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THE COLBORNE EXPRESS, COLBORNE, ONT. AUG. 8, 1957 Basement Kitchen Had Its Charms The square home built by Mr. Closson had on its first floor a kitchen that resembled in its appliances and furnishings the other kitchens of the neighborhood. But the house also had 8 basement kitchen, which was reached by a narrow, twisting stairway. It was unlike any kitchen we had even seen. Its floor was of bricks that were cool to the touch on the warmest August day. The walls were of split field stone which, in winter, glistened with hoarfrost. Between the front windows were slate tubs and on the opposite wall was a stove that had once gone to sea in the galley of Grandfather's Meridian. Beside the stove was a door that gave access to the dark root cellar. On the outer wall was a door that opened into the apple orchard. Ethel found that the cellar room was one of great utility. During the summer, it served as a laundry. It was ideal for those seasonal tasks that were bound to cause confusion and congestion if they were performed in the regular kitchen. In March, she boiled down the maple sap on the onetime galley stove, and the stone walls of the room were covered with drops of water from the steam-filled air. In October, she and the children prepared the mincemeat there. They ground the meat and apples, chopped the raisins, mixed in the spices and cider, and then slowly cooked the fragrant mixture in the great iron kettle. In May, she made soap in the basement. She set up her quilting frame there during the winter months and often spent her afternoons tacking a quilt. Cousin Herman also used the basement room, which, as the years went by, came to be called "kitchen-under." In the fall, he sorted apples there; in winter, he went there to oil and mend the harnesses or to hew out an ax handle! in spring, he cut up his seed potatoes there. On summer Sunday afternoons, the work room became an art room, where he sat before his sketch book on the table. Sometimes he sketched the orchard or the Bay or the distantly blue "Seven Star Hill." But more often he drew a cartoon with the local judge or county sheriff or the town politician as the target of his sly humor. . The children were not encouraged to use "kitchen-under" as a play room. We went there only at the invitation of Cousin Herman or Ethel. We sampled the syrup, we tasted the mincemeat, and we tested the firmness of the soap with cautious fingers. The art of quilt-tacking and the process of sorting apples and cutting seed potatoes offered no attraction to us, but we did enjoy watching Cousin Herman at his sketching. But we felt that we were usually onlookers rather than participants in the tasks that were performed in "kitchen-under." However, in July, the basement kitchen was the scene of a task in which we children played an important part. Late in the month, Ethel took us to an abandoned farm on McHard's mill-stream to gather herbs. She borrowed Prince and Father's two-seated buggy in order that all the young children of the neighborhood could go along. We made an early start so that we might take the two-mile trip, spend three hours harvesting, and make the return journey in time for supper. Prince enjoyed the jaunt as much as we did. Once we had leached the Carter farm, Ethel left him unhitched so that he wandered free to sample clover and herdsgrass at his leisure. We first turned our attention to the pansy patch that had completely overrun the barnyard. We gathered great armfuls of the golden button blossoms and tied them into bunches which we stored under the seats of the buggy. We followed the tumbled stone wall to harvest the caraway topped with circles of brown seeds. We found the aromatic pennyroyal in the runout fields. We picked the pearly everlasting with its straw-textured, white blossoms. When we finally turned Prince's head toward the hilly road to home the buggy and the arms of the occupants were filled with our pungent harvest. Ethel was pleased with our gleaning but she had keen eyes for the roadside shrubs as we made our way home. She was on the lookout for the gray-leaved thoroughwort and she talked of how much she would like to locate a plant that was native to her childhood home in Unity. After we reached Ethel's home, all the plants were taken directly to "kitchen-under," where they were plunged into water-filled tubs and basins that had Cousin Herman saw all the been prepared for them. When' greenery that filled the basement kitchen, he always made the same remark, "It looks as though Birnam Wood had come to Dunsinane." And Ethel made the same reply. "No, Carter's field has come to Howard's farm." The next afternoon "kitchen-under, was the scene of a chore in which we children played a leading part. The tansy blossoms were cut from their stalks and stored in bags made of cotton screening. We toiled up the three flights of stairs to the attic where the bags were hung for a long autumn of slow drying. In October, Ethel divided the dried blossoms into smaller bags, which were hung in the clothes closets. "No moth will choose to share a home with a bag of tansy," was Ethel's declaration. The pennyroyal was separated into small bunches which were hung to dry from nails struck into the attic roof. Eventually pennyroyal bags would be made for all the linen closets of the neighborhood. Ethel also shared the caraway seed and the ever-gathered. The seeds added variety to the breads and cookies, and now and then a daring cook added the spicy seed to a staid pumpkin pie. The dried ever-lasting flowers that we lasting blossoms made winter bouquets for every parlor in the neighborhood. I never ate a caraway cookie or sniffed a dried bouquet without recalling our many trips from "kitchen-under" to the attic. Ethel valued her basement kitchen as a laundry and as a secluded room where she could boil sap or cook mincemeat or make soap or tack a quilt. Herman rated the basement room highly as a workshop and an art room. But we children were assured that the sorting of herbs was the most worthwhile chore performed in "kitchen-under."-- By Esther E. Wood in The Christian Science Monitor. PUZZLED PARSON The minister had been asked to present the prizes to the winners of the local dog show, but when he got there he was outraged at the dress of some Of the girls. 'Just look at that young person there with the cigarette, close-cut hair, and breeches,' he cried to a bystander, 'Is it a boy or a girl?' 'It's a girl' replied the other1. 'She's my daghter.' 'Forgive me, sir' apologised the preacher, 'I never dreamed you were her father.' •OLD IN THE WATER - Pinned over Carin Cone's bureau in her home is a collection of medals that would do credit to any othlete. She's packing to get set for another trip. The young swimming star won the silver medal in last year's Olympics end holds the National AAU 100 and 200-meter backstroke crowns. ARSENAL FOR FLU WAR-Workers at a pharmaceutical laboratory process eggs in which the Asiatic flu virus is cultured as a major step in making an influenza vaccine. Several laboratories are preparing to make quantities of vaccine should the disease become epidemic with the coming cold weather. The Asiatic flu, a relatively mild strain heretofore unknown here, has swept through much of Asia and parts of Europe. Authorities caution that the vaccine is a preventive--not a cure-- for the disease. $M TABLE TALKS Most of us -- whether we admit it or not -- don't eat nearly enough vegetables. Which is a pity, especially at this time of year, when so many of our vegetables are just reaching the peak of perfection. Possibly the following recipes, which use little or no" meat yet are nourishing enough for main dishes, will be a help. Perhaps you'd like to try this macaroni loaf which is served from the dish it's cooked in and has a colorful decoration of its Vegetable Bake 4 ounces elbow mararoni 4 strips bacon diced 2 tablespoons chopped onion 2 tablespoons chopped celery 1 cup cream-style corn 1 tablespoon lemon juice Vi teaspoon salt Yi teaspoon Worcestershire 1 cup cooked peas 1 cup cooked julienne carrots-Buttered bread crumbs Cook macaroni in boiling salted water until tender (about 8 minutes). Drain and rinse. Brown bacon lightly in skillet. Add chopped onion and celery, and brown slightly. Combine with corn, lemon juice, salt and Worcestershire sauce. Fold in cooked macaroni. Pour into 1-quart casserole. Place peas in center on top of macaroni mixture. Arrange carrots in spokelike fashion around peas. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees F. 15 minutes. Serves 4. This vegetable-nut loaf is served with a bright red tomato sauce. Garnish it with fresh sliced cucumber, or sprigs of fresh water cress if you like. Vegetable-Nut Loaf M cup melted butter XA cup chopped onion 1 cup chopped celery 1% cups soft bread crumbs 1 cup diced cooker carrots 1 cup cooked fresh peas ¥i cup chopped walnuts 114, teaspoons salt M teaspoon pepper 1 tablespoon Worcestershire M cup liquid from vegetables 2 eggs, well beaten Vi cup buttered bread crumbs 6 walnut halves Saute onion and celery in butter until golden, but not brown. Combine with remaining ingredients except buttered crumbs and walnut halves. Mix thoroughly and pack into greased pan 9-6-2 inches. Top with buttered crumbs; press walnut halves into top of loaf. Bake at 375°F. for about 45 minutes. Cut into six squares to serve. Serve with tomato sauce. Would you like to cook your loaf in individual custard cups? Try these timbales with Creole Cheese-Vegetable Timbales 2 tablespoons butter M cup finely chopped onion Vz cup fine bread crumbs 1% cups milk 1 teaspoon salt Vs teaspoon pepper 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar VA cups drained, cooked peas 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley 4 eggs, slightly beaten Saute onion in butter until golden; add crumbs and milk and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredients; blend well. Pour into six greased custard cups and bake at 325 °F. for 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean. Serve with Creole sauce. Creole Sauce ZVi tablespoons each chopped onion and chopped green pepper Vt cup butter 14 cup flour 2 cups vegetable juice cocktail Vi teaspoon salt Dash pepper Saute onion and green pepper; add flour and blend. Add vegetable juice cocktail and seasoning. Cook until thickened, stir-sing constantly. Mashed potatoes and cottage cheese are combined with mushrooms ana sour cream to make this unusual luncheon pie. Mushroom Pie 2 tablespoons butter 14 cup finely diced onion 2 cups hot cooked potatoes, mashed 1 can (3 ounces) chopped broil- ed mushrooms 2 cups creamed cottage cheese Vz cup sour cream 1 teaspoon salt Vs teaspoon pepper Vx teaspoon kitchen bouquet 2 eggs, well beaten 1 unbaked 9-inch pastry shell Melt butter; add onion and cook over moderate heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally Add to mashed potatoes. Stir in mushrooms, cheese, sour cream, seasonings, kitchen bouquet, and eggs. Pour filling into pastry shell. Bake at 375°F. until puffy and brown, about 1 hour. Serves If you like a nutty taste in your sauce for vegetables, try this one made with peanut butter. Peanut Butter Sauce 1 tablespoon butter M cup peanut butter 2 teaspoons flour Palaver Over Red-Hot Lava When recently a 150-ft.-wide strip of red-hot lava began to creep menacingly down the slopes of Etna, Europe's biggest active volcano, vulcanologists flew to Italy to carry out on-the-spot investigations. . It was Etna's biggest eruption for seven years. Explosions every few minutes sent clouds of steam and hot gravel hurtling from a crater a few hundred feet, below the peak. The scientists tested temperatures and pressures and then announced: "This is not a serious eruption and will not last long." They were right. The "angry mountain," as some Italians call Sicily's 10,784-ft.-high volcano, did no serious damage this time and no lives were lost. The flow of lava ceased and after a troubled period of several days the crater became quiet. Etna holds a world record -- of having been in eruption longer than any other volcano. It is the most fertile and the most treacherous mountain in Europe, its lower slopes abounding in lemon groves, orange gardens and vineyards. In other eruptions this century rivers of lava thirty feet deep and a mile wide have submerged villages and rendered thousands homeless, but the Sicilian peasants have such a stoical character that they accept Etna's convulsions as a matter of course and always rebuld their homes in the vicinity after disastrous eruptions. Italy's King Victor Emmanuel walked right up to the advancing lava stream during the great eruption of 1923 when masses of molten rock slowly but surely crushed houses and burned up 12 teaspoon salt Pepper 1 cup milk Melt butter in top of double boiler over hot water. Blend in the peanut butter. Add flour and seasonings and stir until smooth. Stir in milk slowly. Cook over boiling water until thickened, stirring constantly. vines and trees in its path. One peasant gave him as a souvenir a piece of cooled lava, on the surface of which a coin had been pressed when it was in a molten state. Superstitious Sicilians still believe that a race of thirty-foot giants once inhabited Etna, the descendants -- says a legend -- of marriages between the gods and womankind. When visitors doubt the legend, the peasants declare that stone coffins for men at least thirty-foot tall have been found on the volcano's slopes. Engineers have studied the possibility of erecting an enormous lighthouse at the top of Etna, as a landmark for the pilots of aircraft crossing the Mediterranean, but while Etna continues to erupt the scheme is impracticable. Some experts, however, predict that Etna may cease to erupt after the year 2000i Household Hint Those handy plastic containers which house ice cream, jellied salads, or cold slaw at the grocery store have almost become an institution in many homes. More than a column could be written on the many ways these containers are being used--but this is a friendly warning on one thing not to do. Someone we know wanted to do a little touch-up painting job in her kitchen. It required only a little paint, a small brush--and some turpentine for clean up. Called away from her task, our friend left the brush soaking in turpentine in one of those plastic containers, pleased with herself because she had such a handy item to use. She returned to a debacle. "Turpentine apparently does not agree with some kinds of plastic, for the bottom of the container had dissolved, and a very messy paint solution remained to be cleaned up from the kitchen shelf, sink, etc. Before using a new paint brush run a comb through the bristles. This removes the few loose bristles that are inevitable even in the best of paint brushes. BACK AGAIN--The lady and gentleman, lassoed by the hydrant-happy terrier, should look familiar. They're Myrna Loy and William Powell at the time the couple were making "Thin Man" pictures. Hollywood's puffing the "Thin Man" into a television series. Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk, who will play the key roles in ihe new series, pos, inset, with a new "Asta", without whom no "Thin Man" series could be. FIFTEEN OF THE FINEST--The search for Miss U.S.A. in the Miss Universe contest had n down to these 15 American girls at Long Beach, Calif. Judges have a terrible life, dot