Table for Two - Cannellini Beans Over Garlic Toast

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Do you like a good pot of baked beans? If so, you can count my sister in your ranks. Years ago my brother and I would tease her unmercifully about the baked bean sandwiches she loved to make. I was sure her sandwich was an original creation and equally certain that civilized people didn't make baked bean sandwiches. We are very close in age, as a matter of fact we are Irish twins, so it is probably unnecessary to tell you that as kids we had our own version of yin and yang. I really got on my high horse about the bean sandwiches, which by the way she continued to eat, and it would be years, and an English breakfast, before I realized she was not alone. People around the world really do eat bean sandwiches and in Britain they are an extremely popular breakfast dish. As a matter of fact more cans of baked beans are eaten in Britain than in the rest of the world combined. We are talking millions of cans, not an odd case or two. Now I've never converted to beans for breakfast, but a chance sampling of a bean sandwich made by a French chef in Laos completely cured my aversion to beans on bread. I found the recipe for this open face bean sandwich in Fine Cooking magazine and it is so good that I wanted to share it with those of you who are adventurous eaters and still caught in the throes of winter. I've made substantial changes to their recipe, but you can find the original version here. This is good stick-to-the-ribs food and I know that those of you who try it will be pleased. Here is how the sandwiches are made.