The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 18, 1918, Page 16

“Substitutes” % g:v Z % Worth Reading About While Telling How to Save Wheat Flour Mrs. Wise Mixes Farmhousé Philosophy With Barley and Corn g . BY MRS. MARY B. WISE » UST imagine a big kitchen in a com- mon looking kind of a house on a farm with a few oak trees around it, a slope back of it, partly covered with hazel brush . and wild plum trees, and the field not i so far away, but that the dinner call " can be heard from the front gate un- less the wind is in the wrong direc- tion. The reason the hazel bushes and wild plums. are still there after we have lived on the place for 19 years is partly because we like the hazel nuts and plums, but”that isn’t the main reason. Another reason is that it takes lots of hard work to grub out oak trees and hazel brush and make that kind of land useful for agricul- ture. And the main reason is that even after the land is cleared we don’t get paid for the hard work and for the labor of planting and harvesting every season afterwards—not like we ought to get paid anyway. So, instead of clearing up that 30 acres we let % the sheep run in it, and the chickens ¢ find a good deal of shelter in hot weather, and it’s pretty good pig pasture too. We have scattered red clover seed around in it and this has © made quite a growth, and so, you .. see, we don’t lose the use of the land, even if the profiteers do lose their rakeoff from the grain we would otherwise raise on it. o And the lumber trust didn’t make any great profit on the material that went into our house, either. It’s mace of logs. The main part is 16 feet wide and 20 feet long. We lived in that, divided into three rooms with calico curtains hung on wires for several years, but we have board partitions. in it now and a painted door. And be- sides that main part (with fts up- stairs) we have an *addition.” The addition is on one side and is 12 feet one way and 16 feet the other—and that is the kitchen you are imagining the inside of. It’s all kitchen, and I need it, too, when the baby and Wil- liam are “at it.” The things they bring into that kitchen from outdoors never ought to be brought in, and the things they often take outdoors never ought to be taken out. COOKING RECIPES AND PATRIOTISM Now the only reason I wanted you to imagine this kitchen in such a place as this, is to make my two new- est, favorite recipes interesting. If you know a recipe is really made by the spoonful, cupful and real human muscle—tm teaspoon, cracked teacup and muscle with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows—then you know it’s a really to goodness recipe -that will stand heat and water and eating. I've seen some recipes that wouldn’t. And to be real honest with you—I think a lot of those recipes would get a better hearing if they weren't so often labeled “patriotic.” That word is being worked so hard that it will be threadbare - before the- soldiers wear out the shoes with paper stuffing “in the soles, that some war-shoe prof- i = 3 § A e e S R AR S DL XSS S B DR WOt A S AT S iy S T S S5 Mwamwmmmmwmm 53 TR SR v iteers have been selling. I don’t blame Mr. and Mrs. Hoover for urging their neighbors (us Americans) to . try everything possible to save wheat. I like their grit, and I’ve an idea they practice what they preach. But the word “patriotic” has been used by bushwhackers and buccaneers so much during the 'last 11 months, that “everybody’s doing it.” We’ve kind of got into a rut, so that we think in order ‘to get by with anything, the first thing we've got to do, is to tag it “patriotic.” Yes, the real patriots are in a rut and don’t know how to get out. They hear so many people who are not patriotic using that word, that they think they MUST use it themselves or they will surely be ac- cused of the whole catalog of crlmes So everybody’s doing it. There are just two kinds of patri- ots: those who wear flags in their hatbands, buttonholes and painted on their collars, and those who just saw wood and say nothing. That’s why my recipes are not “patriotic.” They’re just something I worked out in that kitchen while the baby jabbered away in her high chair, and William pes- tered me to watch what he was build- ing out of a hodgepodge of sticks, acorns, table knives and other trash. Maybe some -of the distracting thoughts that these two young Americans are responsible for got Flag Means More to Her Now North Dakota’s Star Brighter Since It Gave Birth to Non- part1san League, Says Farmer s Wife 4 Here is another of the prize-winning letters in the December (1917) Leader contest. Mrs. Sheldon, the writer, won a cash prize and honor- able mention for her sincere, telling way of answering the question, “What does the Nonpartisan league mean to you?” DITOR Woman’s Page: while I relieve myself of my pent-up enthusiasm. least 10 years before the Nonpartisan league was born, I had been wondering if the time was not about ripe for some farmer—one who had become utterly disgusted with being handicapped on all sides by._thieving combines—one who had brains enough, grit enough and backbone enough to attempt an organization for the farmers, thereby en- Canton, S. D. Bear with me just a moment For at = abling them to battle against the wily tncks of numer- ous other organizations. Imagine, then, my boundless joy when learning that the farmer of my dreams and wonderment “was in our midst—right up there in North Dakota. Now, when I look upon the flag of our nation, one star shines forth with added glory—the star of our sister state on the north. Since this League has been successfully started, can there be a farmer so blind ~to his own interests, or so cowardly that he dare not help it along? If 1 were a farmer, instead of a farmer’s wife, I would not wait for an organizer to hunt me up, and waste an hour of his time trying to convince me that I ought to join the farmers’ League. Why, bless you, no. I would hunt the organizer up, gladly pay the trifling fee he asked and bid him speed on. Through this League I can see, just ahead, a- big po- litical “scrap pending, and that reminds me, Home of Mrs. J. T. Sheldon, Canton, S. D., writer of the accompanying prize letter on what the Non- partisan league means to women. I am living in a state where I am denied the privilege of stnkmg back at my foe with that peaceful weapon called -a ballot. But, since it is getting to be a general belief that women—farmers wives included-——have brains, I feel quite hopeful that in the near future I may be permitted to march beside my husband to the firing line. Of all our printedkvisitors'eachvweek, the Nonpartisan Leader is the most welcome, for it enhghtens in regard to foul play against the farmers as no other paper dares. This is an era of cursed plots, Rut the most rotten-is the one ready to strike the farmer down every tlme he rises to cool his sweat- Jladen brow. This League means that the toiling m;sses have a great pilot to gmde them; ours, through the mirage of oppression. < ‘MRS. J. L SHELDON | PAGE SIXTEEN. i into my recipes, through with flying colors. 2 CHOCOLATE BARLEY CAKE AND CORNMEAL BREAD Here is my method of making corn bread (not Johnny cake) which elimi- nates the raw taste of cornmeal, that is so distasteful to some people, and which even those who like cornmeal get tired of with continued use: At noon, soak a yeast cake. Then, when potatoes are boiled for the noon meal, pour off the water in which they are boiled, cool it until lukewarm, and add to the yeast cake. Put it in a warm place, and the last thing at night, beat in enough white flour to make a sponge. In the morning, take two cups of cornmeal and scald it (be careful not to get it too wet, or you will have to use too much white flour and thereby lose the effectfof the sub- stitute) and let it cool. Then add six cups of white flour, one-third of a cup of sugar, one-third of a cup of salt, one tablespoon of shortening, and knead until stiff. It may seem a little too soft and sticky, but never mind that—it’s the “nature of the critter.” Put in a warm place to rise. When light, knead into “loaves, let it rise again and bake in a moderate oven one hour. You will noticef this bread does not rise as much a§ all-white- flour bread, due to the fact that the corn meal has already expanded in the scalding process, but it is very light. Any one can use her own method of bread making by simply substitut- ing the scalded corn meal for one- third of the amount of white flour or- dinarily used. My recipe makes four ordinary loaves. Our barley cake was what my hus- band called “a hummer.” He was en- thusiastic about it. I told him I had always understood that barley prod- uct and corn product (I think they ‘call the latter “bourbon”) was stim- ulating, and now I know it was. I told him the flour made’from corn and barley had stimulated us women to do things we- never tried before, just - as. the liquid made from corn and barley had stimulated a good many . men to try things they never thought of before. If this chocolate barley cake isn’t as good as any cake you ever ' made out of all-white flour, then I fear you are in a patent flour rut. Take one cup of brown sugar, one- half cup of butter or some good sub- stitute, two eggs, one-half cup sweet milk, one cup of white flour, one cup of barley flour, one teaspoon of soda and one teaspoon of baking powder, Cream the butter and sugar, heat, and add the eggs, milk and flour w1th soda and baking powder sifted in. Take one cup of grated chocolate, add one-half cup swéet milk and one-half cup of sugar, bring to.a boil, cool, and add to the cake. Bake in a mod— erate oven. For war time no icing need be used—but I confess the first . time I tried this I did use-icing, be- cause I knew that would cover a mul-'* titude of sins so far as the family was concerned. In fact, they wouldn’t notice anything wrong, so long as it was sweet enough. Hereafter we will- use it w1thout the extra sugar. but they came. = (H‘-'_S‘ 2 aew