Simmer a Winter Dinner

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With "cold days a' comin'", we thought you'd like to know how to use MOTHER's Wood-Burner (or any wood stove) to...

Well, although the evenings may still be warm enough to lure an occasional firefly into flashin', we all know that cold weather won't be long in comin'.

And most of us are also pretty danged certain that the winter of 1979/1980 will be marked with more energy problems—such as high heating fuel prices (and limited availability), power outages, and so forth—than any cold season in recent memory.

That very strong possibility means that owning some sort of wood-burning stove—even if the appliance is only to be used as backup for your regular heating and cooking systems—makes better sense than ever!

So if you're one of those folks who don't have a "timber-powered" heater, you should know that there's still time to build yourself a "$500 wood stove" (for less than $41!) using MOTHER'S plans. And, for those men and women who already own a wood-burning wonder, we'd like to share a way to use your stove—while it's heating your home—to cook up a hearty and nutritious dinner.

IN THE GRAND TRADITION

In most country kitchens of the not-so-distant past (in the United States and many other nations as well), the "pot-au-feu"—a long-simmered, savory kettleful. of good foods—occupied a prominent position on "the back burner" of the family cookstove.

The traditional soup could be made with any of an almost infinite number of recipes, or it might be simply a tasty combination of leftovers. But—regardless of the fixin's used—the slow-simmer cooking method resulted in an overall blend of flavor . . . yet still allowed the individual taste of each separate ingredient to "shine on through".