The Alaska citizen., 1916-08-14

d cooking. that with the lavish offer ings of our great wide country. We .gnore he finer values of food preparation a. to food presentation and eat without discrimination
 The criticism is. in measure true. not 50 much however. in rc- aard to food preparation as to food presentation We take our food as d matter of course just plain food, and We do not study nor understand as do older nations, how to dress il for the table. nor how to vary il D a-.o maar t palatable
 For instance. eggs Eggs are about the plaiuest and easiest things to prepare, it might seem. and one might eat plain boiled gIg every morning with the surety that one was getting necessary food, and yet without that good and per. fec, digestion which We are told doth wait on appetite:" and this not because the egg was not fresh laid CT good. but because man, natural lover of variety, gets so everlasting tired of the same old egg staring up at him morning af ter morning. though he might gen erously concede its food value and the ease of preparation.
 But let these eggs be treated to the transforming touch which makes them a delight to the eye. and then realize how zestful appetite be comes. learned this by observa tion in Paris. where I enlarged my ideas in regard to food presenta ton: and what is true of Paris is true of most foreign countries, with the exception of England. perhaps Never il seemed to me, in my eX- perience of French cooking, did eat an egg prepared and presented to me in exactly the same way that Il had been served me previously. at the late French breakfast. which here We call an early luncheon.
 One day it was shirred eggs baked to a delicate jelly in small, brown. earthenware dish which was set afterWard in an outer cover of silver and surrounded by crisp crosses delicate. peppery, fascinat ing to the eve; and oh, household CT, be sure as they are over there that your crosses are always washed free of sand and grits
 l. is in the use of this bit of green that the French chef forms so sue cessfully and tremendously his col or combinations, suggesting thus green fields and pastures new" which he has subsidized for his art and on which he relies as prime factor in his wizardry of food pres sprinkle of finely minced parsley, resting like an iridescent bubble on an entree, potatoes. meat; or it may be upstanding crosses, fresh, cooling 10 the red of meats just of the coals. or the vivid sunshine of eggs; or, perhaps, a fringe of curl ing parsley, or the white-green heart of lettuce, but always some thing that appeals to the eye as a stimulus to the appetite.
 But take again those shirred eggs baked to a jelly not harder. One morning I found delicately Drowned chicken livers tucked under the golden round of the yolks and about the edges of the dish, a rich curl of brown chicken gravy, the dish set of course in its bed of cool green crosses.
 Two or three mornings after, a frosty morning in early spring, small SauSageS, about the size of the lit lie finger, were substituted for the liyers, and the gravy omitted; but there was a more generous allow ance of the crosses, it might seem, as if the fat of the pork needed the cool appetizer. Again, crisp curls of bacon lay like a brown foam over the top of the eggs, and bacon is only bacon when it is properly prepared as it should be, and cooked in a skillet that is al most red hot The slices, thin as credit and as cold as charity, should be dropped into this: they must not sizzle and stand in their own fat, but this must be poured off when it accumulates on the slices, which when brown should be lifted out and put in a pan to stand for a second or two in hot oven while they dry out.
 Fortified with a bit of fruit, cold, mind you; cup of coffee, strong, hot, well made; a hot roll. home made, if possible, and a dish of eggs prepared in this way, one might start out to conquer the world, or face it with a brave heart, surely.
 Again, shirred eggs, prepared in this simple way, baked to a jelly, then lifted from the dish in form, came to me in a rich tomato sauce, smooth, peppery, slightly thickened in hn f1oyv of inA