Red Hat Society Day 2025 is on Friday, April 25, 2025: Poll1 How many folk know that it is red hat day today?

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No it isn't....

The official Red Hat Society day is April 25 each year.

The Society was started in 1997 by Sue Ellen Cooper, who now serves as Exalted Queen Mother, gave a friend a red fedora and a copy of Jenny Joseph's poem, warning.

Cooper did this several times and the friends in turn did the same, eventually spreading out and forming what is now known as the Red Hat Society.

I need suggestions for a fall luncheon I'll be hosting at my home for six Red Hat Society ladies. Suggestions?

Oh my goodness, this is the perfect occasion to use this recipe for Sugar Hats for dessert. The cookies look like wide brimmed hats, trimmed with ribbons and flowers of icing. The original recipe, from "Tea-Time at the Inn," by Gail Greco, called for making 60 cookies of various sizes to create 20 cookie "hats". Having no patience for such a production, (I HATE rolling out any kind of dough!!) I simplified the process greatly! They are easy and a great deal of fun to make. You'll need a miniature muffin tin.

Sugar Hats

Makes 12 cookie hats

1 roll Refrigerated Sugar-Cookie dough (Pillsbury, in the dairy section)

Tubes of cake frosting-Pink, green, yellow, white, blue, plus a set of screw-on decorating tips (These are in the cake mix section of the supermarket)

1. Cut the cookie dough into 24 slices.

2. Bake 12 of the slices of dough according to the package directions. This will make 12 large round cookies that will be the hat "brims".

3. Spray the mini-muffin pan with Pam and press each of the remaining pieces of dough into 12 muffin-tin cups and bake until golden-about 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove the cookies from the tin and let cool. These will be the hat "crowns".

4. To assemble: Put a dab of frosting a little off center on a cookie "brim" and press a cookie "crown" onto it. (The frosting holds the two together.) Repeat for the remaining 11 cookies.

5. Now the fun begins! Using the tube frosting and the decorating tips, pipe a ribbon of frosting around the "join" of the two cookies. Decorate the ribbon with frosting flowers and leaves. You can experiment a bit on a piece of wax paper if you're unsure of what the various tips do. Use different colors and be as elaborate as you like.

6. Let the frosting sit and harden before you store the cookies--best done between layers of wax paper. These are fun to look at and good to eat.

For the main course, this salad is absolutely heavenly. All you would need to serve with it would be some bread or rolls. The nice thing about this recipe is you can make it the day before and tuck it in the fridge so you have no last minute rush at lunch time. .

Lemon-Pepper Chicken and Pasta Salad

Serves 8

1 12-oz. bag of ziti-shaped pasta--Lemon/pepper pasta if you can get it. (La Bella brand Lemon Pepper Pasta is the best I've found)

1 lb. Perdue boneless chicken breasts, in Lemon Pepper marinade, cut in 1/4" thick slices*

1 lb. fresh asparagus, trimmed and sliced on the diagonal in 1-1/2" pieces

4 green onions, sliced thin

1 c. extra virgin olive oil

The juice of a lemon

A little balsamic vinegar, if the dressing isn't tart enough for your taste

1 heaping tsp. Dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp. dried tarragon

1/2 tsp. salt

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 Tbsp. tiny capers

parmesan cheese, for garnish

1. In a large kettle, bring about 1" of water to a boil. Add the asparagus pieces, and cook 5-7 minutes, or until al dente.

2. Drain the asparagus in a colander, run cold water over it to stop cooking. Refill the pot to cook the pasta.

3. Cook the pasta 'til al dente. Drain in the colander with the asparagus (run cold water over the pasta as well) and leave in the sink to drain very well while you deal with the chicken.

4. In the same pot, heat 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil and stir-fry the chicken pieces until just done. (Don't over cook) Remove from heat to cool while you make the dressing.

5. In a blender, whoosh the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, tarragon, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning, and add a little balsamic vinegar if the dressing isn't tart enough for your taste.

6. Assemble the salad: In a large salad bowl toss the asparagus, pasta, cooled chicken, green onions, 1-1/2 Tbsp. capers and the dressing. Sprinkle with the rest of the capers and parmesan cheese.

7. Chill the salad for at least 1 hour before serving.

*Note: If ready-marinated chicken breasts are not available in your local markets, use 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts marinated overnight in a mixture of:

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 TBSP. olive oil

2 TBSP. lemon juice

1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

Is the "Red Hat Society" mainly for older women?

Apparently. On a day that I visited Concord Village, Massachusetts, they were out in force, and they were all elderly and--for want of a better word--gallant. I hadn't realized there was such a society, but as soon as I saw their brave red hats and purple dresses, I remembered the poem and I understood. And what better place to meet them than in the cradle of American liberty and independence?