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Add onion, carrots, celery, and water.

Cover tightly, and bake for 2 hours, or until meat is very tender. Check pot every half hour, adding water if needed. Do not allow meat to burn.

Remove meat. Thicken liquid with a cornstarch-and-water paste for gravy. Serve with boiled and buttered potatoes.

I GAVE A SERIES OF SEMINARS at a university in Maryland. On my last day, a fifth request for an interview was about to receive the same negative response I had given the other four.

“I appreciate the request, but I have a plane to catch …”

The voice said, “Doctor, I only need five minutes of your time. You have my word you will be free to go in five minutes.” She sounded so cool and definite. I asked, “Do you want me to come to your studio?”

“No, Dr. Angelou, I will bring my crew to you and I won’t disturb you until we are set up and I am ready to shoot. I give you my word.”

I was won over. Anybody can find five minutes in a day despite its other demands. The reporter told me her name, but it didn’t catch in my memory. I said yes and gave her a time.

When I informed my host at the university that I had agreed to give an interview, he asked why after having refused the other requests. I answered, “I rarely find young people today (and she sounds young) who know that one’s word is a powerful thing and that it can be given or it can be withheld.” That television journalist had impressed me enough to make me curious to see how good her word was.

The next day when I concluded my seminar, an attractive young woman opened the classroom door. “Dr. Angelou?”

“Yes.”

“I am here to do the interview. My crew is set up. We are ready if you are!” I followed her to the next room and she pointed out a chair. She had put a pillow in the chair so that the camera could be level to my face. I sat. She looked at her watch and automatically I looked at mine. She nodded and the crew leapt to attention. She asked one question, and I was so surprised at its complexity and relevance that it engaged my total attention. She really listened to my answer and her second question stemmed from my response.

She looked at her watch and said, “Thank you, Dr. Angelou.”

My watch told me that exactly five minutes had passed.

I told her that because of our hurried telephone conversation the day before I had not really caught her name. She said, “Oprah Winfrey.”

I said, “Young woman, you will go far. I hope to be around to see your success.”

A few years later I attended a social affair in Chicago and I saw her standing on the side. I walked over and said, “Hello, Oprah Winfrey. How are you?”

She said, “You remember me, and you remembered my name.”

I said, “Of course. You are going to do wonderful things in your lifetime.”

She had been offered her own show in Chicago and had accepted. She knew that Phil Donahue was the most popular daytime host in the nation and that he also broadcasted from Chicago. Donahue would be formidable competition.

I gave her my card and invited her to come and visit me in North Carolina.

One month later, she came and brought her gentleman friend. I served smothered chicken and rice, which was well received.

After dinner the first night we sat on the floor and read poetry. Her delight in the beauty of the spoken word pleased me. I told her that all poetry was music written for the human voice. We recited long into the night.

The next morning as I was planning breakfast for my houseguests, she came pajamaed into the kitchen.

She said, “Your house feels like home.”

I said, “I hope you will always think that.”

I told her that the poet Robert Frost had said, “Home is where when you go there, no one can put you out.”

I said, “I offer you this home whenever you need it or even if you just want it.

“Would you like eggs and bacon? Grits and sausage? Ham and green tomatoes?”

She laughed and said she’d like some of the previous night’s dinner of chicken and biscuits.

At the table she asked, “What do you call this dish?” She pointed to the chicken.

I said, “That’s smothered chicken.”

She said,