Antique Bean Pot

A few weeks back I was very blessed to spend a Saturday morning going to garage sales, sample sales and restaurants with my cousin. For many years she lived in Houston and even though that puts us both in Texas, let me tell you there's a whole lot of Texas and we rarely saw one another. But now she's moved up to Oklahoma City and that is all changing. We head up that way to visit the rest of our family and I am so excited to get to see her more! Strange to realize I can get to Oklahoma City in less time than I can get to Houston - and I'm in Dallas!

Going to garage sales with her is a hoot and a half. We drove up to one and were laughing so hard, then when we got out of the car and walked up to her garage she said she could hear us when we were driving up! Then we all got to talking and laughing. Ah...good times. :)

So one of our stops was quite fruitful for me. It was an older couple and we talked to them for a good little bit. I was thrilled to find a stack of 12" quilt blocks that she'd sewn herself (hopefully they will be showcased here fairly soon, just need to get it finished) and I think she was tickled that I was so pleased to have found them.

And then I saw this and was enchanted. The little sticky note said "Antique Bean Pot $5". Now I don't know a thing about antique cookware and Keith laughed when he saw it and said that they saw me coming. I'm ok with that though cause even if it's not a genuine antique, it is old and I love it's character. The inside of the pot is well seasoned and to me that means well loved. When I was looking at it the Mr. of the garage sale came over and said he thinks they'd had that pot for 40 years and said "that's a lot of beans!" See, these are the things memories are made of.

Beans happen to be a memory maker for me as well. Growing up we would have beans and rice and cornbread probably once a week for dinner. And when we'd go to Ft. Smith, AR to see Daddy's family Grandma would always have a pot of beans simmering on the stove. Even more recently, there's a hamburger joint up at the lake that we like to go to that has a very, very large pot of beans out on the counter. You place your order, then dip up a mess of beans to eat while you wait. That's some good eatin' right there.

I've cooked one pot of beans so far in my Antique Bean Pot (see how I have to capitalize it each time?) and it was fabulous. I'll be having them again soon and will put the directions on the blog. Because I swear there's bean juice running in my veins and once my mom gave me all her cooking secrets, really I almost have to share. It would be unsouthern not to.

** Linking to Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays, Twice Owned Tuesday