Dine Like a President on President’s Day
Should you be so inclined, you could celebrate President’s Day by dining on some favorite foods of U.S. presidents.
For the first meal of the day, you could start with George Washington’s favorite, hoecakes and honey. For those of you not familiar with hoecakes, they are a cornmeal pancake and in colonial times, it was a staple for less affluent Americans.
General Washington preferred his hoecakes “swimming in butter and honey.” Like Washington, I find adding butter and honey to almost anything makes it more appetizing. One of the general’s guests surmised that having the hoecakes softened with honey and butter made it easier for Washington to chew his breakfast.
You may recall that the general had poorly fitting dentures which some attribute to his rather grim expression in most of his portraits. It’s hard to smile when your mouth is hurting.
I have eaten hoecakes and think they are delicious, with or without honey and butter. My father often prepared hoecakes as a quick dinner, usually with a side of fried ham. He preferred his hoecakes swimming in molasses and I’ve always suspected this dish was a staple of his family’s diet during the depression in the 1930s.
Jimmy Carter’s breakfast staple was cheese grits. According to his daughter, Amy, he made them for breakfast every morning. He added eggs and cheese and, per Amy, the concoction was “yummy.”
To keep the doctor away we could add some apple slices. In doing so we would be paying homage to Honest Abe Lincoln. According to his friends, Lincoln ate this fruit “with gusto” daily. I can almost hear him crunching away as he drafts the Gettysburg Address.
If we prefer to start the day by clogging our arteries, we could have a William Howard Taft style breakfast. When Taft became president he weighed 354 pounds and still holds the record for being the heaviest president. Taft’s breakfast consisted of a thick twelve ounce steak, two oranges, buttered toast and copious amounts of coffee with cream and sugar.
Because of his girth, a special bathtub had to be installed at the White House to accommodate his large frame. It was so large that four men could sit in it comfortably. I cannot help but wonder if this was paid for with tax dollars and what became of it. Does it now reside in one of the Smithsonian storerooms?
For lunch we could choose from favorite dishes of several chief executives. John F. Kennedy’s favorite, which should come as no surprise, was New England Fish Chowder. When he received a letter asking about his favorite dish, he sent the letter writer the recipe.
Less enticing is Richard Nixon’s lunch of cottage cheese topped with ketchup and black pepper. This combination reinforces my opinion of Mr. Nixon as eccentric, but let us not forget that per his own declaration, he was “not a crook.”
If you need a little sugar to get through the afternoon, think Ronald Reagan and his infamous jelly beans. Ironically, Reagan started eating them when he was giving up pipe smoking but, as often happens, he traded one vice for another.
Get Norma Schmelling’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
During his presidency, Reagan had a standing order for 720 bags of jelly beans a month. The beans were distributed around the White House, on Capitol Hill, and to other federal buildings the president might visit. Once more I wonder who paid for this indulgence?
For dinner we could feast on Lyndon B. Johnson’s favorite, Texas-style barbecue. Whenever LBJ hosted visitors to his ranch in the Texas Hill Country, the president served brisket, ribs, and Texas-style chili accompanied by potato salad, coleslaw, and ranch style beans.
If you aren’t in the mood for barbecue, you could defer to Gerald Ford’s favorite dinner, pot roast with red cabbage and butter pecan ice cream for dessert.
For those inclined not to worry about the calories or cholesterol, you could have a jalapeno cheeseburger in honor of Bill Clinton. Be sure to add lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, pickles and onions to make it authentic. You might want to consider, however, that after leaving the presidency, Clinton developed heart issues and became a vegan.
George W. Bush, a.k.a. number 43, combined pizza with a cheeseburger topping for his favorite dinner. According to his White House Chef, every item found on a cheeseburger was added to a marguerite pizza.”
If you still aren’t sated on foods that aren’t good for you, throw caution to the wind and have some pork rinds with a dash of Tabasco sauce. During his 1988 presidential campaign, George H.W. declared his love of this snack causing sales of the fried pig skins to soar. Some members of the media claimed his comment was nothing more than Bush attempting to appear down-to-earth and that he actually preferred popcorn and martinis.
So, do I.
Fortunately, though I spent time working in politics as a lobbyist and political consultant, I’ve never had the slightest desire to serve in any elected capacity, not even president of the garden club. I especially don’t care to have what my late husband called my “poor dietary habits” made public.
One of my more embarrassing moments occurred several years ago when I was having my annual doctor’s visit which required a blood test. The doctor had left the room and her nurse was telling me how to get to the laboratory. “Have you eaten this morning?” she asked. I replied in the affirmative. “What did you have?” was her next question.
“Oh, no!” I thought as I recalled my non-traditional breakfast. Being a mostly honest person, I told her. She looked at me as if I had grown another head, opened the exam room door and called down the hall to the doctor. I cringed as called out, “She had chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream for breakfast.”
“Yesterday was my birthday,” I sheepishly murmured, hoping this would suffice as an acceptable reason. The doctor gave her blessing and my blood test was normal.
My chocolate cake breakfast gained notoriety with a friend’s children. Whenever I visited them, my hostess gift would be a multi-layer chocolate cake from a local cafeteria. Every morning of my stay I would have a piece for breakfast usually before any of the household was awake.
One morning two of her four children discovered me and were equally dismayed and enthralled. My friend later told me that they often would request a “Norma breakfast.” Her reply was when they reached adulthood they could certainly indulge in one but until then they were having cereal.
