Gilbert Stuart


Who showed us the face of the American Revolution? Gilbert Stuart, portraitist of the Founding Fathers.  Born on December 3, 1755, in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, Stuart showed promise at an early age. His first commission was done when he was 12 years old. He was tutored by a Scottish painter, who took Gilbert to Scotland at the start of the American Revolution. Although his mentor died within a year, the artist began to cultivate the famous and powerful, painting many portraits in the UK, thanks to the help of artist Benjamin West. Upon his return to the USA after the war, Stuart had a studio in the new city of Washington, DC. EVERYBODY sat for him and he was very prolific. He had to be: as brilliant as he was with a paint brush, he was equally unskilled with a check book. His famous portrait of George Washington was in great demand. Stuart kept it until he died, endlessly making copies to sell to try to stay out of debt. Until his death at age 72, he had painted 1000 portraits: 6 presidents, bishops, First Ladies, Supreme Court Justices, children and wives of rich men. His portraits looked natural and made his subjects seem alive. People enjoyed sitting for him, since he was a lively conversationalist. Want to visit his grave? No such luck. So in debt was he when he died, that his family buried him in an unmarked grave, always intending to come back and give him a headstone. But 10 years later, they couldn’t find him, and he is lost in the Central Burying Ground of Boston Common.

Even in the late 1700s, people from the Azores, fishermen and whalers, were moving to Rhode Island. Our breakfast has the flavors of their Old Country that they brought here. All-American ‘succotash’ is from Rhode Island, just like Gilbert Stuart. The word is from the language of the Narragansett Indians who settled the land long before the colonizers arrived.

Azorean Omelette: 197 calories 10.4 g fat 0.9 g fiber 12.6 g protein 5.4 g carbs [4.2 g Complex] 126 mg Calcium  NB: Food values shown are for the Omelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages. PB GF When we were on vacation in the Azores, these local ingredients made for a wonderful breakfast. When at home, just as fine.

1½ two-oz eggs HINT: If you are serving one person, crack three 2-oz eggs into a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whip up those eggs and pour half of their volume into a jar with a lid and put it in the ‘fridge for next week.  0.3 oz Azorean cheese OR Gouda 1 oz Pimenta da Queijo    1 oz kiwi fruit   optional: blackish Portuguese or Brazilian coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea [from the Gorreana Tea Plantation] or lemon in hot water

Grate/shred the cheese. Whisk the eggs with the pepper sauce and turn into a lightly-oiled nonstick pan. Sprinkle the eggs with the cheese and cook as you would an omelette. Plate with the fruit and serve one of those delicious beverages. Excellent.

‘Original’ Succotash: 270 calories 2.6 g fat 9 g fiber 18 g protein 50 g carbs [all Complex] 71 mg Calcium  PB GF  The Mystic Seaport Cookbook  contains many quaint and curious old recipes. What follows is my combination of two of them. It is ‘original’ because it gets us back to what succotash once was [a main dish, not a side] and because it is my own version.  HINT: This recipe makes 3 cups of succotash, which could be 3 servings. 

½ cup lima beans [Green Giant frozen Fordhook] ½ cup green/snap beans ½ cup corn kernels ¼ cup canned navy beans 2 oz corned beef [New England style is grey because it contains no nitrates] 1 slice cornmeal mush aka: polenta   sage + pepper + salt to taste [mind that the corned beef might be salty] 

Cook the vegetables until they are tender. Drain the cooking water and reserve ½ cup. Mash the navy beans and whisk into ¼ cup vegetable water. Put all vegetables and the meat into a pan along with the mashed beans. Add sage and pepper to taste and more vegetable broth if you wish. If it needs more salt, add it, too. In a non-stick pan, saute the corn mush on each side until it is warm. Plate the mush with one cup of succotash. It is very filling.


1.5 two-oz eggs + crab meat1.5 two-oz eggs + pear
soy sauce + bean sproutstomato + bacon + onion
mushrooms + scallion + applegreen bell pepper + mozzarella
ginger + hot saucefile powder + chili powder
Optional smoothieoptional smoothie
optional hot beverageoptional hot beverage


eggroll wrappers + soy sauce2 crepes + tomatoes
shrimp + oyster sauce + gingersliced deli ham
garlic + carrot + onion sliced deli Swiss cheese
cabbage + tomato + canola oilVache Qui Rit cheese
Sparkling waterSparkling water

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