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Show Homemade Presents Are Sure to Please Discriminating Friends A DAY or two or three spent in the kitchen instead of out among Christmas crowds will yield several lovely as well as edible presents to g;ve your closest friends. Most people are so busy around the holidays, not only with shopping LYNN CHAMBERS' MENU Pot Roast with Potato Pancakes Apple Sauce Green Beans Pineapple - Cabbage Slaw Rolls Beverage Orange Tapicoa Pudding Cookies 1 lemons pound preserved ginger H pint water Sugar Pare, quarter and core pears. Pare apples, core and cut cros-wise cros-wise into one-half inch slices. Grate rind of lemons and add juice to the water. Cut ginger in small pieces. For every pound of fruit allow one pound of sugar. Boil sugar and water wa-ter to a syrup, then add remaining ingredients and boil 45 minutes or until thick and clear. Place in but with entertaining enter-taining that food presents will be Vealiy welcome. Think how nice it lis to receive some colorful jelly to serve with Christ- "mas dinner or a homemade coffee cake done up in gala wrappings! Make a gift list of food presents, then bring out the recipes and decide de-cide just how much of each to make. Wrap prettily and deliver just as you would other presents. Keep a few extra boxes of food gifts to give just in case someone you'd forgotten forgot-ten drops in unexpectedly. If you put up a lot of jellies, jams and preserves during the summer, bring these out and wrap in gay paper and tie with fancy bows. Even one jar makes a perfectly delightful de-lightful present. For more elaborate presents you might want to give several jars on a tray that may be used for relish rel-ish or sandwiches JUST IN CASE you do not have enough jars of jelly from summer, here are some recipes to replenish the supply. Cranberry Jam (Makes 13 6-ounce glasses) 7 cups prepared frnit 3 cups sugar 3 cups light corn syrup 1 box powdered fruit pectin To prepare fruit, add four cups water to about three and one-fourth pounds of fully ripe cranberries. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, cov-ered, for 10 minutes. Sieve pulp to remove seeds, if desired. (For spiced cranberry jam, simmer fruit with one-half teaspoon ground cloves and one teaspoon cinnamon This Christmas tree coffee cake will make a welcome present for neighbors or close friends, because be-cause it's good to eat as well as -very festive appearing. To make it, use a yeast dough recipe given In the column and decorate with candied red and green cherries to give the effect of lights. sterilized cans or jars and seal at once. Christmas Tree Coffee Cake (Makes 1 tree cake) 1 cup ready-to-eat bran 1 cup scalded milk cup shortening Yi cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 cake compressed yeast or 1 package granular yeast 1 egg, well beaten 2 cups sifted flour Combine bran, milk, shortening, sugar and salt. Stir until shortening shorten-ing is melted, then cool to lukewarm. luke-warm. Soften yeast in this mixture. Add egg. Stir In flour to make a soft dough; cover. Let stand ten minutes. Knead on lightly floured surface. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. Punch down. Form dough into a long rope or roll about one Inch thick; swirl back I and forth on a : x 1 cookie sheet in shape of a pine tree, reserving a small portion of the dough to use for the trunk of the tree. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Presents made in your kitchen reflect your interest and thought-fulness thought-fulness to the recipient of the gift, especially if you give gay and colorful col-orful jars of jellies and other canned goods. Use some of the stock you put up this summer for gifts. or one and one-half teaspoons of any desired combination of spices.) Measure sugar and corn syrup into a dry bowl and set aside until needed. Measure prepared fruit into in-to a five to six quart kettle filling up the last cup or fraction of cup with water if necessary. Place over hottest fire. Add powdered fruit ! pectin, mix well, ' and continue stirring stir-ring until mixture comes to a hard: boil. Pour in sugar-andsvruD sugar-andsvruD at once. 0 Bake in a moderate (375-degree) oven for about 25 minutes. When cool, frost with uncooked icing (made out of powdered sugar and a little milk) and decorate with candied can-died cherries to represent . lights on a tree. HERE IS an excellent fruit bread to have on hand for the holidays because it will keep fresh for weeks if kept wrapped in waxed paper and placed in a tin. Slice it thin and use for sandwiches. It makes a lovely gift. Fruit Bread (Makes 3 loaves) 12 eggs 3 cups sugar 6 cups flour X tablespoons baking powder Z cups chopped seedless raisins 1 cups chopped walnuts I cup chopped candied orange peel Beat the eggs and sugar together for 10 minutes on an electric mixer. (Hand beating will take an hour so stirring constantly. (To reduce foaming, one-fourth teaspoon butter may be added.) Continue stirring, bring to a full, rolling boil and boil hard one minute. Remove from fire, skim, pour quickly. Paraffin hot jam at once. Apricot Jam 1 pound dried apricots 1J4 cups sugar " cup seedless raisins cup water in which apricots were soaked 1 orange Wash apricots and soak In water enough to cover for one hour. Slice orange fine and cut each slice In fine pieces. Mix all Ingredients together. to-gether. Cook slowly until thickened. Fill jelly glasses and seal with paraffin at once. Pear and Apple Conserve 9 hard pears 6 tart apples you'll have to enlist help from the youngsters!) Fold in the flour and baking powder which have been sifted sift-ed together. Add the fruits, mixed and floured with a bit of extra flour. Bake in greased loaf pans in a slow (325-degree) oven for one hour. This is a nice bread for a gift. It's rich and has a distinctive flavor because of the walnuts. Serve it for sandwiches when entertaining, rather rath-er than for a meal. Released by WNU Features. LYNN SAYS: Make Wrappings Gay For Bome-Made Gifts Plum puddings can be given away in small colorful bowls or molds with the paper over the top. The scallop treatment around the paper gives a festive effect. When you're giving away cookies in a round, flat, tin box, make it decorative by placing a lacy frill around the edge of the cover. A real holly sprig on top will show off much better if placed on a small lace doily "- - - Make or buy biscuit and pastry mixes and store in the refrigerator to have them ready for quick use. Make it easy to stuff your holiday bird by getting crumbs ready early and storing them in glass jars. Round cereal boxes such as those in which oatmeal comes may be covered with candy striped paper and filled with cookies. Children's goodies can be given away in small socks. Put in a red candy cane for color and tie the sock with a red, green or colorful how. |