For $10, attendees were treated to a bowl of white bean and ham soup based on the recipe for the soup served now in all restaurants in the U.S. Capitol. According to the U.S. Senate web page on the subject, two recipes emerged just after the turn of the century, one with mashed potatoes, a lot more onion, garlic and celery stalks, but the soup served today consists simply of navy beans, one cut-up onion per two pounds of beans and a pound and a half of ham hocks with salt and pepper to taste. And water, of course.
Sam Raff was the chef who produced the soup this year. His wife Bonnie made cornbread. Other members of the DAR produced the cookies and brownies served for dessert.
The proceeds from the evening will go to fund scholarships given to local students for college.
The John Cain chapter of Hempstead County and the Benjamin Culp chapter of Nevada County have merged recently. Terrie James is regent of the merged DAR. She explained the mission of the DAR chapter, which meets monthly.
“Our focus, of course, is preservation, history. We recognize the veterans. We have a variety of issues that we've worked on, everything from women's health to conservation to literature," James said.
Recently, the DAR has taken part in Veterans Day observances and helped decorate the Sanders House during the Christmas and Candlelight event at Old Washington. In their meetings, James, continued, programs are presented pertaining to the DAR’s mission. To join, prospective members must be able to demonstrate through documentation that they are the descendant of an American Revolutionary soldier.
At Monday's event, Bonnie Raff, performing as Martha Washington, spoke to several children who had sat down to enjoy their meals. Children can also take part, James said, in the DAR’s Feed, Seed and Read program, in which they get something to eat, something to read and seeds for a food crop to plant and raise.
The counterpart organization for men, Sons of the American Revolution, has its Southwest Trail chapter in Texarkana, Arkansas and its Ecore Fabre chapter in Camden.
