The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-01-17
Keeping the American
Home Alive BETTY r CROKER
BETTY CROKER

class" sitting In her living room max
ing notes of the suggestions that come
over the radio and taking down my
recipes.
The New Home-Maker.
do not believe there is anything
makes me more happy than 4. letter
from one of these new home-makers
telling me how interested she is in
preparing attractive meals for her
young husband.
Is it any wonder that l work hard
to give then. recipes that not only are
correctly proportional. but that are so
clearly and definitely stated that they
cannot go wrong with them? 1 am
hoping that such recipes will prevent
the old joke about brides biscuits
from being real 'stic-and not amusing
realities. Instead, | wait the first
attempt at baking with my repices to
result in biscuits so Light and tender
that the young husband will be fairly
bursting with pride over his brides
skill in baking.
Times have changed since the days
when girls stayed at home and learned
to cook by helping their mothers with
the baking. When those girls went
/, into homes o. their own hey usually
were skillful cooks. They knew by
looking at their cake batter whether
it was just right or not-and they
could tell by the feel" of their bread
dough when they had added enough
-four Recipes which said flour to make
a stiff dough" or just "flour" were
perfectly satisfactory to them-but to
the bride of today such recipes are
Greek. She needs very explicit d.
rections about measurements and
amounts. Therefore that is one of the
reasons why making my recipes so
definite that no one can be in doubt
about them is hobby of mine.
However, it is not the new home
makers alone who tell me that they
find my recipes and radio cooking
school lessons a help. Let us travel
back across the mountains on our
magic carpet to the prairies. Here In
a spacious pleasant home in a Kan
sas city we meet a woman who is
radiantly happy because the devils
food cake she made with one of my
recipes brought her the first prize at
a county fa',. She has been keeping
house for ten or twelve years, but this
is the first time she has ever won a
prize for skill in baking.
In a New Jersey city we visit a
women who tells us sh. is a grand
mother, and that her children and
grandchildren consider her the worlds
best cook. Nevertheless she has IN
rolled in my cooking school over the
air because she wants to keep up
with new methods and ideas in baking.
Learn Over the Radio.
A young home-"laker in Georgia
wants to learn how to make dough-
nuts. Hers, she says, are like brick
BATS"
In Texas city, mother and
daughter are attending class" over
the radio together. They are inter-
ested in learning about some new
dainties to serve when they entertain
their bridge clubs. l hope my cynical
friends will observe that although
these women do enjoy playing bridge,
they can also cook, and they want to
entertain their bridge friends ct home
and serve them with home-cooked
foods.
Er0v hn tn
northern Minnesota comes :. letter
from young woman who says she
has just started housekeeping and her
family must include relatives of her
husbands, making a household of six
-four adults and two children. She
knows how to cook few things well
but they are SO very few that she
fears her meals will become monoton-
Gus. She hopes to get many sugges-
tons and new ,ecipes from my radio
talks that will help her. Right now
she is especially anxious to be able
to make good chocolate cake.
These are only few Of the homes
represented by the pile Of letters right
here on my desk, but they are repre-
sentative of the letters / read last
week and last year, and of those
undoubtedly shall read next week
and the weeks that follow. Gay let
ters, pathetic letters, discouraged let
ters and brave letters from women in
every part of the country who are
deeply interested in keeping happy,
well-ordered homes fol their families.
Surely these letters are a powerful
challenge to Mr.. and Miss Cynic who
say that the American lone is a thing
of the past because the modern wom-
an is not interested in home things.
They also give me very definite idea
of the problems the housewife of to-
day is facing and the kind of cooking
information she seeks, 1t is because
of the many, many requests | have
Lad from them for menu suggestions
that am devoting one of my two
radio ta.ns each week to the prin-
ciples of menu building and meal
planning. In the radio cooking school
lessons which / give in my other
weekly talks l am trying to answer
the questions / am asked most often
about I aking bread. cakes, pies, bis
cults and cookies. With each lesson
| shall give recipe which hope my
radio friends will feel is practical and
he kind of thing their families will
enjoy.
To me it is wonderful privilege to
be able to be of any service. however
slight, to these hundreds of thousands
of American women, who quietly and
unnOticed are keeping the American
home an alive and nourishing institu