Winter Wonderland?

It has begun to snow in the Northern burbs of Atlanta. About 35 degrees but surfaces and the ground is still cold enough for it to stick.
In honor of the 'winter weather' I have a pot of Navy beans in the oven in my grandmother's bean pot. It's funny, every time I get out the pot to make beans, all kinds of different memories jump out. Sometimes it is something about cooking with her and the fabulous smells and wonderful but simple food that used to come out of that kitchen or wondering how many batches of beans have actually been cooked in that pot. I'm pretty sure the pot was one she 'went to housekeeping' with in the 20's and beans were at least weekly fare as far as I can remember. My guess would be between 4000 and 5000 pots of beans in the nearly 100 years that pot has been in service. However, this time it was about my Dad who, when Navy beans were on the menu, used to almost always talk about having Navy beans while in the Pacific during WWII and how the only way they could make them edible was to load them up with ketchup which they referred to as 'red lead' after the red priming paint they used on the ships. I haven't thought about that in years and years.
Anyhow, a nice pot of beans is on the way and buttermilk cornbread won't be far away either. There won't be any 'red lead' but there is a good possibility of some Sriracha sauce. I fell in love with this hot sauce a few years ago and have a real tendency to overdo it and it really lights up a bowl of beans.

BTW I did make the French lentils with cashews dal last night for dinner and served it over Nishiki rice. It was excellent and definitely a recipe to have in the bag of tricks.