00:00:30,370	Hello and welcome to the Presidents' Kitchen Cabinet. I'm Beth Stroup-Menge, a member of the Minishoshe- Mandan chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. DAR is a nonprofit, nonpolitical volunteer women's service organization. It was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

00:01:00,170	DAR is dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America's future through better education for children. DAR members volunteer millions of service hours annually in the local communities, including supporting active duty military personnel and assisting veteran patients, awarding thousands of dollars in scholarships and financial aid each year to students, and supporting schools for under served children, with annual donations exceeding $1 million.

00:01:29,270	As one of the most inclusive genealogical societies in the country, DAR boasts nearly 180,000 members in 3,000 chapter across the United States and internationally. Any woman 18 years or older, regardless of race, religion, or ethnic background who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution is eligible for membership.

00:01:56,170	I'm Connie Sprynczynatyk also a member of the Minishoshe- Mandan chapter of DAR. America 250 celebrates the semiquincentennial of the foundi of America. North Dakota's America 250 Commission has generously provided a grant to our DAR chapter for this local television series we are calling the Presidents█ Kitchen Cabinet.

00:02:24,630	We're also happy to be partnering with Dakota Media Access and with Rick Collin, a historian, who as taught classes for Bismarck State College, University of Mary, and for Humanities North Dakota. Rick is, an author, a publisher, and most importantly, a grandfather.

00:02:51,230	This series will honor the 250th of our founding by walking through presidential history with Rick and Beth, and I will invite you into the kitchen where we will be talking about White House life as we cook favorite presidential foods The country's first couple, George and Martha Washington, were known for their hospitality and they set a high bar for all succeeding First families.

00:03:13,700	We hope this entertaining history will help viewers get to know presidents as people rather than historical figures. Think of this as part discussion of culture in America along with history you can taste, what we're calling History on a Fork. Rick. Start a so tell us how you becam so interested in all things presidential.

00:03:36,870	Well, Connie, Beth, I grew up out of the Washington, My dad worked for NASA, so I lived out in Maryland for about 15 years. And, my first memory is the President Kennedy. His assassination actually had a huge impact. I was eight years old, in third grade. We lived just a few miles from Andrews Air Force Base, where Air Force One brought President Kennedy's body back from Dallas.

00:03:59,170	I can remember, going out into the yard. But 6:00 at night, as it was turning dusky, watching Air Force One fly over the house, bringing Kennedy back to Andrews Air Force Base in Washington.

00:04:19,530	And then I was a newspaper boy, and I delivered papers every day And for the next many years, always headlines about LBJ and Vietnam, Nixon and Watergate and civil rights and just presidents always seem to be in the news. So I got an interest in presidents all the way back then and ever since, I if I hadn't been able to give it up.

00:04:37,270	Rick and I are Facebook friends, and I love your periodic posts about all things presidential. I won't call it presidential triviabecause your base of knowledge is amazing. It is not trivial! I do love to research and I love to put those out on Facebook. So. So, Rick, before we ask you to dig into presidential, all things presidential.

00:04:59,170	Beth, do you want to talk about how we actually got started on this project? The cookbook that kicked it all in gear? Absolutely. So Connie and I are members of our chapter█s program committees. One of our members, Rebecca Seehaver, gave us a copy of this cookbook, which we found very interesting. And it's the White House Cookbook.

00:05:21,900	A lot of recipes from 1860. That got us interested. We thought about doing a program on cooking, and eventually it evolved into let's take a look at a number of, ways that we can share that information with others. And in researching to do this series, we looked at a number of cookbooks.

00:05:47,070	There's a lot of resources out there for anyone that's interested in it. In addition to this book we have, Eat Like a President which has a lot of great information and recipes in it. But of course, my favorite is the KFYR cookbook. It came out in the 1970s, and in it includes recipes from, Patricia Nixon.

00:06:12,430	So some of President Nixon's favorite recipes are in here. So it's a great way for us to look back on the history, the impact that food has had, with our presidents.

00:06:35,430	And in one of the books, they made the comment that what our presidents were eating, what they were, serving at the White House said a lot about who they were as people. And so we're hoping that we'll be able to give you an introduction into some of the food, as well as some of the history that goes along with these recipes. And our presidents and first ladies.

00:06:53,370	I will tell you that we're going to to have a bit of an update, because originally I think this was published in 1887, but then a couple of registered dietitians took it over years ago. And so you will see if you can find a copy of this at a rummage sale as Rebecca did.

00:07:14,100	You'll see that there's one of the historical recipes, but then there is an updated version. I am a bread baker. I love the recipe that told you to heat- In order to bake the bread, heat the oven until a teaspoon of flour browns in five minutes. Well, you don't have to guess.

00:07:34,600	There are actual recipes in here And many times out, but it's interesting how many resources there are for us to peek into th So geographically, we're sort of separated.

00:07:55,530	Or when we think of ourselves as up there near Canada at the top middle of the country But of course, all of the policies coming out of Washington, out of presidential administrations have had a clear impact on, on North Dakotans. Then and now. In this series, we're going to feature maybe 2 or 3 presidents each time. This is a mini series, and we will focus on all things interesting about those particular administrations. In this case, we're tackling George Washington.

00:08:23,230	How could we not? He was the first. John Adams who succeeded him. And then we're going to skip not quite a century into, Abraham Lincoln's administration And we'll talk about some of the foods and food practices that he liked.

00:08:45,100	One of the things that we're also doing, the rest of the chapter members are going to be taking, protocol hints from that cookbook. Because it was, I think, originally published in 1887. The, admonitions that are in there, I think you'll find interesting.

00:09:12,430	And so our chapter members, you'll see little clips of people, probably in colonial attire, reading clips from this cookbook So speaking of colonial attire, that makes me think of colonial kitchens and colonial kitchen equipment and food supplies. So, Beth, what do you know about Colonial Kitchen versus modern kitchen? Did they have ovens? Lots of changes. Well, let me say I'm so glad that I am cooking in the kitchen That's modern.

00:09:39,230	Versus the old da There would be cooking, in a huge, kitchens that would have fires, fireplace and cooking over the fire. And, so how do you moderate something like that? How do you- how do you test something when it's when it's done cooking? Just even the access to various foods.

00:10:03,500	So it's interesting because one of the, dishes that we're going to be, serving today are hoecakes, and they're made with cornmeal. One of the reasons that we're using cornmeal is that wheat was really not very available. And so oftentimes, the settlers would be cooking with corn.

00:10:31,430	The wheat was, shipped to other European countries, England yeah, and England, because we were able to go out there and as a result, there was a shortage of wheat. And so the settlers ended up using cornmeal, which of course, was introduced to them by our native relatives. So, so we're going to be, using corn for that reason. It was a commonly available ingredient. So were eggs, milk, cream. People made their own butter.

00:10:58,230	Everybody probably had a hog. I don't know if everybody had a horse, but I'm going to guess that hogs were common. So we're doing a recipe with pork today. We are. We're going to be having we're going to be making a ham with a glaze that was a favorite President Lincoln.

00:11:16,730	Even though Lincoln liked plain food, he did- he did have some deviations, apparently. Rick, tell us, tell us about some thingsabout George Washington's presidency that you think, we should be thinking about in today's Well, I think, Connie, Beth, the most important thing to remember about Washington's presidency is he was the first one.

00:11:39,730	He set the precedents for all the presidents after in so many ways. He established the first cabinet And that was something that has been in place ever since. He had great cabinet. Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of Treasury, Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, Knox as Secretary of War, Henry Knox as Secretary of War.

00:12:02,100	So, one historian said after that,every other cabinet looked like a pick up team. Yeah. And then he also established, the precedence So presidents giving an inaugural address and a farewell address, which been in place ever since.

00:12:28,170	He also, established that the president would be the person who set the foreign policy of the nation, not Congress, not all those members of Congress kind of muddling up everything. The president would be the one to establish the the tone of foreign policy. And he did that through. One example would be the, Neutrality Proclamation of 1793. Britain and France were at war.

00:12:45,270	There was a lot of pressure to get into war, particularly on France█s side to help them out. And Washington issued this neutrality proclamation, and he was the one who did it as President. And that kind of set the standard for presidential action in the future. Foreign policy, my reading of some of the presidential history. Not every president has had a stellar relationship with Congress.

00:13:10,230	Did the fact that Washington had to allow his generals, etc. to be appointed by Congress... Did that help pave the way for a great relationship or not so much? Well, I think- I think it helped because, Washington had pretty good relations with Congress. There were there were issues.

00:13:32,430	But I think in that particular area, he had a good relationship with Congress, but one of the areas that he did not And this was another one, precedent that he set as the first president was in negotiating of treaties with foreign countries and the recognition of foreign governments.

00:13:50,100	Congress wanted to see all this pay, all these papers that Washington had, generated, trying to establish treaties with a couple of nations. Washington said, no, you're not. That's my area. You don't need to see all those papers and all the details of what we try to do to, negotiate treaties with countries and, establish, recognition of foreign governments.

00:14:13,530	So he set the precedent for those two as well. And that was, again, overall, pretty good relations with Congress. But he had his moments. Did he- Tell us about his, personality? Because I think he's generally considered to be very dignified and almost aloof. Perhaps compared with some of the other presidents we're going to talk about today.

00:14:36,370	But make him human for us. Sure. The indispensable man, he's been called that because he was the one who led the Continental Army to victory in Revolutionary War. He was the one who presided over the Constitutional Convention, gave us the U.S. Constitution. He was the one who, as first president set all these precedents.

00:14:56,470	but he also, like you said, he had this aloof personality. John Adams called it, Washington had the gift of silence. And what that meant was Washington, more often than not, would be quiet, and would not say a lot when he was engaged in discussions with groups because he found that a lot of times

00:15:19,500	if you didn't say something, it meant you didn't get you in trouble there. So he had this gift of silence that I think drove John Adams nuts at times, because he was the exact opposite. It's all about talking and being, loquacious with Adams Washington was a very commanding He was a big man.

00:15:42,170	Six feet, two inches tall, with, close to 200 pounds. And when you're talking about the typical person back then, maybe five- six, five-seven, 130-150 pounds. So he really, kind of command and people talk about this. There's a lot of personal testimony about how Washington, when he would come into a room, he just command that room. People just naturally looked to Washington.

00:16:04,870	He was, he loved to dance. He was a great dancer, and he loved to party. There were all these stories about how Washington would sometimes be the last person to leave a party But he loved to dance.

00:16:23,530	Women would line up with him at, you know, White House socials and balls and even before that to dance with him. He was really good at the minuet and that was, that was a dance of youth he was especially good at. And then he was a great, entertainer, a hospitality guy. We talked a little bit about that, both he and Martha Washington.

00:16:43,000	There's a famous story about at the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, in Philadelphia. The 55 delegates wanted to celebrate that they had finally hammered out a constitution after four months. So they went to one of the great taverns in Philadelphia, Washington helped host that event and these all these white guys just kind of went nuts.

00:17:06,000	And they ended up going over like 150 bottles of liquor and endless punch or bottles of punch and all kinds of food and rich food and exotic food. The bill ran up to over $20,000 in today's dollars. But Washington, he was in the thick of that celebration.

00:17:27,470	I thought Washington didn't like drink all of that much. No, he didn█t. He didn't approve of people being drunk as he did, because that meant the loss of control. And with Washington, control was very important. Personal control. Discipline. And we can get into this later. But he and Lincoln's presidencies are very different that way.

00:17:48,730	Lincoln had a very, loosey goosey kind of presidency, administration-wise, or whatever It was certainly effective, but it was very different from Washington's, which was very disciplined. Everything at its place, the levels of command.

00:18:06,870	And then again, you look at his background, he was a military guy, kind of like Eisenhower all those years later had this chain command that he had in place in World Wa 2, and he took it to the White House. And in a lot of ways, Washington took it from the battlefield in the Revolutionary War and into the White House, the same kind of discipline.

00:18:22,530	Well, let's take the discipline of Washington and turn to John Adams, who was not exactly aloof in research. He waspretty, pretty entirely different than George Washington, quite controversial. Outspoken. Tell us a little bit about that. And by the way, there's some possibility that he is one of my ancestors. My grandmother was an Adams from Pennsylvania.

00:18:51,230	And the family rumor is that he was, one of our ancestors. So I'm quite curious about John. Well, first, did you inherit any of this personality? No, we're not going to ask about that one. Their answer might be different than mine.

00:19:17,730	Well, Adams was an equally fascinating person, but almost a direct opposite of Washington, because he was a guy who was very outspoken, impulsive. He's been described as being bipolar, very up, then very down He could be on top of the world and then, he could be the most depressed person because he felt that something had gone wrong. Has it been his fault? And he blamed himself.

00:19:39,170	But, he was a short man, probably about 5█ 7”, maybe about 150 pounds. He had a- there was an arrogance about him that would sometimes come across with people and his, his critics because he was a kind of a short stout guy, gave him the nickname “His Rotundity.” And, it is not fair.

00:19:59,530	But that's the that was those people they would call call John Adams. But he was, he was also a fellow who, had a great marriage. We talked a bit about Abigail Adams. He and his wife, Abigail. And you were married for, like, 54 years. She was a great political advisor to John Adams. Very shrewd, person.

00:20:21,970	She was an early abolitionist. In fact, Adams, they did not own slaves of all but the first five presidents, founding fathers, five presidents. He was the only one of the five that did not own slaves. And she was very adamant about not owning slaves.

00:20:42,630	So, and they would they would stay in touch, you know, they wrote 1200 letters over the course of their when they first got to know each other, to about 1801. And then when he left the White House, pretty much they were together. So they didn't make it really write letters after that. But, she was a remarkable woman. Yes.

00:21:04,100	So speaking of letters, Martha Washington burned the letters from George. She did after he died. She did. Why do you think? Because that's now lost to histo It is a huge loss to history and it's a good question. Why she- why she did that? Washington put her in kind of a tough situation to talk about this a little bit, too.

00:21:24,900	But, he put in his will before he died. That his slaves would be freed. Yes, but only there was a caveat Only upon the death of Martha, because he didn't want to leave her You know that Mount Vernon, with no help to maintain it.

00:21:46,970	So? So he had in the his will that the free- they had about 150 slaves. They would all be freed, but only upon the death of Martha. So he dies. And then the rumors start to circulate that Martha's life is in danger because there are slaves in slave quarters. There were stories coming out that well, which the long as she's alive were slaves.

00:22:08,170	But upon her death were free. And so she got pretty nervous about that. So she decided to change what George wanted. And about a year after his death she freed all their slaves. And then she only survived about a yearor two after that, she died. I think in 1802, he died 1799.

00:22:28,070	He almost made it to the turn of the century, didn't he? He did, just before December 14th of 1799. And, But he- but they had a remarkable marriage as well. No biological children between them. But, they had a very strong marriage. She accompanied him a lot in the field during the Revolutionary War.

00:22:50,700	She was known to be right among the troops and, you know, very, outgoing and hospitable. And, she fed people. She fed troops. She did- she did feed the troops That's right. And then speaking of precedents, she also established all these precedents as first lady.

00:23:13,230	And one of the great precedents were just their entertaining, you know, like having state dinners, having public receptions and some of those kinds of events. Everything both George and Martha did was all setting precedents. So, I mean, when you look back on what they did, to me it makes them even more amazing because they they establish so many precedent that are in place today.

00:23:34,870	And they were very successful. So their unfailing hospitality, I wonder how that played out when it was finally time to retire. And he thinks I'm going back to my life as a planter in Virginia And they get lots of visitors. They do.

00:24:00,170	And Washington just wanted to -he just he wanted to go back and just, you know, be be and live the life of relative leisure and all that. But he was under all this pressure again, he was seen as the one guy who could kind of pull everybody together, the indispensable man.

00:24:23,630	And so he, agrees to become, you know, stand for election as the first president is the only president in our history to be elected with no opposition whatsoever. But one of the also one of the important precedents I didn't me this earlier But some of Washington's very important, probably his most important contribution to the presidency is that he left it. He didn't stay in power.

00:24:44,500	It is interesting. I was looking at this. If I was doing my research, someone what historian suggested if someone like Richard Nixon had been the first president, would he have left after two terms or would he have wanted to stay indefinitely? Washington said, I█m done after two terms. I█m handing over power to my successor.

00:25:06,600	And that really set a very important precedent of the peaceful transfer of power to the next, person. It was a two term precedent that he had set and that lasted for about 150 years. And then, Franklin Roosevelt broke it when he ran the third time in 1940.

00:25:28,000	So one of the things that as he's handing over the power, the next election and some of the power, the issues, the conflicts that occurred amongst those individuals that were running and it wasn't, it didn't sound like a very friendly, oh my gosh, that election of 1800, that was just it. We talked today about how ugly our presidential campaigns are. Yeah.

00:25:59,530	And what they were doing back then, I mean, they were, you know, accusing, Adams of those all kinds of vicious Yes, things. And then the same thing with Jefferson. Yeah. It was a that election of 1800. That was our first, Partizan presidential election because, again, Washington wasn't standing for election. And suddenly all this partizanship exploded.

00:26:26,800	And, that election of 1800, I mean, my gosh, it makes some of the later ones that we've had to put up with look pretty tame. Yeah, yeah.

00:26:50,900	And long lasting impact, the, the impact that it had on, on, Abigail as a wife and in some of the terrible rumors that were spread about, John and Jefferson and it was nasty and, and it carried over into the, into the wives. Well.

00:27:16,900	And Abigail Adams is one of the, she was a key person Adams was president, Alien and D that was ugly, a real black mark on Adams█s presidency, had passed by Congress, signed into law by Adams Basically, what it did is it put severe restrictions on immigration, made becoming a U.S. citizen much longer from being in in this country for 5 years. It would be 14 years.

00:27:39,700	It just really, again put severe restrictions on immigration, but even more so,it inhibited freedom of speech because it made a crime a malicious or false reporting about the president or Congress, and you could be prosecuted for that. And there were actually several, newspaper publishers who were prosecuted for violating the Alien and Sedition Act.

00:28:05,470	And Abigail Adams really pushed Adams to sign that because she saw how much Adams was being slandered and attacked in the press, and she wanted to fight back, but it turned out to be a really a black mark on Adams presidency Fortunately, they were repealed and expired within A year or two after Adams left the presidency.

00:28:18,800	Are you ready to talk, Honest Abe? Absolutely. We need to talk about Abraham Lincoln, because there are there are a surprising number of ties. Even though he was president before, we became a state, we were still Dakota Territory at the time. But tell us about Abraham Lincoln and his connection to North Dakotans. They█re fascinating.

00:28:42,070	There are a lot more connections to, North Dakota that with Lincoln than you'd think. And one of the first ones was he appointed the first two governors of Dakota Territory.

00:29:04,370	And then probably the biggest one was his signing of the Homestead Act in 1862, which opened up about 270 million acres of basically free land for people, is settled about 10% of the United States that contributed to this huge land boom. And, the Western part of the country.

00:29:27,000	And what it basically did is it gave people American citizens 21 or older, 160 acres of free land, basically free land, a little bit of a fee $18 filing fee, which, but that was it. And 160 acres of land. And then you had to prove up the land and basically what that meant for 5 years, you had to build a house, a home or whatever. You had to farm the land.

00:29:44,170	And then if you proved it up after five years, basically that land was yours. And it wasn't just, people who were citizens who were 21 or older, but women and freed slaves are also eligible, to, become, owners of land in that in the Homestead Act. Well actually I should say, women and freed slaves were also citizens.

00:30:05,630	But but they also it wasn't just white guys. Yeah. You know, just to take that land So that was a big thing. The Homestead Act of 1862, was Lincoln. Another one was he signed the, Moral Land Grant College Act, which, opened up the, land grant colleges throughout the country, especially in the western part of the country.

00:30:29,970	And, they were focused on, like, agriculture and engineering. And what they would do is that, they made college accessible to a lot of people w ho earlier couldn't afford to go to these basically elitist colleges. And it made the colleges much more, open and available to, people who were interested in going.

00:30:51,730	We have one, land grant college from that, Moral Land Grant act, and that's North Dakota State University. It was North Dakota Agricultural College when it was founded in 1890. And then in 1960, it went to the vote of North Dakotans, and they changed the name to North Dakota State University And we're proud. We are very, very proud.

00:31:13,530	Alums. Go Bison! She wouldn'tl et me wear my apron that says “Go bison,” but other than that, I like her. Well. And then also Lincoln signed the legislation creating, the development of Transcontinental Railroad, which connected the East Coast to the West Coast and opened up the entire country for basically relatively quick

00:31:35,630	travel compared to what it was earlier, and a huge economic tool. Yeah, so that was a big deal. They also signed the act, they created the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1862. So there were many, many connections. Lincoln has to what's now North Dakota. And part of that would have been the extension service. Yes.

00:31:59,000	Which has done marvelous deeds for ever so many years. So lots of benefits to North Dakota. What were some of the unique challenges of Abraham Lincoln's? And then also talk a little bit about his style of governing. Well, obviously, Lincoln is the only one of our presidents whose entire presidency, except for the first month, consumed by war. Yeah.

00:32:24,070	So, I mean, all the other presidents have had periods of peace and relative peace in thei presidency, Lincoln is the only one who basically was consumed by war. And obviously, that was that was the greatest challenge, which was preserving the Union.

00:32:46,470	You know, he came in, and, the Confederacy was already established and, he reached out to the South. They weren't interested in any kind of, you know, peace, they wanted their own nation, and they fired on Fort Sumter and started the Civil War. So that was it. That was probably Lincoln's greatest challenge, was preserving the Union. And then finding the right generals to win the war.

00:33:06,430	For it because it went through generals, you know, just left it right until he found U. S. Grant and William T Sherman. And then also, I think with Lincoln, another big challenge of his was just trying to, figure out what to do about slavery because it, you know,

00:33:31,230	initially it wasn't about demolishing slavery, was about preserving the Union. And then, it evolved into pressure on him to, put out what it was called the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the South. And then he ended up toward the end of the Civil War, getting the 13th amendment through Congress, which abolishes slavery.

00:33:54,370	When that didn't actually take effect till after his death. But his- you were asking about his presidency and how do how different from Washington And they were Lincoln was a very informal. He was a prairie lawyer, a very informal person. He loved to make points by telling stories. He was a- But he was also very, decisive.

00:34:19,600	I mean, Lincoln, you know, if I think about things. But then when he made a decision that was it. He moved ahead. But, yeah, a couple of examples that indicate, kind of show his informal, approach to governing as opposed to the very disciplined, structured approach of Washington. He opened up the White House to the public.

00:34:40,470	And so every couple three weeks, especially in the beginning, in the middle of his presidency, just people could line up and and visit with him. I mean, he would just take visitors. And he they called them his public opinion baths.

00:34:59,470	And he found them very helpful because he said this was a way I can keep my pulse, my finger o the pulse of what the people are thinking, as opposed to reading newspapers that are all distorted about, you know, whatever's going on.

00:35:20,000	And, just so he would have these public openings and they were just it got to be a bit much as the war got longer and he got more and more consumed by it, and they ended up not having as many, but in the beginning, in the middle, every couple three weeks he just opened up the White House for several hours and have These people, an average person could just line up and have a visit with Abraham Lincoln and then

00:35:37,170	he also, who would the, War Department telegraph office was right across the street from the White House. Now, the White House didn't have a telegraph until 1866, when Andrew Johnson had one put in.

00:35:56,700	But so during the war, Johnson or Lincoln would trudge across the lawn of the White House across the street and go into the War Department telegraph office. And he looked through all the telegraphs that had come in and reported what's going on the various fron He'd communicate with his generals, the telegraphs, and he and then the people who ran those telegraph offices have wonderful stories

00:36:14,330	about how cordial and down to earth and friendly Lincoln was. He█d just sit back and put his feet up on the table and flip through the, you know, the telegraph reports. And, he just really was very, very enjoyable, very easy to have around.

00:36:35,230	So we're kind of stringing the gamut here from the reserved, almost frostiness Washington to the casual feet on the coffee table Abraham Lincoln, what do you say we talk about the food that they ate? I'd be happy to! Time to cook? Time to cook.

00:36:52,530	How about if we move into the kitchen and share with you some of the foods that our presidents enjoyed while they were in the White House?

00:37:03,730	Be careful to keep the mouth shut closely while masticating the food. It is the opening of the lips which causes the smacking, which seems very disgusting. Chew your food well. But do it silently and be careful to take small mouthfuls.

00:37:21,270	The knife can be used to cut the meat finely as large pieces of meat are not healthful and appear very indelicate. Be careful not to clatter your knives and forks upon the plate, but use them without noise.

00:37:41,470	So here we are, ready to do some cooking with the presidents Today we're going to be making one of President Washington's favorite favorite meals. Whenever you Google or try to look at Washington, what his favorite food was, it always shows hoecakes. And a number of other presidents really enjoyed it, including President Lincoln. It's very, very simple.

00:38:08,800	We're going to start with two cups of cornmeal. And let me tell you that, there's different grades of cornmeal. So sometimes it can be kind of gritty, but two cups of cornmeal I've got a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. I'm going to mix this up a little bit.

00:38:32,730	And then I'm going to add boiling water from my little pot. Here. You add enough water to make it into a workable batter. And you don't want it too runny because you're going to be making cakes out of it. So we just keep adding a little bit of water to get the right consistency. And here's a secret.

00:39:01,370	Once you get it to that consistency, you want to let it cool because this is very hot from the boiling water.

00:39:12,730	We'll add just a little bit more And so while we let this cool Rick, can you tell us a little bit about some of the myths surrounding our first president, please? Washington had a lot of myths, and you can just imagine he was larger than life to begin with.

00:39:31,170	Right? So obviously, there are going to be a lot of stories that, aren█t true, but they make great, copy. Yes. So one of the myths is that Washington wore a wig. You see all these paintings, He's got white hair, almost Looks like he's got a wig on. He never wore a wig.

00:39:51,430	He had long hair. He put it in a ponytail on the back. He was a natural redhead, but he would powder his hair white. I mean, they had a certain system in place way back then where they could powder your hair and it would be white. So, but it was always his natural hair.

00:40:08,270	He never wore a wig. So that's one myth. People think Washington wore a wig. Another one was that he chopped down a cherry right? When he was six years old. And, And when his father confronted him with “you chopped down this cherry tree” to that “I cannot tell a lie” right? “I did it, dad.

00:40:27,900	” Well, there's no evidence that that story ever happened, but kind of the background, how it came about. There was an author who that dinner an Episcopalian minister. He was a traveling salesman. His name was, Mason Weems. Better known as Parson Weems. And he wrote the first biography of Lincoln. Like a year after Lincoln's deat It came out.

00:40:54,800	Washington's death- was that Washington's death? You█re talking about Washington█s death not Lincoln. Thank you for correcting me. But fast forward to Washington's death. So a year after Washington█s death, he came out with this biography of Washington.

00:41:17,630	It was only like the fifth editi like six years later, that the cherry tree story first appeared And so he he claimed that there was a distant relative of Washington's who had told him this story and passed it on, but no one else ever remembers anything about it. No one remembers hearing any stories about it when Washington was alive. There's no other evidence it happened. But there were a couple reasons.

00:41:38,600	historians and others who look at it speculate why he made this story up. One is to illustrate the moral rectitude of Washington that he was even as a young boy, this this pillar of morality. You know, I cannot tell a lie.

00:41:57,170	And so that was he was trying to build up [Washington] as a role model or the rest of the, for everybody else. And the other one was he wanted to sell books and people were really hungry about new stories about Washington. They hadn't heard about when he was around and this made a great story. So that's that's a speculation how the, cherry tree story came about. Okay.

00:42:18,000	Now, another one is, that he had wooden teeth. You know, that's one you hear a lot. Or does it? No, he didn't have wooden teeth. He had, dentures that were made of ivory. They were made of, teeth from, like, horses, cows, even human teeth. But they were dentures.

00:42:43,070	And they were they had these springs that they were put in, and he put them in the, he had terrible time with his teeth He just really was miserable a lot of the time. And so these people, these dentists would work with him to come up with these dentures and put them in as well.

00:43:00,100	But a lot of times his lips would bulge be very uncomfortable Well, even with public speaking, he would have trouble sometimes. And so that's why hoecakes are one of is favorite foods. Because they're easy to eat. He didn█t have to worry about it Very good. Yeah. So we're going to let this cool for a bit.

00:43:19,100	and if you wanted to, if, the cornmeal gets to be a little bit much, you instead of using two cups of cornmeal, you could use one cup of cornmeal And one cup of flour. That makes a little bit more like a pancake that we think of as a pancake that we have nowadays. Let's jump to Abraham Lincoln.

00:43:43,170	Again, Abraham Lincoln loved ham A lot of the eastern presidents served ham. But this was a favorite. We're going to make a ham with the champagne sauce. So we're going to start out with a ham.

00:44:08,470	Somebody asked if I was butchering this morning because I've got a huge ham here So to prepare the ham to go into the oven, we are going to cut it in diamond shapes. So we're going to, I've got a very, very sharp knife here. And I just cut little rows across the ham to make the diamond shape.

00:44:33,370	And the reason that we're doing this is so that it can capture some of the sauce that we will be putting on it, because we're going to cook up the champagne sauce, it's going to get kind of syrupy and then we're going to put it on our ham and bake it a little bit longer so that it soaks in to the ham.

00:44:59,630	Now, the recipe that I have ca calls for putting the ham on a cookie tray But when I make a ham, a lot of times I will put it in more of a deepe pan and put water in it, because I think that it makes it it makes a moister ham. And the other thing is it create a broth.

00:45:23,370	So if you want to make your bean soup or if you're Norwegian, your potato dumplings, you've got a ham broth. So my ham is ready to go. I've cut my slits all around my ham. And now I'm going to put in an oven for 350.

00:45:46,800	You're going to bake your ham for 20 minutes per pound and if you want to cheat a little bi when you buy your ham, take a look. A lot of hams nowadays are fully cooked, so you don't have to worry about that internal temperature. You can just heat it up so that it is hot all the way through, and you don't have to worry about the cooking of it.

00:46:06,170	But it's set to go and I'm going to put it in the oven and this one will be baking for about four hours. So with that, tell us a little bit about Abe and Mary Lincoln, because that's an interesting couple. And Robert Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln, Well Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln, let me think.

00:46:32,730	They were married for about 23 years, said Mary in 1842. But he, of course, died in 1865. But, she was, she really helped Abe kind of elevate into high society as he was moving forward with his political career. Here was a down home prairie lawyer, you know, salt of the earth.

00:46:56,630	And she, kind of showed them the ways of high society, which was important. If he was going to continue, his track in politics, he was a very ambitious, politician, lawyer. And, he was elected to Congress, served in Congress for one term in the late 1840s and, in the 1850s kind of moved toward, the presidency. Slow, but. Sure.

00:47:24,000	So she was a good person for him and turned to kind of, you know, elevating him up and in getting him more used to being in some of those circles that, you needed to move in if you were going to advance in national politics. She was also, high taste at a lot. And she loved to spend money.

00:47:46,700	Champagne taste it was, Yeah, yeah. So with her high taste, champagne. So I'm going to interrupt for 2 seconds, because now I am going to attempt to open this bottle as I'm cooking.

00:48:12,970	I, that might not be the word that you're going to use when I'm then doing this, but I wanted to show you this because, one of the secrets to opening up a bottle like this is you want to leave the cap on you take it. You don't rotate the cap. You rotate the bottle very slowly. Very slowly. And there you are. Bingo. So, Mary's taste in cooking, in clothing, in just about everything.

00:48:42,730	She had high taste and spent a lot, including using champagne for cooking. She did. So well. If you can tell us a little bit I█m going to pour some champagne in here so the fizz goes down.

00:49:00,530	We're not going to ask you to recite all of the items that were on the menu for one dinner where there were 25 different, dishes served, but it wasn't wasn't like fruits and vegetables, counted as one. It was wild turkey, and it was ham with champagne sauce. And it was- I wonder, I know people worked hard, had a lot of calories to burn, but. Wow. Yes. Yeah. An evening at the White House.

00:49:28,070	Yeah. And she. Yeah, she did have a real reputationfor serving wonderful state dinners and, other meals, other banquets And one of the real conflicts she had when she was first lady, so much of her family was from the South. They were with the Confederacy. So I think she had, like, 13 siblings, full siblings and, like, half siblings.

00:49:55,630	Eight of those, were with the Confederacy. And during the Civil War, she had one brother who was a surgeon with the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E Lee's, Army. And he treated the wounded at many places including Gettysburg Of course. Husband delivered the famous Gettysburg Address a few months after that battle.

00:50:18,530	She had a brother who was killed at Shiloh, Confederate brothers. She had another brother who was wounded at Vicksburg. She had a brother in law who was a Confederate general who was killed at Chickamauga. And [Lincoln] invited his widow to the White House. After that battle. And just to visit family. Mary Todd's, sister.

00:50:44,330	And he got enormous criticism for inviting a Confederate into the White House so that- that was something that she struggled with a little bit with, like, a with the Lincoln actually And they lost a son, Willie, 11 years old in 1862. And she just went out of her mind with grief.

00:51:07,100	She basically barricaded herself in her room for like a month and hardly was seen. And then she started to want seances. She called spiritualists into the White House so they could try to communicate with this son. And she did several. She kept trying to pull Abe into those seances, and he wouldn't do it.

00:51:26,970	But finally he did just to try to appease her. So before we talk about the other son, we don't want to forget to talk about Robert Todd, though because you have an interesting story there. But what are we doing there? Okay, we are going to be making the champagne sauce.

00:51:41,270	And it- we do need to cook this for a little bit. So we're going to interrupt and we're going to put this on- on the burner. We are going to start with brown sugar. Three quartersof a cup of brown sugar. Oh.

00:51:57,870	There you go. Okay. We're going to use honey. And I want to promote honey because North Dakota is a big honey producer. So this is from, one of my friends who actually, has honey production.

00:52:17,230	We've used a lot of honey in their cooking because, yes, the honey was available. Sugar was done for it. Yeah, yeah, for honey were. But, yeah, the honey was woven in a number of, recipes. We have ginger, 3/4 of a teaspoon of ginger. Okay. 3/4 of a teaspoon of ground mustard. And finally we're going to add champagne.

00:52:45,230	And it is fizzy.

00:52:50,500	We are going to take that, put it on the stove, and we are going to cook it until it reduces. Oh, about into half of what we have here. Will be cooking that over here. And this is what it looks like when it's cooked down. So it's just this deep beautiful dark sauce.

00:53:16,530	We're going to take some of that We're going to put it on our ham and let it bake a little bit longer. So if you can continue to tell us that and I will get our ham out of the oven. Tell us about Robert Todd Lincol Robert Todd Lincoln was- The Lincoln's had four sons.

00:53:32,870	He was the only one of the four who survived to adulthood. And one of the you can't make this up issues with with Lincoln is that he was present at the first three presidential assassinations. He was a captain in the Union Army when his father was assassinated.

00:53:51,470	And so, the night Lincoln was, was shot at to Ford theater, of course, they carryied him across the street to what█s called Petersen House. And but that night, Robert, came in from, where he was stationed in the Union Army and was at his father's bedside when he died early the morning of April 15th, 1865.

00:54:11,630	And then in 1881, he was Secretary of War in President James Garfield's administration. Garfield had gone to the, a train station in Washington, D.C to go up to New England for some vacation and, some work.

00:54:30,000	And he wanted some of his cabinet to join it because it was an extended visit up to New England and so Lincoln went to the train station to tell Garfield that he wasn't going to be able to make it till the next day. As he walked into the train station, Charles Guiteau, shot President Garfield twice in the back.

00:54:50,100	And then Lincoln was probably, he got there 40 seconds before the shooting actually happened. So he saw it happen. And then he tried to comfort Garfield in the station before they took him to the hospital. And then the third, event was President McKinley's assassination in 1901, in Buffalo, New York. It was called the Pan American Exposition, celebrating all things Crown American.

00:55:16,000	And McKinley was in a r eceiving line. He was shot. Lincoln was president of the Pullman Company, which is a rail car company. Very prominent position at the time. McKinley had invited him to the Buffalo Exposition. McKinley's, or rather, Lincoln's train pulled into the station.

00:55:37,500	An employee with the, Pullman Company handed him the telegram telling him McKinley had been shot. They'd taken McKinley to, not a hospital, but the home of the president of the Pan-American Exposition. And they treated him, and it looked like he was going to be on the road to recovery.

00:55:55,730	Lincoln, when visiting McKinley a little bit in that home, and it looked like McKinley was going to survive. But then he died a few days later. So Lincoln was presen there at those first three assassinations and then just a kind of a caveat with Lincoln, he was also able to attend the dedication of his father, the Lincoln Memorial, his father memorial in Washington, D.C.

00:56:15,230	he was an old man at that point. It was presided over by Warren G. Harding in 1922. And then, Robert Todd Lincoln died in 1926 at the age of 83. Amazing life.

00:56:35,630	And then one other real quick caveat of that, just like Teddy Kennedy all those years, they tried to get him on the Democratic ticket because the Kennedy name was ballot gold, right? The same with Robert Todd Lincoln. The Republican Party kept trying to get him to run for president for 20 years. Robert Todd Lincoln said, I have absolutely no interest in being President of the United States. So he always turned the Republican Party down.

00:56:55,730	He saw,- maybe too much, Yeah. Yes. We have a ham that is just about We are going to glaze our ham with this beautiful champagne sauce. All you have to do is, brush th sauce on the ham. Use about half of the, sauce that you've cooked up in your pan.

00:57:24,730	You are going to glaze the ham, and then we're going to put it back in the oven for about 20 more minutes. So while we're doing that and baking that, maybe talk a little bit more abo Mary, because one of the things that strikes me is that this was sort of a difficult relationship with Mary and Abe, and while he was trying

00:57:46,330	to manage this horrendous war, he also had issues at home with Mary and even Mary raising the kids. And so he had a lot on his plate and major issues. And Mary wasn't always the most supportive first lady. So with that, she could be very, you know, distracting would be an understatement a lot of times.

00:58:13,870	So she was really, and not always supportive of what he was going through and what he was trying to deal with. And after Lincoln's death, Robert Todd Lincoln was again the one song who lived to adulthood. So he had kind of had to take care of his mother after she lef the White House.

00:58:35,070	And he actually had her committed to a mental institution, for a while, like ten years after Lincoln's assassination. It was only for a few months. But, she never forgave Robert Todd Lincoln for you know sending her into a mental institution because of her, her, instability. And he was really concerned about even her being a threat to herself.

00:59:03,000	But she would one of the things shenever recovered, and neither did Abraham Lincoln. But, it was worse with with Mary Todd Lincoln, the death of their their son, Willie and I mentioned it earlier, but she was obsessed with getting spiritualists into the White House to hold these seances.

00:59:29,130	She was just absolutely obsessed with trying to communicate with with Willie. Andso she would be a real thorn in Lincoln side when he had all these other issues he was dealing with. I need you to be part of this, because I think you being involved is going to make a difference. And finally, Lincoln did give in and participate in one.

00:59:47,530	But one of the things Lincoln, actually kind of in a perverse way he enjoyed kind of revealing the tricks of the spiritualists who would come in and communicate, try to communicate, and he would, like, look under the table to see what kind of things were going on.

01:00:02,500	And he would kind of have an eye for it, you know. So this is really how are you making it look like we're targeted for deception, right, right, right. And so Lincoln would just- I think that was a way he could kinda deal with it a little bit It was a little better. Thanks, Rick.

01:00:17,630	So we are now ready to fry some hoecakes. Like butter in the pan? I would like butter in the pan. And I will fry hoecakes. Connie, if you would like to start to prepare John Adams. Oh, we're going to have you prepare some of the butters or sauces to go on the hoecakes Yes, please. Thank you.

01:00:44,470	Oh, okay. Skitter. Yeah. So I'll let you. These again are like pancakes. So we want to have some kind of, topping. And again, President Washington's favorite topping was honey butter. Lots and lots of honey butter. And, Connie, you're going to be preparing a couple of toppings for us today.

01:01:11,530	There were a couple of sauces that we found referred to, rather frequently. actually, I don't know if, President Washington's family did honey butter. This is sort of a more contemporary take. I think it says honey and butter and dripping over the sides. But another one of the favorites was molasses butter. So this is molasses butter. It█s simply, butter whipped with molasses.

01:01:42,530	And it looks, it looks like a very dark maple syrup butter. But if you like the flavor of molasses. And apparently that was a very popular topping you can simply stir in enough into, I would recommend unsalted butter just to get the flavor of the molasses.

01:02:02,430	And then I think, Rick, you're going to end up being our taste tester on the hoecakes. So you get to choose between honey butter and the molasses butter. But honey butter is grab a pencil, it's a cup, a cup, a cup, a pound, and a splash. Cup, a cup, a cup, a pound, and a splash.

01:02:22,730	And it is just one cup of honey, one cup of granulated sugar, one cup of cream. The heavier the better, in my opinion. And when you bring that to a boil and you boil that for at least a minute, a nice rolling boil, then you add your pound of butter, preferably at room temperature, just because

01:02:46,770	otherwise, it takes a long time for it to melt. So we have made up a recipe of honey butter. When you finish, whenthe butter is melted in, you can put in a teaspoon of vanilla don't even need to measure it until you like the scent of vanilla coming at you. This is a grandchild favorite.

01:03:09,530	Rick, I know you have grandchildren in town, so the next time Andrea makes lefse see if the kids would like a little honey butter. We'll give that a try.

01:03:29,800	It is an excellent- keep in the fridge because it has all kinds of dairy in it, but it is an excellent addition to any toast or pancake or in this case, hoecakes. A comment about why they're called hoecakes. I had to look that up because I had never heard that term. Perennial kitchens were not all created equal. Some had plenty of equipment and some had next to nothing.

01:03:50,800	And so if you wanted to make hoecakes and that would be a quick, readily available kind a food, you could clean off your hoe, I think, very carefully. I hope otherwise you get texture with it. And if you heat the metal over the fire, the open hearth, then you get it hot enough to actually fry the cakes. On the whole, that's my understanding of why they're called hoecakes.

01:04:17,170	And I'm sure people will let Dakota Media Access know if that's not correct information. But when those hoecakes are ready we're going to ask Rick to test both the honey butter and the molasses butter and tell us which is best. Meanwhile, do you want me to talk about John Adams? Let's talk about John John Adams.

01:04:38,630	Number of presidents are noted for having kind of plain taste i Maybe not Mary Todd Lincoln, but certainly Abe loved nothing better than a fresh, fresh apple often tree apple, of course, that they would have lots of fruit trees and they would have used those, vigorously. John Adams every morning before 9 a.m.

01:05:01,800	had hard cider, not just apple cider, but apparently hard cider And I assume that was fermented. I don't know what the percent was. I know nothing. But he also liked he also liked what they called the New England boiled dinner, which was lots of vegetables. He apparently ate heavy on vegetables and, and a little bit of meat.

01:05:25,000	And so he liked the New England boiled dinner. It probably also ate hoecakes, but he also liked the fruit bowl Do you want to talk about the fruit bowl? While I bring the ingredients over. John really liked fresh ingredients. He loved fresh fruit.

01:05:44,730	And every day that's how he started his day was with fresh fruit, a fresh fruit bowl. And so, we're going to have Connie put together a bowl of fruit like he would have if you're cutting apples and pears. We have lemon juice because it can start to brown.

01:06:06,470	So you're going to want to squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the apples and the pears, and then top it off with a little bit of sugar. So there you go. That's an apple with some bite. You need a bowl for that beautiful fruit. So the apples are going to start browning pretty quickly. And these are bigger chunks.

01:06:26,330	So I'm going to make them a little more accessible because poor Rick is going to have to have new wooden dentures if we're not careful here. Someone█s got to do it. Your grandkids are going to be so impressed when you cook for them on Saturday. Rick, I got some good stories to tell. I love your Facebook posts.

01:06:50,270	When you have the grandkids listening raptly to your presidential stories, well, okay, sometimes they don't look so rapt.

01:07:04,170	Sometimes they look like “Can we be anywhere but here” They say, sorry, you█re going to learn about Abraham Lincoln learn about George Washington. All right? I'm not going to cut up all of this fruit. I'm just going to do a smattering. And I'm going to put a little, lemon juice over to make a nice little fruit cup to add for our breakfast.

01:07:24,730	Now, I don't know if the champagne ham Beth would have been a breakfast food. Maybe not. They would eat their meats I'm not sure that they'd have the champagne sauce on it, but definitely they would have, Depending on the president, a hearty breakfast. I mean, some of their presidents went all out.

01:07:49,870	They started their day with lots of great, great, huge meals. John Adams, not so much, but Abe Lincoln, his apples, his fruit. But they would also have ham. John Adams liked apple pan dowdy Yes.

01:08:16,800	No, that's a term you don't hear very often, but it's basically a way of thinking of it is that it's, luscious apple pie, but the crust is broken. All right, we are ready for. We're ready for hoecakes. If all cakes are ready,- Theyre ready. The hoecakes are ready for you and- I█ll get you some ham. Hello. My name is Barbara Curren and I am a Daughter of the American Revolution.

01:08:41,870	The Daughters of the American Revolution, or DAR, was founded by 4 women in 1890. Their mission was to serve others by focusing on historic preservation, education, and patriotism. In the 136 years since, more than 1 million women have joined the DAR to honor their heritage and make a difference in their community through volunteerism and service work.

01:09:01,800	Today, the DAR provides support for our military members as well as veterans, owns and maintains historic sites and properties across the country, and supports the education of students through schools and scholarships.

01:09:26,900	In addition to this, we have over 75 other committees such as flag of the United Statesof America, Genealogical Records, Records Preservation, Community Service Awards, and Conservation With the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this summer, the DAR is leading the way with the America 250th Committee. We are the first heritage society to formally partner with the nationwide America 250 Commission.

01:09:49,800	The DAR is working to honor Revolutionary War patriots, engage you through contests and educational programing, and to support efforts to better tell the story of underrepresent and diverse patriots who helped to win the American War of Independence. If this sounds like an organization you'd like to be a part of, please go to www.dar.org and fill out a member interest form.

01:10:12,970	Membership is open to women aged 18 and older who can prove they are a direct descendant of someone who either fought in or supported the American Revolutionary War. If this sounds daunting, it isn't. There are people like me standing ready to help you discover your roots and honor your heritage. Tell us which is your favorite, molasses butter or honey butter? All right, so I have this now.

01:10:34,170	This is this molasses butter. And that's honey butter.

01:10:45,970	The molasses is the darker of th See anything's better with butte That's right. I was going to say you can't go wrong with butter.

01:10:53,900	And the ham I'm sorry that people can't smell the wonderful ham but it it smells divine. It does. And then they pour extra champagne sauce over the top Yeah. So. Well then let me do the honors. All right.

01:11:13,700	That ham smells wonderful. You didn't go out and butcher because it a really great looking ham you would think, wouldn't you? Y So is this a meal fit for a president. I think it█s darn good. I'll say. So no champagne for breakfast. Why not. They're both excellent, but I prefer the one- the honey butter.

01:11:38,500	Just remember a cup, a cup, a cup, a pound and a splash. Remember that. And you know, George, also, they like these because they're so easy to eat, I can understand. They melt your mouth. Yeah, but his dentures can be a problem.

01:12:00,870	For those those in the viewing audience who are bakers and like King Arthur flour products, their recipe for hoecakes actually has a cup of flour and a cup of cornmeal that you talked about. Yeah. So even today, you can find recipes that trace back to the founding days of our country. So. Great.

01:12:21,730	Well, where you take a taste of and we'd like to thank everybody for joining us for history on a fork Am I a lucky guy or what? if we're not going to ask you a question right this second, but Beth and I and the rest of our DAR chapter, would encourage you to do something fun like this with your family,

01:12:44,070	your own celebration of America's 250th birthday is limited only by your imagination. So go for it Happy birthday, America. We want to celebrate for the whole year. So with that, thank you for watching and go out and celebrate our freedom in our country.