We are headed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to celebrate this week’s American joy-givers birthday party in a recreated set of the popular WQED children’s television show, “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.” Fred Rogers in his signature cardigan sweater will greet us as we explore King Friday XIII’s Castle and Great Oak Tree, the residence of Henrietta Pussycat and X, the Owl. Our celebrants will interact with friends using “Picture Picture” and take selfies on Mr. McFeely’s “Speedy Delivery” tricycle. Since it’s a party, our special helper is Chef Brockett.
Join us…
You sense the joy the minute you walk onto the television production set. HOORAY FOR THE JOY-GIVERS! (Note: The comments attributed to these famous joy-givers come from words they have written or said.)
Please give A ROUND OF APPLAUSE for these American joy-givers celebrating a birthday this week:
March 20—FRED ROGERS, widely known as “Mister Rogers,” was a television show host, author, producer and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner and host of the preschool television series, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” which ran from 1968 to 2001. Rogers received more than 40 honorary degrees, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy award. He was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
March 21—SOLOMON BURKE, “The Bishop of Soul,” was a preacher and singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the “Founding Fathers” of soul music in the 1960s. He was a prolific recording star and a transitional link between rhythm and blues and soul. His hits include “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” “Cry to Me” and “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love.” This Grammy award winner sold 17 million albums and Rolling Stone magazine rostered him in the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time.” He was honorifically called “King Solomon,” “The King of Rock ‘n Soul” and “The Muhammad Ali of Soul.” He fathered 15 children.
March 22—STEPHEN SONDHEIM is one of the most important composers in American musical theater. He has been praised for “reinventing” musicals by creating original works of unprecedented complexity and sophistication. His best-known creations as a composer and lyricist include “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into the Woods.” He was also a lyricist for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.” He has an Oscar, eight Tonys (more than any other composer), eight Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award (England) and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
March 23—FANNIE FARMER was one of America’s first “food celebrities.” She was born Fannie Merritt Farmer in 1850s Boston and eventually became head of the famous Boston Cooking School. Farmer expected to go to college but had a paralyzing stroke at the age of 16 and could not continue her formal education. Though unable to walk, Fannie took up cooking in her family home that she ultimately transformed into a boarding house, which became known far and wide for the deliciousness of the quality meals she served. She trained at the Boston Cooking School at the height of the domestic science movement in the 1890s. Inspired by her own experience, Farmer focused on food for convalescing and wellness. Her best-known work was the legendary cookbook, “THE BOSTON COOKING SCHOOL COOKBOOK,” published in 1896 and remaining in print ever since. She introduced the concept of using standardized measuring spoons, cups and level measurements. After the stroke in her teen years, she always walked with a pronounced limp and the last seven years of her life, she used a wheelchair. She lectured to nurses and dieticians, including at Harvard Medical School. She delivered a vigorous lecture only 10 days before her death.
March 24—HARRY HOUDINI was a Hungarian-American illusionist and death-defying stunt performer known for his escape acts. The Jewish-born Erik Weisz, son of a rabbi, first attracted notice in Vaudeville as “Harry ‘Handcuff’ Houdini” where he challenged local police officers to keep him locked up. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only clawing himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near breakdown. He extended his escapist repertoire to include chains, ropes hung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water and was once sealed inside a milk can filled with water. Houdini presented himself as the real thing and was the scourge of “fake spiritualists.” He died from an infection following a common appendectomy surgery.
March 25—ARETHA FRANKLIN was a singer, songwriter, actress, pianist and political activist. She was “The Queen of Soul” but also a queen of pop music. She epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing string of hit songs included “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You),” “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think” and “I Say a Little Prayer.” She won 18 Grammys, sold 75 million records worldwide, was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
March 26—DUNCAN HINES was an American pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He was a Kentucky son of a Confederate soldier. Hines is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name. He worked in the American West for several years before settling in Chicago. He was a traveling salesperson when there was no interstate highway system and there were only a few chain restaurants, which were in large, populated areas. He and his wife Florence began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good eateries across the USA. This led to a book contract and a second book of recommended lodging. In the 1940s and 1950s, Hines wrote the newspaper column, “Adventures in Good Eating at Home,” which ran in newspapers throughout America on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The highlights of the column were restaurant recipes he had collected on his nationwide travels which were adapted for home cooks.
COMMENTS OVERHEARD at “Fred and Fannie’s Neighborhood Birthday Party” for American joy-givers:
“Listening is where love begins; listening to ourselves and then listening to our neighbors.”—Fred Rogers
“Cooking may be as much a means of self-expression as any of the arts.”—Fannie Farmer
“Bit by bit, putting it together…piece by piece, only way to make a work of art. Every moment makes a contribution. Every little detail plays a part. Having just the vision is no solution. Everything depends on execution. Putting it together, that’s what counts.”—Stephen Sondheim
“No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes can keep me from my freedom.”—Harry Houdini
“My brain is the key that sets me free.”—Harry Houdini
“If one of us is chained, none of us is free.”—Solomon Burke
“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.”—Aretha Franklin
“I’ve run less risk driving my way across this country than eating my way across it.”—Duncan Hines
“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.”—Fred Rogers
“The secret is to be cool, stay in God’s graces and work it out.”—Solomon Burke
“Any moment, big or small, is a moment, after all. Seize the moment, skies may fall, any moment.”—Stephen Sondheim
“It’s best to take the moment present as a present for the moment.”—Stephen Sondheim
“Keep up your enthusiasm! There is nothing more contagious than exuberant enthusiasm.”—Harry Houdini
“I love ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. I have for years. That’s one of my favorite things. She’s such a can-do kind of girl; that’s why I’m crazy about her.”—Aretha Franklin
“I certainly feel the time is not far distant when mankind will eat to live, be able to do better mental and physical work and disease will be less frequent.”—Fannie Farmer
“Nearly everyone wants at least one outstanding meal a day.”—Duncan Hines
“The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin.”—Harry Houdini
“Don’t say Aretha is making a comeback, because I’ve never been away.”—Aretha Franklin
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”—Fred Rogers
“Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.”—Stephen Sondheim
“Fame is a four-letter word; and like ‘tape’ or ‘zoom’ or ‘face’ or ‘pain’ or ‘life’ or ‘love,’ what ultimately matters is what we do with it.”—Fred Rogers
“White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities.”—Stephen Sondheim
“I’m a big woman. I need big hair.”—Aretha Franklin
“Girls were coming from every angle. I couldn’t love them all. But I tried.”—Solomon Burke”
“Some say I do it this way, others say I do it that way, but I say I do it the other way.”—Harry Houdini
“Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new.”—Stephen Sondheim
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me…If you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody’s supposed to respect you?”—Aretha Franklin
“Look at life—all mystery and magic.”—Harry Houdini
PARTY MENU for Fred and Fannie’s Neighborhood Birthday Party
APPETIZERS—Stephen Sondheim Broadway Baby Back Ribs (foodandwine.com)
SALAD—Houdini Trapped-in-Jell-O Congealed Cherry Salad (allrecipes.com)
ENTRÉE—Aretha Franklin Rock Steady Lobster Tails—grilled (allrecipes.com)
SIDE DISH—Fred Rogers “Family Recipe” Corn Pudding (pbs.org)
BREAD—Fannie Farmer All-American White Bread (grouprecipes.com)
BEVERAGE—King Solomon Burke Cooler (youtube.com)
DESSERT—Duncan Hines Favorite Lemon Pound Cake (see recipe below)
The musical entertainment is Franklin and Burke singing songs from the vast Sondheim songbook.
Hines toasts the others and gives a rave review of the meal. As proof that his reviews were not always glowing (though most were) he remembers a not-so-grand meal: “If the soup had been as warm as the wine, if the wine had been as old as the turkey, if the turkey had had a breast like the maid, it would have been a swell dinner.”
As a final send-off, Rogers leads all in a sing-along of: “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Could you be mine? It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood, a neighborly day for a beauty, would you be mine? Could you be mine?”
DUNCAN HINES FAVORITE LEMON POUND CAKE
(source: duncanhines.ca)
A densely rich pound cake with a big splash of lemon flavor from Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix and lemon pudding.
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 1 package Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Lemon Cake Mix
- 1 (3.4 oz.) package instant lemon pudding and pie filling
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Frosting (your favorite flavor)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan.
- Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for two minutes. Pour into pan.
- Bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 25 minutes. Invert onto heat resistant serving plate. Cool immediately.
- For glaze, place frosting in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high power 10-15 seconds. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cake.
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