Our Kith and Kin Cookbook (Preface)

In 1977 one of my father’s sisters (Aunt Florence Chapman Pike/Sister) wrote a family cookbook entitled “Family Favorite Recipes.” She dedicated the cookbook to my paternal grandmother Floy Thomas Davidson Chapman who passed away at the age of 73 years back when I was in elementary school in the late 1950’s. Unfortunately I do not have too many physical objects to remind me of my Mammaw Chapman, but I can remember that she was a good cook. Even my own mother said that she learned how to cook from her mother-in-law. How many people would admit that?

This is my Aunt Florence’s preface to her family cookbook:
“This book is dedicated to my mother Floy Davidson Chapman—one of the best cooks in the world.

“My mother’s kitchen was a special place—cheery, warm, and bright.

“Before the sun came up Mother was there cooking breakfast for her family. I can almost smell the delicious aroma of bread, cookies, and good things baking.

“It seems to me my mother spent most of her time in the kitchen. When the older girls left home, I was her special helper and got my lessons in cooking from her. Some of my best memories of my mother are the times she and I spent together preparing meals for the family in the kitchen. It was there she told me many stories of her family and my dad’s, James Alexander Chapman.

“Many years have come and gone since my mother and I worked side by side in the kitchen, but memories of them grow sweeter with each passing year.

“The recipes in this book have been collected from Chapmans, their descendants, and their friends.

“I express appreciation to all of those who have given me recipes for their favorite dishes. We tried and tested many but could not test them all. All of the food we have eaten that these relatives cooked has been good. We feel sure that these recipes were “tested” by those who submitted them and that they and their families like them.

“Ladies of the South are known for their good cooking. We believe you will find the recipes in this book practical and good.

“Thanks to you—our kith and kin—for sharing your recipes with us.”

Linda’s Note:  Don’t worry. I will only publish my Mammaw Chapman’s recipes and maybe my own mother’s. The rest will remain in the well-used little yellow cookbook that Aunt Florence mailed to me when I lived in The Netherlands years ago.

😘Linda

Geese are swimming

Our neighbor who keeps watch over our property says he sees masses of geese on our pond whenever we go away for a few days. Well, today we saw some

geese. At least 20 beautiful Canadian geese were swimming on our pond when I went out to check on the dogs on the too hot front porch.

Our black mouth cur Rocky was more interested in the noisy bulldozer whine coming from our neighbor’s property. And our beagle Flippy is always tied up on a long line when he goes outside, so he barked, but probably at the bulldozer noise.

So Canadian geese are safe. Hope more drop by for a morning swim and possible graze.

Living the country life.
😘Linda

Kouseband Bonen or Chinese Long Beans

Kouseband bonen in Nederlands.

Yesterday at my local Walmart I picked up a bunch of Chinese Long Beans. I really am not a huge fan of green beans, but thought I would Google these two feet green beans and find a recipe.

For years I have heard of “kouseband bonen,” but never had the nerve to buy a bunch and prepare them for our dinner vegetable. Well, I sauteed a small onion in olive oil in my largest wok. Added three sliced cloves of garlic. Then tossed in the loooong green beans. Added a good cup of vegetable broth and a shot of soy sauce and a good dab of sambal paste and lots of salt and pepper. Then decided to put the kitchen shears to the long green strands to make them manageable. After all that, I used a new pizza pan as lid and brought the whole thing to a good boil. I did not over cook the beans, since I really hate mushy beans. A good crunch always sounds healthier.

Kouseband bonen went just right with our leftover deer sausage ragu for spaghetti noodles. Who says you have to eat “normal” way out here in the sticks in southwest Louisiana?

Bet no one else around here had Chinese Long Bean for dinner tonight. 😋

😘Linda

Registration of Alien Enemies

I will never be a genealogist, but searching out my ancestors and my husband’s ancestors is quite interesting. 

This afternoon I found some really intriguing lists of names in a genealogy publication from the late 1980’s. First I found a list of convicts in the Arkansas State Penitentiary in 1856. The prisoners were listed by name, county, conviction, and time left to serve. Luckily I found no names that sounded like my family.

Then I found this “registration affidavits of alien enemies of Arkansas: 1918.” 

There followed a detailed list of Germans, Austrians, and Turks that were living in Arkansas at that time. 

There was even a completed affidavit of one of those “alien enemies.”  The man had entered the US with his family at the age of six. He was born in Germany in 1878, and he stated that he was always under the impression that he was a US citizen. In 1898 he even volunteered to serve as private in the Spanish-American War in Company L, 2nd Arkansas May 1898  - February 1899. Now he was being questioned if he had any male relatives who were “in arms” for or against the United States and its allies in the present war.

Have we changed very much in 100 years? ☹️ Evidently not. 

Linda

I Give Up

I am missing my daily cup of coffee. Since I began taking iron supplements about three weeks ago, I stopped drinking coffee. Don’t want to do anything that will interfere with getting out of this anemia slump. Having never been a coffee drinker before last summer, giving it up for a month or so should not be too difficult. 

Speaking of giving up (or at least putting on hold), I found that I was spending too much time on Instagram. It was literally causing a “pain in my neck.” Plus my latest entries were really quite lame. So I have taken a break from that, too.

 

What have I accomplished since giving up things I enjoyed in the past? Not much. It is as hot as heck down here. We had a couple of cooler mornings last week, and I got some weeding done in my front flower beds and along our boxwood walkway. And I crocheted an afghan blanket for my son’s significant other who seems to be cold a lot.

If I can just figure out how to get good photos on this blog, then I may be blogging again. 

In the meantime, drink a cup of coffee for me. I like it pure. No cream. No sugar. ☕️ Linda

A Scam

For years I have wanted to express my opinion of the Music Department of The American School of The Hague. Well, now, here it is. 

Back in the late 1980’s a couple of guys took over both the instrumental as well as vocal portions of the middle school and high school music education at the prestigious American School of The Hague. The school was first located in Scheveningen, The Netherlands, but in 1990 moved to the impressive blue wave building in neighboring Wassenaar. 

I was always quite suspicious and even envious of the interest that my middle school students showed toward the music teachers and the music program. Our school of grades pre-k through 12th grade students prospered over the years I was there (1980-2006), and it seemed that the music department did also. Don’t get me wrong, I did not see any evidence of monetary embezzlement made by the personnel involved in that element of the school. But I feel that families and students were far too often encouraged to hire “so-called music tutors” to teach our students during after school hours to play musical instruments. For some reason this just did not fit. 

As an English teacher for over 26 years at that same school, I rarely recommended to a parent to hire a tutor to teach what I had not taught the students myself in my classroom. I realize that teaching an English lesson to 25+ students per class is not the same as directing the band or chorus. But if you are hired to teach, you teach. I never felt that there was much teaching going on in either the middle or high school band or choral departments. The actual teaching was left up to inexperienced, mostly young musicians/tutors who had found a great source for earning money that they received “under the table.”

The cost of attending such a prestigious educational institution in an ideal location has always been an eye-opener for me as a former teacher, as well as others. But to realize that one area of that school was able for years to scam and bamboozle the parents is still amazing me. Was I the only one who saw this? I doubt it.

Linda’s Sweet Potato Pie

On Wednesday we had about 15 neighbors from our Dutch apartment over for a chili dinner, and I made a sweet potato pie for dessert. Since I will be making this pie again in the future, I thought that I should save my recipe here on my blog.

Linda’s Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients 

Pie Filling

2 1/2 cups baked sweet potatoes (mashed by hand or mixer)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs (beaten)

3/4 cup evaporated milk or light cream

4 tablespoons melted salted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons flour

1 unbaked pie crust 9 inches (I used a Lidl sweet crust)

Walnut or Pecan Topping

1/3 cup salted butter

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Ice cream or whipped cream for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. In a bowl, stir together the sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, evaporated milk, and vanilla.
4. Pour the sugar mixture into the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
5. Stir in the mashed sweet potatoes and beat until combined. The mixture may be thin.
6. Place pie shell into pie dish and press to seal.
7. Pour sweet potato mixture into unbaked pie shell.
8. Bake on center rack in oven at 425 F for 15 minutes. 
9. Reduce heat to 350F and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
10. While pie is baking, make the nut crumble topping. Use your fingers to create a crumble with all of the ingredients. They don’t need to be smooth. Set aside.
11. Remove pie from the oven and sprinkle with crumble topping.
12. Bake 15 minutes or until topping is golden brown.
13. Allow to cool and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
14. Enjoy❣️