Page 26 - ATR 5 2013

“She’s a wonderful cook,” he
quickly volunteered. On the menu that
night? Filet.
Richards said she learned to cook
as a girl from her mother “over the tele-
“duriNg the most challeNgiNg times, you see phone,” calling her mom at work to find
the true core of someoNe’s character. i’Ve out how to fix this or that for supper.

seeN betty be tough aNd that toughNess These days she finds herself in the role
is built oN her faith. that faith is the of kitchen advisor, having her grand-
daughters over before Thanksgiving for
corNerstoNe for us, it giVes you the streNgth a stuffing and pie cooking marathon.
to go oN.” “I go from pot to pot, making sure
they’re doing everything right,” she
—shaNNoN eVerett, said. “I really got it from my grandma;
chief fiNaNcial officer, rich logistics I made dressing and it tasted like corn-
bread and water. She said you need to
do this and this…. I put half biscuits
and half cornbread in mine, and then
eggs and salt and pepper and sage and
“I guess, like her late husband “She had a party at her condo for cream of celery and cream of chicken
D.W., there was that day I started Memorial Day, and she still had it up soups. If it’s not moist enough, you add
with trucks and did the same thing in the last couple of weeks of April and milk to it. That’s about all I do.”
Camden,” Quarles recalled. “My first had to get it down,” said Quarles. Her love of cooking has another
wife hated trucks. Needless to say, that “He came over and took it down outlet, too: In 2011, she bought the
didn’t last long.” and we talked for hours,” said Richards. historic 1869 McDonald-Wait Newton
A couple of years ago their friend- “I invited him back for dinner and that House on Cantrell Road in Little Rock –
ship started to evolve, Richards said, probably did it. It just kind of evolved better known as the Packet House. She
with the help of a Christmas tree. from there.” had it renovated and reopened it as the

26 arKansas trucKing report | issue 5 2013