ELIZABETH “BETSY” WATTS KOCH (Brentwood, Tennessee) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Her Granny, LAURA FRANCES HARRIS WATTS (also from Nashville), was raised to be a Southern belle, but she didn’t start cooking until she was about fifty, after her mother died. Betsy remembers liking some of Granny’s kitchen tools, which she thinks belonged to Laura’s mother. She especially liked her nonelectric beaters, which had a flywheel you turned, which then turned the beaters. Betsy shares, “The weekend before Granny had a major stroke in 1980, she and the rest of my family visited me in New Orleans for parents’ weekend at Tulane. We were all in the French Quarter, and I remember both of my grandmothers standing in the middle of Bourbon Street with their mouths hanging open as they stared at some of the interesting characters that passed by. I do remember once after a stroke when one of her rare sentences burst out: ‘I’m full as a Billy goat.’” Granny passed away in 1990.
1 (10 ounce) package frozen green beans, cooked per package directions
1 (10 ounce) package peas, cooked per package directions
1 (10 ounce) package lima beans, cooked per package directions
1 ½ cups mayonnaise
1 small onion, grated
3 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Dash of salt
Dash of hot sauce
Paprika (optional)
1 Drain the green beans, peas, and lima beans, and mix together with the mayonnaise, onions, eggs, oil, salt, and hot sauce. You can either refrigerate and serve cold or cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. In true ’60s spirit, sprinkle with paprika before serving.
MAKES 10 TO 12 SERVINGS.