Screenland (Nov 1937-Apr 1938)

■ ■ ■ . ■ . ■■. 1 SHU] 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Gale Sondergaard, one of Hollywood's best actresses, entertains in the Danish fashion. Try her unusual recipes By Betty Boone ONE of the proudest home owners in all Hollywood is that dark beauty, Gale Sondergaard. "And a few years ago," she confided, laughing, "if you had told me I'd ever own a house, I'd have knocked you down !" It's a Spanish house with a red roof and blue doors, set like the eyrie of an eagle, on a high hilltop, and built on varying levels, so that on first view it seems to be honeycombed with red-tiled stairs. Stairs to the bedrooms, stairs to the living room, stairs to the hall that leads to the dining room, and flight after flight roaming up and down hill from patio to patio, from summer-house to outdoor living rooms. If / lived here, I'd have broken a couple of legs by this time, but Gale and her husband, Herbert Biberman, adore their mountain craS .. . One whole side of the white-walled living took her to Denmark to pay a visit to her grandmother. "I'll never forget my grandmother's table ! It was ' charming. There were individual vases with forget-me-nots at each place, and a perfectly huge soup tureen with an enormous ladle. I suppose I was fascinated by these things because I adored soup. My mother used to make Danish soup, too. "At Grandmother's, in Denmark, we had fruit soup occasionally, and that is simply delicious ! You can make it of any fruit juice, but Grandmother used grapejuice and rhubarb, slightly thickened and served piping hot with small slices of toasted bread floating in it. You can use any combination of fruit juices, and it would be rather interesting to try it with California's fruit. Here is a recipe for Rhubarb Soup we have used and found good :" The dark beauty of Sondergaard is set off by her interestingly decorated dining table, with its tall Russian candlesticks, and black china. room is lined with open book shelves filled with tempting volumes ; there's a piano, of course, and not an uncomfortable chair in the place. The dominating note in _ the room, however, is a picture of Gale in a blue gown, painted by Herbert Biberman s artist brother Edward. Gale, in a black dinner gown banded in gold, gold earrings and bracelets contrasting with her shining black hair, sat on a sandcolored chesterfield. "This is our first house," went on my hostess, surveying the room. "On our way out from New York, we said to each other : 'One thing we will have in California — and that will be a house on a hill!' The very day we arrived, a real estate agent brought us up here to Hollywoodland, showed us this place, and we rented it immediately and moved right in. We hadn't been here very long before we found out that the owners wanted to sell, and we knew someone else would seize it if we didn't, so here we are — home owners at last !" Gale is decidedly not a housekeeper, but she remembers fondly the delicious Danish dishes she ate as a child, when her parents RHUBARB SOUP 1 bunch pink rhubarb grated y$ cup sugar 1 lemon rind Yi cup water 1 wineglass (Y CUP) sherry Cut rhubarb in small pieces and stevy with lemon rind, sugar and water until rhubarb is tender. Put through sieve and add sherry before serving. This may be served hot or chilled. "Another I loved as a child was Bestermoder Budeing or Grandmother's Pudding. It is made of dried bread rusks rolled out with eggs and milk and steamed for hours. Then it comes in a mould with the most heavenly crust, and you serve it with hot fruit sauce. We used to make a full meal of this, as it is so good you can't help coming back for more and more. It can be served for buffet suppers in the winter time." DANISH APPLE CAKE 3 lbs. apples ' pt. cream boxes sweetened zweibach % cup melted butter cinnamon to taste Pare the apples and with very little water, cook into applesauce. Sweeten to taste. Add cinnamon. Roll contents of boxes of zweibach into fine crumbs and mix melted butter with them. Butter a deep baking dish. Place layer of crumbs on bottom, follow with layer of applesauce. Repeat until the dish is full, ending with a layer of crumbs. Place in a slow oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and place in ice box to chill thoroughly. Turn dish over onto a large platter and remove the pan. Serve with a thick layer of whipped cream covering the entire molded cake. "A Danish salad is no mere adjunct to a meal. It's a main luncheon or supper dish. This one is very good served with Ry-crisp or Crax Butter wafers." DANISH SALAD Put the following ingredients in a meat grinder together. Yi lb. cold, cooked meat 2 cold boiled white potatoes 1 large peeled apple (firm) Yz small onion 3 pickled beets Yz stalk crisp celery 1 small dill pickle Mix well together, season highly with salt and pepper. Add V/z tablespoons Wesson Salad oil and 2 tablespoons red vinegar in which beets are pickled. Arrange on an oblong platter and garnish center of the mould with grated egg yolk. Arrange chopped egg white around yolk. Garnish the platter with crisp lettuce. 65