A number of our family antiques and original farm furnishings were on loan this month at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts to help performer Leslie Goddard recreate the turn of the century, modest Massachusetts home of accused hatchet murderess Lizzie Borden.
Friend and history buff colleague Goddard brought her one-woman play “The Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden” for a week of eight performances presented on the Theatre at the Center stage at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road in Munster.
Rather than having the staff dismantle and load up Dad’s farm truck with rope rugs, antiques and farm set pieces, I decided it was just as savvy to leave most of the pieces on stage to be included for the backdrop of my new “Thanksgiving From the Farm Cooking Show” I’m hosting for one performance on the same stage at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16.
This is the first full-scale stage cooking show I’ve hosted since the October 2019 cooking show and new cookbook launch party I held in the same space.
Among the favorite pieces from the farm that remain from the Borden set and will be incorporated into the farm kitchen cooking show set is Grandma and Grandpa’s red pump handle pitcher.
During the “Lizzie Borden” play run earlier this month, Chef Hugo and wife Maria, who own and operate the 10 Forty Catering dining service for The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, unearthed the original recipe for Lizzie Borden’s meatloaf and served it as the main entrée for the pre-show theatre dining package during the show’s run.
According to Lizzie Borden’s hometown newspaper, Fall River Herald News, from an Oct. 31, 2015, newspaper story, the meatloaf recipe “was found 15 years ago among items that belonged to the late Florence Cook Brigham, and was donated to the Fall River Historical Society by her son Richard. The recipe was in a box that belonged to Brigham’s late mother-in-law Mary Ella (Sheen) Brigham. It was handwritten by Mary on a three-by-five-inch card.”
The newspaper story, written by Deborah Allard, continues: “Mary was born in Fall River in 1858. She was active in social affairs in the city and a lifelong friend and confidante of Lizzie and Emma Borden. Mary was among the first to be called to 92 Second St. following the hatchet murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in 1892, and gave testimony at Lizzie’s trial. She continued to call on the Borden sisters when they moved to their Maplecroft home in the Highlands. In fact, Mary lived just a few doors away on Belmont Street. Throughout her life, she refused to speak about the Borden case, even when questioned as an older woman. Mary passed away in 1942.”
Courtesy of the kindness of the Fall River Historical Society, I’ve reprinted the Borden meatloaf recipe with today’s column.
Given Lizzie Borden’s name will still forever be associated with the horrible hatchet slaying of both her father and stepmother in their family home, her meatloaf menu is NOT included with the favorite and folksy recipes for page-by-page stage fun for Sunday’s cooking show with the promised red handle old-fashioned pitcher pump focal point.
This program is the fifth edition presented by Theatre at the Center for the popular and entertaining stage culinary show, and it stars a seven-course feast of tried and true recipes, each with its own fascinating story twist and all selected from my fourth published cookbook “Back From the Farm: Family Recipes and Memories of a Lifetime” (2019 Pediment Press $34.95).
The book was written with the help of Hollywood Hoosier actress Florence Henderson of TV’s “Brady Bunch” before her passing in November 2016.
During the show, all recipes are prepared live on stage in less than two hours with plenty of time for sampling, audience games and prizes, along with lots of surprises to take home. My live cooking show stage series was first launched in May 2010 on the Star Plaza Theatre stage with a Mother’s Day theme. More recently, my previous cooking shows have featured holiday seasonal themes for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Summer Harvest and Christmas.
The all-new Thanksgiving-themed edition of the “From the Farm Cooking Show” serves up the charm and traditions of our family’s farm kitchen as chronicled for more than two decades in my writings and published books.
Southern deep-fried turkey is the entrée highlight of the seven-course meal, whipped up along with featured seasonal recipes including pumpkin bread, sweet and sour cabbage soup, carrot cake, cheesy cracker spread and drunken cocktail weenies, all toasted with a zippy white wine sangria. This two-hour program features more than $1,000 in prizes, games and giveaways.
I’ll always be grateful to the late, great Florence Henderson, who wrote about her memories of growing up in Indiana in the foreword of my 2019 cookbook and was kind enough to also share her keepsake, hearty family recipes in a special chapter included in the book.
Sunday’s show is filled with fun for families and foodies of all ages, with humor and seasoned stories sprinkled in between food preparation on stage during the show.
Tickets for the “Thanksgiving From the Farm Cooking Show” are $35 and are available at the Theatre at the Center’s Box Office at 1040 Ridge Road in Munster or by calling 219-836-3255 or online at www.TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a radio host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Lizzie Borden’s Meatloaf
Serves 6
1 pound steak
1/2 pound pork steak
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, chopped
3 soda crackers, crushed (or more as needed for mixing consistency)
Chopped herbs of choice, like parsley and thyme
Salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease baking tin and set aside.
3. Ground the meats to prepare to mix with other ingredients.
4. Place meat and all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and place in baking tin formed as a loaf for even internal cooking time.
5. The meatloaf tin should be placed into a second, larger shallow pan of water, since Lizzie preferred to “steam cook” her meatloaf inside the baking oven. Do not cover the meatloaf.
6. Use a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature of the meat has reached at least 160 degrees so it is properly cooked for consumption.
