Extra Credit Questions

[LincolnMan]

Silly thought: wonder if the bed was long enough for Lincoln's 6'4" frame.

[L Verge]

I'm terrible at trivia questions and answers, but let's try this one:

Who was Frances Affonsa?

[Joe Di Cola]

(08-26-2012 04:27 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I'm terrible at trivia questions and answers, but let's try this one:

Who was Frances Affonsa?

Odd as it may seem, Laurie, there was a large Portuguese population in Springfield when the Lincolns lived there. Francis Affonsa was a Portuguese woman who worked for the Lincolns, primarily as a cook.

[L Verge]

I should have known you would get the answer, Joe! I got the question from reading a cookbook and thought surely that I would stump you Lincolnites. Oh well...

The cookbook that I own is The Presidents' Cookbook by Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks, published in 1968. In mentioning Frances, the authors state that, when asked how she got along with Mrs. Lincoln, Frances replied, "If I please Ms Lincum, she like me, she treat me well, and she very hard to please, but I please her."

To veer into the 20th century, I loved the authors' dedication of the cookbook to Eleanor Roosevelt, who had shared her ways of fixing scrambled eggs for Sunday night dinners in the White House and also why she served hot dogs to the Queen of England at Hyde Park.

[Joe Di Cola]

(08-26-2012 06:43 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I should have known you would get the answer, Joe! I got the question from reading a cookbook and thought surely that I would stump you Lincolnites. Oh well...

The cookbook that I own is The Presidents' Cookbook by Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks, published in 1968. In mentioning Frances, the authors state that, when asked how she got along with Mrs. Lincoln, Frances replied, "If I please Ms Lincum, she like me, she treat me well, and she very hard to please, but I please her."

To veer into the 20th century, I loved the authors' dedication of the cookbook to Eleanor Roosevelt, who had shared her ways of fixing scrambled eggs for Sunday night dinners in the White House and also why she served hot dogs to the Queen of England at Hyde Park.

I adore E.R., but she was definitely not known for her culinary skills. In fact, she maintained an awful cook--one Mrs. Nesbitt, in the White House much to FDR's annoyance. E.R. pepared her eggs in a chafing dish which seems elegant but, I guess, they were still not very good. FDR's rather patrician mother was appalled that hot dogs were served to the British royalty, but it seems FDR was OK with it, and the royals were charmed by the whole experience. It would have been better if the hot dogs were served Chicago-style!

[Laurie Verge]

What is Chicago-style? The best hot dogs I have ever eaten were on the ferry going out to the Statue of Liberty. I think they heaped everything but the kitchen sink on those dogs!

I do like Chicago-style pizza.

[Joe Di Cola]

(08-27-2012 10:16 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  What is Chicago-style? The best hot dogs I have ever eaten were on the ferry going out to the Statue of Liberty. I think they heaped everything but the kitchen sink on those dogs!

I do like Chicago-style pizza.

A Vienna brand all-beef hot dog on a poppy seed hot dog bun with mustard, a special type of pickle relish, minced onions, tomato slices, a pickle spear, sport peppers, and celery salt. YUM! YUM! The best are from SuperDawg at Milwaukee & Devon in Chicago--even tour buses pull up there so tourists can savor this delicacy. AND! absolutely NO ketchup---anathema to a Chicagoan! Now I'm hungry!!

[Rob Wick]

Joe,

I've never understood the aversion to ketchup. Why is this?

Best
Rob

[Gene C]

You haven't eaten a public school lunch lately have you?

[Rob Wick]

Not since 1981.

Best
Rob

[Joe Di Cola]

(08-27-2012 11:05 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Joe,

I've never understood the aversion to ketchup. Why is this?

Best
Rob

Re a Chicago dog, it "fights" the other ingredients.I personally only like ketchup with beef stew (but not Boeuf Bourginon) and if it is in a recipe like for calico beans or as the base for my to-die- for seafood sauce. What a hoot! We are on a Lincoln site and talking about ketchup!

[Rob Wick]

Quote:What a hoot! We are on a Lincoln site and talking about ketchup!

Now Joe, it's an important question. Would Lincoln have eaten his hot dogs with or without ketchup? What does Eisenschiml or Sandburg say?

I'll never forget when I was in college, we were having a history club dinner at Goosenest Prairie (where Thomas and Sarah Lincoln lived in Coles County) and I was in charge of getting the food. We decided on hot dogs and beans, so I dutifully got the supplies. A buddy from Chicago freaked out when he saw two bottles of ketchup in the box, and had a conniption fit when I squirted it on my hot dog bun. You'd of thought I had shot Lincoln myself.

Best
Rob

[Laurie Verge]

My southern relatives put ketchup on their scrambled eggs. I have a New York friend who puts it on tuna salad sandwiches. I can tolerate it on french fries, but that's about it.

[RJNorton]

I've known Joe Di Cola a long time, and we hardly ever disagree on anything Lincoln.

However, I will state point blank that the best dogs came from Parky's on Harlem Avenue in Forest Park. Awesome fries, too. My wife (whom I was dating when I first went to Parky's in 1960) says the celery salt is the key. I do agree on the no ketchup part.

[Joe Di Cola]

(08-27-2012 12:04 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  

Quote:What a hoot! We are on a Lincoln site and talking about ketchup!

Now Joe, it's an important question. Would Lincoln have eaten his hot dogs with or without ketchup? What does Eisenschiml or Sandburg say?

I'll never forget when I was in college, we were having a history club dinner at Goosenest Prairie (where Thomas and Sarah Lincoln lived in Coles County) and I was in charge of getting the food. We decided on hot dogs and beans, so I dutifully got the supplies. A buddy from Chicago freaked out when he saw two bottles of ketchup in the box, and had a conniption fit when I squirted it on my hot dog bun. You'd of thought I had shot Lincoln myself.

Best
Rob

For Eisenschiml it would all be about a Ketchup Conspiracy and for Sandburg, well he and his friend Lee Hayes from the Weavers would write and perform a folk song about Lincoln and ketchup.
Even Sicilians like me, with their fondness for tomatoes with just about everything, would take pause before desecrating a hot dog with ketchup. Yo! From where in Illinois do you hail?

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(08-27-2012 12:14 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  My southern relatives put ketchup on their scrambled eggs. I have a New York friend who puts it on tuna salad sandwiches. I can tolerate it on french fries, but that's about it.

Nixon put it on cottage chese.

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(08-27-2012 12:14 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  I've known Joe Di Cola a long time, and we hardly ever disagree on anything Lincoln.

However, I will state point blank that the best dogs came from Parky's on Harlem Avenue in Forest Park. Awesome fries, too. My wife (whom I was dating when I first went to Parky's in 1960) says the celery salt is the key. I do agree on the no ketchup part.

Parky's is great, too. And so was the late, lamented Snyder's on 99th & Western in the 1940s and 50s. Ain't nostalgia great! If "outsiders" see this discussion on a Lincoln site, they're going to think we have consumed to many poppy seeds!!