It's beginning to smell a lot less like Christmas...

I worry about my brain sometimes.

I promised atara that I would cook dinner today (since I've got some time off and she has to work), so to that end I finally put on some pants and ventured out into the world. As I was driving north to the grocery store, my nose picked up a rather malodourous hint in the air. After confirming that it wasn't emanating from me, I found myself puzzled. "Gee, why does the north end of the city smell so bad today? It's sulphurous and foetid, like a rotting corpses with a malfunctioning catalytic converter."

Maybe it is a malfunctioning catalytic converter, said my brain, or maybe they are working on the sewer lines. Both answers seemed reasonable, so I just accepted my brain's explanation and continued driving while the smell slowly petered out.

Later, as I was on my way home again I drove through the same patch of foul smell, and I happened to notice that it was strongest as I was passing the North End sewage treatment plant; the same treatment plant that has been there for as long as I have lived in this city. Suddenly my brain made a couple of (what should have been obvious) connections and said, About that smell... I have a theory!

Because home-made is better

I haven't made this recipe in years - I'd forgotten how good it smells when it's cooking. What do you get when you combine 1 1/2 pounds of Great Northern beans with a pound of pork hock and some chopped onions in a sauce of maple syrup, brown sugar and molasses? Something that looks like this after about 6 hours in the slow cooker: