One of those things that everybody “knows” about the 1950’s is that all the kids were obsessed with westerns. So presumably, in order to be the good mom to a kid who just wanted to be a cowboy, you’d make a big bowl of cowboy food for dinner.
Given my son’s obsessions, I should presumably try to make Clone Wars Beans.
Dude Ranch Beans
2 cans Ann Page Beans, any style
1/2 lb. franks cut in 1″ cubes
1 tbs. Ann Page Prepared Mustard
5 small cooked onions
10 slices dill pickle
2 tomatoes, cut in wedges
Olive oil or cooking oilPlace beans in shallow baking dish. Spread frankfurter cuts with mustard. Arrange with onions, pickles, and tomato slices on 5 skewers. Brush with oil; place on beans. Bake in hot oven (400° F.) 30 minutes or arranged on broiler pan and broil until hot and lightly browned. 5 servings.
Not only is this an economical Ann Page recipe, it’s also easy. (Actually, the strong link between “cheap” and “simple” is probably related the fact that the fewer ingredients you have, the less money you’re spending. I’m shocked I didn’t think of that before.)
Dump the beans into a dish. Done!
Smear mustard all over the hot dogs, and put them on skewers with vegetables. Done!
Bake. Done!
When I started serving, Buzz cried, “What, you’re taking it off the skewers?” Yes, in part because giving skewers to small kids is not a great idea… but for his plate, I left a couple skewers intact.
These beans didn’t quite have the same zing as our recent Zingy Baked Beans. For a simple meal, however, this came out well. The kids mostly ignored the onion and tomatoes, but thoroughly enjoyed beanie weenies with pickles. I think I’m going to adapt Zingy Baked Beans to add hot dogs on top.
Originally from Woman’s Day March 1950, this vintage ad was found in JBCurio’s Flickr Stream.
Retro Recipe Attempts 
I have indeed seen Clone War cake pops, but not so much the beans… in galaxies far, far away, nobody eats such economical foods…
Other than the pickles (cooked… pickles?!) I can see this working well; we made “beanie weenies” camping when we were kids, with basically the same ingredients. Apparently the cowboys of the 90’s weren’t far off the cowboys of the fifties.
By: tadmack on February 25, 2013
at 6:26 pm
This was pretty reasonable, although a bit heavier on the mustard than might be optimal. I couldn’t really enjoy it fully, since beanie-weenies have always seemed a bit questionable to me. They just don’t look quite right. (When Calvin described them to Susie a “cigar butts in gallstone sauce,” I knew just where he was coming from.)
By: Buzz on February 27, 2013
at 4:17 pm