Easter ahead. Everything points to it. The winds soft; the roots are stirring. Plan now to bring the golden foods to the table. Present a daffodil plate for Easter breakfast. Center a mound of powdered sugar on a pale green plate, circle with sticks of golden pineapple. Eddie Ash's Homestead Groves will supply the Easter pines. A crate-load, five to seven big ones of two special kinds, the Natal and the Eleuthera, each fruit tagged to identify its variety. Green when they come, slowly they ripen when stored in the dark, in a dry and airy place. When a pine turns golden, it's ready for eating. To retard ripening, keep the fruit refrigerator-stored, then remove to room temperature a few days before it's scheduled for menu appearance.
The Natal and Eleuthera pineapples were brought to this country from the tropics a few short years ago and arc quite a different fruit from the usual pineapples around the stores. Not so different in appearance; different in the eating. These never bite the tongue, but are sweet and mellow. No need to add sugar. The entire fruit is edible, even the core. Juice runs when the knife cuts in. Crates of five to seven pines, according to size, availed the year round, price ＄5.50. Address Eddie Ash's Home-stead Groves, Dept. G, P. O. Box 868. Goulds, Florida.
Crisp bacon and screed eggs are good bracers for Easter sermons overlong. Pick a bacon hickory smoked, a Pennsylvania Dutch treat, one pound. sliced, ＄1.20; order from Hickory Valley Farm, Little Kunkletown, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. And, for our money, this farm has the ham-that-am, selling ＄1.50 a pound, the weight ranging from an 8-pound midget to an 18-pound whopper.
Ham leads the Easter food parade. Speaking of ham, one in the pink is a Polish ham, vacuum-tinned, imported here by the Atalanta Products Corporation of New York, on sale in delicacy shops and department store groceries across the nation.
Danish hams, too, from the Hafnia packers of New York, first since the war, came in early fall. How velvety the texture, Of course, say the Danes, we feed our hogs on grain, on milk, and potato. The hams are trimmed right down to lean, scarcely one-quarter inch of enveloping fat. The vacuum-packed beauties are cooked in their natural juices, one ounce of gelatin added, just enough to make the liquid congeal. The hams average 10 to 12 pounds, sell for ＄1.19 a pound, at Old Denmark, 135 East 57th Street, New York City.
Entertain with an Easter tea, but be sure the tea is a fine tea, worthy of the occasion. One to consider is Ridgways' Her Majesty'send, this an import blended of three choice teas, the delicately flavored Ceylon, India, and Formosa oolong. Before the war, H.M.B, was bought and enjoyed by thousands of tea-loving Americans; now, at long last, it returns to take an honored plate at the best tes. This tea was first ended more than sixty years ago by Ridgways, Ltd., London, to meet the exacting requirements of the late Queen Victoria. Because it is a very special tea, it is not sold generally but is offered only in the finer specialty shops, packed in an attractive lithographed tin, wrapped in cellophane, the price around ＄5.25 a pound. General Foods, 250 Park Avenue, New York City, import and distribute the blend.
Fruitcake-eating no longer ends with the holiday season. It's a year-round pleasure. Keep a cake ever ready to fill in as dessert or to serve as a sweet bite with afternoon lea. A vintage number, that cake baked by Frances Mennen, owner of Dear Lake Inn, at Dear Creek, Pennsylvania, originally baked at Christmastime only to serve on the Inn's menu. Guests begged to buy. A year ago Mrs. Mennen started taking orders and sold two hundred pounds. This year over one thousand pounds were mailed out before Christmas. A new batch of cakes is ready this month, aged since November, selling at ＄2 a pound in either 2-pound loaves or 5-pound rings.
The cake is blondie, made with red and green cherries, sultana raisins, glacéed pineapple, coconut shreds, and the long peels of orange and lemon. Four kinds of nuts: almonds, pecans, broken walnuts, and whole filberts. In the batter, fresh eggs, fresh butter. Before the cakes are made, the fruits are soaked five weeks in rum and brandy, so arc moist and flavorful. Cake tops get a glucose wash for a big shine, then are decorated with almonds and cherries. It takes a sharpade heated in warm water to do a neat cutting job because of those large chunks of fruit.
A different type of fruitcake is the Norwegian, baked by Packalee Morgan, a de luxe loaf chock aock with halved dates, with cherries and citron, littered with almonds. It slices most thin, has a natural sweetness. Odd something in its spicing. The spices, we learn, are imported from Norway and are quite different from those included in the usual English type of Christmas cake. We guess ground cardamom seed, but can't say for sure, and Packalee doesn't tell. Certainly it is the most unusual fruitcake of the winter's regiment that has crossed our desk. And pretty, the top decorated with almonds and cherries to form petaled flowers. A come-again cake, one piece leads to another. This cake is baked in one size only, a 3-pound family loaf, price ＄6 postpaid, and worth the price. Order from Packalee Morgan, Box 271G, Elizabeth. New Jersey. You won't be sorry.
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