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Chicago Tribune
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
From the Farm: Lake County Literary Tea No. 23 stars Julia Child and Gourmet Goddess
In April 2006, I was asked to be the guest presenter for the Lake County Public Library Foundation's 6th Annual Literary Tea charity event. Nearly two decades ago, the event was held in the lower level solarium of the Lake County Library Main Branch in Merrillville, with Tiffany's Tea Room of Crown Point as the caterer. Guests were encouraged to wear hats since the topic I was asked to speak about was Hollywood gossip columnist of yesteryear Hedda 'the Hat' Hopper. A few years later, I was invited back with my parents and older sister Pam, and this time, the themed topic for the 2010 event was 'Alice in Wonderland,' with the tea party connection an easy given. This was also the same spring as the release date for the live-action 'Alice in Wonderland' film starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Here we are in the year 2025, and next month will mark the Lake County Public Library Foundation's 23rd Annual Literary Tea at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 12, still held at the Lake County Library Main Branch on U.S. 30 in Merrillville. This year's theme is based on the cookbook icon Julia Child, as portrayed by actor and historian Leslie Goddard. Tickets are $40 and available by calling 219-769-3541, Ext. 315. In September 2023, Goddard, in the guise of Child, brought her 'Behind Julia Child's Apron' to cook up fun, fascinating career facts and personal life stories of the kitchen icon for a one-week run of performances on the Theatre at the Center stage. As Child, Goddard discusses everything from her relationship with her husband Paul to the mishaps of cooking on television. Her now beloved and famed TV cooking show 'The French Chef' first premiered 62 years ago on PBS on Feb. 11, 1963. During Goddard's performances, audiences enjoy a close and intimate stage visit with legendary cookbook author, television star and champion of French cooking Child, who died at age 91 on Aug. 13, 2004. Goddard is an award-winning historian, author, actor and lecturer who has been presenting on topics in American history and women's history for 20 years. She holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Northwestern University as well as master's degrees in both museum studies and theater. A former museum director, she currently works full-time as a public speaker and author. Her presentations have been seen by audiences in more than thirty states, including scores of universities, museums, libraries, festivals and civic organizations. Born in Illinois, Leslie is known nationally for her work of bringing women's history alive. Her repertoire of famous women also includes aviatrix Amelia Earhart, first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy, film star Bette Davis, novelist Louisa May Alcott, Titanic survivor Violet Jessop, and modern artist Georgia O'Keeffe. The caterer for next month's charity tea is Katie Sannito of Munster, who is best known as her kitchen alter-ego The Gourmet Goddess, which is perfect branding for this culinary wiz. This year marks her third time catering the library tea event. She began her catering business a baker's dozen (13) years ago. And her website includes an emblazoned cherished quote by Julia Child: 'People who love to eat are always the best people.' 'It's always been my goal to make entertaining an effortless endeavor for the host or hostess since so often when entertaining at home, you get bogged down in all the details and miss out on actually enjoying your own party,' Sannito said. 'I love my Italian heritage and refer to it often when sharing stories about making the Christmas ravioli or using the roasting pan from my great-grandfather's restaurant. I was blessed to grow up in a family where it was important to slow down and savor our time together, always with an abundance of incredible food down the middle of the table.' We recently shared the WJOB morning radio airwaves co-hosting behind the microphone, and Katie and I shared stories about Julia Child and both agreed, 'memories made around that table are priceless.' 'I know how rich my life is because of the deep connection my favorite memories have to the food that was on the table,' she said. 'I want to give my clients a taste of the same type of experience because of how important it has been in my life. My service became more than just cooking a meal. Creating memorable moments around the dinner table is what drives my passion for cooking good food and sharing that experience with others.' Among the delectable items served by the Gourmet Goddess at next month's tea will be her flavorful dried cranberry chicken salad with almond slivers, which has roasted fresh diced red grapes as a secret contrasting colorful ingredient. She kindly shared her chicken salad recipe with me, including a standard serving portion size compared to the more than 200 sandwiches she'll be preparing for the library tea event. Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a radio host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@ or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374. The Gourmet Goddess' Chicken Salad Makes 8-10 servings 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup sour cream 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste 1/4 teaspoon black pepper or to taste 2 breast portions deboned from a rotisserie chicken shredded or chopped. 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped 1/4 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup halved grapes, roasted 1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion, optional (place chopped onion in a mesh strainer and rinse under cold water to minimize strong raw onion flavor) 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted if desired Croissants for serving Directions: In a large bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, sour cream, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. To roast grapes, set oven to 400 or no higher than 425 degrees. Place halved grapes on a sheet pan and season with drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of kosher salt and roast until grapes seem to 'burst,' about 15 minutes. Add the chopped rotisserie chicken, celery, almonds, roasted grapes, dried cranberries, and sweet onion (if using). Stir until well combined. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Serve the chicken salad as a sandwich croissant, bread of choice, or on a bed of lettuce. Store chicken salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days when made with chicken cooked that same day.
Associated Press
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
12 times ‘Saturday Night Live' made a cultural bang over the past 50 years
NEW YORK (AP) — 'Saturday Night Live' was built with a cast of young no-names performing countercultural comedy. Fifty years later, it is firmly part of the culture, dictating mainstream comedy instead of throwing spitballs from the margins. The show has become an incubator of talent — think Will Ferrell, Chris Rock, Amy Poehler, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, Pete Davidson and Tracy Morgan. Its sketches have sparked Hollywood movies, from 'The Blues Brothers' and 'Wayne's World' to 'MacGruber' and 'Coneheads.' But 'SNL' has embedded itself in our culture in deeper ways, from slogans like 'We're not worthy!' to 'You look mahvelous!' It inspires Halloween costumes, connects viewers to the news via 'Weekend Update' and may even have influenced elections. As the show gears up to celebrate its milestone, here are 12 moments over the past five decades when the show didn't just reflect pop culture — it drove it. 'Wolverines,' 1975 This was the first sketch from the first show, an absurdist-meets-physical comedy interaction between a student — played by John Belushi — and his English teacher, played by head writer Michael O'Donoghue. 'I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines,' the teacher asks his pupil to repeat. The show, then called 'NBC's Saturday Night,' would have George Carlin as the first host. Jim Henson's Muppets had a sketch and Andy Kaufman lip-synched the 'Mighty Mouse' theme song. Billy Preston played his hit 'Nothing From Nothing' and later folk singer Janis Ian sang 'At Seventeen' and 'In the Winter.' Preston closed things out with 'Fancy Lady.' New York magazine called its promise 'enormous' and the Chicago Tribune said it 'premiered in superb fashion.' The Los Angeles Times said it was 'bright and bouncy' and even suggested it move to prime time. 'King Tut,' 1978 Steve Martin saw this off-the-wall novelty song about ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun capture the nation's imagination during a goofy performance. It eventually reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over 1 million copies after he performed it on 'SNL.' The comedian was parodying the hysteria and commercialization surrounding a traveling Tutankhamun exhibit, dancing sideways as he sang 'King Tut/Buried with a donkey/Funky Tut/He's my favorite honky!' The song was riddled with errors: King Tut was not 'born in Arizona,' he did not live in a 'condo made of stone-a' and he was not 'buried in his jammies.' Nevertheless, the song went viral long before there was an internet. 'The French Chef,' 1978 Dan Aykroyd parodied iconic chef Julia Child in a cooking segment gone horribly wrong: She cuts 'the dickens' out of her finger, releasing staggeringly large spurts of blood, tries first aid and then collapses face-first in a puddle of her own blood. It was inspired by a real injury on the set of Child's 'The French Chef' and was written by Tom Davis and Al Franken (the future former senator was also under the table pumping blood out of a tube on Aykroyd's arm). Instead of being offended, Child enjoyed Aykroyd's parody of herself so much that the book 'Baking With Julia' recounts she would play the tape at her own dinner parties, crying out, 'Save the liver!'' 'White Like Me,' 1984 Long before white privilege became a mainstream concept, Eddie Murphy in a landmark sketch put on white face makeup to see how he would be treated as a white man in New York. It was a parody of the famous 1961 book 'Black Like Me,' in which a white journalist went undercover as a Black man. You can see the legacy in 'Chappelle's Show,' Whoopi Goldberg's 'The Associate' and 'White Chicks.' In the skit, a cashier won't take his money for a newspaper ('Slowly, I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other for free'), a city bus turns into a party after the lone Black passenger gets off and a bank clerk simply hands him $50,000 in cash. 'So what did I learn from all of this?' Murphy asks at the end. 'I learned that we still have a very long way to go in this country before all men are truly equal.' Sinéad O'Connor, 1992 The Irish singer capped her a cappella cover of Bob Marley's 'War' by holding up a photo of Pope John Paul II and tearing it into pieces. 'Fight the real enemy,' she said. 'SNL' was blindsided. During rehearsals, O'Connor had instead held up an image of a refugee child. She was protesting child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, a decade before the Boston Globe revealed a systematic cover-up that forced the church to apologize and pay millions. NBC banned O'Connor from 'SNL' for life, Joe Pesci mocked her during the next week's show and Frank Sinatra called her 'one stupid broad.' Her albums were crushed by a steamroller in Times Square. Less than two weeks later, O'Connor made her first public appearance following the incident at a Bob Dylan concert at Madison Square Garden and she was jeered as Kris Kristofferson consoled her. White House vs. 'Wayne's World,' 1993 White House figures are a long-standing target for 'SNL.' In 1993, the White House fired back. In a 'Wayne's World' sketch, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey's immature, basement-dwelling characters suggested first daughter Chelsea Clinton, then 13, wasn't as attractive as then-vice president Al Gore's daughters. Hillary Clinton scolded producer Lorne Michaels and his writers for 'having nothing better to do than be mean and cruel to a young girl.' Michaels issued an apology, Myers apologized to the Clintons and the joke was cut from subsequent reruns of the sketch. 'More Cowbell,' 2000 Another wacky skit that permanently entered the culture was when Christopher Walken, playing a producer as Blue Öyster Cult recorded '(Don't Fear) the Reaper,' insisted: 'I gotta have more cowbell.' The sketch — widely regarded as one of the show's greatest — lampooned the excess of '70s rock and became a shorthand for adding one too many layers. The irony is that the idea was submitted some seven times before finally airing. Blue Öyster Cult had to ban people from bringing actual cowbells to their concerts and Walken has said people tease him about cowbells everywhere he goes. The sketch was so influential that producers of the four-part 'SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night' dedicated an entire episode to the parody. First show after 9/11, 2001 Less than three weeks after 9/11, 'Saturday Night Live' aired one of its most memorable openings. Rudy Giuliani, then New York City's mayor, was flanked by firefighters and police officers who had just left ground zero. Calling 'Saturday Night Live' one of New York's greatest institutions, Giuliani said: 'Having our city's institutions up and running sends a message that New York City is open for business.' 'Can we be funny?' Michaels asked, to which the mayor responded with perfect timing, 'Why start now?' That joke told everyone that things could be all right. Ashlee Simpson, 2004 The younger sister of Jessica Simpson, making her 'SNL' musical debut, first performed her hit 'Pieces of Me.' All good. But when she came back to play the title track from her album 'Autobiography,' the audience heard the vocal track from the first song by mistake. Awkwardness ensued. Simpson did a silly shuffle and then walked off stage as her group continued to play and the show cut to commercial. She later said a case of acid reflux forced her to lip-sync that night. The incident drew attention to one of pop culture's worst-kept secrets: Lip-syncing was way more common than performers or the music industry wanted us to think. Billboard magazine ranked it second among lip-sync scandals in modern pop history — after Milli Vanilli. 'Lazy Sunday,' 2005 'SNL' is live, of course, but sometimes the funniest bits are pretaped, like the digital shorts from Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island compatriots, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. They crafted 101 digital shorts between 2005 and 2012 — many of them destined for virality, from 'Dick in a Box,' with Justin Timberlake, to 'Natalie's Rap' with Natalie Portman and 'Shy Ronnie' with Rihanna. 'Lazy Sunday' was the second video 'SNL' viewers got from the trio, starring Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about hilariously mundane yuppie activities, like grabbing cupcakes and using Google Maps. It inspired an entire genre of video-shot joke raps and fed a fast-growing site that people had only just become aware of — YouTube. 'Lazy Sunday' was the first TV show clip to have a viral second life online, with 2 million-plus viewings in its first week alone. That week, YouTube's traffic was up 83%. Tina Fey does Sarah Palin, 2008 Many people believe that Republican vice-presidential candidate Palin once uttered: 'I can see Russia from my house.' She never said that. That was Fey in her first appearance as Palin on 'SNL.' Fey's spot-on impression — later leaning into the more ridiculous sayings the candidate had offered — may have changed some minds and therefore influenced the presidential election, an amazing thing for a comedy show. CNN coined the phrase the 'Tina Fey Effect.' People actually did studies on the 'Tina Fey Effect' after the 2008 election and found Republican and independent voters liked Palin less after watching the 'SNL' rendition of the politician, even though Palin herself appeared on the show alongside Fey to show she was in on the joke. 'Welcome to Hell,' 2017 'SNL' addressed the #MeToo movement with a pitch-perfect video — a bubblegum song with lyrics about how women have suffered abuse and harassment for centuries. Guest host Saoirse Ronan was joined by cast members Melissa Villaseñor, Leslie Jones, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, many of whom had teamed up for hysterical pop girl group songs like 'First Got Horny 2 U,' 'Back Home Ballers,' and '(Do It on My) Twin Bed.' This time, the comedy was bleak: 'Now 'House of Cards' is ruined,' goes the song, 'and that really sucks. Well, here's a list of stuff that's ruined for us: parking, and walking, and Uber, and ponytails, and bathrobes, and nighttime, and drinking, and hotels, and vans.'
