Baked Beans Showdown – The Recap

Did you hear I had a baked beans party?

Did you? If you follow me on Twitter, there’s NO WAY you missed it. There was a serious Tweet-up going on in the House of Hills on Wednesday night. I was tweeting. My Sweetie was tweeting. OhAmanda was Tweeting. ItsCome2This was Tweeting. TheVioletFig was Tweeting. Well, she might have tweeted after the party. Yep, that’s right. Three of the original Sisterchicks were at the House of Hills. It was a GOOD party.

When Once A Month Mom and Amy’s Finer Things first threw out there that they wanted to have folks taste-test their baked beans recipes, I thought, “What an awesome idea for a party!” and I went with it. So I announced my party on this here blog and invited friends and neighbors to come and taste some beans! Of course, ever the hostess with the mostess, I had to make it a big ol’ gathering complete with all the trimmings. And a BIG gathering we did have. At my count, there were at some point at least twenty adults and twenty kids running around, in, and out of the House of Hills. It’s was SO MUCH FUN!

The guests of honor. Amy’s Finer Things on the left. Once a Month Mom on the right.
I will be the first to admit that I overcooked the beans in the pan. I put them in too early. However, that did not keep people from loving them.

The rest of the spread. Ya, we’ll feed you when you come to the House of Hills. With gusto! HUGE thanks to My Sweetie for grilling forty-eight hotdogs for us. They were very yummy! Hot dogs are so much better grilled don’t you think? And, many thanks to all my friends and neighbors who brought stuff too. I love a good potluck!

The kids had an awesome time playing outside, and a few even tried the baked beans. OhAmanda’s Asa loved both beans recipes. He couldn’t really articulate which one was the best (since he doesn’t talk yet), but he for sure liked them. All the kids LOVED the watermelon. Doesn’t watermelon just scream summer to you? Here, Asa is sharing some with Mommy. At least, I think that’s what he’s feeding her.

Perhaps one of the coolest things that happened was the mini-reunion that the Sisterchicks had with their old former Youth Pastor, who happens to be my neighbor. Did I know they had this relationship? Yes. Did I remember? No. OhAmanda’s squeal of joy when Lare walked in the house was just awesome. They were all so excited to see each other and catch up. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the evening.

My other favorite part of the evening was getting to meet Mandi (AKA ItsCome2This). We have been Twitter/Bloggy friends for awhile, but had never physically met. So, when she emailed to say she was coming, I was SO EXCITED. I was even more excited when she actually walked in the door. Yay! for new friends.

It was such a FUN FUN FUN evening – everything a summer gathering should be.

Oh, you want to know who won the baked beans contest.
Right! That was the point of this post.

Everyone voted on this cool tally chart I made.
Can you tell I used to teach elementary school? No? Really?

As you can see, Once A Month Mom was the clear winner with thirteen votes while Amy’s Finer Things pulled a mere seven votes. I know you can’t read the comments, but the general consensus was that Amy’s Finer Things’ beans were just too different from the traditional. However, that’s what I loved about Amy’s. Yes, she got my vote. In general, it seemed that those of us that were not true baked beans lovers liked Amy’s over Once a Month Mom’s. Those that were baked beans lovers went with Once a Month Mom’s more traditional recipe. Please note that the majority of her comments were that the beans were a little dry, which would be MY fault.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ONCE A MONTH MOM!
The winner of the House of Hills Baked Bean Showdown.

Thanks Amy and Tricia for an awesome reason to party. You ladies are the best!
Thanks also to Van Camp’s Baked Beans for sponsoring the fun.

13 thoughts on “Baked Beans Showdown – The Recap

  1. Oh my goodness, SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!! And with all the posts and comments I’ve seen, I think you hit the nail on the head. If you don’t like traditional *sweet, mushy* (HA!) baked beans, then I’m your girl. If you do… don’t make my beans. 🙂

  2. Kathy! It was SO fun! You throw a great party. Can we have another one soon?

    And yes, thank you for (unwittingly) orchestrating the Lare reunion! It was the highlight of my week!

    love you!
    a

    • You will definitely be invited to the next party. And, I truly was so excited about your little reunion. So GREAT how God works things out isn’t it?

  3. How awesome! Looked like loads of fun. And yummy too! I didn’t realize many of you knew each other. The pic of you and Mandi is so cute. That’s great that you two got to meet. You both are such fun bloggers. I’m sure you’re a lot of fun in real life too! I would love to meet you all one day. But, alas, Massachusetts is kinda far from Georgia! lol (Georgia, right??) We’re wicked smaht here in Mass! (har har)

    • Next time you’ll have to fly in! LOL! How close to Boston are you? We’re thinking of taking the Princess to Boston to do the Freedom Trail etc. She wants to move there so she can be on the PBS show “Fetch With Ruff Ruffman.” We told her that’s not possible. But, a trip is possible.

      • I live about 45 minutes from Boston. MA is such a small state you’re never too far from Boston! So cute about Ruff Ruffman-lol. A girl can dream, right? Definitely come to Boston! It’s beautiful here and FULL of history. My heart still belongs to Texas though…
        If you do decide to come let me know, k?

    • Glad I could make you smile. Next party…. hmmmm…. just finished all the dishes from this one. You’ll be sure to get an invite though.

  4. Pingback: Summer is Here!! What to eat? | House of Hills

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