Hawaiian Baked Beans

I made these Hawaiian Baked Beans for our family get-together Saturday night. It was a Luau theme. As soon as I found out the theme, I googled "Hawaiian theme foods" and these baked beans were one of the first things that popped up. They are so delicious and so easy to make. We usually just buy a can of Bush's baked beans when we have a cook out and heat them on the stove. I call myself a bean feign because I swear I could eat them with every meal. From now on we are no longer going to be baked beans from the can kind of people. These are too easy to not make and personally I think they taste much better. They are called Hawaiian but honestly they can be made for any occasion. I'm going to throw in the Maui Onion Dip Recipe I made too at the end just because it was also easy to make and very yummy too!

{Hawaiian Baked Beans}

Serves 10-15 people

Ingredients

3 (16 ounce) cans great northern beans

1 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1/2 lb cubed cooked ham  I used 1/2 lb bacon instead chopped into about 1in pieces.

3/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together all ingredients.

Place in a buttered 9x13-inch baking dish.

Cover with foil.

Bake at 350F for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove foil and bake for 20-30 minutes more.

{Caramelized Maui Onion Dip}

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 2 Maui onions (or other sweet onions), halved and thinly sliced (about 5 cups) I couldn't find Maui onions anywhere so I used 1 really big Vidalia Onion. I'm sure you West Coasters will have better luck.
• 1 cup sour cream 
• 1/2 cup buttermilk I was cheap and didn't want to buy a half gallon of buttermilk so I made my own. It's 1 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. I mixed it together and used 1/2 cup of it.
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Recipe

1.  Heat oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown, sticky, and caramelized, about 20 minutes. If the pan starts to burn, reduce heat to medium-low and add 1 tbsp. water, stirring well. Transfer onions to a small bowl and chill until cold, about 1 hour.
2. Reserve 1 tbsp. onions. In a food processor, pulse remaining onions, sour cream, buttermilk, and salt just until combined. Transfer to a serving dish, top with reserved onions, and chill at least 1 hour.
3. Make ahead: Up to 2 days and chill.

You can use regular old potato chips to dip but my Mom found these Sweet Maui Onion Rings at World Market. So I figured if I can't have actual Maui onions in my dip I might as well use these rings instead of potato chips. 

If you can find them at your local World Market I highly recommend them. They're delicious even without the dip!