Best. Baked. Beans. Ever.

With Labor Day looming, I reach for my mom's tried-and-true baked beans recipe when bringing a dish to a cookout. With a pound of brown sugar, they are a guaranteed crowd pleaser. I like to think of them as savory candy and with a scoop of these baked beans on your plate, your dessert is taken care of as well (unless of course, someone brought pie).

Preheat oven to 300°F.

• 1 One-pound box of dark brown sugar
• 6–8 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 Tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Approximately 4 pounds of Bush's Baked Beans (I use the Original or Homestyle variety and drain most of the liquid out of the cans before adding to the mix)

Mix the above ingredients together in a glass cooking dish or metal pan (a cake pan works well). Bake at 300°F for 3 hours, or until the liquid cooks down and sort of caramelizes the beans. A low, slow oven is the secret to perfect baked beans.

I just hope there is some Polish sausage at today's barbeque to go with the beans. That's my idea of a perfect meal.