Oh, my, my.  The place I would love to visit with my daughter.  The Bluegrass State.  In the spring, the green grass has blue buds that gives the meadows that flowing blue look.  Blue, blue, blue.  I love blue. Kentucky contains plenty of southern hospitality and in the language of local Native American people, kentake meant “prairie” for the open grassy spaces among its hardwood forests.  Kentucky has more than a thousand miles of navigable waterways, including the Tennessee, Cumberland, Green, Kentucky, and Licking rivers, which all flow into the Ohio.  This broad and deep river, which forms the state’s northern border, joins the Mississippi at Kentucky’s southwestern tip.  High ridges and deep narrow valleys of the Appalachians and adjoining Cumberland Plateau make up most of eastern Kentucky.  Rushing rivers carve twisting gorges called gaps through the mountains. 

Through these passages pioneers reached central and western Kentucky.  The legendary but real Daniel Boone travelled through the Cumberland Gap when the Cherokee opened the region to settlers.  A booming tobacco based economy produced a slavery split dividing plantation owners and small-scale farmers and crafts people.  Kentucky officially joined the Union in the Civil War, even though one-third of its soldiers fought for the Confederacy.

Kentucky has enormous deposits of soft bituminous coal in the east, providing wealth but also dangerous to mine.  The eastern region of Kentucky is still the state’s poorest region, but it is culturally rich.  its Scotch-Irish heritage is preserved in its distinctive crafts and music.  Its forests makes the state a leader among hardwood production. 

In central Kentucky, a long warm growing season and calcium-rich soils here yield excellent tobacco and winning horses.  Each year the Kentucky Derby horse race is run in Louisville and is considered the “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.”  I think it is the most exciting from the viewpoint of hats.  The women wear the largest and most elaborate hats!  We have two equestrian fans in our household who follow horses from many perspectives, one being the racing of horses.  Although we would like to abolish the gambling industry that runs concurrently with racing, we have found the training and breeding of horses a fantastic topic as a science.  We also happen to live on a street named after a Triple Crown winner.  Here is Church Hill Downs.  

For our Kentucky dinner, we had several Triple Crown winners show up for the occasion.  And there is the bed of roses.  The Kentucky Derby is also called the “Run for the Roses” because each year a blanket of 554 roses is placed upon the winning horse.  Imagine the smell!

From Appalachia we obtained a very old recipe for corn casserole.  It is still served in some of the finest restaurants in Kentucky.  We found it similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch corn that I make, but a bit more like pudding.

The Hot Brown was created at the Brown Hotel in Lexington in 1926.  Easy to make and good.

Karen spent a good part of the afternoon making the official “Run for the Roses” pie that is served at the Kentucky Derby.  This pie was rich in butter, pecans, and chocolate chips.  We also gave her the unusual privilage of making it a real Derby pie by providing her with a few tablespoons of authentic Kentucky bourbon that the recipe calls for.  The result?  A very rich pie. 

Other food facts: 

Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, began cooking for hungry travelers at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky.  Bibb lettuce was first cultivated in Kentucky by Jack Bibb in the late 1800s.  The Jif plant in Lexington is reportedly the largest peanut butter factory in the world.

Music facts:

A long tradition of folk music is alive and well in Kentucky.  Bluegrass music has roots in the tunes of Scotch-Irish immigrants as well as in the music of African-American slaves.  The name came from Kentuckian Bill Monroe, who called his 1939 band the Blue Grass Boys, after his home state.  There is some authentic bluegrass music that is creative and written according to good principles of music.  Recent years in bluegrass have blended it with other forms, polluting it and violating good music writing.  I have often been asked if bluegrass is good music or bad music.  The answer is: it depends.  It takes some skill in evaluation and a discerning ear to part the good from the bad.  Because of this, I discourage those who give a blanket nay to Bluegrass, Celtic, Appalachia, or Ozark music.  That is too simple and drastic a ban on the stuff!

North Carolina

Capital:  Raleigh

State Bird:  Cardinal

State Flower:  Flowering Dogwood

State Nickname:  The Tar Heel State

Perhaps the historical event that comes first to mind is the 100 people that seetled on Roanoke Island in 1587 and then vanished.  Where did they go?  Or maybe the Wright brothers first successful human powered flight at Kill Devil Hill in 1903 is what one would think of first.

In 1629 King Charles I split off a portion of the Virginia Colony and named it after himself.  Carolus is Latin for Charles.  In the 1650s most Indians were forced out.  As the area developed, the economy centered on naval stores such as pitch, tar, and turpentine.  Tobacco and cotton were grown in the English settled eastern lowlands, while Scots, Irish, and Germans moved to lands farther west.  Opposition to English taxes made North Carolina eager to join the Revolution. 

Capes Hatteras, Lookout, and Fear poke seaward from the arc of barrier islands that protect species in the bays along the coast.  The Outer Banks waters are hazardous because they are battered by high winds.  More than 600 ships have sunk here. 

North Carolina joined the Confedracy in 1861.   The state’s nickname honors soldiers who refused to turn and run during the Civil War, as if their heels were glued to the ground with tar.  General Robert E. Lee called them “Tar Heel Boys.”  After the war, struggles with poverty and racism persisted.  The tobacco business boomed after the invention of the cigarette making machine in the 1880s.  By the 1920s the oak and maple forests supplied a huge furniture making industry which still leads the nation today.

In recent years high tech industries have prospered in the famous Research Triangle between Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state capital, Raleigh.  In the past few years our family has made attempts to re-locate to North Carolina for several reasons, one being the availability of jobs.  (This is no longer true in the recession.)  Another reason is that my sister lives there and it half-way between extended family that lives either 8 hours north or 8 hours south.   Yet another reason is that we love the landscape and variety in North Carolina.  Last, the NCFIC is located in Raleigh, which we heartily support and suspect is the only church reformation movement in the US today.  The only downside to Carolina is that home schooling laws are more restrictive there.

I have heard several North Carolinians mention that they had ribs at their wedding receptions.  Gasp!  Ribs?  Surely not eaten in a white flowing dress.  Must have changed to denim for the reception!  I had never had ribs so I consulted with a friend whose husband is a rib connoisseur.  No, I don’t know how to spell that word.  I looked it up.

Anyway, I was given instructions and a bottle of rib rub to give the cut a massage.  Ridiculous.  Massage a piece of meat?   Massage a pig?  Well, I did.  Then James came home and grilled it, ending with barbq sauce.  These were pork baby ribs or something like that.

Skillet hashbrowns.

Cole slaw.  Only liked by me.

Ribs.  I would have brushed the sauce even, but the chef put it on in globs.

Hush puppies were added to the mix.  And wouldn’t you know it, my family LOVES ribs!  Now of all the unhealthy things for my family to love.  They devoured the whole thing and gave some bones to the dog who “pigged out” on them.

Last comes desert.  I found a potluck recipe where the Carolinian cookbook claimed that every NC potluck has one of these there.  It is called Four Layer Delight and was ridiculously easy to make.  Everyone loved it and the next birthday bunch wants it instead of cake.   Sometimes I get such a kick out of feeding my family.  I can slave hours in the kitchen over a wondrous desert and they don’t like it.  Make a no-brainer desert and it’s a favorite.  Well, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all.  It just means I have more time to do other wonderful things with the kids! 

What happened to the last two pieces of Four Layer Delight?  Well, just ask the boys in this family.  No, they did not eat it in the middle of the night.  They had it for Saturday morning breakfast when the girls weren’t around.  You should have heard what the girls had to say about that when they discovered the empty pan on the counter top.  Kimmy, with a sad face, was the only one without a comment.  She took a finger and licked the edges of the pan clean.  And then it was all gone for sure.

Maybe I have two Tar Heel Boys around here when it comes to desert.

We’re taking a break from Eat Your Way.  Stay posted – we’ll start up again in a month or so.

South Carolina

Capital:  Columbia

Nickname:  The Palmetto State (for the many palmetto trees)

State Bird: Carolina Wren (Whew! Not a mockingbird.)

State Flower:  Yellow Jessamine

South Carolina looks like a spreading fan and has two geographical regions.  The Up Country has a sliver of Appalachian highlands and a larger piece of rolling piedmont with swift streams and rivers.  The Low Country is the broad Atlantic Coastal Plain with slow rivers that flow across fine lowland soil and swampy lands.  The English colonized the area at Charles Towne – later renamed Charleston – in 1670.  Early framing produced cotton, indigo, and tobacco, but rice soon became the biggest export crop.  Ragged shores of bays and island harbored pirates who raided Carolina shipping and settlements.  Invention of the cotton gin in 1793 greatly increased the fiber crop.  Sixty percent of the state’s population was African American, almost all slaves.  Sullivans Island, off the coast of Charleston, is known as the Ellis Island of Slavery.  It was here that more than 200,000 enslaved people from West Africa first set foot on American soil.

The Civil War’s first shot was fired on U.S. Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor on April 12, 1861. 

The boll weevil ruined the cotton in the 1920s and tobacco increased in importance and is still a leading state crop.  Soybeans now dominate in acreage planted, and the state produces more peaches than Georgia in some years.

Travelers make South Carolina a top stop.   Seaside resorts like Myrtle Beach on the “Grand Strand of Sand” and Charleston’s historic mansions displaying the lives of the early rich and famous are popular destinations.  As for the Spanglers, we’ve been to Myrtle Beach one time, and I don’t recall the place being as terrific as the company.  We camped with family and friends that go back a lot of years.  And the older mamas held my nine week old Kathy and cooed over her.  Combined with sand and surf, it was a trip to remember.

For our meal… buttermilk sourdough bread. 

Charleston Mini Ham Loaves.  I could not decide if these were worse or better than our chicken fried steaks.  No one liked them.  If I go to Charleston, I’m ordering seafood, not these.  I have always wanted to go to old towne Charleston.  That is something I would love.

Apple Cream Pie.  The apples on top are cooked in lemon juice and then cooled.  When placed on the pie they are brushed with melted strawberry jam.  The filling was cream cheese, vanilla pudding, and grated lemon.  There was pie left yesterday but mysteriously it disappeared in the middle of the night, James.

We also had sweet potatoes, but you’ll never find one of those on James’ plate.

Georgia

State Nickname:  The Empire State of the South

Capital:  Atlanta

State Bird:  Brown Thrasher

State Flower:  Cherokee Rose

From majestic, forested highlands to a grand seaport on a palm-fringed coast, Georgia is as landscape-rich as any state.  Last established of the 13 British colonies, it’s named for King George II.  Originally begun as a place for poor English to start life anew after serving time in debtors’ prisons, Georgia soon was like other southern colonies, exporting products such as rice, cotton, lumber and deer skins to England – with slave labor.  This slave based economy boomed after the invention of teh cotton gin in 1973.  Gold discovered in its northern region in 1828 further speeded settlement.  The Native Americans were then forced to walk the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. 

Atlanta, remembered as the Civil War Target in 1864, was burned in Sherman’s Army 50 mile wide swath of ruin to the sea. 

In 1886 Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta and sold at the soda fountain in a local pharmacy.  Frist year sales averaged nine drinks a day for a year end earning of fifty dollars. 

Georgia suffered through decades of post-war poverty, forcing it to diversity.  Its survival incorporated the farming of peanuts, pecans, peaches, and sweet Vidalia onions.  Paper production and forest products are plentiful. 

In 1967, racial violence erupted in Atlanta, which became a center of the civil rights movement.  This is one of the first political events that I can remember as I was eight years old. 

I do not have all the photos for our Georgia meal, but we found a back woods chicken recipe that was excellent.  We made grits straight for the first time in our home.  No cheese, no bacon, no flavoring.  Just butter.  For desert we had peaches over ice cream. 

As to personal notes concerning Georgia, my husband and several daughters have enjoyed Callaway Gardens several times.  I have seen Georgia only once – in our trip from my homeland up north to Texas on our move here in 1983.   As we circled around Atlanta, headed for Interstate 20 to come across the southern states, I cried to have left my Yankee land for a world where my language was spoken in a manner I did not understand, where the heat of August overcame me with great fortitude, and the land became low.  I noted poverty in our stops across Interstate 20 and saw crops dusted with small low-flying planes.   Now I claim the South to be a part of me since I have completed my tie-breaker year.  Twenty four and a half years in Yankee land.  Over twenty five in Texas.  Now all of you know why I exist in a State of Confusion. 

Please wait for “Whistle While You Work” to come across your computer speakers.

We interrupted our tour through the US on September 5th to celebrate a milestone in our lives.  My husband, James L. Spangler, on September 5th, 1989 began working for a company named Computer Language Research which was based in Carrollton, Texas.  The company has been bought out twice but my husband has remained in employment there for these past twenty years. 

In honor of his faithfulness to his employer and to us, we planned a special meal for him.  My children, all seven of them, wrote him letters to tell him how much they appreciate him and how much his diligence and longevity and consistency benefit us.  I helped the younger two write theirs, but the others I did not and neither have I seen the contents of those special love letters to Daddy since they have been opened.  They are special and private.

For weeks I thought about what would be the best meal to make for James.  We eat a particular diet (except for the Eat Your Way thing) but I thought for a 20th Anniversary we could surely break that diet and make his very favorites.  Roast beef came to mind … with mashed potatoes and peas.  I wanted to throw in some shrimp scampi too.  All easy things to make.  The one that had me stuck was popovers.  James loves popovers but I don’t make them well. 

Often my husband likes to grocery shop with me or our daughters so while in the store I casually asked him about popovers.  He said he loves them, but not as much as Yorkshire Pudding.  Now that is popovers made in beef broth or drippings.  I asked if he would tell me how to make them.  He said I never could learn.  I gave him a funny look and he asked why did I have to learn.

And so the story goes that he found out about the anniversary celebration.  He thought the celebration was ridiculous, but the meal sounded great.  In fact, he told me that his mother was Queen when she made roast beef and mashed potatoes.

So here is the anniversary meal which I did not make, but James did.  He had such a grand time doing this that it cracked me up.  I got such a hoot out of it.  He chose a different shrimp recipe … one that came from our honeymoon in Vermont.  And yes, he made the Yorkshire Pudding.   

He did not get away with doing it all.  The children had made his favorite cookie – a recipe from Consumer Reports back in the 80s called The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.  And several of us girls produced his favorite : banana cream pie all from scratch.

During desert I asked my husband to give the history of his employment and we recounted God’s faithfulness to us.  There were at least three times that James was up for a promotion and even the bosses said he should have it, but it went to another.  Not long after that the position of promotion was eliminated.  So James’ job has been protected through those times, through the company buy-outs, and through other trials.  He also did not take a job with a company in Houston back in 1988 although they wanted him.  That firm went out of business due to a scandel and it would have been in the very division that James would have worked.  God’s Hand has been guiding and directing even when we have not been able to immediately see it.

When Karen was a little girl I asked her if she knew why Daddy went to work every day.  She confidently responded, “To buy me chips.”  (As in potato chips.)  That has been a standing joke in our home now for 20 years. 

When I think of the all of the men in the world who do not provide for their families, it really hits home to me how much my husband does to take care of me and my children.  And when I look back several generations in my family and in James’ family, we have had men who faithfully took on the tasks of daily work and earning daily bread.  They did not shirk from their calling as Provider.  Thank you Lord for this heritage.

Thank you James for providing for me and seven younguns for all of these years.  There is no value that can be placed upon the daily sacrifice you make for us.

Alabama

Nickname:  Heart of Dixie

Capital:  Montgomery

State Bird:  Northern flicker

State Flower: Cameillia

Alabama anchored the Confederate States of America and led in being the first to secede in 1861.  The name of the state comes from an old Indian name, “Alibamu.” 

Alabama is a state of mostly low rolling plains with a Black Belt of rich, dark soil spanning the middle.  This is why Alabama was known for its cotton way back before the Civil War.  This ended in the 1920s when the boll weevil destroyed the cotton harvest.  This demanded more variety in agriculture, hence peanuts, sweet potatoes, and pecans are now main crops in Alabama.  There are many chickens and pond-raised catfish.  Vast stands of oak and pine support a giant forest products industry.    There are more turkeys per acre in Alabama than any other state in the U.S.  (but another state is the top producer of turkey – figure that one out.)

African American botanist George Washington Carverdiscovered over 300 uses for peanuts and 118 uses for sweet potatoes while teaching at Tuskegee University.  Americans consume over 4 million pounds of peanuts a day.  In a year we eat enough peanut butter to cover the floor of the Grand Canyon. 

Alabama Boil is an old dish served in the backroads of the Heart of Dixie.  You get a bigggggg pot and you stand up unshucked corn around the edge.  Throw in 8-12 onions, 8-12 potatoes, a couple of pounds of green beans, red peppers, and several pounds of sausage … Italian, Polish, or whatever.  Then an inch of water goes into the bottom of the pot and it steams the whole lot for about 4-5 hours.

Alabama Peanuts

I have never had these served like this.  These were raw, in the shell, and boiled for hours in water and several tablespoons of salt.  Cool slightly, peel, and eat.  They then softly crunch like a cooked bean.

The corn in the Alabama boil swelled up into rich, yellow kernels.

We knew somewhere along our tour of the South we would have to make some catfish.  Catfish has not been served in the Spangler home in 25 years, so this was very different for us.  James grilled it. 

The finished meal.

Arkansas – celebrated with mountain green and creamy beige tablecloths to create a natural color scheme and a fruitful vine centerpiece.  Also celebrated with the honor of the presence of the two Mr. Blanchards.  I enjoyed feeding the younger Mr. Blanchard in the high chair.  (Almost completed dollhouses in the background.)

Now, if you are listening to the music you will either say to yourself “That’s Arkansas Traveler” or you will start singing, “I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee, won’t my mama be so proud of me?”  Either way, you can hum along and tap your feet.

State Motto: The Natural State

Capital:  Little Rock

State Bird:  Mockingbird (this intrigues me – why are so many states choosing a bird with an attitude?)

State Flower:  Apple Blossom

Diverse landscapes and outdoor activities earn Arkansas its nickname.  On its north and west rise the rugged Ouachita Mountains and the Ozark Plateau.  Between them flows the Arkansas River, south and east across the state to the Gulf Coastal Plain.  There it meets the Mississippi River, with its many oxbow lakes along the eastern border. 

French explorers scouted the natural resourses of this area in the 1670s.  The French learned of a native group named for the south wind.  Oo-ka-na-sa was penned by the French into “Arkansas.”  (ARK-an-saw)  Arkansas was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  Arkansas joined the Confederacy and was not readmitted into the Union until African Americans were given the right to vote in 1868.   Overall, Arkansas has been one of the more poor states, but it is rich in natural resources and beauty.  The soggy Mississippi River lowlands provide rice fields which are flooded to farm fish.  Catfish, cotton, chickens, and turkeys are abundant. Arkansas is the top US producer of bauxite and bromine.  Bauxite is where we get aluminum from, bromine is used in fire retardants.

Northern Arkansas is on my list of Top Ten Places to Live in the USA.   We have vacationed there twice – once in Jasper and once outside of Eureka Springs.  Our family enjoys the natural beauty of this area along with the culture of the Ozarks.  I’ve told James he can get a job there anytime. (Doing what?  Why, making Hillbilly music of course!  Oh yeh, I forgot.  We’re into classical music.)

We held Karen’s high school graduation in the magnificent glass Thorncrown Chapel in a forest in Eureka Springs and then had a wonderful lunch at War Eagle Mill.

Because Arkansa is so rich in natural resources and many good things to eat, it was a tough choice to come up with a menu.  I had thirty things to choose from.  If I had a deep fryer I would have done Ozark Fried Pies.  Instead, I started days ahead of “eating our way through” with making Arkansas Caviar.  You have to remember that the people of Arkansas are not financially rich.  So their Caviar is made from black eyed peas.  Now, we don’t eat black eyed peas here at our house.  No one has ever liked the taste of them.  I don’t like anything staring up at me from my dinner plate (pea eyes, fish eyes, any eyes).  Yet I was drawn to the Arkansas Caviar which fermented three days in the frig and was close to a sour Pennsylvania Dutch dressing.  It was delicious, particularly because it reminded me of Dutch Bean Salad.  Further research has revealed that Mississippi has a similar black eyed peas caviar that is more southwestern in flavorings.  Who needs fish eggs? 

Each October The Great American Spam Championship takes place at the Arkansas State Fair in Little Rock.  Although Spam was born in Hormel, Minnesota, the championships are here in the South.  We ate the first place winner from the 2006 competition:  Spam Bowl Dip.  The spam was ground with garlic and parmesan cheese, other flavorings were added.  The sauce over the top is cream cheese with red jalapeno jelly and we served the dip with buttery crackers. 

The main dish was Arkansas Chicken.  The pan was lined with corned beef.  The chicken, wrapped in bacon, was cooked in sour cream and cream cheese and a thick chicken sauce.  Since rice is grown in Arkansas we had that on the side but something a little different.  We have never had Minute Rice in our house so I bought a box.   My children were in awe that this rice was not brown.

Arkansas Chicken was such a hit that it is going into our permanent recipe file.  I think this is because of the corned beef.  It just adds a little zip to the chicken and bacon.

Baked in the sauce until brown.  No, I did not count the fat grams.  My calculator does not go that high.  I had extra sauce heated on the side and that disappeared quickly.

Last was Cliff House Company’s Comin’ Pie.  In 1986, Arkansas celebrated its statehood Sesquicentennial with the theme “Company’s Comin’.”   Cliff House, which overlooks the Grand Canyon of the Oarks in Jasper along the national Scenic 7 Byway (yes, we’ve been there), made the original pie for the occasion.  The meringue crust ready to go into a 30 minute bake.  (egg white, cream of tartar, a full cup of sugar, 18 crushed saltines, pecans, and vanilla)

Pie #1:  The whip cream topping – with strawberries folded in.

Pie #2:  The whip cream topping with crushed pineapple folded in.  There were leftovers of these pies in the frig but never saw them shortly after that.  Funny thing.  The pie pans have been washed and put away.  Glad I got a slice when I did.

We are off to a good start eating our way through The Grand Ol’ South.

My husband, whose ancestors were wealthy plantation owners in Virginia, has informed me that the South starts at Virginia.  The records from his great-great-great-grandparents were destroyed when the Richmond courthouse was destroyed in the Civil War but were carried on in oral tradition.   So the status of Maryland has been moved to Mid-Atlantic State.  Not that it matters too much.  We can still be “crabby” when we eat through it.   Yum.  Blue crab.

Just think, perhaps if the Civil War had not happened, I would be married to a wealthy Virginian who owns a large steel producing company and a very large plantation outside Norfolk.   But thanks to General Sherman’s march that burned the sixty mile wide path straight to Atlanta, the family tree ended up penniless.  I think that is called “Gone With the Wind.”  No hoop skirts for me.

Yes, next on the itinerary is to eat our way through the South.  The Grand Ol’ South.   From the sources I checked, there would be some debate here about whether or not Delaware and Maryland are southern.  Some of my books list them as being part of the Northeast, but my flashcards and cookbooks put them in the South along with a few historical resources.  Since I am from the Northeast, my experience tells me that Maryland is southern, but Delaware is not.  In Pennsylvania we were a little more forgiving if you were from these border states than if you were farther down in twang country.  I’ll never forget my 10th grade geometry teacher who was from Alabama and the only southern I had met in my childhood.  My classmates and I understood little that she said… but she sure was sugar sweet.  I never could tell, however, the difference between pan-pen-pin when she said them.  I really had to follow the context of what she was saying.   I was convinced that as a child they taught her to talk with marbles in her mouth.  I found out later while visiting England for a month that they thought the same thing of me.

The Mason-Dixon line has traditionally been used to separate the culture of the North and the South.  It places Maryland in the South and Delaware in the North.  Originally the line was surveyed because of multiple boundary disputes between the Penn and Calvert families representing Pennsylvania and Maryland.  The Missouri Compromise of 1820 created the political conditions which made the Mason-Dixon Line important to the history of slavery.  It was during this time that Congress first used the boundary to designate between free states and slave states. 

This complicates things because although Delaware was a slave state, it never considered secession.  Marshal law prevented Maryland from seceding.  There were divided loyalties in both states. 

The seven states declared their secession before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861 were South Carolina, Mississippi, florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiaina, and Texas.  After the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 186, and Lincoln’s subsequent call for troops on April 15, four more states declared their secession:  Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

The border states of Kentucky and Missouri declared neutrality very early in the war.   Later on Kentucky split in its loyalty.  Missouri passed an ordinance of secession but it was confused when Federal troops took over the capital.  The Confederate flags had thirteen stars, reflecting claims of Kentucky and Missouri.  West Virginia was still forming and was in the Confederacy.  Both the North and the South used marshal law to keep counties from swaying to the opposite side.

From my point of view, Maryland belonged to Them and Delaware belonged to Us, and I derive this from cultural attitudes in my childhood.   And now that I have been in Texas for 26 years, I am totally confused because my Texan born children think we lost the Civil War, but I grew up thinking we won it.  Throughout our 22 years of home school historical study, I have come to conclude that no one won.  It is judgment on a nation when brothers fight against brothers.  The results are never good. 

So where do Maryland and Delaware land?  I think I am in a State of Confusion.  Since Delaware was greatly influenced by Quaker missionaries and originally part of the Philadelphia area, I will slide it into the Mid-Atlantic States category.  Maryland I will consider South because it is south of the Mason-Dixon line.  Missouri is considered part of the Midwest and we’ll eat through it sometime next year.

The bottom line: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, West and Regular Ol’ Virginia, and Maryland.  So off we go into Dixie, yes derived from the ”Dixon” in Mason-Dixon line.  I mention here that my children are familiar with Cowboy music of the Southwest, but now we’ll have to add some dinner music of a different flavor.  I wonder if I will survive the music and food.  We’ll see.

I wish I was in de land ob cotton,

Old times dar am not forgotten;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land whar I was born in,

Early on one frosty mornin,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Old Missus marry “Will-de-weaber,”

Willium was a gay deceaber;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

But when he put his arm around’er,

He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound’er,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Dar’s buck-wheat cakes an ‘Ingen’ batter,

Makes you fat or a little fatter;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,

To Dixie land I’m bound to trabble.

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Arizona

Capital:  Phoenix (yes, we all learned to spell it)

State Bird:  Cactus Wren

State Flower:  Saguaro

State Motto:  The Grand Canyon State

Native Americans and the US Government own 70 percent of the state.  That means only 30 percent is privately owned.  Doesn’t seem like much.  Arizona’s largest lizard, the Gila monster, is the only poisonous lizard in the US.  London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City.  There are 21 Indian reservations in Arizona, the largest belongs to the Navajos.  There is also a huge graveyard of governmental aircraft out in the desert. 

The economic infrastructure of Arizona is rather fragile.  For years Arizona depended upon five C’s.

Copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate.

Arizona still produces more copper than all other states combined, but its importance has declined.  The three agricultural C’s are still farmed, but Arizona is out of water.  Lack of water is the largest threat to all of Arizona.  Efforts to bring Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson puts Arizona at odds with California and Nevada.

Our family has traveled to Arizona two times to visit relatives in Tucson and a third time for James to officiate over his grandmother’s memorial service.  James’ folks bestowed on us such gracious hospitality whenever we were in Arizona.  Twice we have driven straight up the state through several climate zones to the Grand Canyon.  It is an outstanding drive to take if you are ever there, except for the lanes that go off into nowhere in case you lose your car brakes.  We pulled our RV up there a few years ago and I was glad when we finally arrived at the Canyon, although it was a freezing 17 degrees.  We’ve been through Sedona and also the Painted Desert.  The Sonoran Desert is so beautiful.  And we’ve been to one of the observatories that keeps an eye on the skies.  Arizona is definitely a unique place.  Yet to us, our fondest memory is that Granny lived in Tucson – it is there where she lived such a godly life for her Saviour, and she is buried there.  She lived over 100 years on this earth if you count the days she lived in utero.

Years ago James’ mom made prickly pear cactus jelly for us and it was pretty good.  I looked in many grocery specialty stores in about a 25 mile radius and found none.  I wanted to have some with our Arizona meal. 

And, speaking of food, one of my favorite memories of Arizona is when my father-in-law took us up to the top of Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains.  Mount Lemmon is 9,000 feet high with incredible views for those who like heights.  (Not me.  Why are scenic drives equal to feeling like you are going to lose your lunch with that whoozy feeling.)  I noticed that in Arizona they called these views vistas.  At the top of the mountain we took a rest stop.  Grandpa was holding Baby Emily (whom he called Butterball) and when I was in the restroom he took it upon himself to feed Em a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  I was reserved with sugar-chocolate-treats with all of my babies, but I thoroughly enjoyed and approved of Grandpa spoiling her.  Her little face with chocolate smeared on it is still clear in my memory as Grandpa cuddled her.  Reese’s is part of Hershey’s Chocolate so I gave double approval.  If it had been Nestles I might have felt differently.

Somehow Grandpa also had peanut butter cups in the frig every time we were in Arizona so when on occasion we have some, we chill or freeze them ahead of time.  There’s no other way to eat them.

Once again, James found his way to the kitchen.  He made chicken quesadillas, which was new to us but delicious.  James has not cooked much in the last three or four years and we have been overly delighted that he has been pushing us out of the kitchen for the United States dinners.  He has often told me that he would have loved to have been a chef.   His mother is also a terrific cook.

Blue corn chips with a bean dip that had all kinds of veggies in it and tomatillos.

Ready to eat.

Kimberly is so proud of her toothless grin because she can push her tongue straight through the hole.  There is no sign of a new tooth so she may have this privilege for quite a while.  The tooth fairy cried when the tooth came out.  Last top tooth on a child for the fairy mother to witness.  Kimmy is growing up too fast.  The other top tooth is loose and the tooth fairy has told her not to wiggle it at all!   

The quesadillas with zippy beans and rice.

Lemon bars.  Why lemon bars?  Because Catholic missionaries took lemons that were in China and introduced them to the US by planting them in Arizona.  Before then there were no lemons in the US.

Well, I can honestly say that this geography curriculum has been mighty tasty (spare the chicken fried steak).

I can not close this post without telling my Grand Canyon story.  Our first trip to the Grand Canyon was when Karen was 8 and Kathy was 6.  We arrived at night, James settled us in the lodge and then he (the naturalist) went out walking.  I assumed the canyon was fenced and lighted.  Wrong.  Wouldn’t you think that a big ol’ hole like that would have railings along the hotels thta are very close to the edge?  It was night and he came within inches of falling into it, down quite a steep cliff. 

The next morning we left for what was supposed to be the best site for capturing the first rays of sun, a photographer’s dream.  So off we went and a small group of people were there with the same goal in mind.  I stayed a small distance from the canyon’s edge, holding firmly to my daughters’ hands so they would not run over the edge.  As the first rays of sun peeked through the darkness my eyes searched for James and he was hanging out, and I mean hanging, on a small ledge that was a sliver of a tabletop over the chasm.  A lady, about 60 years old, came up to me and said, “Honey, is that your husband out there?  Well, my husband is out there on another ledge too.  Your blood pressure looks like it is off the charts.  Honey, let me give you some advice.  Thirty years ago my husband hung over Hoover Dam for a picture.  I gave him to God that very day.  Give your husband to God.  If they are going to hang like this, it’s only God that’s gonna keep them.”

That lady must have been a prophet.

The best news story on the Grand Canyon can be found here, complements of my Abigail, who was 10 feet away from the edge with no railing for the video shoot.  http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/multimedia/enn/2006/12/1972.aspx

I’d also like to make note at this time, out of immense motherly embarassment pride, that Emily “spit a mile” straight down into the Canyon, which she could not wait to do.  And she did it more than once.  I’d also like to mention that this was a deal between her father and her and I had nothing to do with it.

We have one southwestern state left to eat our way through.  I have received several comments from some natives about our Texas and Oklahoma meals.  These comments have been rather enjoyable so keep them coming, along with all the cooking advice.  I will say this, though.  Pennsylvania is coming.  Not in the near future, but in the future.  That’s when we will finally have some real food around this place.