1/2 lb bacon cooked, crumbled, divided
1/2 lb jalapeno beef
1 med onion, diced
1 c bbq sauce
1 scant T liquid smoke
2 t worcestershire sauce
1 clove minced garlic
1-2 T brown sugar
2 (28 oz) cans pork & beans
2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained (or about 3 1/2 cups cooked, drained black beans)

Cook bacon, drain fat, and cook onion in same pan (in residual bacon grease.  if it’s not enough, add a little back in) until translucent.  Reserve half the bacon until ready to serve the beans.  Add all ingredients to a crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours.  When ready to serve, sprinkle reserved bacon on top.

*We love crispy bacon, and after 4 hours sitting in sauce, the bacon goes rubbery.  Blech.  If you reserve half of it, then you still get the bacon flavor cooked in, and some crunchy bacon on top.  Perfect.

*Last time I made this for tailgating before football, I ended up with a package of turkey bacon (long story).  I decided not to tell Hubby.  Turns out these were the BEST batch of beans I’ve ever made!  And I have to take his word for it since I didn’t even get any (it was frigid that day, so the wives went to lunch while the crazy men sat in single digit weather to eat).  I also didn’t have a bell pepper, and it was obviously better without it, so I removed it from the recipe.