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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1954-12-01, Page 2TABLE ma J a4FbArviDews Hunters, and lovers Of wild game on the table, rave about the deliciousness of wild rice, -Personally, 1 can take it or let it alone; but by experience 1 know that it is either too hard 10 get or too expensive for the average budget. I Anyway, here's good news! According to Lucile Fitton, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, your worries are aver. Here is what she says: 4 * * Finding yourself with a taste for wild rice but a very tame budget seems to be a common predicament. But serving wild rice with wild fowl is a must, /or they have more In common than the adjective. Maybe even at the going price for wild rice, you will want to splurge on the night you are having your hus- band's boss for dinner, but for other times you can turn with satisfaction to — not resort to -- poor man's wild rice. * * * Start with ordinary white ?lee —not the fancy, processed type. You will still be saving, how- ever, if you buy the best quali- ty, the longest grains, you can find. After giving it close in- spection for dark or discolored grains, rinse it in a sieve, * * * One cup of uncooked rice will yield three, remember. Toss the xice up and down while it is still in the sieve to remove as much excess water as possible. Then turn it into a large iron (or heavy) skillet in which a quarter pound of butter has been melted. Keep the rice mov- ing in the pan so that every ,grain becomes amber - colored. 'The aroma will remind you of popping cern, and some of the rice grains may pop around in the skillet. It is important not to let a single grain burn for this will destroy the subtle flavor you are trying so hard to copy, and under -browning will bring you back to just What you bought — ordinary white rice: hence the Importance of watch- ing cooking until yOu achieve those golden grains. * 4, Although the brOwned rice =ells good enough to eat, the Number, Please? — While still In the middle of his lunch, Gus- tav, the squirrel, decides to call his girl friend. Just what the happy tidings are is a big se- cret. Gus keeps the reason for his frivolity as well hidden as he does his supply of nuts, buried somewhere in Orebro, Sweden. inside of the gr ales are not cooked. Therefore, add 3 cups of bouillon, cover, and let .the rice bake for 45 minutes in at 325* F. even. The le:Millen May be canned, matte trent cubes, OY stock yOu have made yourself. Add salt sparingly if you use cubes; Otherwise, 1 teaspoon should be enough. * * * If you are trying for a delec- table facsimile of the wild rice gathered by Indians and sold in the stores /Or the price of a reservation, uncover the skillet the last 15 zninutes. Encourage grain • by - grain •fluffiness by tossing them with a large fork every few minutes this last pe- riod of baking. Then, beholdl You could count every plump, topaz grain if you wanted to. * * * Alongside duck or other fowl is not the only position that can be occupied by poor man's rice. It goes under creamed anything chicken, turkey, giblets, lob- ster. crab meat, ham — or any combination of these. Or chunks of fowl or fish can be added to the browned rice before it is shoved into the oven, destined as the piece de resistance. Mush- rooms, chopped onions or celery, diced peppers, and slithered al- monds are goOd, too. * * * * It is risky, however, to saute onions or mushrooms at the same time, and in the same pan with the rice. Keep both under control by doing them as sepa- rate processes. * * 4 We all want to encourage activities that center around home and family, but occasion- ally we shy away from the sticky mess which often results from a bout of candy making. Here are two recipes that make deliciouspcandy with a mini- mum of fuss and dirty dishes: The first one requires no cooking of any kind and can be made by quitfyoung children. It is very rich and good, and some families always have a big supply on hand for holiday callers. No -Cook Fruit Balls 1 cup figs 1 cep dates 8 cups walnut meats (pecans are good, too). Put the stemmed figs, pitted dates, and nut meats through a food grinder. Use the fine cut- ter.Press the mixture intn small balls about an inch in diameter. Press firmly and roll in powdered sugar. You will find it practical to double or triple the above ingredients! h Next comes a great favorite Of many, a eo-cook fudge. It's rich, easy to make, and very, very good. At Brownie or Boy Scout candy sales, it goes like the proverbial hot cakes. Young folks like to go out in the kit- chen, whip up a batch of this fudge, and be settled in front of the TV in twenty minutes with a plate of candy ready to eat. Never!Fail Fudge I egg well beaten 3 tablespoons of cream or top mujk 1 teaspoon of vanilla le' teaspoon of salt 1 pound of powdered sugar • 4 squares chocolate melted with 1 tablespoon butter 1-i cup chopped nut meats lei cup marshmallows cut In small pieces. Mix the ingredients in the order given above. Spread in buttered 8" x 8" pan. Let cool a few minutes, If in a hurry set in the refrigerator. Cut in squares and pitch in! Ss% IIN MOURNING—With his head bowed in grief, a Labrador dog keeps a vigil at the side of a puppy killed by an automobile an highway, The older 408 remained at the side of his companion until the police removed the body. Christmas Seals Mark Their SOth Birthday it's just 50 years 000,144 Christmas season, that the now. familiar Christmas Seals first went on sale in Denmark. The' 1954 seals, fittingly designed by a Dartish-born artist, Jorgen G. Hansen, commemorate that event. It all boos back to 1903 and Einar Holboell, a Danish postal clerk who gave his spare time to sick and poor children. As the great flood of Christmas letters and packages poured In, he wished that each piece of mall would mean pennies for the children he laved. The idea came—a special stamp for holiday mail could be saki to raise money. King Christian later approved the plan, So, during the Christmas season of 1904, four million special stamps were sold in post offices throughout Denmark, The rndney raised went to- ward building a sanatorium for children with tuberculosis, At the same time, Sweden picked up Holbell's Idea and issued similar stamps. in Americo, the Danish -American philanthropist Jacob A. Riffs heard of the seals and published a magazine article about it in 1907, The first United States seal sale onq nationwide basis was sponsored by the American Red Cross in 1908. In 1910 the National Tuberculosis Association became a joint spon- sor and in 1920, took over the task completely. To date, the seals have brought in $335,704,044.50. Last year's 'drive produced $23,889,044.50. Christmas Seal sales are now held each year in 45 countries throughout the world. At left is the first Christmas Seal, bearing the portrait of the late , Queen Louise of Denmark. Four million of them were sold in 1904. The other stamp is the first Christmas Seal issued nation-, ally in this country. It bore the symbol of the Red Cro s, whidi sponsored It in 1908. Youngsters in a Christmas dance decorate the 1954 Christmas' Seals. Designer Jorgen Hansen says they are "the healthy, happy children Einar Holboell dreamed of when he proposed a Christ- mas Seal to fight disease." Butterfly Farming is His Business There are many collectors, many who do it for a hobby, but butterflies to Hugh New- man are his w h al e life. He breeds them, lectures on them, broadcasts, appears on televi- sion; his wife gives all the time she can and his three children not only regard them as pets, but help collect them, too. The business isn't new. Hugh took it over from his father, who started it in 1894 in the village of Old Bexley, in Kent. Two Victorian houses and an acre of Bexley woods behind them are seething with live caterpillars, moths and butter- flies of every description. (The neighbotirs complained at one time, but they've got used to it now.) As well as the live popu- lation, there are dozens of cases of mounted butterflies and the • whole atmosphere is more like "Alice in Wonderland" than the world of business. But Hugh Newman's list of 3,000 clients leaves you in no doubt as to the commercial value of his profession. Surely no other business has such a mixed bag of clients as the Prime Minister, the Festival of Britain, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Ideal Home Exhibition, a holiday centre in Berkshire, film studios, and the London Zoo among many, many others. The Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia was a tough assign- ment, as 1,000 butterflies (and the special plants needed for their feeding) were wanted for the indoor gardens in March, a time of year when butterflies aren't normally about. Hugh settled the problem simply and without fuss by "forcing" them —in other words, hurrying the appearance of the butterflies by putting the chrysalides into the airing cupboard of his house! This note of simplicity goes right through the farm, When I was there Hugh picked up a schOe•best marked "Ladies Shoes, brawn lace. size 4," and inside was a beatitiful Giant Silk -Moth in lovely colours, with a wing- span of five inehes, and a soft, furry body like a kitten's paw. She was using the box for lay- ing her eggs, and other butter- flies were doing the same thing I in dozens of other shoe -boxes on the shelves writes P. Hollier in "Tit -Bits." As well as live butterflies, the Ideal Home Exhibition wanted 1,000 dead ones mounted in various life -like positions to put in the gardens. Hugh worked on these mountings (called set- tings in butterfly language) nearly every winter evening of the previous five months. Yet in the first day of the exhibi- tion nearly all his patient, skil- • ful work was destroyed by people grabbing and touching. Filtn studios frequently want moths and butterflies and Hugh was asked for a butterfly for the Royal Command film, "Where No Vultures Fly." The film's location was somewhere in Africa, and he went to a lot of time and trouble to get a speci- rnen that was right for the par- ticular district. The butterfly had to come to rest on a man's shoulder, which it did beauti- fully. But the whole thing was ruined for Hugh when a char- acter in the film called it a moth! After all his trouble to be accurate, too! In Hugh's office is a framed letter signed "W ins ton S. Churchill." Sir Winston is very knowledgeable about butter- flies, and on several occasions has ordered some for release in the gardens ot his home in Kent. The Holiday Centre in Berk- shire telephoned while I was in Hugh's office and asked about their next consignment of but- terflies. They recently built a butterfly sanctuary to Hugh's design, surrounded by silver birch trees, and he keeps it filled with butterflies of all kinds. It's lovely and restful to look at and adds greatly to the beauty of the place. 'The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was a rather different type of client, They had received a. case of mites infected with a rare trop. feel disease. They had nothing to feed 'there on and they had to be kept alive for researeh, so they contacted Hugh Newman for a consignment of moths' eggs, Oldest Rose-Uush in Tho World Visitors IrOan all over Europe are making speolal journeys te ancient Hildeshetm in Germany to see and admire the eldeet 1'08e -bests In the world, which to - clay stands 35 feet high. For this bueit with its myriads of pink and white blooms, is at least 1,000 years Old and may well live another 1,000 years, • It stande; Sheltered fro all north and east winds, dote to • the eity's cathedral, In the ca. thedral are historical art treas- ures, but it is the fabulous rose- bush which lures sightseers, Seventy years ago, in 1884, the rose-Itush was tonna to be suffer- ing from old age. Drastic action was immediately taken to pre- serve it for posterity. Specially constructed pipes were installed so that the roots could be perpetually watered in dry weather. A team of gar- deners "nursed" every new shoot with loving care. The rose -bush was saved, It was threatened with extinc- tion again in March, 1945, When fire bombs destroyed much of the blooms and foliage. But the roots were undamaged and, al- though the tree did not bloom that summer and autumn, new shoots afterwards appeared. To- day the bush is taller than it has ever been. The Plant Virus Researc,h Unit at Cambridge buy large quantities of caterpillars from the farm and use them to study viruses and the diseases caused in plants and animals, includ- ing humaes. Among other things, they art trying to dis- cover whether infected cater - p i 11 a r s pass the virus to the plants or vice versa. Did you know that caterpill- ars suffer from indigestion? In fact, caterpillars die from the same sort of germ that gives babies that dangerous dieease popularly called summer diar- rhoea, and once again scientists are trying to discover .whether the caterpillars give it to the babies or whether the babies pass if to the caterpillars through their washing hanging out to dry. Large numbers of caterpillars • at the farm also die from acute • stomach congestion. The cause is unusual, for it is the result of eating 'leaves covered with cement dust and this dust is 'brought by the wind to Bexley from the cement works at Greenhithe. Caterpillars a r e certainly more human than they're given credit for. One I saw blew up its head to twice its normal size and made its eyes stand out like a bull- frog's when it heard us coming. Huh Newman's latest client gives a touch of old-world ro- mance to the butterfly farm. On the day I was there Hugh received a letter from a Scot who owns ,,a tiny island called Canna, off the Scottish coast. He wants to buy ten dozen pretty little moths called Cin- nabar, and plazas to release • them on his island so that their magic and colour will add beauty to the landscape. Inci- dentally, butterflies and moths are not deliv6ed in any special way. They go through the mail like any other parcel. There's an interesting story connected with eight-year-old Brian, youngest of Hugh's child- ren. He was out with his brother when he noticed a most unusual looking butterfly. He caught it (all the children are skilful at netting), put it in a bottle and later showed it to his father, • Hugh confessed that he nearly dropped the bottle from sheer astonishment, for the butterfly was very rare and valuable, and he bad no diffi- culty in selling it to a private collector in this country for a large sum of money. • Hugh's children play with the butterflies and moths — they don't mind being handled as long as you don't make a noise — and take them up to bed with them, Hugh said it is a strange sight to see the child- ren asleep with months as big as soup plates lying on the pil- lows beside them! C(L)AUSE AND EFFECT A Beirut, Lebanon, landlord has found himself in a tough spot because he tried an old trick on a tenant of his, The landlord asked the tenant to signthree leases which he himself had already signed; One 25 per cent, higher than the rent she'd actually agreed, to pay which he wished to show any prospective buyers of the prop- erty; one showing the actual rent — intended to be the valid lease; and one 24 per cent, low. er than the rent she'd agreed to pay — for the Income tax ce/- leder, The tenant signed all three — then tore up the first NM. She now pays 2 per cent less rent, Is He The World's Worst Husband? Prince Ali Kernel Faintly Bey had all that the world can give. Young, handsome, with a charm that fascinated women, he had inherited from his father bound- less wealth and all that goes With it — a palace at Zameek on the Nile, yachts, racing boats, limeusines, slaves — but far all his charm there Was something about Fahmy Bey, a hint to lat- ent cruelty, In Paris he fell in love with • Marie Alibert and pursued her with all the ardour of an Bas' tern wooing, Even when he -re- turned to Egypt he wrote to her — 'The torch of my life" — begging her to come to him. Ev- entually, when she received tele- grams that he was 111, she went to Egypt only to find that his "illness" was a ruse to bring her to his side, He was delighted that she had • come, and showered on her ev- ery extravagance that Oriental infatuation'could devise. At last, won by his fervour, she consent- ed to adopt his religion and to marry him. -The festivities in Cairo were like a page from the Arabian Nights. Sheep were roasted whole, and for days and nights the guests feasted on the choicest wines and food. But an Eastern wife exists simply to do her husband's bid- ding, and as Bernard O'Donnell vividly reveals in "Crimes That Made News", Madame Fahmy was soon to realize it If she failed to submit to her lord there were blows instead of caresses, She had none of the freedom to which a Western woman is ac- customed, but was guarded night and day in his house by Nubian slaves who terrified her. When Fahmy deigned to take her out with him, he abused her and struck her in public, Be ev- en insulted her in the presence of menials, Thii was the state of affairs when, in July, 1923, the couple were staying at the Savoy Ho- tel, London, Madame Fahmy had consulted a doctor who advised en t Immediate visit to France for an operation, but Fahmy Bey flamed into rage when he heard about it. - As they sat at luncheon in the _hotels,. the leader of the orches - tie paid her the compliment of iSskingsher, to choose her favour- ite piece of music. "Thank you," she replied, "But my husband is going to kill me in twenty-four hours and I am not very anxious for music." The heat and tension of that July day increased, building up to the greatest thunderstorm London had known for years. And when at last the fury of the "thunder had passed, it was Fahmy Bey who lay dead — and his wife stood arraigned for mur- der, She had shot him as he savagely attacked her in their hotel suite. The law of England knows no such excuse as the "crime pas- sionel," but the law will not per- mit the accused to stand de- fenceless. Indeed, Madame Fah - my had the greatest advocates of the day to her defence. But in- comparable as were Sir Edward Marshall Hall and Sir Henry Curtis -Bennett the lady was in many ways her own best advo- cate. She gave evidence from the witness box through an inter- preter, and the court listened as she told of the sudden change in her husband after marriage. She related how he had fired a re- volver over her head to cow her: how on another occasion he struck her a blow which dislo- cated her jaw; and how he had sworn the terrible oath that she Should die by his hand. Then, with dramatic 'effect • Marshall Hall produced a decal - meet, It was dated six months before her husband's death and showed how she had feared for her life, It read: - "I, Marie -Marguerite Alibert, of stilled mind and body, formal. ly accuse, in the case of my death bY violence or otherwise, Ali Bey of having contributed to my disappearance. Yesterday, 21st January, 1923, at three 0'. clock in the afternoon, he, took his Bible or Koran — I do not • know what 'it is called — kissed it put his hand on it, and swore to avenge himself Upon me tee morrow, in a week, e month, or three months; but I was to dis- appear by his hand , I desire demandandandinyf justiceanillysf7 my daughter The drama was not yet over, however. In vivid words Mar- shall Hall drew a picture of Madame Fahmy's life with her husband — surely one of the worst husbands in the world — of the threat to disfigure her with • acid and sand, of the crescendo of cruelt, and humiliation to which she ha, been subjected, He described in powerful phrases the terror of that night when, with lightning intermittently flooding the darkness, the grim, relentless figure of the Oriental advanced on his terrified wife, Marshall- Hall held the little pearl -handled pistol in his grasp As uttered the words, "to her horror the thing went off," the weapon fell from his fingers with a clatter to the fi In little over an hour the jury returned with their ver- dict. Deathly pale, with trem- bling, black -gloved hands grip- ping the ledge before her, Ma- dame Fahmy never raised her eyes. At the pronouncement, "Not Guilty," her lips framed the words, "Ohl Merci . " as the thronged court burst into cheers. • Mr. O'Donnell has. been a crime reporter for more than twenty-five years during which • he attended more than three hundred murder trials. In his gripping book he not only speaks of the great Yard detec- tives with whom he was On -familiar terms, but throws a • fascinating light on the sombre details of many crimes which were never known to the pub- lic. e has helped to find the vital clue which cleared an innocent woman; he spent the eve 01 exe- cution With a woman. distracted with terror over her husband's coming ordeal; and he writes touchingly of a woman's noble love for- an ignoble murderer and of her insistence upoli see- ing him after execution. "It's your own doing', dear. You told me to take up a hobby and my hobby la bargains." BIRTHDAY SMILE—Prince Chcolei, th'e Duke of Cornwall, stritiess in this ;Melo! coat .photo In iieffer of his sixth birthday. This is one of the birthday studies of the Prince taken by photographer Marcus Adams in London,