Inaugural Balls: From Washington to Trump, Turtle Soup to Sliders and more!

Hey, Sylvia.

Happy, inauguration day,

Hey.

Really?

Oh yeah.

We'll, but we'll talk about it 'cause it'll last several days in

advance and several days afterwards.

So here we are talking about all of this stuff and I thought what we'd do,

Nancy May, is we would start out by talking about why, why in the world

do we think talking about inaugural balls and the food served to those

folks that go to the inaugural balls.

Um, we won't be going, I guess.

I guess you're letting me know now you're not going,

no, I didn't get my invitation this year.

Sorry.

I didn't either, so we're just gonna hang in, but

here's why it's important.

It's important because countries are like families, right?

We have traditions that have gone on since our nation was founded, with George

Washington dining alone for inauguration.

That's so sad!

know, and I wonder if he forgot those cherries that

were stored down in this basement that they've dug out there recently.

But anyway, what I think is, is that it shows us a couple of things.

One, it shows us how our country has evolved through food, and

that is very reflective of our.

Country's personality.

I mean, turtle soup was a favorite of some of our presidents and, it sounds

almost like roadkill, you know, squirrels, squirrel soup, But now it's really

evolved and it not only does that, but it shows you the personality of the incoming

president and the administration and what we're going to expect, like, well

done steak, for instance, with ketchup.

I don't

know.

god, right?

or are they snooty and they only have oh la la, French food?

I know.

Well, Jackie Kennedy, she ushered in French cooking and had, I guess it

was an uproar, too, having the first French chef, that she brought in to

the kitchen to fix the fancy foods.

Well, I thought it was Chester Arthur who brought

in the first French chef.

Who's Chester Arthur?

I haven't heard of this.

Chester Arthur was our 21st president

Oh, I know, and he's almost forgotten.

I know, right?

Well, there could be a debate about this, because I heard it

was Jackie, but maybe it was Arthur.

Well, apparently it was Arthur, and he was a foodie.

He was second only to Thomas Jefferson of the day, apparently.

And, although his inaugural dinner was small, he really brought in the

French chef, to, zing things up.

But he was also known for loving macaroni pie and with oysters.

I could like macaroni pie.

I'm thinking like Velveeta and oysters.

Probably not Velveeta of the day.

Yeah.

And that's not too French, is it?

But he liked turtle steaks.

We're talking about roadkill pie, right?

Maybe that is French.

I don't know.

Yeah.

So, all of that was interesting.

and then, of course, you have the beginnings of, uh, James Madison

in 1809 started a new tradition.

It was an inaugural ball with 400 guests.

And Ice Cream Was Served As A Fancy Dish.

Dolly Madison, right?

They brought in the ice cream.

Yeah!

So, there you go.

it to mama to bring in the ice cream.

Come on,

ha, ha,

And, you know, there's always kind of a theme, for all of these folks.

Obama was channeling his inner Lincoln when he served Roasted

Pheasant and Duck Breast.

Kennedy, All Things New England, of course.

And, in the beginning, game was really popular, like pheasant,

squirrel, again, turtle soup.

Turtles, they were endangered species back then, right?

Yeah, turtles,

I didn't realize that they were endangered

influenced by Native American culture,

all of that sort of thing.

So, our inaugural balls, and the foods that they had.

Oh, Chester Arthur, oh, I have down that he was into Rhode Island eel.

You should know about

this,

ew, you know, it's not too bad on sushi when it's

cooked, but even still, yes.

Well, and then you had Martin Van Buren who liked his whiskey and, well, he

had what they call, I would call the little man disease or Napoleon complex.

He was only five foot six inches tall.

Did you know that?

Now don't you pick on a shorties.

Have you seen pictures of me with

people?

Yeah, okay, it's bringing out the platforms.

Platform sneakers, Darlene, right?

There we go with Darlene.

Oh, and Ulysses, S.

Grant.

So, interestingly enough, I found some pictures.

I don't know, it was, must be a great great grandfather, that,

he had pictures in our family.

Treasures, Storage of Ulysses S.

Grant in the Field.

So that's pretty cool.

But he was a fan of, like, the old basic foods as turkey and everything

he ate on the battlegrounds.

It seems like that was his thing.

But he also had, he was known to have a mania for, rice pudding.

I cannot stand, ugh,

do you

like

it?

rice pudding, bread pudding.

It's something about, like, mushy

stuff.

It just, yuck.

Not my thing.

And bread pudding is so popular up here.

It's a stapler staple stapler.

A staple dish at Keeland, which is a race course that's right next door to us.

Yeah.

Bread pudding with

bourbon sauce.

Well, maybe I might like it with bourbon sauce.

Yeah, you can, you know, everything here has bourbon

somehow involved with all of that.

So yeah, so that's kind of a brief history of the foods and how we

celebrated our Inaugural Balls.

And now we're facing yet another one coming up on January

are.

Yeah.

It's going to be interesting to see what comes from that.

But, before we go there, let me quickly ask you, you've been to an

inaugural ball before, too, haven't you?

have, but you know, it almost seems like a blur.

I can't remember.

All I remember is being in a fancy dress and watching.

I was there for Clinton's, I think, and you said you

were there, too.

We might have been in the same room.

I was there for Clinton, for the Connecticut, Rhode Island,

and Massachusetts ball, which was rather, I would say, mm, it

felt more like a frat party.

It wasn't what I would call a

ball.

Well, that would fit it would kind of fit the personality, right?

Hey, Clinton had 14 balls.

Obama had ten.

Now, does it, yeah, does it tell you, and these are official balls, and the

difference being that official ones are the ones by the The Inaugural Committee.

No, the states have their own.

Like, Kentucky has the bluegrass, but, this one is, interesting because, this

is a committee that's appointed, not surprisingly, by the president, the

incoming president, so they plan the balls, and in 2017, which is the only

thing we had to go on with Trump, right?

He had three.

The Inaugural Committee.

Yeah, three balls.

One was to salute, yeah, to salute veterans, and I can't remember the other

two, but yeah, it's kind of interesting

well, but the different states I think are designed

as fundraisers, aren't they?

Or

is,

oh sure, yeah.

they are.

they

Ours was cheap.

my friend is going to the Bluegrass Ball, and that's 550.

And, yeah, so, but you know what?

That's probably cheap by the time the scalpers get going.

What do

you think?

Well, I think?

yeah, I think we paid something like, um.

It was like 350 a ticket or something like that.

And they say you're not supposed to have to pay there, but it was

definitely, it was a cash bar.

And then if you wanted food after that, there was like a really bad

I would call it Hamburger Helper.

It was being served for another 75 and they'd, uh uh, you know what, I thought

there, there's a little bit more class in a presidential ball than that.

but yeah, no, no, and my experience with Gayle King, which you know

about, which we won't go there.

Oh, I know, ah,

I don't like her now.

That's for

neither do I.

But it's an interesting one.

I'm

tempted.

Yeah, so let's take a break right there.

and then we'll come back and talk about our current presidential

election and our ball.

Sounds great.

So welcome back to, our discussion and research

about well, presidential balls.

And we've got one coming up real soon, January 20th.

That's kind of interesting.

Before we go there, Sylvia, did you know that, I think it was in 19 That there was

a whole new ratification that actually changed the date of the inauguration

from March 4th to January 20th.

Wow.

That is interesting.

Yeah.

You told me that story.

Tell us all that story again, because it's very interesting.

My first theory was your first theory.

my first theory was that it happened way back in colonial

times because it took forever for, presidents to get elected.

To Washington, well, um, I think the first White House was actually

in New York, not in Washington, D.

C., so it was a travel thing, but even still, that's not necessarily the case.

Congress had actually stated that it would be April 4th to allow for the

timely transition of different parties or the, new president coming in.

But they found that the time between early part of the year to March 4th, and

basically the president became a lame duck over, over a three month period.

So they decided that maybe they can try and get rid of that and, increase

the efficiency of how the new, administration comes in and That's

sort of the, the Cliff Notes version.

Yeah, but I would have thought, and the other thing being

January weather and

Right?

The cold, right?

yeah, And Cause I guess there've been a couple of,

wasn't there an inauguration where president got pneumonia and died?

I can't

Ooh, I

was.

one,

but that was before

fact check.

Maybe the White House, should be in Florida,

but it's cold here this morning.

It was 41 degrees here in Florida this morning.

It was chilly, so,

but even

well, January is hit.

It is here in the north Country, okay?

but back to inaugural balls and inaugural foods.

You've got some research on what's going on in our current one with the

second Trump administration, right?

Yeah, Oh, by the way, inaugural luncheon.

It's also an innovation, that was brought about to include Congress.

And so I do have a menu for what Trump's served in 2017 at his inaugural

luncheon, which was Maine lobster and Gulf shrimp with saffron sauce.

Okay.

Now we all know there's like this thing about Trump and what he likes to eat.

Mm hmm.

So the second course,

Angus beef

Angus

dark chocolate and juniper juice.

What kind of chocolate?

dark chocolate?

And then, Chocolate Soufflé, so there's a lot of chocolate

going on here, and Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream, so that's just a little preview,

So fast forwarding, the only ball that we had a set menu that we know of as of

this conversation, is the All American Ball, which will be on the 18th.

Hot dogs.

no,

it's a

fancy menu.

It's a

Oh, so it's cocktail weenies then.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're, you're doing like me.

You're kind of trying to guess, but we'll get to the guessing part at the end here.

but, I don't know that I can pronounce this, but this is the 650 ticket.

Okay.

Now, these are, I don't know if American, All American Ball is, I think.

And they said most of the official balls will actually be on the 20th,

And that's where The

The day of

appear.

Yeah, at people.

But anyway, here's the All American Ball, and it's $650 for a VIP mixer

from six to eight with a full buffet.

Now I gotta just take a moment.

All right.

Serving a buffet at a huge event.

I have a personal nightmare with that.

I was heading up an organization and I was hosting a thousand

people for dinner at a local hotel.

This was several years ago, And it was only at that time that, you know, you go

into a restaurant, it's always chef driven now, and it's local ingredients and stuff.

It was not heard of at that time, and yet I had paired up, and some of our

listeners may know of Wendell Berry.

He is a big proponent of community and locally sourced food,

And he and I were tight, we were best friends, and he said, Why

don't you do a local foods buffet?

Why not?

I said.

I had a budget, So I had my thousand people there.

The hotel fought me every step of the way.

It was a Hyatt, fought me every step of the way.

So we know what they did.

What are they going to do?

They're going to charge me more, right?

course.

It was huge.

And I would watch these plates go by and these, and these are local

elected officials, so I guess maybe they never eaten there or something.

I don't know.

they piled like three miles

Oh my gosh.

And then the, the hotel kept bringing out food.

Bringing out food.

Do you

want us to bring more food?

And anyway, I got called on the carpet, Nancy, I don't get called

on the carpet very often, but I did.

And my folks were not too happy with me.

I mean, it went way over budget.

Anyway, that was what Lincoln did.

Lincoln had a big chaotic buffet at midnight.

He kept putting people off, putting them off, and then it was just chaos.

People were in food fights.

Or maybe he just waited till midnight, hoping that the rest of

the crowd would go down so he didn't have to pay for everybody's dish.

that would be my theory.

let's get back to the All American ball.

Uh, black truffles, Sochi.

So what?

Sochi.

See, See, S-A-C-C-H-E-T-T-I with light cream sauce and shaved asparagus.

Right now truffle.

I don't like truffles.

Oh, I like them, but

sauce.

truffle smells, well, if it's on french fries and stuff, the sauce smells like,

my husband just can't even be in the same room right.

Rigatoni Bolognese with shaved

parmesan and fresh basil.

sounds good.

Yeah, you said you love it.

Penne Caprese Style, Best Caprese.

You said you had one in sorrento, Italy.

Yeah.

Penne Caprese Style, Best Caprese.

You said you had one in

Well, I, I did.

I'll let you finish your story

Yeah, that'd be great.

And then a slider station.

Okay, now we're back to it.

Oh,

Trump and Clinton I think would do very well at that one,

I think they would, you know, other than politics, they'd

get along just fine, wouldn't they?

that was always the lore about Clinton, too, is that he would have to stop

at every McDonald's under the guise, of course, of greeting the customers.

Well, now he's a vegan

Yeah.

Yeah,

big time.

Yeah, Okay, So there's a gold ticket, too, for 350.

But, you know, I don't think these price tags really mean a whole lot,

Depends upon whose wallet you're talking about.

well, I think that they probably get scalped

for a whole lot more, right?

so, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So,

anyway,

So that's kind of interesting.

So the bolognese.

Oh my god.

I have, it seems like for years I was on the hunt for the best bolognese.

This is not, like, this is true bolognese.

This is not spaghetti with meat sauce.

But You know,

true Bolognese?

well, I would say, well, spaghetti meat sauce is what

kind of I make with, with spittini flavoring, which is really funny.

So spittini is a, spice packet, I would say, that was made by

Lowery's , which is a Canadian company, like a, like a McCormick's,

it on the counters, yeah.

And for years, that's what my mom made.

She'd make, the spaghetti sauce, well, the tomato sauce, the chopped tomatoes,

the, she didn't even put wine in and she just put this, this spaghetti in there.

And one year, Oh God, this is, I would say probably about 10 years

ago, I was down visiting my aunt who was over in the Orlando area.

And she said, we should go out for, spaghetti.

She knew the best place to go.

And I said, great.

She says, by the way, does yours mom still use Spatini to make?

Spaghetti sauce.

I said, no, good mom doesn't make spaghetti sauce anymore.

I make it.

And yes, it's spittini and I couldn't find

it anywhere.

So I found it online because they don't manufacture it for the grocery store.

The only place I can get it is, well, online, but it's in

packets of like one pound packets.

So I usually buy two and it lasts me for like five years.

And it's, it's pretty fun.

S P A T I N I

And it's just a, a gathering

just all the, it's like a, a spice blend, right?

It's, it's got everything

in there.

It's

very authentic, huh?

very authentic.

Well, with a name like Sputini, how could it not be authentic, But, but it's good.

Of course, I always doctor my, my meat sauce up with.

A half a bottle of red wine, it seems

that's a very common thing.

I'm getting ready to make beef stew.

what a wintry kind of thing, right?

And my son deposited a fourth of a cow in my freezer out in the garage.

Yeah, yeah.

He buys a cow.

He buys half a cow, and they can't eat it all, so I mean, I'm like,

is that a cow or is that a bull?

You could say that's a lot of bull or is that a lot of cow?

I don't know.

Anyway, it's all laying there, and we don't eat a

lot of beef, but in the winter, with the snow on the ground, beef stew?

Yeah,

So, I have a quick recipe for beef stew.

I mean, as long as we're talking American foods.

Really easy and funny story is that, I would make this in the fall and

we'd make the beef stew and put it in a pumpkin, hollow with the pumpkin,

warm up the pumpkin and then serve it as like the dish, the terrine.

I always did that with friends and family and one year, we had some friends who,

uh, We would go apple picking with, and they said they had some colleagues

that are coming in from Germany.

Could they come with us?

Absolutely.

So the Germans came, never been apple picking in New England, and

we came back to our back porch, and I made this beef stew and put it

in, and they were like so excited.

And this was just, I think, just after Bob and I had gotten married, and we're

in this little garage apartment in the back deck, and Out from the backyard

comes this deer walking through, and we're eating this beef stew in this

pumpkin, just been apple picking, and these, the Germans are, like, amazed.

And then one guy says, My wife would love this, would love this recipe.

How do you make it?

And I said, Do they have Campbell's?

Onion soup, French onion soup.

I love those things.

So you brown off your beef, and you put all your vegetables in the

pot, and then you take a, well, you can use Progress or whatever brand you want,

but the French onion soup, you put it in the pot and you fill that, can up

with, the red wine, you dump it in the pot and as many things of liquid that

you want, and then just throw it in a slow cooker and let it go, but it's

the onion soup with the red wine that.

makes it work,

love

that.

cool.

yeah, I probably won't go that far.

Can't find a pumpkin this time of year, but anyway, yeah, and it's,

it's

freezable.

You know, that's,

that's also good

Yeah,

Yup.

And caprese salad.

Oh my God.

That's so, but it's penne.

It's like, I don't like, do you like pasta in your caprese salad?

No,

No, it's like, it's tomatoes and, and mozzarella.

And if you don't like, I don't need pasta in it.

So I think that's rather de classe.

Yeah, well, we won't, we won't even fool with that, will we?

Yeah.

anyway, I love the slider station and I love

and there's an open bar, of course.

Right.

I think you need

that in Washington these

I think so.

you're on.

Right.

I think so.

So, did you want to add anything to that?

Because I was gonna end with, what are we gonna do?

What's this president going to have on that menu for his official

ball?

And, and what

about our Vice President, Vance?

Well, yeah, let's, hear, let's hear what's going on.

Well, you know, Vance is a meat and potatoes guy, I always heard.

And if he grew up in Eastern Kentucky, I mean, who knows?

There might have been an occasional squirrel or, you know, something.

You never know.

You never know.

I won't, I won't, start rumors.

But anyway, What was interesting is that he is now married to a woman who is Hindu.

And, funny side story about a Hindu, uh, Mo, Mo, Moda, uh, in

India, the, had the guy of India.

He is promoting Hinduism, and it's a growing religion, but there's

a lot of frustration chafing.

You know why?

Because people are getting tired of the cows.

They can't

do

anything about the

cows

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

you can't like, off a

you cannot.

It's like, I mean, you get arrested, and so they're everywhere, and

they're proliferating, and I just wondered if Vance has a cow in his

house or in his backyard, you know?

but I've had a cow every now and then.

Not in my house,

Yeah, I know, I know, I know.

I've had a few cows along the way too, but

dude, right?

So anyway, there's that.

So I don't know what Vance is up to, but we're going to try to find out.

I've got some surveillance going on of the inaugural events

Well, if his wife is Hindu, then she's predominantly vegetarian.

Is that correct?

So maybe he's hiding the cow in the back freezer just in case.

and so anyway, I thought also it might be a little fun.

Okay.

Bear with me.

What's the Panamanian dish, you know?

What do they eat in Panama?

You get it?

He's talking about Panama a lot, you know, so maybe okay.

So rice and beans, seafood, you know, it's there in the, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but

the more interesting one was Greenland.

Also being talked about a lot, And the dish is a soup called

Suat, Suat, S U A A S A T.

It's a soup made of seal meat, or whale, or reindeer, seabirds.

I was going to say a lot of lard, you know, suat, right?

It sounds like, right?

Ooh,

Suat.

it sounds kind of greasy and disgusting,

but you

know,

of those will

appear.

Who knows?

think, you know,

Greenland, I was thinking maybe like snow cones.

Yeah.

Anyway, that's in the

news a lot,

too,

Or Canada.

Upper U.

S.

So, who knows?

the next four years.

We'll learn a lot more about food.

Maybe fondue will be on the Inaugural

Yeah.

Waves.

If Canada is involved, you just never

You never know.

I love this country,

as

I

say.

we are definitely a melting pot of food and good food

and a few sliders along the way.

Of

course.

And an open bar doesn't hurt,

for

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can handle that.

I'm a good old hamburger.

That might be on my menu with this cold weather.

I don't know.

So, what would you top off the Inaugural Ball as far as a dessert if you

were going this year and making the menu?

What would you do?

ah, something.

No, I don't know.

See, Trump.

Let me see.

What's something from Eastern Kentucky?

To Celebrate Vance.

I keep doing that.

I keep saying that.

I want to find out what he likes.

But, You know, you've caught me, you've stumped me.

I like chocolate, and I like chocolate sundae.

So an ice cream bar, go back to our roots, right?

Ice cream is a fancy dish.

But this time you do it yourself, and you can make it as pretty as you want.

One of those chocolate, you know, those fountains.

Yeah,

fountain.

Okay, that's it.

That's my

answer.

What about you?

Well, and pork is big in Kentucky, isn't it?

yeah,

So, I'm thinking what you should probably do is, since you

like chocolate fountains, how about, chocolate covered bacon on top of your

yeah, and bacon on top of ice cream

and, like for instance, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what's

really good is like a piece of ham

with syrup on it.

ooh, yeah.

is

really good.

and if we're talking Florida, so I'm learning a little

bit about Florida cuisine here.

And there there is such a thing as gator meat that

Oh yeah,

the

menu.

Yeah,

you

restaurant.

know, somehow it just doesn't do anything for me.

But, I would say a a little gator sausage on the side, or a gator

steak, or boa, boa constrictor.

That's the other things that are big down here in Florida.

They're trying to get rid of them.

They have over,

overcome the Everclades.

Yes, so maybe a little snake.

So that also might be appropriate for a

maple syrup on it.

You know, that is a taste that's growing is the sweet and sour,

That's true.

That's

ice

cream.

Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah,

So, no matter what your, political affiliation, it's an interesting

discussion to decide what you're going to have, maybe, at home for an

inaugural pseudo ball, maybe a mock ball.

And that might be fun to do.

So, um, I'm not sure what we'll do, or if we'll do anything at all.

I'll probably sleep in.

But it's Monday.

I'll probably

be up early.

Yeah.

a glass,

I'll raise a glass, to our country, to good health,

food, good memories, and good

stories.

Sounds

good to

me.

there's a lot more in store with Family Tree Food and Stories.

And, yes, even maybe with your own election dinner at home.

Take care.

We'll see you soon.

And we'll hear you

soon.

Bye bye.

Goodbye.