Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 45

Women's section About l'eoplc 2 Fashions Scene li MINNEAPOLIS, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1959 Playing Chef Perks Appetites Young 31a ry Hart Minneapolis Tribune Home Economist HILDREN ARE NEVER too young to help in the kitchen. dough close together on the baking sheet, and when the cookies bake they fuse together to form men." "The children use their imagination, too, in deciding whether this cookie is a wagon or that one a flower." These are the cookies her children find most fun to fix. Mother mixes the dough, but Mark and Linda do the rest except for the baking. Sift together remaining ingredients and mix well into the shortening mixture. Chill.

Roll dough in balls about the size of walnuts. Dip half the balls into granulated sugar. Place with the sugar side up on greased baking sheets. Sprinkle cookies with a few drops of water. Bake about 10 to 12 minutes in moderately hot oven (375 degrees).

Makes about four dozen cookies. MOLASSES COOKIES 4 c. snurivning When she bakes a pie, Mark, 6, and Linda, 3, are right at her elbows. Then she gives them some dough. The large kitchen table has plenty of room to roll and spill flour, and they make tarts.

They even share in dabs of pie filling left over. Cinnamon rolls are another area in which they shine. They're allowed to choose their own topping to sprinkle on the rolled-out dough and painstakingly put the raisins in just the right spot. Then they carefully roll the dough to be sliced by mother. "OF COURSE, theirs are much darker, and my husband and I couldn't bear to eat the rolls, but Mark and Linda love them," said Mrs.

Escher. Mark was 3 when his mother first let him assist, but his sister started much younger. He can spoon out chocolate chip cookies and delights in rolling balls of molasses cookies. "They both like these cookies best," said Mrs. Escher.

"I never have to make gingerbread men any longer, because you can put different size balls of That's not quite true. But one of the first lessons a creeper or a toddler learns is that the oven is a "hot." And hot very well may be the first word your child breathlessly utters even before mama or dada. Usually during the first year parents can't get the epoon.to their offspring's mouth fast enough. But then appetites often begin to falter, and that's when letting youngsters help in the kitchen pays off. "MY TEETH couldn't stand biting through some of the pie crust they roll out, but they eat every bite," said Mrs.

C. William Escher, 6721 Bloomington Richfield. She encourages her children to help in the kitchen, because not only do they eat every mouthful of what they cook or bake, but she feels the children get a better appreciation of the work it takes to prepare food. 1 c. brown sugar, packed 1 egg Vi c.

molasses 2', e. sifted flour 2 tsp. soda Jt tsp. salt Vt tsp. cloves 1 tsp.

cinnamon 1 tsp. ginger Mix together shortening, sugar, egg and molasses. V-' Mrs. 'Clifford Christenson, 1394 Raymond St. Paul, is in charge of the play school at the school of home economics, University of Minnesota.

She said that holidays are the perfect time to encourage children to help in the kitchen. "Getting children interested in the kitchen isn't nearly as big a problem as getting the parents to have enough patience to let their children assist," she pointed out. "THE PERSONAL touch given by children to food is great psychology," she said. Before Christmas the 3-year-olds always make cookies. Everybody mixes the dough, everybody rolls it out, and everybody cuts the cookies.

Then the children all decorate the cookies before baking. Cupcakes made from mix are another project. In her own home, she started her two children, Ann Marie, now 10, and Noel, 14, on the road to a culinary career by letting them frost baked cookies around holiday time. "THEY EVEN had their friends in to ice and decorate the baked cookies. Then we packed boxes for them to take home," said Mrs.

Christenson. Now her daughter is a member of a 4-H group and foods is the first project she picked. Ann Marie is working on snacks. Popcorn, cheese dips and, the other night, ants on a log have been some of the foods the family has shared. Ants on a log are celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter and dotted with raisins.

Mrs. Christenson feels 3 years is the best age to allow children in the kitchen. Two-year-olds don't have the muscular co-ordination to do too much, al-thought, she said, they can squeeze dough until it is black. She finds that giving 2-year-olds egg beaters to play with in water encourages them to beat eggs and cream. "That is, if someone holds the container so it doesn't slip," she said.

Slipping skins from peaches after they have been scalded, shucking peas, scraping carrots with vegetable peelers, coloring Easter eggs, baking simple desserts such as apple crisp or cookie bars are other projects that children might be started on, said Mrs. Christenson. "Most Important Is the feeling of satisfaction the child gets. His interest might continue if it is stimulated when young, even if it seems more bother than it's worth," said the playschool teacher. "Once in a while this even results in breakfast in bed." In my own home, cooking cheese sandwiches on an electric grill, putting together egg nogs and the dip for French toast, setting the table (counting the silver needed even helps with arithmetic) and opening cans of food are some of the tasks my 7-year-old son, Peter, can do.

Here's a simple drink that children can concoct. You might have to break the egg and separate it for them. COCOA-NOG Vi f. tweet cocoa mix 1 egg yolk, unbeaten Dash of salt 2 c. chilled milk 1 egg white, stiffly beaten Combine cocoa mix, egg yolk and salt.

Beat with rotary egg beater until blended. Then add milk gradually, stirring constantly. Fold into beaten egg white. Serve at once in tall glasses. Makes three or four servings.

-ill Vv I 1 A VN I I Wis MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE PHOTO IY ARTHUR HAG EH MRS. C. WILLIAM ESCHER AND CHILDREN, MARK, 6, AND LINDA, 3 Mother mixed the dough, but youngsters delight in rolling cookie balls conversation Don't Love Thy Neighbor-for at Least 3 Years piece They're Talking About DEAR ANN LANDERS: I am 14 years old and have been in love with the boy across the street for 5 years. I know there will never be anyone else for me as long as I live. He is 18 years old and doesn't even know I exist.

He is a pal of my older brother and when he comes in man to phone you when he is free. A person who Is In the process of getting a divorce is still married. Since you know his wife is searching high and low for a target, why stick your neck out? Suggest to your friend that he give the marriage time for a decent burial. One of the most ludicrous sights on the social scene is the person who is hanging crepe on a marriage with one hand and trying to tie up Dan Cupid with the other. the house I try to be as nice as possible but he treats me like I am a stick of furniture.

Once he bumped into me and didn't even say "Pardon me." Yesterday he was fixing his jalopy and had grease on his face and was wearing old clothes. I thought he looked darling, so I ran and got my camera to take some pictures. He grabbed the camera out of my hands, snapped the shutter back and forth and ruined all the film. to lower the boom when they see things which are not perceptible to your 16-year-old eyes. DEAR ANN: I'm a senior and unless some miracle happens I'll wind up my last year of high school without a single date.

My friends don't realize it because I get around a lot. I'm active on committees, I'm invited along as an extra, or I go stag with other girls. But the truth is, no fellow has ever called me on the phone for an hon-, est-to-goodness date. I'm everyone's friend and nobody's sweetheart. Boys want my advice on how to get OTHER girls.

They call me a "swell pal" and a "good sport," but no one wants to take me out. My home ec teacher, who Is wonderful, suggested I lose weight but my mother says I'm not fat, just pleasingly plump. (I'm tall five feet, seven inches and need some flesh on my bones. She says when the right fellow comes along he'll take me as I am. She doesn't want me to make myself nervous by dieting.

Is she right? I need help. THE LONELY CROWD. ANN SAYS: Sorry, but I don't agree with mother. Dieting needn't mean starving one's self into a state of collapse. More girls are nervous because they can't get a date than because they are dieting.

The fact that you state your height but not your weight makes me suspect you are too heavy. True, the more mature fellows attach little importance to a girl's figure but why make It tough for a guy by burying your sterling qualities under a lot of unnecessary blubber? My advice Is go to a doctor and let HIM decide. He'll give you the straight goods, minus the mother-love. To earn the difference between a marriage that "settles down" and one that "gets dull," send for ANN LANDERS' booklet, "What To Expect from Marriage," enclosing with your request 20 cents in coin and a large, self-addressed, stamped envelope. (Ann Landers will be glad to help you with your problems.

Send them to her in care of the Minneapolis Tribune, enclosing a stamped, self -addressed envelope.) And chuckling over Maestro Antal Dorati's whim. One woman who bought two Dorati-autographed copies of "Encore," the cookbook produced by women symphony boosters, discovered one contained the signature: "Napoleon Bonaparte." Knee-length pantajoons for "the girls" to wear instead of slips this spring. Charles Nolte, actor-son of the university's Dean Julius Nolte, back from doing a movie in Berlin with Martine Carol, France's cleanest screen queen. (Remember those bathtub scenes?) The serious music-lover (male) at music-spoofer Anna Russell's concert as reported by Joe Wright who swiveled around in his seat and glared at the first burst of laughter. (And lucky guests of Mr.

and Mrs. John Rood who caught a close-up view of the Russell humor at a post-concert party). St. Louis Park's dancing Parkettes who wowed them at the St. Paul winter carnival.

The girls did themselves proud for their former' coach, 19.r)9 Minneapolis Aquatennial Queen Sharon Bigalke. The five drawings from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Dick Davis plucked off the walls at home to be hung in the exhibit of French drawings currently on view at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. DEAR ANN: I'm a teen-ager who usually agrees with your advice but I almost croaked when you said three dates a week are one too many for high school kids.

I'm 16 and have been going steady with a wonderful boy for six months. We are in love and planning for a future together. Neither of us has any intention of dating oihers. We are happiest when we're together. When we first started to go steady we saw each other every night.

My folks cut it down to one date during the week, and two dates on week-ends. Now, after rending your column, they want to cut out the midweek date, and let me go out only on week ends. We are sensible and know right from wrong. Why should we be deprived of the pleasure of being together when we are so in love? This boy is my whole life. You have made things rough for me and I hope you'll change your mind and say three dates a week are not too many for sensible teen-agers.

TROUBLED TEEN. ANN SAYS: Sorry, but the advice still stands. You describe yourself as "sensible," yet In the next breath you say this boy Is your "whole life." These two statements don't Jibe. You're too gaga over this boy to think straight. What most teen-agers fail to realize Is that 16 year-old "love" is made up of three parts chemistry to one part logic.

You see each other every day at school. This Is ample stimulation for teen-agen whose major business should be getting an education. A date on Friday night and one on Saturday night are plenty to keep the love boat afloat Be thankful your parents have the Judgment I think this was rather mean but I love him so much 1 am willing to overlook it if he will just be nice tome, Please tell me what to do. HOPEFUL. ANN SAYS: You are making a first-class pest of yourself.

Ignore the boy for about three years. Perhaps when he rediscovers you on his own he may view you in a different light. The pal's kid sister (across the street yet) starts out with three strikes against her. Time is your best ally. DEAR ANN LANDERS: I'm a widow in my early 40s, and want very much to marry again.

A certain man In our crowd is in the process of getting a divorce. He and his wife never got along well and the divorce comes as no surprise. The man is gallant, handsome and interesting. He has phoned me three times once to chat, and twice to invite me out. I had to decline his invitations because of previous commitments.

The divorce will not be final for a while, but he says he's lonesome NOW. This man's wife is a friend of mine and a real witch. She has her lawyer looking high and low to bang something on him. I don't want to supply any material. Would it be all right to have an Innocent dinner with him? I like him very much.

FINE LINE. ANN SAYS: Tell the gallant, handsome, Interesting.