Jl'LV, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN B K K CULT U R E 



443 



c 



OUR FOOD PAGE 



Stancy Puerden 



FOR some 

 years ba.ck 

 there has 

 been a growing 

 tendency to in- 

 clude a break- 

 fast alcove or 

 some sort of 

 small breakfast 

 room in the 



plans for new houses. When I first noticed 

 such a plan I regarded it as just another 

 foolish fad which would increase the house- 

 keeper 's work by giving her an extra room 

 to care for. This past spring when one mem- 

 ber of our family was away at school, an- 

 other was away on a prolonged business 

 trip, and the problem of securing adequate 

 household help was most acute, the break- 

 fast-alcove idea began to look alluring. 

 While putting the dining room in order after 

 meals I found myself estimating how much 

 time could be saved if we had an alcove off 

 the kitchen. 



Ju'ft about that time I came across a page 

 of illustrations of unusually attractive 

 breakfast alcoves. After studying them I 

 would find myself in the kitchen, trying to 

 figure out a nook where we could put one. 

 Our kitchen is not large; there is a screen- 

 ed porch opening out of it at one corner, a 

 door opening on steps leading down to a 

 little greenhouse at another corner, and the 

 rest of the space is filled with cupboards, 

 sink, table, gas range, cabinet, and doors. 

 At one corner of the kitchen a door opened 

 into a little pantry, five feet, nine inches by 

 four feet, seven, to be exact. That had 

 been intended for food only, as there is 

 plenty of cupboard space in the kitchen for 

 dishes; but as a food pantry it was a miser- 

 able failure, for the reason that it could not 

 be kept cool. Just under it steampipes en- 

 tered the basement to heat our house and 

 the one beyond from a central heating plant, 

 and altho the pantry had a good-sized win- 

 dow, which was always kept open, it was 

 apt to be as warm as a living room even on 

 the coldest winter day. The food had there- 

 fore deserted its warm shelves and taken up 

 its abode in the storeroom and on the screen- 

 ed porch where the ice box is kept, and the 

 pantry had degenerated into a catch-all for 

 odds and ends. 



One day after poring over my page of al- 

 coves I happened to open the pantry door, 

 and right then and there I had a vision. 

 The unattractive oilcloth - covered pine 

 shelves, drawers and cupboards ' ' faded 

 out," movie fashion, and in their place I 

 saw a dear little room with soft, grayish 

 walls, ivory-finished woodwork, a built-in ta- 

 ble with mahogany finished top, flanked on 

 either side by built-in ivory seats with high 

 backs. At the window were creamy net cur- 

 tains and on the dark table top was a doily 

 with a slender vase of flowers. That was a 

 delightful vision. 



Now. after weeks of annoying delays my 

 vision has materialized, and it has done so 



1 



TU 



in spite of the 

 fact that the 

 nice man, who 

 for 21 years has 

 helped me make 

 my dreams come 

 true, was at that 

 time on the 

 wrong side of 

 the Atlantic 

 ocean. If you have ever done any remodel- 

 ing you know the ways of carpenters, how 

 they will begin a piece of work, tear up 

 things at most inconvenient seasons and 

 then, before they have finished your job, 

 desert to begin some other work. Then 

 when you are ready for the decorators they 

 too will fail to come at the time agreed 

 upon and put you off again and again. We 

 were doing over our upstairs rooms by put- 

 ting in new floors, having the woodwork 

 enameled ivory and papering, and the little 

 breakfast room was to be worked in at the 

 same time. When we received a cab'e to 

 the effect that the traveler was to arrive 

 home ten days before we had expected him, 

 wasn 't there consternation in the Puerden 

 household? The utmost concession that we 

 could wring from the delinquent carpenters 

 and decorator was a promise to see that the 

 alcove was finished, but as for the upstairs 

 work that could not be done, of course. 



Well, the head of the family returned 

 to a home that was redolent of turpentine, 

 oils, and wax, the upstairs rooms littered 

 with brushes, paint cans, and furniture out 

 of place, but the pocket-edition dining room 

 was complete, just finished that morning, 

 and he was just as surprised and delighted 

 as the children and I had known he would 

 be. 



I have never seen any dimensions for 

 breakfast alcoves and their built-in furni- 

 ture and therefore with no architect avail- 

 able I had to figure out for myself the di- 

 mensions to give the carpenters. Of course, 

 as to length of the seats and table, it was 

 Hobson 's choice for they could be no longei- 

 than the width of the room and one wou'd 

 not wish them shorter. The seats are there- 

 fore four feet, nine inches in length, sixteen 

 inches in width and eighteen inches in 

 height at the front, sloping down slightly to 

 the back. The back of the seat is nineteen 

 inches in height and has a comfortable s^ai^t. 

 about like an ordinary chair back. The 

 space underneath the two seats is enclosed 

 to afford storage space, and the board en- 

 closing this space also slants back to make a 

 comfortable space for the feet. 



The table is 30 inches in width, exactly 

 the width between the seats, and is 44 inches 

 long and a little under 30 inches in height. 

 One end of the table is hinged just under 

 the window sill and the other is supported 

 by two legs which are joined just above the 

 floor. The whole effect is similar to a sec- 

 tion in a Pullman car when the porter puts 

 a table between the seats. 



By drawing up a chair at the end of the 



