A Kind Appeal

Old Fashioned Red Bean Stew
1 pound veggie sausage
1 yellow cooking onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 quart tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups precooked red beans
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper


     In a large dutch oven, brown the sausage in a little olive oil.  Add the onion, tomatoes, salt, bay leaf, black pepper, garlic, thyme, and diced potatoes and cook until the vegetables are soft.  Add the beans and simmer to blend the flavors, about 10 minutes.  Fold in the chopped green peppers.  Serve immediately.  This is delicious with cornbread and served on a cold, rainy day.

Speak not in anger.  Little children feel

A million times more keenly than you guess;

You gain more quickly through a kind appeal,

And win to greater goals with a caress;

Ask not that babes shall understand each word-

The land from which they come is very still;

You, too, were years in learning what you heard,

And even now you err in good and ill.

                                         - Grace E. Hall