Soul

On the label of Daisy Smith's signature applesauce, several essential ingredients aren't listed. But you can almost taste them. "Determination, perseverance, hard work, and love," says Smith, whose sauce is featured at Momma's Home Made, her new Voorhees takeout. Set between a grocery store and a gold exchange in the modest Southgate Plaza on Haddonfield-Berlin Road, Momma's Home Made celebrated its grand opening Monday. The menu is soul food with a fresh twist and a light touch.

THE SOUL will hold a tryout at the Eagles' NovaCare Complex facility on Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m. The workout will take place on field turf, so metal cleats are prohibited. Players will undergo a series of non-contact drills, including the 40-yard dash and broad jump. Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and former Eagles Hollis Thomas and Vince Papale will attend the workout, which is open only to the athletes. Registration is $80 at the door or $60 ahead of time at PhiladelphiaSoul.com.

BEING BETTY JEAN Johnson's only child was an enviable place to be. "She never said 'No' to me," said her son, Barry Johnson. "She was a nice, caring lady. If she had it, she'd give it to you. " Betty Jean Reese Johnson, whose love of children made her a popular and giving worker at the day-care center of Simons Community Recreation Center, in West Oak Lane, a dedicated churchwoman and a champion cook in the Southern style, died Saturday. She was 74 and lived in the Andorra section of northwest Philadelphia.

Gigi's and Big R What is it? Caribbean soul: The Caribbean comes from Haitian-born co-owner Elukene "Big R" Rene. The soul is Thomas Bacon. His mom, Gigi, hails from Georgia. Where is it? Corner of 38th and Spruce, seven days a week. (Closed New Year's Day.) What to eat: Extra-spicy jerk chicken (ingredients are secret, but Bacon confesses to cilantro and hot peppers), fried-to-order fish (whiting or tilapia), oniony collards, sweet cabbage and potato salad. But honestly, it's all good.

  SAN PABLO, CALIF. - Jimmy McCracklin, a popular blues singer and pianist whose career spanned more than six decades and whose songs were recorded by such performers as Otis Redding, Joe Tex, Elvin Bishop and Jerry Garcia, died Thursday at a nursing facility in San Pablo, Calif. He was 91. He had diabetes and hypertension. An entry in the Encyclopedia of the Blues , published by the University of Arkansas Press, calls McCracklin "one of the great composers in blues history, with his depth of feeling, his sense of phrasing and his conciseness.

Elizabeth Dow is president and chief executive officer of Leadership Philadelphia Sometimes on vacation, you get a perfect snapshot that sums up the essence of the trip in one great photo. Likewise, occasionally a movie offers up a brilliant and impressionable concept that makes seeing it worthwhile. Such was the case recently when I saw Flight , the Denzel Washington movie. The movie is a nuanced character study of a pilot whose heroism, demons, and humanity entwine and unfold around a fascinating plot.

Word arrived by mail Monday that Philadelphia did indeed set a new Soul Train Dance world record. Writer Sheila Simmons, the principal organizer, got a congratulatory letter Guinness World Records along with the official certificate, which declares: "The largest Soul Train Dance consisted of 291 participants and was achieved by the Philadelphia Soul Train Line Dancers in Philadelphia, Pa., USA, on 13 February 2012. " The previous record - which lingered, but not for long, on the Guinness website this morning - was set by 211 dancers in November 2011 at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif.

EVERY FAMILY HAS its difficult members - black sheep, if you will. But it didn't matter to Uncle El. He loved them anyway. "If you were the black sheep or if you were in the doghouse, Uncle El embraced you anyway," said the family of Elwood Rucker, a son of old Virginia who never got the South out of his bones. "He was a loving, kind, generous spirit. He was not judgmental. He accepted you the way you were. " Elwood Rucker, a 12-year employee of the Philadelphia International Airport motels and a city Streets Department worker for 33 years, died Friday.

To those who didn't know him, Jason Schmidt might have appeared rough around the edges. "He was tattooed from head to toe," Susan Thomas, a close family friend, said Thursday. "But he was very loving and a good guy. " Schmidt, 31, of Jacobus, York County, Pa., was identified as the man who fell to his death Wednesday inside an empty water tower in Lower Providence Township. A coworker, identified Thursday as Miguel Martinez, 38, of Penns Grove, N.J., spent three hours suspended in midair by his safety harness inside the tower until he was saved in a dramatic rescue.

THE IDEA was hardly out of the mouth of state Sen. Michael L. Doherty before Jersey Shore officials jumped all over him. Within a day, Doherty's proposal was called "clownish" and "moronic" and the Republican legislator from North Jersey was labeled a "total idiot. " What brought on these heaps of scorn? Doherty said he planned to introduce a bill to require Shore communities that accept public money to repair damage done by Hurricane Sandy to stop selling tags and allow free access to their beaches.