans
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce) can baby lima beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup packed lightly brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons barbecue sauce


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon until crisp, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels and crumble when cool enough to handle. Set aside.

Meanwhile, brown the beef and onions in the pan drippings. Cook until no pink remains in the beef, around 9 minutes. Drain well. In a large mixing bowl, combine the beef mixture, pork and beans, kidney beans, lima beans, brown sugar, ketchup, and barbecue sauce. Mix thoroughly, but gently. Transfer the prepared dish and top with the bacon. Bake 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Serve warm.

Ok, that’s straight from the book, now back to what I have to say about it. I did follow the directions pretty closely, but while the bacon was frying, I chopped the onion so that it was ready to go into the drippings. Once the bacon was on the plate with the paper towel, I put the ground beef and onion in and while it was cooking, I went ahead and put the rest of the ingredients in the mixing bowl, and mixed them together when the beef mixture was done. It took about 20 – 25 minutes to prep, but you may be able to do it quicker… I freely admit, I’m not a quick cook.

The only thing I will do differently next time is make the bacon even crispier… It didn’t crumble as well as I would have liked, but that was my fault. I don’t like burnt bacon, so I took it off the heat a little early.

I fixed it a few hours ahead of the party, so I had to microwave it when I got there, but it warmed up beautifully. And, I’ve warmed the leftovers since then and they’ve been tasty as well! I hope you give this recipe a try… I’ll let you know when I try the next one out of Tammy’s book!