230 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1910 



the greater part of the day, with the cook 

 on duty every minute, just get a fireless 

 cooker or two into commission. These 

 and two or three small portable stoves 

 will do the business for you. Let the 

 menu for dinner be what a lot of hungry 

 people would be sure to like: corned beef, 

 cabbage, potatoes, suet pudding and coffee. 

 And for supper: baked beans, Boston 

 brown bread, apple sauce and tea. Now, 

 under usual conditions, this would be an 

 all day job, with the cook hustling every 

 minute, but with fireless cookers it be- 

 comes easy. The process would be some- 

 what as follows: The night before put the 

 beef into one of the large kettles or pails 

 that come with the cooker, cover with 

 boiling water, and boil hard for fifteen min- 

 utes, then transfer to the cooker to stay 

 all night. At the same time bring some 

 oatmeal to a boil, boil five minutes and 

 place it in one of the compartments of 

 the cooker. In the morning the oatmeal 

 will be better than any oatmeal you ever 

 tasted before. The beef, however, will 

 be only partly done, so take it out, put 

 the cabbage with it, bring all to a boil, 

 boil five minutes or ten if you like, and 

 transfer to the cooker. It will be all 

 right at noon. 



While re-heating the beef, boil a mess 

 of potatoes. Let them have twenty min- 

 utes; then transfer to the cooker. 



In like manner bring the apple sauce 

 to a boil, boil the suet pudding twenty- 

 five minutes, and the white sauce five 

 minutes and place all in the cooker. 



But this is not all. Although it is early 

 in the morning, an eye must be kept on 

 that supper that is to be served ten or 

 twelve hours hence. So take the beans 

 which have been soaking all night, drain, 

 add fresh water and salt pork, and boil 

 hard for fifteen minutes. They go to the 

 cooker until noon when you will have 

 to light one of your stoves and bring 

 them to a boil again and return them to 

 the cooker to stay till wanted for supper. 



This fireless cooker has two compartments. Space 

 adjuster on left with pall to fit: also cushions for 

 covering to reduce radiation 



Twenty minutes boiling of the Boston 

 brown-bread batter will be all that is 

 necessary; the cooker will do the rest. 

 If there is a compartment to spare, heat 

 up a lot of water for dish washing and 

 place it in the cooker until needed. 



Now let us see what the fireless cooker 

 has accomplished in this case, and be it 

 understood the above is not theory, but 

 is actual experience. Instead of keeping 

 up the fires all day or the greater part of 

 the day the stoves have been burning 

 about an hour all told. And instead of 

 the cook spending eight or ten hours in 

 the galley he has been able to prepare 

 three very hearty meals in the time usually 

 required for one meal. In short, the fire- 

 less cooker properly handled gives less 

 trouble, uses far less fuel, requires much 

 less time, and makes it possible to have 

 better food and greater variety than is 

 possible with the usual cooking equipments. 



In a similar way the possibilities of the 

 fireless cooker can be shown for automo- 

 bile trips, Boy Scout outings, and all sorts 

 of expeditions. 



Papering the Dining Room 



JUST see if this sounds attractive! 

 The dining-room had been growing 

 more and more shabby. The problem 

 was how to fix the room up and make it 

 look attractive for a very small sum. 

 This is not an uncommon problem. 

 We wished the paper to be the chief 

 charm. For it was really the paper which 

 was the eye-sore in our dining-room. 



A maid of all work and a large family 

 brushing against the walls and pushing 

 chairs back a bit carelessly, had wrought the 

 havoc. So another phase of this problem 

 was to keep the wall paper clean and un- 

 marked for at least four feet above the floor. 



This was our final result: A plain 

 brown paper covered the upper two- 

 thirds of the wall space. The paper was 

 a soft, mellow brown. The lower third 

 was covered with ordinary straw matting. 

 Not by any means was this a beautiful, 

 expensive, be-figured matting. But it 

 was just an ordinary, cheap, straw-colored 

 matting. 



In order to cover that break which 

 naturally appears at the junction of matting 

 and paper we used a strip of 2-inch 

 moulding. It, too, was of a brown tone. 



Was the effect good? Most assuredly 

 it was. If you are' an artist straightway 

 you think that the darker color above 

 would be overpowering. I admit that, as 

 a rule, this is true. But in our scheme it 

 worked and worked artistically too. 



The matting has this advantage namely, 

 that it may be cleaned when dirty. The 

 cleaning is quite simple, just a washing 

 with clean water and a bit of soft cloth. 

 It is a sanitary sort of papering, too. 



Look once again at the room, the soft 

 brown, the lighter matting, the strip of 

 plain moulding, and a few pieces of bright 

 brass on the old brown wooden chimney 

 place. It tells its own story of charm and 

 simplicity. 



Re-served Potatoes 



ANOTHER way of preparing pota- 

 -'*• toes — there comes a time when 

 boiled potatoes, baked potatoes, mashed 

 and creamed potatoes get on one's nerves. 

 If only potatoes might be served in just 

 a little different style! When you reach 

 this state, or better, a little before you 

 reach it, try this: Bake some good-sized 

 well-shaped potatoes in a slow oven. The 

 potatoes should be beautifully scrubbed 

 before baking. When baked cut an 

 end off each potato. Cut off just enough 

 to enable you to scoop out the contents 

 of the potato. After scooping all out, 

 add milk or half cream and milk to 

 this, and beat vigorously. Add salt and 

 butter before beating. When this is 

 creamy, put the potato back into the shells. 

 Keep out a little of the potato to which add 

 the beaten white of an egg. This should go 

 into the top part of each potato shell, 

 on top of the other potato. Put back 

 into the oven to brown. 



The potatoes are served on the table in 

 their shells. A nice brown potato shell 

 with the creamiest of potato bubbling out 

 of the top sounds rather appetizing, does it 

 not? But it tastes a great deal better 

 than it sounds. 



For Table Decorations 



\^^HY not serve Christmas dinner by 



' ^ candle light? Or if the dinner is 

 to be at noon time, just darken the 

 room. A rather interesting temporary 

 candle-stick m.ay be made in the following 

 way. 



The materials necessary are pieces of 

 white birch wood about i inch in diameter 

 and 6 to 8 inches long; circular pieces of 

 wood, 3 inches in diameter; bits of holly 

 and candles. Have as many pieces of 

 wood, of both kinds, as you wish candle- 

 sticks. Tack a circular piece of wood 

 to one end of a long piece. See! you have 

 a stick almost made. The other end of 

 the piece of wood should be hollowed out, 

 to hold the candle. Twine the bits of 

 holly about the stem of the candle-stick. 



Do you see it now in fancy! A real 

 outdoor candle-stick it is! A bit of white 

 bark with a holly spray about it, a white 

 candle, the red of the berries, it is a charm- 

 ing little affair. 



When you reach the country just before 

 Christmas, send two of the big boys 

 out for the birch wood. Let it be their 

 contribution to the holiday feast. 



A Delicious Beverage 



WHEN company comes for the evening, 

 and a very simple refreshment is 

 desired, try this one. To a good strong 

 lemonade, made to serve six people, add 

 two bottles of ginger ale, if these be small 

 bottles. Also add a cup of strong tea. The 

 tea will be sufficiently weakened so as to 

 merely give a pleasant taste. And the 

 ginger ale gives some snap and character 

 to the drink. 



