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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1923)
mm . . i ,r.wm .I The latest mistress of the White House preparing with her modem electrical cooking appliances some of the old-fashioned dishes which Preside it Coolidge prefers to any others A fine example of Mrs. Cool- B idge’s skill with her knitting needles — the fiafiv £JUiXiiUiJ» . robe which she entered in the national knitting contest and which is to be used to cover her first grandchild How Mrs. Coolidge Makes the President’s Favorite Custard Pie MIX three-fourths of a cup of sugar, one rounding tablespoon of flour and a pinch of salt with the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, and two and one half cups of milk. After they are well mixed together pour the ingredients into a pie plate in which the lower crust has been allowed to cook slightly. Bake in a mod erate oven until nicely browned. To make the pastry take one large cup of flour and fnix it with four tablespoons of lard (not melted). Add one-half teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of baking powder. Stir the Ice water In gradually, adding more than half a cup if necessary to ‘make a dough stiff enough for handling and rolling. Add just enough flour to roll lightly, as too much handling or mixing spoils the crust. Bake in a glass pie plate.* I Three of the Stitches Used by Mrs. Coolidge la . Knitting Her Much Admired Baby Robe This shows how ||| she brought I her yarn over jl? the needle in Hi order to put on l|| extra stitches H in place of the n|j drop stitches | S which make I; the attractive I openwork in I c the knitted l|| lace Passing the P slip stitch over I *j to make the I rows of holes It* in the lace Ip which the pat- fig tern calls for What the expert knitter known* at “slipping o n eM which, combined with knitting two stitches together, narrows the de sign in the lace like sections of the pattern The New First Lady of the Land a Very Practical Housewife Who Knits, Darns Socks and | Can if Necessary Go Into the ' j Kitchen and Prepare the I President’s Meals ££ 4 T HEART I am a simple, home loving New England woman, and I like, best of all, to gather my little family under my own roof and to stay there.” This is the description which Mrs. Calvin Coolidge gave of herself in her days as Governor’s lady when she' used to divide her time "half and half” be tween her two sons at school in North ampton and her husband at the State House in Boston. Now, some women might so speak, tnd yet inve * igation 'how that there were more fr1 is to theii* lives than they had tated. But pitiless publicity of the N»w England sort showed early that the pleasant wife of silent Calvin Coolidge ■'•as even as plain as she said. A f<-.v years ago the proper matron •if Boston's Back Bay rose up to won der and admire as they watched the Gov ernor’s lady. Now the mothers of the nation are doing the same, for they have learned that Mrs. Coolidge’s claims to i plainness consist of homely duties, at- I curately done. Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, I first of all, they learn, has herself knit ted every pair of woolen stockings her two boys have ever worn. Moreover, she j has darned every hole those same active youngsters have worn through the hose that mother knitted In the first place, from earliest infancy Mrs. Coolidge has 'aken entire charge of her own children, without the help of nurse or governess, and in the first years of her married life she performed every household task oking, cleaning, dusting and arranging without the help of a servant. Mr*. Coolidge early learned as the wife "t » ruing young lawyer to do without thing* she wanted, juat a* patient women in New England have alway* done with ' it And none the lea* cheerfully at •*%«««* ah HB uuja, vs a an their dirty faces and make them neat for supper. Then before tucking them into bed herself she read them “Treasure Island’’ and “Swiss Family Robinson.” In the morning again she got them up early enough to earn their spending money before school, delivering papers and shoveling out the neighbors’ snowy paths. There is no motherly secret nor any housewifely perplexity which the new First Lady has not met and wrestled "with. And yet. despite all heF homely duties, she always found time to mediate be tween father and the boys—to adjust the ideas of the older generation and the younger. This, in particular, came when the boys wanted a dog. "You can have a ‘rapidly disappearing’ dog,” said the father; “a dog that says ‘Good morning,’ and then runs away and never comes back. That % kind of dog doesn’t get hairs on your mother’s parlor carpet.” . “But we want our dog around all the time,” Calvin, the younger eon, object ed; “we don’t want him rapidly disap pearing.” It was then that mother interfered. “Calvin wantX that dog so badly,” said mother, "that I think we’ll have to over look the parlor carpet this once and get the dog.” Accordingly, the boys had the dog. Now, very early in the days of her mar ried life pleasant Mrs. Coolidge learned other things besides the duties of a New England wife and mother. She learned how to play her part as the wife of a rising young public man. She has always been a gracious talker tn the subjects of children, cooking and \ society—subjects which she considers within her special domain, just as pub lic questions are the especial province of her husband. To begin with, in the days which are just done, Mrs. Coolidge used to tell about her "neutrality.” "I am neutral,” she used to say. “Neutral on woman suf frage, neutral on economic fusses, neu tral on labor tangles, neutral on every controversy in which Mr. Coolidge has to mix. That’s my idea of the best way to serve my husband. He takes care of the public questions and I take care of the house and the boys. That to me seems a fair division.” Now, to many a man and woman it may seem a trifle exaggerated to state that Mrs. Coolidge for years wanted a modest little automobile and for years learned to do without it. "You know," she once evnlalned as she sat In the modest little n ting room of her modest little two-roo i suite nt the old Adams House, in iu_!on, "t deariy want a Ford. I wouldn' ask for any thing more expensive. Ju: a little Ford which I could run myself and take mar keting and shopping. But Mr. Coolidge thinks we can’t affo'rd it yet.” It was mentioned to Mrs Coolidge that a Ford cost then about $500 "Surely”- , “Oh, yes,” said she, and her blue eyes twinkled. “I don’t mean to say we couldn’t get together the money for the purchase. Of course we could. But Mr. Coolidge seems to think I would always be running into people and that the dam age might be high. So we are waiting and I am living in hopes.” Long ago Mrs. Coolidge explained how she bought her pretty clothes, her hats, her accordion-pleated gowns, her em broidered silkeni stockings, and she gave Mr. Coolidge all the credit. She was a very proud young wife, as she told the secret. “You know, Mr. Coolidge loves to select my clothes for me. And he has such good taste I just j let him. r “He takes his early morning walk to the State House past the smart Boston shops on Tremont Street and Boylston Street. And when he sees anything he likes he goes in, asks them to set it aside and then calls iue up. Later in the day we go shopping If the dress looks well on m\ Mr. Coolidge buys it. If it doesn't, we just go further. For Mr. Coolidge 1 is one of the most critical shoppers * I ever knew. As for colors, he likes blue best for me. And as for materials, he prefers crepe de Chine. My skirts he al ways wants pleated. Mr. Coolidge is far fussier than I am. Often I get tired of looking about and would gladly take something not quite right, but he spurs me on. " ‘No, no,’ he says, 'that’s not quite the blue to go with your eyes.’ And so I give in and we go on till he is suited.” This is the way in Boston, and so far in Washington, that the new First Lady of the Land has chosen her wardrobe. Whether the Coolidges will keep up the custom now that the President has taken on so many added responsibili ties, is of course doubtful. Now, all the business of family life is not settled in New England when the socks are knitted for father and the boys and the gowns are chosen for mother. There is still what they used to mQ In New England the •'inner man” to be fed? and also in old New England there ere very good recipes for feeding him. Mrs. Coolidge can cook the old New England standbys to perfection—all, In fact, ex cept biscuits. Several years ago the President in one of his lighter moments explained that he would never recommend Mrs. Coolldge’s biscuits. "They are too hard and they are inclined to be tough,” said he, smiling teasingly at his wife. She took the disparagement of the biscuits with good grace. But when it comes to corn muffins, to salad dressing and to custard pie—all articles of diet by which New England swears, Mrs. Coolidge is “right there.” She has very generously given out her recipes for these and long ago they were all tried out in Boston and acclaimed as quite the thing in salad dressing and corn muffins and custard pie and biscuits. Perhaps they are quite the thing be cause Mrs. Coolidge went to the old New England oooks for her faro rite red pea. Here's Mrs. Coolidge'a custard pie recipei Mix three-fourths of a cup of sugar, one rounding tablespoon of flour and a pinch of salt with the yolks of two sggs well beaten and two and a half eupe of milk. After they are well mixed to gether pour the Ingredients into a pie plate in which the lower crust has been allowed to cook slightly. Bake in a mod erate oven until nkely browned. To make the pastry take one large cup of flour and mix it with four table spoons of lard (not melted). Add one half teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of baking powder. Stir the lea water In gradually, adding more than half a cup if necessary to make n dough stiff enough for handling and rolling. Add Just enough flour to roll lightly, as too much handling or mixing spoils the crust. Bake In • glass pie plate. Her mayonnaise salad dressing comes next. This recipe Mrs. Coolidge learned from Mrs. Mary Hazel, her aunt, who Ihres at 60 Park Street, Rqjcbury, a sub urb just outside of Boston. Here is the way the mayonnalle is madet Cream lightly one cup of butter In another dish stir smoothly together the yolks of four eggs, one tablespoon of pre pared mustard and one teaspoon salt. Mr In the butter and add alowly, beating all the while, one cup of olive oil and half a cup of lemon juke and vinegar, or if preferred a whole cup of lemon juice. When mixed put into a quart jar and gradually work In more oil until the jar la filled. This dressing will keep indefi nitely without losing its flavor. The recipes for the corn muffins and the biscuits about which there la some difference of opinion follow: * Put one cup of cornmeal, two cups of flour, two teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl. Add two ecrge and milk to the right con sistency. Melt one tablespoon of butter and add. Pour the Ingredient! into but Charming and sensible Mrs. Coolidge ready for a morning of shopping tered muffin pans and cook In a moderate oven until golden. . The baking powder biscuits the Presi dent failed to recommend Mrs. Coolidge makes thus: Add to four cups of flour and four tablespoons of baking powder a quarter of a cup of butter and milk to the right consistency. Roll out the dough on a floured breadboard, cut and bake in a hot oven until done. If a sweet biscuit is desired add four tablespoons of sugar. But it is in darning and knitting and entertaining that Mrs. Coolidge is most interested, although she is an excellent cook. In spite of the honors which have come to her as her husband progressed through public life, honors which she has accepted with simple grace and humility, Mrs. Coolidge was more than delighted to hear that she had received honorable * mention for a fine piece of knitting work which she made recently for the Women’s Nation*1 Knitting Contest. * Her offering was'a baby carriage robe of plain knitted stitch, with panels of knitted lace. She lined it with pink crepe de Chine and sent along this verse to go with it: "We are glad to know that a baby wee Adds another twig to your family tree; And may every tick of Time’s old clock Prove it more of a chip from the good old block.” So she received honorable mention and then she promptly announced, with true New England “forehandedness,” that this particular ca.-riage robe was going to be saved for the first Coolidge grand child.