The Bean Pot

Today I'm going to make baked beans.  Exciting stuff, I know.  I've never made baked beans before, so it will be a first for me.

 

But there is a special story behind today's beans.  It starts with a painting.  This painting, that hangs on my kitchen wall. 

 

We went to the Western Art Show in Toppenish a couple of years ago to see my Aunt Maizie's pictures and she had one of this bean pot.  She told me it was my great grandmother's bean pot that sits in her kitchen.  She had gone grocery shopping one day, brought her groceries home and set them on the table.  Then she thought they looked pretty sitting there so she painted the picture.

 

Well, we brought the painting home and hung it on the wall in my kitchen:

 

A few weeks later Aunt Maizie went to see my dad, and she had the bean pot with her.  She told him she wanted me to have the bean pot.  She wrote me a letter about the bean pot and gave me the recipe for my Great Aunt's baked beans.

So now I have a paining of the bean pot, the bean pot, a wonderful letter from my Great Aunt, and the family recipe for baked beans!

The bean pot sits on the upper cabinets in my kitchen along with some other special things.

The other day my parents came over for J's birthday.  We were enjoying steaks for dinner that J had just cooked on his new Traeger that he got for Christmas.  My dad said, "What if you tried to make baked beans on the Traeger?"

So today I'm going to give it a try!  The family recipe for baked beans on J's new Christmas present!