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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1955-10-20, Page 6TABLE TALKS clam /\ndt'ews. When you re in a hurry to prepare a luncheon, late even- ing supper or between -meal snack, try making open -face sandwiches for the occasion. Many of the foods you already have on your pantry shelf or in the refrigerator can be used. Cheese, canned chicken or tur- key, canned salmon, tuna, shrimp or crabmeat, sliced ham, sausage, bacon and tomatoes are only a few of the fundamentals that can be utilized for this pur- pose. A club sandwich, for instance, doesn't have to be a three -layer affair with the top layer sliding off when least expected, It'll be better than .you've ever had even in your favorite restaurant, if you make it a two-way, open - face sandwich that doesn't have to be put together for eating, writes Eleanor Richey Johnston in The Christian Science Moni- tor. 5 5 5 Open Club Sandwich Start your open -face club sandwich with two pieces of hot toast for each person to be served. Butter them and place ride by side on plates large enough to take two slices se- curely. On one slice place a crisp leaf of head lettuce and then generous slices of light and dark chicken or turkey. On the second piece of toast place another leaf of lettuce and a slice of tomato topped by 3 slices of crisp bacon. There you have the good -tasting foods that make up a club sandwich. You add your own special flavoring with the dressing you pour over it. 5 e 5 Dressing Variations You'll need 1 cup cooked dressing for every 2 sandwiches. Add to it finely chopped onion, green pepper, green olives, or tart pickle. Now, add just one of the following — curry pow- der, chili. powdered tarragon or thyme (be discreet about amount!). Next, add a dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce. Thin this mixture with a zesty French dressing. Stir to blend well. Pour it over your two-way open -face club sandwich — and wait for the comments that in- dicate that you're a cooking genius! * 5 * Many of the best open -face sandwiches are placed under the broiler for a few minutes until heated or browned. Here is a combination of crabmeat and .iheese that is treated in this way. DEEP-SEA FANCY 1 cup crabmeat (67:'z -ounce can) 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper 1 tablespoon each, chopped ripe olives and onions 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 teaspoon lemon juice T1, teaspoon horseradish ?t teaspoon salt 4 slices Canadian cheese 4 slices toast Combine crabmeat, green pep- per, onion, ripe olives, and salt. Mix together mayonnaise, lemon juice and horseradish until well blended. Add to crab - meat mixture, mixing lightly. Spread on 4 toast slices. Top each with cheese slice. Place under low broiler until cheese smelts and is golden brown. * a * Canned chicken may be used in many ways in open-faced sandwiches. Simplest of all is to top bread or toast with a thin coat of mayonnaise and then with light and dark meat set in over -lapping sections (pictured). Garnish with stuffed olives, tomato wedges, or strips of pickle. If you want a more elaborate chicken sandwich that is really a whole meal, try this one with. asparagus and cheese sauce. +CHEF'S CHICI{EN SANDWICH Sliced -canned chicken 12 cooked asparagus spears 1 cup cheese sauce 4 slices buttered toast Arrange chicken slices on hot buttered toast, Place 3 aspara- gus spears on top of chicken. Pour cheese sauce over all. Serve with extra slices of- hot, buttered toast. 5 5 5 Serve these "puff" sandwiches as soon 'as you take them out of the oven. This is a real cheese-tbmate treat. CHEESE -r :MATO PUFFS 6 slices pas rarized process Canadian cheese 6 tomato slit ^s, peeled 6 slices bread, crusts removed and toasted on one side 2 egg whites ?:i cup mayonnaise 142 teaspoon salt. Dash pepper Top untoasted side of bread slices with slice of cheese and a tomato slice. Beat egg whites stiff but not dry; fold in mayon- naise, salt and pepper. Heap on tomato slices, Bake at 350° F. until puffy and lightly browned. 5 .x * Assemble these sandwiches before the crowd comes and bake them when needed, Serve them hot, garnished with olives or pickles. ROYAL IIAWAIIAN SANDWICHES For each sandwich, you'll need: 1 slice bread, crusts removed 1 slice ham, baked or pressed 1 slice cheese 1 slice pineapple, drained Butter Mustard Spread bread with butter and mustard. Top with ham, then cheese, then pineapple slice. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated 450' F. oven for 10-12 minutes, or until cheese melts and sandwich is hot. 5 ,w If there are teen-agers in your home, try these sand- wiches for Saturday lunch for the crowd. GRILLED SAUSAGE - CRANBERRY SANDWICHES AU GRATIN 2 dozen sausage links 8 slices bread Canadian cheese, grated 1 eup jellied cranberry sauce, crushed Fry sausage links until brown, Toast bread on both sides. Spread 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce on each toast slice. Place 3 links sausage on each. Sprinkle cheese over sausage. Place on cookie sheet and toast under preheated 400° F. broiler for 5 minutes, or until cheese melts. More About Pipes And Pope Smoking The first important book di- rected against it — 'The opinions of the late and best Phisitions concerning the Pipe and Tobac- co' was published in 1595 and on his accession to the throne in 1603. James I joined issue with his famous 'Counterblaste to To- bacco'. He called it 'an evil vanitie and a gluttenous exer- cise' and that at is like hell in the very substance of it, for it is a stinking loathsome thing: and so is hell'. His vicious attack failed to make much impression on the sale of tobacco and he therefore resorted to other means. In Eli- zabeth's time, tobacco duty was ELECTRIFYING LESSON — Electronic blackboard sounds a new note in musk education as E. Ahlborn demonstrates his inven- tion in Frankfort, Germany. Notes are chalked on staff, which is wired to conduct electricity. When pointer makes contact with note, appropriate tone is sounded by amplifier. Keyboard below blackboard is used to add chorded effects during the lesson. F std ion Hints e o JACQUES MICHEL has chosen jet black acetate peau de sole to fashion this dress. The fitted bodice is dramatically cut to form slender cuffs over each shoulder which graduate down to a V in the back. The double skirt is draped to the back in an apron effect and finished with an oversized knot. 2d per pound — he raised it to 6s 10d. He prohibited its culti- vation in England and restricted the planters of Virginia to a yearly production of 100 pounds. Despite all this, smoking flour- ished. Smuggling was rite and tobacco Leat was grown secretly in remote parts of the country. Curiously enough it was about this time that persecution of smokers began to spread in other parts of the world. In Turkey, smokers had their noses pierced, In Russia they were tortured and in China and Persia elaborate laws and punishments were im- posed. Nowhere however did this savage treatment achieve the desired result — the people still smoked. In 1619 there came a great step in pipe progress, The Com- pany of Tobacco Pipe Makers was incorporated and granted a Charter. Adopting for its motto 'Let brotherly love continue' it framed laws for the better con- duct of trade and guarded the privileges of its members. Approaching the middle of the 17th century, the industry of clay pipe making sprang up all over England. During the time of the plague, clay pipes, or plague pipes as. they were called, were in great demand to fumi- gate against infection. Cooks, bakers, innkeepers and many others, anxious to take advant- age of the demand, began to make pipes. So unskilful were their efforts, however, that they brought the trade into disrepute. Then, to the great indignation of English pipe makers. Holland flooded this country with pipes made from imported English clay. In 1669, therefore, the Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers petitioned Parliament to forbid the export of clay and asked to be empowered to pre- vent unlicensed persons from making pipes. Both requests were granted and clay pipe makers continued to flourish again, The clays made in Elizabeth's. time were small because tobac- co was so expensive. They had a flat base or heel to the bow], which leaned forward and the stems were about 12 inches long. The makers were proud to dis- play their names or marks on the pipes they made and many examples of their work are to be found in museums and pri- vate rivate collections in many parts of the country. Towards the end of the 17th century a more elongated forin of bowl became popular. Fancy clays with embossed mouldings on the bowl were introduced in the 18th century and a much longer stem became the vogue. London clubs and 'urns kept a supply of long stemmed pipes, known as `Churchwardens' or 'London Straws' for their pa- trons. They were stored in specially made , racks and were 'fired' to clean them so they could be put into circulation again. The popularity of clay began to wane early in the 19th century with the introduction of the Meerschaum. These elaborately carved pipes were imported from Austria and Hungary where they had been the vogue for some time. They were invariably fitted with am- ber mouthpieces. The bowls col- oured beautifully after use and pipe smoking which had for some timebeen confined to the middle and humbler classes was taken by the more fashionable, who, in the meantime, had taken to cigars. The name 'meer- schaum', which means sea -foam, led to the mistaken belief that it was petrified foam. Actually it is an alkali, mined in Asia Minor, the main source being Eskichehir. Around 1359, an accidental discovery introduced a material which was to revolutionize pipe smoking and indeed, make u more popular than ever. A French pipe maker made a pil- grimage to Napoleon's birth• place in Corsica. During his stay he was alleged to have broken his Meerschaum. Providence led him to a Corsican peasant who fashioned him another from a local grown wood. This was the root of the tree Heath (Erica ?iborea). Delighted with his new pipe, he obtained some of the wood and sent it to St. Claude,' a small village in the heart of the Jura Mountains, where he used to buy wooden stems. St. Claude thus became the centre of a flourishing in- dustry. Briar pipes were import- ed into this country in large numbers and in fact, still are. The word briar (or brier) has no connection with the rose briar but is a corruption of the French 'gruyere', The root is found principally in Mediterranean districts, Algeria; Greece, South- ern Italy, Sardinia, Sicily and of course Corsica. Good root is rare and sometimes takes from be, tween 60 to 100 years to mature. DERELICT "AULD NOOSE" BECOMES QUEEN MOTHER'S DREAM HOME Every day the coaches thund- er along the windswept rued from John o' Groats to the Castle of Mey and tourists crane to catch a glimpse of the Queen Mother's new Scottish home, Every day new royal rumours sweep among the 150 Mey vil- lagers. The local lifeboat crew put out a cookery book to help raise funds, with recipes from Mrs. Alice Waters, the Queen Mo- ther's Mey housekeeper, and from a Mey Castle kitchen -maid, and it sold like hot cakes. An enterprising local photographer launched a set of royal Mey plc- ture postcards 'and these, too, are raking in the bawbees, Dollar -paying Americans are snapping up houses and farm- steads in the neighbourhood. Even rambling Keiss Castle has been bought—as a hobby—by a man from Ohio. There's only one snag in this amazing Mey furore. The months pass by ... and still the Queen Mother doesn't move in! Yet at the white -walled vil- lage post office local folk say that the Queen Mother may quietly install herself almost be- fore you can read these words. They talk of her many visits and her genuine anxiety to "toast her toesjes" in her first real home of her own. They discuss the lovely four- poster bed that had to be taken to pieces before it could be car= ried up the narrow stairs. They wonder at the modern kitchens, once a warren of stone --arched rooms and now a marvel of fit- ted sinks and stainless steel. When the the Queen Mother first came to Mey early in her widowhood, the "auld hoose" was in danger of becoming derelict. The owner was moving south and the gales of the Pent- land Firth had torn slates from the roof. Candles and oil lamps formed the only lighting. Draughts whistled across to the great open fireplaces from un- der every door. But the Queen Mother. toiled up the unveiled spiral staircase to gaze breathlessly across the flat Caithness countryside to- wards John o' Groats and across the grey sea towards the Ork- neys. As she watched, a seal dived with a splash from off a rock. "There are even mermaids," the Queen Mother laughed. Per- haps more than anything else this swift splash clinched the sale. On those first visits, the royal viewer went down into the dun- geons, now used as wine -cellars, where a stout oak door with an iron grille hung on broken hing- es. She was shown the secret tunnel built towards the sea- shore by the first owner of Mey, the 4th Earl of Caithness, a judge with powers of life and death who felt an acute need at times for quick getaways from the vengeful friends of his victims. The tunnel had nearly been forgotten when an army lorry fell into it during the.warl The one room the Queen Mo- ther did not see is the haunted turret room in the tower. Here, long ago, a daughter of the house who fell in love with a farm labourer was put on to bread and water, but she es- caped and leapt to her death in the courtyard below. Anguished groans and cries so disturbed the castle towards the middle of last century that the doorway of the room was bricked up and it is not to be reonened. Another ehost, an old lady who starved to death in the dun- geons, now w a l k s hungrily through the kitchens. But her passion for jam tarts is said to have subsided when a fat kitch- en boy was fired. Says Charlie Tate, the Mey gardener, "I've slept alone in the castle many times—and never beard as much as a fly buzz." The Queen Mother likes to tell these stories, but she has plan- ned Mey as a holiday home which will be far from ghostly. The need of the castle to be re-. stored and modernized for a new 'lease of life met an echo in her widowed need to plan her own life anew. Her Majesty listened smilingly to stories of the 14th Earl—back in Queen Victoria's day — who brought his Spanish bride to Mey and with her the cream of society from London, Paris and Madrid. On festive nights the kilted men guests would drink their host's health, one foot on the table in Highland fashion. The Queen Mother decided that, though comfortably luxuri- ous, the house should be "just as it used to be," and she has. had lots of fun these last three years - hunting for furniture. Most of the original furnishing, was sold up by auction and widely scattered some thirty years ago, Her Majesty spent days trying to trace the old din- ing -room furniture and then found it in the house next door,. All trace of the old family pic- tures of the Earls of Caithness. was lost for years, Recently they were found miles away in a ga- rage. Now, after careful clean- ing, they have been restored to- the othe walls. In a local antique shop, the Queen Mother startled the pro- prietress by asking, "Please may I look behind the counter?" Rummaging at the tacit of junk - shops she has unearthed a series of beautiful old rrints of the castle and other Caithness land- marks. The Castle of Mey was as tumbledown and feeloin as the old glass-house—a fragment of the Crystal Palace—ei the foot of the garden. To -day it has been transform- ed into a dry, centrally -heated dreamhouse with nine bath- rooms. The fifteen bedrooms will mean ample space for Prin- cess Margaret and her friends,. for the Queen Mother loves the company of young people. When she bought the ct'stle she thoughtfully eyed the private beach and said what fun it would be for Charles sad Anne. Some rumour -mongers de- clare that the Queen Mother in- tends to make Mey a wedding gift to Princess hisrgaret. The real truth, I am sure, is that the Queen Mother intends to live there herself and fends, like so many people, that home-build- ing nowadays takes reurt longer than one expectst C.L.T. ALL FOR 1315 CATS A venerable French painter sat in a roadside cafe in Mont- parnasse stolidly munching bag after bag of potato chips. His luncheon companion watched disapprovingly and finally, con- sumed with curicsity, asked, "Why do you eat so. +navy potato chips?" The old man catefuliy shook out the crumbs. foh'erl the Cel- lophane bags in wench the po- tato chips had ecmie, placed them in his pocket Zoo said: "1 - do it for my cats. They lust love to play with Cellophane" HEY, SANTA!—Dollie's shower, attached to side of tub with a suction cup, makes quite a splash with this young lady as she squeezes bulb which forces water through shower head: Santo's helpers, the nation's toy manufacturers, are hoping That in -play tests such as this one will accurately indicate demand for toys as Santa prepares for the Christmas shopping rush.