Extra Credit Questions

[Joe Di Cola]

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!