Linda Bennett

Linda Mosley Bennett says she is “old-fashioned” about Christmas. She likes to make Christmas candy like her mother, Dorothy Mosley, and her grandmother, Mary Hubbard. She likes the old-timey “fat colored Christmas lights” on the tree with icicles.
And she likes to do things with family like attend the Christmas parade, and ride around looking at Christmas lights locally, at Cotton Plant and other places, and this year they took a ride on the Polar Express.

“Everybody has a favorite,” she said about the Christmas candy, which she usually makes and takes to all their events at church, work and family. Her dad, Billy, doesn’t think it’s Christmas without her candy. She makes five or six different kinds including fudge, Martha Washington balls, peanut butter balls and divinity, which she always gives Becky Prewett for her Christmas present because it’s her favorite.

The candy recipes were her grandmother’s, who always made candy and cakes for Christmas, so it has special memories for her. Dorothy and Mary taught Linda to make it, and she has been teaching her granddaughters, Lakyn, Caitlyn and Chloe Beth.
Linda and “the girls” also make teacakes at Christmas, and it is a favorite of Chloe’s to cut out and decorate them.
One of the best Christmases to Linda was a steak dinner at the home of her in-laws, Charles and Frances Bennett.

Christmas Day is “their day” Linda says with her and Jeff, their kids and grandkids. Traditionally, they have something like breakfast  casserole and muffins. After their gift exchange, the guys hunt (including Bennett, but not Jase yet, even though he says he is ready to get a big buck) and the girls watch movies and sometimes even make some goodies.
“There are certain foods for certain times of the year, and fall, to me, is turnip greens (or any kind of greens) and sweet potatoes,” but now she says it’s time for things like the cowboy stew and chicken and dumplings.

Those are two of her family’s favorites when they come over on Sunday afternoon, especially chicken and dumplings. “I like to see my family,” and Sunday is usually her big day to cook for them.
She always cooks Sunday morning breakfast for Jeff and “whatever grandchild might have spent the night.”

Tea Cakes
2 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. milk
Sift dry ingredients together. Cream together sugar, shortening, butter. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add dry ingredients and milk. Roll out onto floured surface and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 375° for 12 minutes.

Grandmother’s Fudge
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
2/3 cup Pet milk
Cook 5 minutes after it comes to a hard boil. Then add:
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecans (optional)
Beat together. Pour into buttered dish. Let set until cool and cut into pieces.

Divinity
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup cold water
2 egg whites
Place sugar, corn syrup and water in pan over slow fire, stirring only until sugar is dissolved, then cook until mixture forms a soft ball in cool water. Beat egg whites until stiff and pour in half of the sugar mixture, beating constantly. Return other half of the sugar to heat and cook until mixture forms a hard ball in a little bit of cool water. Pour the rest of the sugar mixture in with the egg whites. Add  vanilla and beat until it starts to lose its sheen. Drop by teaspoonful onto wax paper. Cool completely.

Cowboy Stew
1 lb. ground chuck
1 small onion, diced
2 cans chili with beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
Brown ground chuck with onion and mix all other ingredients together. (I put mine in the crockpot and let cook until hot. We add Fritos corn chips in bowl before serving and top with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.)

Chicken & Dumplings
1 whole chicken, cut up
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 stick butter
Boil chicken and other ingredients in water enough to cover chicken. Boil until chicken is fork-tender. Debone chicken, drain broth through a strainer making sure to remove all bones. Return broth to pan and bring to a boil.
Dumplings:
2 cups of flour
Chicken broth
Put enough chicken broth into your flour to make a stiff dough. Roll dough out to 1/2” thickness. Cut into strips and drop into boiling broth. Cook dumplings until translucent, and return cooked chicken back into pan with dumplings. Salt and pepper to taste.