Hearth

Patricia J. Thompson talked to a room full of home economists at Temple University's Ambler campus last week about the symbolism of birthday cakes, the relevance of Greek mythology, the perversity of backbiting feminists and the importance of compassion in society. It was the second long day in a weeklong seminar, Home Economics in the '90s. One of the 50 or so women who sat in plastic desk-chairs, listening intently to Thompson's lecture, had brought a pillow with a Peanuts cartoon pillowcase to sit on. Home economists are nothing if not practical.

A basic loaf of bread might contain only four elements - flour, yeast, water and salt. But transforming that handful of humble ingredients into a slice of heaven sometimes requires a proper brick oven, one that can sustain temperatures of more than 450 degrees. And to fuel such a beast you need wood - plenty of it. At Wegmans they know about wood. When the supermarket chain's 71st store opens in Cherry Hill next month, the job of keeping the hearth fire burning will be well under way. In this case, it's no small brick oven.

"It takes about two hours of burning soft woods to fire up the oven," said Don Pettifer, director of the Historic Cold Spring Village in Cape May County. "That generates enough heat to get the bricks hot. " Once heated, the huge brick beehive oven retains enough heat to bake and preserve several batches of different foods over nearly 24 hours. That means that, on baking days (usually Wednesdays and Saturdays), visitors to this 22-acre complex of 18 historic homes and workshops, are almost certain to find something interesting in the works in the restored kitchen or coming out of the four-foot diameter oven or off of the six-foot hearth.

The ancient Greeks believed that everything in the universe was created from four elements: water, air, earth, and fire. From now until March 20, the official end of winter, our water, air, and earth are pretty frigid. The most inviting element is fire - the fire that warms chilly bones on a freezing night, lifts the spirit and sparks romance. Yes, we're talking about that beacon of comfort: the fireplace. "A fireside is a great opiate," said the poet and journalist Leigh Hunt.

HOME FIRES Because there's nothing like home and hearth during the holidays, it pays to keep the hearth working well. The Reader's Digest suggests the following: Call a chimney sweep to clean your chimney at least once a year. Inspect your fireplace with a flashlight for loose bricks and gaps in the mortar, and repair any defects. Look up the chimney, and you should be able to see daylight; if you can't, it may mean that a blockage, such as a bird's nest, must be removed. Clean the hearth weekly.

In this season of giving, two struggling club operators are looking for your help to keep them afloat. Fred Hartheimer is mourning the unexpected loss of the Northwest Passage Arts Center, an alternative entertainment venue on W. Chelten Avenue near Wayne, which went up in flames on Nov. 18, one month after it opened. Tomorrow night, Settlement Music School (6128 Germantown Ave.) will host a benefit concert for Hartheimer and the Northwest Passage, featuring the Dukes of Destiny blues band, with sets at 8 and 10. Donation is $10. Info: 438-0200.

Is it only in our house, or do the holidays polarize every family into warring camps: santas versus scrooges? Santas, you know who you are. You love the whiff of pine. You thrill to the chorus of carols. You get misty over It's a Wonderful Life. Scrooges, well, we're made so prickly by the scratch of the pine needle that we don't smell its fragrance. We prefer dirges to carols. Our idea of seasonal programming is The Night the Reindeer Died. In these days of glasnost, we acknowledge that it is unseasonable to relish the role of holiday killjoy, so we will take the lead in negotiating a cease- fire.

If you were devastated by the sudden closing of the famous Chubby's two years ago, next week is your chance to grab a piece of the glory. The soon-to-be-demolished steakhouse and bar is auctioning off the antiques and memorabilia - and even the bricks themselves - that gave the South Jersey hot spot its Old World flair. "Our customers are going to come and want something of Chubby's before it's gone forever," said Colleen Stafford, daughter of former boxer Joe "Chubby" Stafford, who opened the hangout in 1933.

"STRAIGHT TALK" By Lee Iacocca and Sonny Kleinfeld Bantam. $21.95 The male ego lives. In suburban Detroit, from whence Lee Iacocca has wheeled in another book, "Straight Talk," written with New York Times business writer Sonny Kleinfeld. Before giving us the skinny on family, sound management and the waywardness of Wall Street, Lee has a few matters to acknowledge and discuss, foremost being thanking "the 6.5 million people who bought my first book. " Next, after the usual round of publishing thank-you's, Lee tells us why he wrote a second book, even though "Rocky II" wasn't as good as "Rocky I," "Jaws II" wasn't as good as "Jaws I" and even "Meatballs II" wasn't as good as "Meatballs II" - nice to know he saw all three.

Barbara "B.J. " Stubinski Meany, 53, of Rosemont, a country-western singer and songwriter who performed with local bands for nearly two decades, died of cancer Monday at Bryn Mawr Hospital. She was lead singer for Cross Fork, a local country-western band, from its inception in 1989 until its breakup in 1993. It performed throughout the area, including the Goshen Country Fair in Chester County, at the Hearth in Pipersville, and at Northampton Township's open-air theater in Bucks County.

Nothing puts the cozy in cold-weather dining quite like the crackle of a fireplace. But for a region with as much history as Philadelphia, the old-time hearth has become a surprising rarity in local restaurants. And fireside ambience, it turns out, is hardly a guarantee of good cooking - as I discovered at a couple of dud meals during my recent quest. Thankfully, I found more than a handful of admirable exceptions to the trend worth sharing here, from a classic Bucks County brunch perch over the Delaware River to a stylish Center City corner boîte where familiar comforts get a cutting-edge makeover.

Part of the list is runovers, unfinished business, cryptic notes to self: A fireside dinner at the Carversville Inn once again seems like the venue for good winter material; and has for about three years running. Its problem is that something always jumps the line in that neck of Bucks County (up toward New Hope) - a gorgeous lavender farm where they're making their own honey, or Solebury Orchard in cider season, or the homespun pork and oyster dinner they've been holding at the Carversville Christian Church since 1871.

It's still cold. And sometimes a little damp. And even if we haven't gotten those multi-feet snowstorms this year, the cold is still hanging on. Who wouldn't want to curl up next to a warm, roaring fire? If you don't have a fireplace of your own - or just don't want to deal with chopping and dragging wood - take a break at one of the region's many bars, restaurants and coffee spots where the best view is of the hearth. Three Beans Coffee Co. 140 N. Haddon Ave., Haddonfield, 856-354-4751 This coffeehouse is like a home away from home.

Open-hearth cooking is not only alive and well in historic sites throughout South Jersey - folks are also taking courses on this old-fashioned craft, and it can even be seen in restaurants. The popularity is not surprising to Terry Haroin of Gloucester Township, the hearth cook at the Whitall House Museum, a revolutionary-era home located on the Red Bank Battlefield in National Park. Haroin learned open-hearth cooking 14 years ago after seeing demonstrations in Williamsburg, Va. A student of 18th-century life, she previously worked as a volunteer at the Olde Stone House in Washington Township.

A basic loaf of bread might contain only four elements - flour, yeast, water and salt. But transforming that handful of humble ingredients into a slice of heaven sometimes requires a proper brick oven, one that can sustain temperatures of more than 450 degrees. And to fuel such a beast you need wood - plenty of it. At Wegmans they know about wood. When the supermarket chain's 71st store opens in Cherry Hill next month, the job of keeping the hearth fire burning will be well under way. In this case, it's no small brick oven.

Owning and maintaining a vintage home - a true antique of about 100 years - is no walk in the park. As some first-time buyers lured by fixer-upper prices quickly discover, old houses can be very, very expensive. Carpenters and other tradespeople conversant in old construction techniques are well-paid for their work. After all, upgrading cranky 19th-century dwellings for fast-paced 21st-century living can require ingenuity as well as skill. And though finding fixtures (authentic or reproduction)

In early America, the Phoenixville area was a major hub of routes that led slaves north to freedom. This was due in large part to the open-minded Quakers who worshiped at the Schuylkill Friends Meeting House in the Corner Stores neighborhood at what is now Route 23 and Whitehorse Road in Schuylkill Township. The Schuylkill Township Anti-Slavery Society held its assemblies in the meeting house, and a number of those in the meeting were active in the movement. The best known was Elijah Pennypacker, whose house still stands only 100 yards from the meeting house.

Tucked away on a tree-lined street in Center City Philadelphia is a museum that, since 1888, has been the repository of historical significance. The Civil War Library and Museum, located at 1805 Pine St., has accumulated over the years 3,000 artifacts, 7,000 photographs, a 13,000-volume library, and a trove of manuscripts, letters and documents. Our region came close to losing some of these treasured and historic items. Recently, an amicable settlement was reached following a lawsuit filed by the State Attorney Gen. Michael Fisher, State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.

Some people dwell in the past. Others pine for it. And then there are those like Del Conner, through whom the past survives. He earns his living by sculpting firebacks, those cast-iron square plates, often handsomely ornamental, that early Americans propped against the back of the hearth to protect the bricks and radiate heat and light. When he began making firebacks in 1979, Conner says, no one else was creating designs. "I was the first to do new ones in 150 years," he says proudly.

For Cindy Jumbelick, it was her husband's failing health that nearly pushed the couple and their 5-year-old son into homelessness. "There are a lot more people that live paycheck to paycheck than we realize," said Kelly McClain, program director for Open Hearth Inc., a Spring City nonprofit agency that intervenes when families or individuals are near eviction. "And people living paycheck to paycheck can be one unforeseen expense away from homelessness. " Such was the case for the Jumbelicks a year ago, when Cindy had to take some unpaid vacation time to care for her ailing husband and then had to support the family on her income alone.