Ronald Reagan Inaugural Jelly Beans

Shortly after Ronald Reagan became Governor of California in 1967, he began eating pectin jelly beans to help him quit smoking. When a new brand of jelly beans, called Jelly Belly beans, appeared on the market in 1976, Reagan switched to them and would often share them with his staff and visiting officials.

Reagan enjoyed these sweet little treats so much that he sent a letter to the chief executive of the company that produced them, stating, "we can hardly start a meeting or make a decision without passing around the jar of jelly beans." Even after he became president, Reagan's fondness for Jelly Bellies didn't diminish, and large colorful jars of them were often prominently displayed on his desk in the Oval Office, in the Cabinet Room, and even on Air Force One.

When Jelly Bellies first appeared on the market, there were only eight flavors: Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Root Beer, Grape, and Licorice, which was reportedly President Reagan's favorite.

Today, there are more than 50 official and creatively-named flavors to choose from, including Bubble Gum, Buttered Popcorn, Cappuccino, Caramel Corn, Chili Mango, Chocolate Pudding, Cotton Candy, Green Apple, Kiwi, Juicy Pear, Lemon Drop, Margarita, Orange Sherbet, Piña Colada, Pomegranate, Raspberry, Sizzling Cinnamon, Strawberry Cheesecake, Toasted Marshmallow, Top Banana, Tutti-Fruitti, Very Cherry, Wild Blackberry, and Watermelon.

Of course, jelly beans taste great alone, but they can also be used in cookies, cakes, and in this official recipe for Jelly Belly Pudding Parfait:

1 5.1 ounce package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 3.4 ounce package butterscotch flavor instant pudding mix
5 cups milk
2 ounces Jelly Bellies (your choice)
8 fan wafer cookies

Directions: Select serving of parfait glasses that hold 3/4 to 1 cup capacity. In two separate bowls, prepare pudding mixes according to package directions. Fill glasses with alternating layers of vanilla and butterscotch pudding. Chill 5-10 minutes. Garnish parfaits with Jelly Belly beans on top and a fan wafer if desired.

FOOD FACT: In 1981, three-and-a-half tons of Jelly Belly beans were shipped to Washington, D.C. for Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. Blueberry, one of the most popular flavors today, was developed so there would be patriotic red, white and blue jelly beans at the festivities - and a jelly bean mural of Reagan was even made with these delicious sweet little treats!

FOOD FACT: In addition to the 50 official flavors, the Jelly Belly Company frequently produces "rookie" flavors that are added to the roster if they become popular enough. Some of the more curious flavors that have since been withdrawn from the market include Baked Bean, Bloody Mary, Buttered Toast, and...Roasted Garlic!

Pauline Wayne, the Last White House Dairy Cow

So did you know that President William Howard Taft kept a Holstein dairy cow named Pauline Wayne on the White House lawn? For two years, Pauline dutifully supplied Taft and his family with fresh milk every day.

Shortly before Taft left office in 1913, Pauline was shipped back to her former owner in Wisconsin. After that, pasteurized milk replaced raw milk at the White House. A New York Times article dated February 2, 1913 announced the departure of Taft's beloved cow:

Pauline Wayne, President Taft’s famous Holstein cow, will follow him into retirement March 4. The president today called in Senator Walter Stephenson of Wisconsin, who two years ago took Pauline to the White House, and gave her back to her former owner. Pauline has not been in the best of health in several months.

Taft believes that if she is taken back to Wisconsin and put on Senator Stephenson’s farm again, her youthful vigor will revive. The Senator was glad to recover Pauline, as she had supplied milk to the family of the President for two years, and he thought she would add dignity to his herd.

After leaving office, Taft served as a professor at Yale Law School until President Warren Harding appointed him Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. To Taft, the appointment was his greatest honor. So much so that, years later, he wrote, “I don't remember that I ever was President.”

FOOD FACT: A French scientist named Louis Pasteur discovered pasteurization in the 1860s. During his many experiments, Pasteur discovered that when you heat a food to a high enough temperature, the heat will kill certain (but not all) bacteria.

Raw milk, by the way, can be pasteurized by heating it to 145 degrees F for about thirty minutes. In the years prior to pasteurization, many lethal diseases were transmitted through raw or contaminated milk. One particularly sad example is that of Abraham Lincoln, whose mother died when he was "in his tenth year" after she drank milk from a dairy cow that had grazed on White Snakeroot, a very poisonous plant.

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Bill Clinton Healthy Chicken Enchiladas

According to an article in the Dining & Wine section of the New York Times, Bill Clinton has somehow become "an arbiter of international fine dining, conferring a sort of informal Michelin star just by showing up." And, if you travel enough, "you will eventually hear a tip that goes something like: 'When you’re in Madrid, try Casa Lucio. Bill Clinton ate there with the King of Spain.' Or “Check out Le Pont de la Tour in London. Bill Clinton loves it.'"

So how, exactly, did Mr. Clinton, whose name still conjures up memories of Saturday Night Live skits with greasy cheeseburgers and french fries become known as “earth's No. 1 restaurant maven” overseas? 

Well...New York Times reporter David Segal explained it this way:

It’s widely (and correctly) assumed that he has good connections everywhere he visits, so he’s unlikely to wind up at a dud. More than most celebrities, he seems like a person who appreciates good food, and before he had heart surgery, he was known for his wide-ranging appetite.

And when Mr. Clinton visits a restaurant, everybody in the room knows it. Douglas Band, an aide who frequently travels with Mr. Clinton...says his boss introduces himself to every diner, as well as every waiter and every kitchen staff member. He will always pose for photographs and sign guest books [and someone] from his staff will send a thank-you note a few days later...

It’s also true that Mr. Clinton’s patronage in the United States has provided P.R. boosts for places like Il Mulino in Manhattan and Georgia Brown’s in Washington...But when it comes to Bill Clinton and overseas restaurants, the upside is on a far greater scale. Managers and owners from Beijing to Iceland and points between say an appearance by Mr. Clinton can be transformational, launching an obscure restaurant to fame...

Mr. Clinton follows a mostly vegan diet these days, and during his travels on behalf of Democratic candidates in recent years, he reportedly dined on such vegan menu items as Miso Barley Soup, Black Bean Burritos, and Cauliflower Potato Curry. The 42nd president also explained to aarp.org "how we can -- and for our health must -- learn to love eating vegetables, too.

It has also been reported that Clinton is particularly fond of chicken enchiladas so it's not surprising that a healthful recipe for this dish appears in The Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook. If you'd like to whip up some of Bill Clinton's favorite healthy chicken enchiladas for dinner this week, here's a great recipe from the Daily Beast to try:

2 (4 oz) cans chopped green chillies, drained
1 garlic clove, minced
cooking oil
1 (28 oz) can tomatoes
2 cups chopped onion
2 tsps salt, divided
tsp oregano
3 cups shredded, cooked chicken
2 cups sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
cup cooking oil
15 corn or flour tortillas

In a large skillet over a medium-high heat, sauté the chillies and garlic in a small amount of oil. Drain the tomatoes, reserving cup of liquid. Break up tomatoes and add to skillet. Add the onion, 1 tsp salt, oregano, and reserved liquid. Simmer, uncovered, until thickened (about 30 minutes).

Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, combine chicken, sour cream, cheese, and remaining salt. In the same skillet over a medium heat, heat cup oil. Dip tortillas in the oil until they become limp and drain well on paper towels. Fill tortillas with chicken mixture; roll up and arrange side by side, seam side down, in a 9x13x2-inch baking dish. Pour tomato mixture over the enchiladas. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.

FOOD FACT: The Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook contains 250 recipes from the former president's lifelong friends, family members, celebrities, and White House staff and cabinet members. Some of the tasty and homey regional recipes include Muhammad Ali's Favorite Bread Pudding, Bono's Black Velvet, Sophia Loren's Penne Alla Puttanesca, James Carville’s Jambalaya, Mary Steenburgen’s Garlic Cheese Grits and Barbara Streisand’s Southern Lemon Icebox Pie!
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Thomas Jefferson Macaroni and Cheese

In honor of #NationalDrinkWineDay today, let's raise a glass or two to that fine-wine-and-mac-and-cheese-loving president, Thomas Jefferson, who claimed in 1818 that "in nothing have the habits of the palate more decisive influence than in our relish of wines." But Jefferson's own drinking habits were formed more than thirty years earlier while he was serving overseas as U.S. Minister to France.

According to historians at Monticello:

Before his journey to France in 1784, Jefferson, like most of his countrymen, had been a consumer of Madeira and port, with the occasional glass of "red wine." As he recalled in 1817, "[T]he taste of this country [was] artificially created by our long restraint under the English government to the strong wines of Portugal and Spain."

The revolution in his own taste in wine followed swiftly on the breaking of the bonds of British colonial government. Thereafter Jefferson rejected the alcoholic wines favored by Englishmen as well as the toasts that customarily accompanied them. He chose to drink and serve the fine lighter wines of France and Italy, and hoped that his countrymen would follow his example.

So Jefferson preferred to serve the fine, light wines of Italy and France to his many dinner guests at the President's House. It has also been said that he first served Macaroni and Cheese there in 1802. Of course, the dish that he served was nothing like the boxed versions that we're so familiar with today.

Using pasta and parmesan cheese imported from Italy, Jefferson’s chefs cooked the macaroni until it was soft, then coated it with butter and added cheese. The mixture was then placed in a casserole dish, probably dotted with a bit more fresh butter and cheese, and baked until it was slightly brown with some golden crustiness on top.

If you'd like whip up some Thomas Jefferson Macaroni and Cheese tonight as you sip on a glass or two of fine wine, here's a recipe to try that's simple to make and tastes simply DELICIOUS:

Butter, for greasing dish
16 ounces large elbow macaroni
3 cups milk
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups (packed) freshly shredded Parmesan
2 cups (packed) grated mozzarella
2 cups (packed) Romano cheese
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Butter a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the noodles until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Drain, but do not rinse.

In a large bowl, whisk the milk, flour, salt and pepper until blended. Stir in 1 ½ cup Parmesan, 1 ½ cup mozzarella and 1 ½ cup Romano cheese. Add the noodles and butter and toss to coat.

Transfer the noodle mixture to the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan, mozzarella and Romano cheese over the noodle mixture. Bake until the cheese begins to lightly brown on top, about 12-14 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Season with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

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Martha Washington Apple Puffs

Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats is a family cookbook that Martha compiled and used for fifty years. It contains more than five hundred recipes, mostly dating back to Elizabethan and Jacobean times, the golden age of English cookery. In her introduction to the Booke of Cookery, Karen Hesse explains some reasons why the art of home cooking has been neglected for so long by historians:

Few scholars are cooks – and ever fewer cooks scholars. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that no other aspect of human endeavor has been so neglected by historians as home cooking.

I cannot help but feel that this neglect is also related to the ageless depreciation of the work of women. Yet since time immemorial – when not searching for food, making baskets and pottery, tilling the soil and tending livestock, spinning and weaving, and bearing and raising children, of course – women have been inventing and perfecting the art of cooking.

The importance of agriculture and the significance of the spice routes were always well understood by the historians...but the homely art of the hearth has never been worthy of the same study as are other disciplines.

Hesse’s points are well-taken and will hopefully help stimulate more research into the fascinating and FUN field of culinary history. In the meantime, if you'd like to get a sense of the type of recipes that are contained in Martha's cookbook, here's a quaint "receipt" titled, "To Season Apples for Puffs"

Take apples, pare & cut them in quarters, & core them, & put them into colde water; & set them on ye fire in a pan; let them boyle softly, then put them into a dish, & cover them over a chafing dish of coles, & put to it some slyced nutmegg, slyced giner, & 2 or three colves, some slyced orring & leamon pill candied, or citron pill & a little red wine. & sweeten them with sugar, & then put them into your puffs.

Now, you could try to make this recipe today, but, as Hesse explains, "Most apples nowadays disintegrate when boiled, no matter how softly." That said, a better bet might be to try this more recent recipe for Apple Turnovers from the Food Network's Ina Garten:

1 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/4 pounds tart apples, such as Empire or Granny Smith (3 apples)
3 tablespoons dried cherries
3 tablespoons sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch kosher salt
1 package frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the orange zest and orange juice in a bowl. Peel, quarter, and core the apples and then cut them in 3/4-inch dice. Immediately toss the apples with the zest and juice to prevent them from turning brown. Add the cherries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Flour a board and lightly roll each sheet of puff pastry to a 12 by 12-inch square. Cut each sheet into 4 smaller squares and keep chilled until ready to use. Brush the edges of each square with the egg wash and neatly place about 1/3 cup of the apple mixture on half of the square.

Fold pastry diagonally over apple mixture and seal by pressing the edges with a fork. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush top with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, make 2 small slits, and bake for 20 minutes, until browned and puffed. Serve warm or at room temperature.

FOOD FACT: Other entries in Martha's Booke of Cookery include, "How to souse a pig of 3 or 4 shillings," To roste a shoulder of muton with blood," "To make a caule's foot pie," "To pickle cowcumbers," "To Stew Sparrows," and "To Make a Pigeon Pie." Oh my!!

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