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Show I SHOPPER'S 1 CORNER By DOROTHY BARCLAY QUARTET IN F QUARTET in F for Fruit Is the sweet music u) the home-maker's home-maker's ears these days. Prunes and raisins in the dry line, and oranges and tangerines in the fresh. Take your choice, for they're all plentiful at your market, and therefore there-fore easy on the budget. Know what the Department of Agriculture authorities estimate? That there will be . 26 per cent more prunes and wait a AlAiN minute 67 per cent more raisins than 5Tf?fclrl last year. FEATURE What little Jack I Horner in his corn er pulled out of his Christmas pie and called a plum, is the prune we know today. It's the type of plum that's firm and sweet, and solid enough to dry whole. Today's Horner plums or prunes, are better, plumper and tenderer than the tradiional nursery rhyme one, and because of modern packaging, pack-aging, cleaner and easier to handle. han-dle. No more of that long soaking and all-day stewing for these modern mod-ern prunes. Some of them, in fact are especially treated with moist heat, and need little or no cooking, they're so moist and tender. The packaged prunes can be used in multiple ways, to suit the taste of every member of the family. If they're too dry for your favorite treatment, just cover them with water and let them stand until soft enough to cut and drain. Such prunes can be pitted and stuffed for salad or a confection. A simple way to have a constant supply of prunes to draw on, is to put some in a fruit jar, cover with water, screw on the top, and keep in the refrigerator for a few days. WHIP IT UP For whipping up, longer cooking is necessary than for the whole fruit, because the pulp will have to separate from pit and skins to go through the sieve. For fast cooking, use your pressure pres-sure cooker. The softer prunes will be cooked by the time you have 15 pounds pressure. The harder ones may need about 10 minutes, at 15 pounds. Remove the cooker from the heat, and let the pressure drop to zero to cool the fruit gradually. If you like 'em sweeter, add sugar, or still better, honey, which is plentiful, right now. If you want variety, try a slice or two of lemon or orange, or a spicy cinnamon or clove. As for raisins, they're practically a drug on the market, and are selling sell-ing 50 to 100 per cent more widely than a year ago. So there are plenty for your coffee cake, or Sjuit cake, or muffins or cookies or for just eating in the raw. TANGERINE AROMA That Christmas stocking aroma of tangerine lingers on for months as an echo of the holidays. And you can preserve it with the large supply sup-ply of tangerines still on the market, mar-ket, as long as it lasts. For an aft- er-auiiuui miuuK lur me cnuoren, as a fruit-cup, as marmalade, as a cocktail, there's a tang in that tangerine tan-gerine flavor which is like nothing else in the way of fruit. Make your own juice or marmalade, or buy the juice in cans at your store and you've really got something. |