A thousand ways to please a husband with Bettina's best recipes

"That's the queer part of it," Bettina replied. "That year seems unbelievably short in some ways and unbelievably long in others, and stranger yet, I don't feel that it is reall...

"MAY I come in?" said a voice at the screen door. "I came the kitchen way because I hoped that you would still be busy with the morning's work, and I might learn something. You...

THIS was the invitation received by Harry, Alice, Fred and even Bob, who had an inkling of what was about to happen, inasmuch as 1107 Carberry Avenue happened to be his own addr...

"DEAR Bettina," wrote Polly, "somehow I never do like to write letters--certainly not at this busiest time of the year!--but I simply must tell you about a luncheon that Elizabe...

"RUTH asked me today how we manage our finances," said Bettina over the dinner table. "She said that she and Fred were wondering what plan was best. I'm so glad I have a definit...

"OH, Bettina, how lovely!" cried the ten guests in a chorus, as Ruth and Bettina ushered them into the softly lighted dining-room. Not one had had even a glimpse of the luncheon...

"HELLO, is this you, Bettina? This is Mother! I'll have to speak in a low voice. Who do you think is here? No,--Cousin Matilda! Just between trains, but she says she must see ho...

"O YOU darling Bettina! Did you do it all yourself?" Mary exclaimed impulsively, as the girls admired the dainty first course which their hostess set before them. "Everything is...

"SO she is about to try her cooking on me, is she?" said Bettina's father to Bob, as he sat down at the table. "Well, I'll admit that I have looked forward to this all day. But...

"BY the way, Bettina," said Bob, over the phone, "I saw Harrison and asked him out to dinner tonight. He said he was to call on Alice later, so I suggest that you invite her, too."

"Oh, girls, I simply can't! I have just bought quarts and quarts of cherries and currants of a boy who came to the door, and I must take today to put them up!"

"Couldn't you manage to make a picnic supper of it? One of the men at the office has invited us to go motoring to-night with him and his wife, and, of course, I said we'd be del...

"Fine for you, chef! Have it on the porch, will you? It's the most beautiful morning of the year, I do believe! But you must give me something to do. Let me set the table, will...

"HOW lovely!" Bettina whispered to Bob after the beautiful ceremony had taken place in the rustic grape arbor. "How like Cousin Kate this is! But I had no idea that Frances plan...

"The door was partly open--Bob must have left it that way--and I slipped in quickly to see what you were up to. It's raining as if it never intended to stop. I called to Bob on...

"Oh, Bob, I've had the nicest day! Mother 'phoned me this morning that Uncle John had brought her several big baskets of apples from the farm, and that if I cared to come over t...

As soon as Alice reappeared in the living room, a small table was drawn up before the open fire. Two girls appeared, wearing gingham aprons and carrying overflowing market baskets.

"Oh, but he will!" Bettina assured her. "He'll think he's the luckiest man in town, and I almost believe that he is! He'll love that dear little white house with the screened po...

It must be admitted that Bettina was somewhat embarrassed at the unexpected call at so unconventional a time. Mrs. Dixon was dressed in a trim street costume, but under her veil...

"I HAD resolved," said Mrs. Dixon, at Bettina's dinner-table, "not to accept another invitation to come here until you people had eaten again at our house. But your invitations...

"HELLO! Yes, this is Bettina! Why, Bob, of course! Is he a real woman-hater? No, I've never met any, but I'll just invite Alice, too, and tomorrow you won't be calling him that....

"Wait till I tell you. Perhaps I ought not to give myself away, but I am prouder of our little economies than of anything else; we've had such fun over them. This is some old wi...

THE rain had been falling all day in a heavy downpour, and Bettina had ventured out only to gather some red clover blooms for the porch table, which she was now setting for dinn...

"It is an economy, not a symphony," said Bettina, "but if it leads you to make such dreadful puns as that, I'll wish I had fed you something else for dinner."

"DOESN'T it bore you to think of cooking when you've been out all afternoon?" asked Mrs. Dixon, wearily. "And today the refreshments were so elaborate and everything was so stif...

"NOW, boys, run and play while Alice and I set the picnic table!" said Bettina to Bob and Mr. Harrison. "See if the fish are biting! Cultivate your patience as well as your appe...

"The butter from the table?" asked Bettina. "No, Bob, I keep that left-over butter in a covered dish in the cupboard. You see, there are so many times when I need butter for cak...

"THIS seems like old times!" remarked Mr. Dixon, as he and his wife strolled leisurely home from church with Bob and Bettina. "I haven't had this peaceful Sunday feeling since I...

"Steak is expensive, dear, and you'll not get it often, but as this is our first real dinner in our own home, I had to celebrate. I bought enough for two meals, because buying s...

"Of course I'll help, Alice, but you are so clever about anything that you care to do that I know you'll soon outstrip your teacher. Tell me first, does anyone know the Big Secr...

"I think I have. Let's see. It's better when it's made partly with 'C' sugar, and I have that. I wonder if there will be enough milk left for breakfast if we use a little! Well,...

BOB had scarcely left the house the next morning when Bettina was called to the door. "I couldn't resist coming!" said Alice. "The announcement party was lovely, and I must than...

"I caught a ride with Dixon in his new car. And I thought you might need me to help get dinner; it's nice to be needed! But here I've been picturing you toiling over a hot stove...

"And what's more, I've gained in spirits! Say, there's nothing like living in a real home! Why, people, just think of having Charlotte say to me as she did yesterday, 'Frank, Bo...

"I like tea," said Fred, "although perhaps that isn't considered a manly sentiment in this country. I hope you do too, Ruth. Nothing seems so cozy to me as tea and toast. And I...

"Do come in," begged Bettina, "and have a little lunch with us. After such a bountiful dinner, we really ought not to be hungry, but I confess that the lovely drive home has giv...

AS Bettina was putting the finishing touches on her porch table, set for dinner, and humming a little song as she tried the effect of some ragged robins in a mist of candy-tuft,...

"Hotel? Why, Bob! with our house and our dishes and our silver just waiting for us? I'm ashamed of you! We'll take the first car for home--a street-car, not a taxi! Our extravag...

AFTER all the excitement of Alice's wedding, Bettina was more than delighted when she and Bob were invited to a family dinner at Aunt Lucy's on Thanksgiving day. "It always seem...

"SO you'll not be back until dinner time?" Bettina had said at the breakfast table to Bob's cousin, Edna, and her friend, Catherine. "A whole day of it! How tired you'll be!"

"YOUR set, Bob," said Bettina, as she gathered up the tennis balls. "But please say you think I'm improving! Oh, there'll come a time when I'll make you a stiff opponent, but I'...

"THIS was a splendid dinner, Bettina," said Ruth, as the two of them were carrying the dishes into the kitchen and Fred and Bob were deep in conversation in the living-room. "Su...

"I can't go to church tomorrow, anyhow, for Bob's Uncle Eric is to be in town all morning; he leaves at noon, and the Dixons have offered us their car to take him for a drive. D...

"I'LL tell you, Ruth," said Bettina, in answer to some questions, "you come home with me now, and make an apple pie for our dinner! I'll watch and direct you, and perhaps I can...

"WE knew you'd be here, and we've come to surprise you!" shouted Bob, Fred, Bettina and Ruth, as they opened the door of the new apartment which was to be the home of Harry and...

WHEN Bettina called the girls into the dining-room after several hours spent in hemming dish towels for Alice, they exclaimed that the time had passed so quickly. The table was...

"Good! Two simple meals and all day in which to get them ready. Let's see. The weather is warm, so you will prefer a dinner that is partly cold. Watermelon that has been in the...

"Not now. You see, I've been practicing every evening with Frank, and he says that I am as good a driver as he is! Oh, Bettina, we are having so much fun these days! The little...

"WILL you look at the way that child eats her cereal!" ejaculated Polly at the breakfast table. "And I simply can't get her to eat it at home! In fact, on warm days like this, s...

"NOT through dinner yet?" exclaimed the Dixons at the door. "May we sit down and wait? It's a beautiful evening, and we've come to get you to take a long drive with us."

"A cranberry pie? One of those darling criss-crossy ones?" said Alice joyfully, throwing off her evening cloak. "Do let me help. I used to make little cranberry pies in a saucer...

"WE'LL treat Uncle Eric so well that he'll have a good time in spite of himself," Bob had said when he had proposed that his gruff old uncle be invited. "I'll take Saturday afte...

"Sure she will! If she doesn't I'll disown her! Say, Bettina, I haven't had my breakfast yet, and ten o'clock sounds far away. May I have just one doughnut with my coffee?"

"Dessert with the neighbors!" said Frank, laughing. "Charlotte read me a suggestion the other day that sounded sensible. A housewife had introduced a new custom into her neighbo...

"But then," said Bettina's mother, "did you find anything in California that you thought equalled anything in your own state? Father never does," said she, laughing. "He seems t...

"Well," considered Bettina, her red brown head on one side, "we want one that will hold not less than a hundred pounds of ice. The large ones are much more economical in the lon...

"WHAT a cunning table!" exclaimed four girls in various words and ways. Ruth and Bettina smiled happily to each other, for they, too, had admired the low bowl of purple and yell...

"THERE is nothing so exciting as a circus," said Ruth, "but oh, how comfortable and peaceful it seems to get away at last from the crowds and the noise! How quiet and cool this...

BETTINA heard a step on the porch, and quickly laying aside her kitchen apron, rushed to the door to meet Bob. Her rather hilarious greeting was checked just in time, at sight o...

"BIG success!" was what Bettina's eyes telegraphed to Ruth across the purple and white asters in the center of a long porch table. Ruth was giving a farewell luncheon for Bernad...

"I USUALLY complain when it rains--I have that habit--but I must confess that I like a rainy evening at home once in a while," said Bob, as he and Bettina sat down at the dinner...

"THERE are the men now," said Mrs. Dixon, rolling up the hose she had been darning. "Good!" said Bettina. "The dinner is just ready for them, and I'm glad they didn't keep us wa...

THE bridal dinner, given for the wedding party by Alice's parents, was truly an elaborate affair. As the young people, who knew each other so well, and had spent so many merry h...

"AND here we are, busily planning Alice's affairs," said Bettina, "when we might be talking of yours, Ruth. Are you sure, sure, sure, that you don't want any parties, or showers...

"THESE are the first baking powder biscuits I have ever made for company," said Alice, "but I knew that I must begin some time. Mother has gone out to spend the day; I persuaded...

WHEN the tea guests were ushered into Charlotte's dining-room that afternoon, they were delighted with the table and its red, white and blue decorations. In the center was a lar...

"AND what have you been doing all day?" asked Bob after he had related his own experiences at the office. "Just my usual work this morning, and this afternoon I went to a meetin...

"Yes, for I reheated them in the oven a few minutes before I served them. They really are as good as new when treated that way. I had always supposed that croquettes had to be s...

"Why, Ruth, that's because you apply the match too soon. You ought to allow the gas to flow for about four seconds; that fills all the little holes with gas and blows out the ai...

"She wouldn't let me come earlier, Bob," explained Bettina as they rang the bell. "I wanted to help her, you know, but she said her father and mother were out of town and Fred w...

"Well, that depends altogether on the fruit. Sometimes the rind is so much tougher than at other times. You cook it until it's very tender, then add the sugar and cook until it...

"Fun?" said Charlotte. "Bettina, look at me! Or better still, look at Frank! And the funny part of it all is that Aunt Isabel thinks our keeping house is a result of her preachm...

"No, this was in the country--on the interurban, at Cousin Kate's. Frances, her daughter, who was married last spring, has come home on a visit, and Cousin Kate was entertaining...

"OH, Bettina, what a perfectly charming table!" exclaimed Alice, while her guest from New York, in whose honor Bettina was giving the little luncheon, declared that she had neve...

"And I expected not to see you till midnight, so I'm well suited too! But, Bobby, you mustn't complain if I give you a 'pick-up meal.' I expected to eat only a lunch myself."

"INDEED I will keep Kathleen for you," said Bettina to Mrs. Fulton. "I'll enjoy it. We'll have to invent some new plays and have such a jolly time that she won't miss her mother...

"He suggested that the invitations invite the children to a circus. You see, we could write a little rhyme to that effect on animal paper, or with an animal picture pasted in th...

"Bettina," said he, "could you possibly arrange to let me bring Carl Edwards and his wife home to luncheon? They blew in a few minutes ago and leave at two-thirty. We haven't mu...

"AND so, Bettina," said Ruth, sitting down on the high stool in Bettina's neat little kitchen, "Fred says we will begin the house early in the spring--as early as possible--and...

Feeling, it must be admitted, a little out of harmony with a world that allowed weary and hungry husbands to come home to dark and empty houses when the clock said plainly that...

BOB had walked home from the office through the falling snow--and it was no short distance--with thought for neither snow nor distance. He was distinctly worried,--Christmas onl...

"I was just thinking," said Bob, "that it might be fun to get Harry and Alice, and go out to Killkare park this evening. I don't believe you've been on a roller coaster this year."

"WHY, hello, Ruth!" cried Bettina at the door one afternoon. "I haven't seen you for weeks, it seems to me! What have you been doing? Come in and give an account of yourself!"

"Mrs. Bob," said Donald, an old school-friend of Bob's, "I don't want you to do any such thing! We don't need any lunch! Stay in here and we'll all talk."

"HERE, Bettina, let me mash those potatoes! It's fine exercise after a day at the office!" And Bob seized the potato masher with the same vigor that he used to handle a tennis r...

"I am getting dinner, and I want to tell you that it is a very economical dinner. And it's going to be good, too. I thought and thought about your advice, and decided to practis...

"Doesn't it!" said Bettina, enthusiastically. "And see, I've set the dinner table here by the fireplace. It's such fun when just the two of us are here. Isn't the log burning we...

"We're on our way home now," said Harry, as he set down the suitcases he was holding. "Say, these are heavy! We thought we'd stop in for a minute to rest."

"DO stay to dinner, Ruth!" begged Bettina. "Bob is going to drive the new car out when he comes, and we'll have him take us for a spin after dinner."

"YOU will go to church with us this morning, Bettina?" asked Bob's cousin Henry, known also as the Rev. Henry Clinkersmith, as he came into Bettina's immaculate kitchen one Sunday.

BOB and Bettina had scarcely sat down to dinner one crisp cold evening, when they heard laughing voices at the door. "It sounds like Alice," said Bettina. "What can she be up to...

"Date buns? Never heard of anything so absurd in my whole life! What are they?" And then, without waiting for an answer, he went on, "A regular blizzard tonight, I do believe! I...

"AND so I thought, if you were willing, I would have the luncheon the last of this week," said Bettina to Alice one sultry afternoon which they were spending on Bettina's porch.

ALICE'S wedding day dawned clear and cold, and Bettina realized with a start all that was before her. She had as house guests two school friends of Alice's, gay and charming gir...

THE stately wedding ceremony had taken place in the big church, and Bettina, climbing into the automobile for the drive to the reception, had, for all her own part in the affair...

"They'll suit me, then," said Bob. "The sweeter the better! My mother used to cook up candied sweet potatoes with a lot of brown sugar syrup--say, but they tasted good about thi...

"No, indeed," laughed Bettina. "I expected just you and nobody else. But maybe I did cook a little more than usual. You see I was over at Alice's this afternoon inspecting her l...

"I WAS so afraid Father wouldn't let me come, Aunt Bettina!" exclaimed Mildred, after the first greetings. "And your letter sounded so jolly--about the cooking and all--well, if...

"No, indeed, my dear. It is such a simple little luncheon that I have planned that I can easily do it all alone. And you must go to the meeting. All I ask is that you won't forg...

"To put under the dishes I'm warming. It breaks the heat and prevents cracking. There, that cream sauce has cooked enough now. I'll take it and beat it for a minute. See? There,...

"I MUST hurry home to get dinner," said Mrs. Dixon. "See, Bettina, I've been to the market! Isn't this a fine big cantaloupe? I have two more just like it. Frank is very fond of...

"A dish of tomatoes, cheese and rice baked together; Bob is fond of it. You know I almost always plan to have two or more oven dishes if I am using the oven at all, and tonight...

"It's the Bechamel sauce on it that you like, I suspect," said Bettina. "And it isn't at all hard to make. I serve it with so many things. We like it with carrots----"

RUTH and Bettina led "the parade," the band at its head, to the cheerful sunroom, where the table had been set. At sight of the "party" spread before them, the young musicians a...

"Oh, Bettina! Would you really show me? I'll simply have to come, then. I hesitated because Aunt Martha is here, but I know she'll excuse me for one evening. What time is it? Fi...

"Lamb stew," said Bettina. "Bob is particularly fond of it, and we haven't had it for a long time. This is such a cold day that I thought lamb stew would taste very good tonight."

"I want him to think us informal. The trouble with him is that he doesn't know that any simple brand of happiness exists. His life is too complex. Of course we're not exactly pr...

"OH, Bettina, aren't the butterflies darling?" exclaimed Ruth, looking once more at the table display of her work. "And with everything ready to begin in the morning, won't thin...

"TO-NIGHT," said Bettina at the dinner table, "I expect to finish three Christmas gifts--one for Alice, one for Mary and one for Eleanor. Now aren't you curious to know what I'v...

"THIS is some dinner, Bettina!" said Bob, over his dessert. "It's like a celebration, somehow, with the pink candles on the table, and the flowers, and the company menu. Why, Be...

"Oh, no, Uncle Bob! You ought never to use a rolling pin, Aunt Bettina says!" said Mildred in a horrified tone, as if she had been cooking for the First Families for a score of...

"Indeed I did, Uncle Bob!" exclaimed the little girl delightedly. "And I'm having so much fun that I don't ever, ever, ever want to go home! Aunt Bettina is going to show me how...

"SAY, but it's cold today!" called Bob at the door. "Frost tonight all right! I was glad I took my overcoat this morning. Have you had a fire all day?"

"A waffle party in the afternoon?" said Bob. "That was queer! Usually at afternoon parties you women serve tiny little cups of tea and dainty olive sandwiches, almost too small...

"SPRING is in the air," thought Bettina, as she opened the casement windows of her sun room. "I believe we'll have dinner out here tonight. If Bob would only come home early, be...

"The jolly men always like to tease, and the ones who aren't jolly are always cross. I don't intend to get married myself. I'm going to live in a nice little bungalow like this...

"Oh, Mother, I've learned so much!" cried Mildred with enthusiasm. "And when I'm married, I'm going to have a dear little kitchen just like Aunt Betty's! Aunt Betty does know th...

"I've been away all afternoon, Bob, at the loveliest little porch party at Alice's! You know her porch is beautiful, anyhow, and her party was very informal. She telephoned to f...

"Pretty bad; isn't it!" said he, ruefully. "Frank Dixon brought me home in his car, and he had some sort of engine trouble. We worked on it for awhile, but couldn't fix it, so h...

"That's so, Bob," said Bettina, coming in from the dining-room, her hands full of dishes, "and now I suppose we'll have to let you in on the secret. Uncle John has just bought a...

"This afternoon. Went to Bob's office the very first thing, and he insisted on bringing me home with him to dinner. I told him it might 'put you out,' but he spent the time it t...

"I was about to call you, Bettina. Won't you go to the fair with us this afternoon? You know Cousin Mabel and the children are here from Ford Center, and Cousin Wilfred may arri...

"IT won't be hard, Ruth, if you plan it out in detail several days before. Decide on the menu, and if you find that some one dish is going to cause more trouble than it's worth,...

"No, indeed. Charlotte was here this afternoon and we made plans for the tea we are going to give at her house on Washington's birthday. Oh, Bob, we have some of the best ideas...

"I SUPPOSE that when we get home again, Mildred will be insisting that we reorganize our household along the lines of yours, Bettina," laughed Polly. "I can just hear Selma's ou...

"Yes, and we walked over to the new house. She has had Fred put up a shelf in the kitchen for her cook-books and recipe card box, and she finds that she really has quite a libra...

"Mary Owen makes candied orange peel for all of her friends," said Bettina, "and I think that is so nice, for hers is delicious! She saves candy boxes through the year, and all...

"Because today I went shopping in earnest! I bought the very things that seem most Christmassy: tissue paper, white and green, gold cord, a ball of red twine, Santa Claus and ho...

"AND the minute I caught a glimpse of you, Bettina, at the tea this afternoon, I thought, 'Oh, if Betty would only ask me to go home with her to a sensible homelike dinner, with...

"BOB, the flowers are lovely!" said Bettina, looking again at the brilliant tulips on the dinner table. "They make this a real valentine dinner, although there is nothing festiv...

"This morning, and we're making a day of it. We'd like to see the fireworks this evening, but perhaps we could go to your house and get back again. For that matter, you and Bob...

"THE Christmas feeling is everywhere now!" said Bettina, as she arranged a small artificial fir tree in the center of the table. "It may be a little early, but I can't keep from...

"CHRISTMAS is in the air today, I believe," said Charlotte as she took off her hat and warmed her cold hands at Bettina's open fire. "You ought to see the children around the to...

"What delicious toast, Bettina!" said Alice, taking one bite. "Why, it has cinnamon on it! And sugar! I wondered what on earth you were making that smelled so good, and this is...

"I RAN over this morning," said Alice to Bettina, "to get your candy recipes. That was such delicious Christmas candy that you gave Harry! Wasn't it a great deal of work to make...

"My carelessness. I just spilled a whole bottle of ink on this new apron of mine! I had begun to get dinner, and as it was a little early, I sat down for a minute to finish a le...

"Indeed I am! Isn't it a wonderful spring day? But my thoughts weren't very poetic, I must admit. I was just wondering if it was too early to put away my furs for the summer. I'...

BETTINA was entertaining "the crowd" at a shamrock luncheon, and each guest, to show her enthusiasm for the charms of "ould Ireland," was wearing somewhere upon her gown, a bit...

"Fred's wedding, then. For, you see, the ceremony is to be in that darling summer house if it doesn't rain. If it does it will have to be in the solarium. The bridesmaids and ma...

"IT seems good to be alone this evening, doesn't it, Bettina?" said Bob, as they sat down to dinner. "Or are you growing so accustomed to gaiety lately that a dinner for two is...

"And we have had such delicious meals since we began to keep house, if I do say it! But oh, the bills, the bills! Bettina, isn't it terrible? But you can't get any meal at all w...

"No, but I want to have dinner ready when he arrives. You see, as I told you before, I simply shouldn't have gone to Mary's this afternoon. My curtains are down and my rugs are...

"Well, it looked good to me before, but now that I think of it, I believe there is an extra shine on things. What makes that nickel there look so bright and silvery?"

AFTER the solemn and beautiful ceremony had taken place in the rose-embowered summer house, there was the usual hush for a moment, and then Ruth and Fred were engulfed in a sudd...

"I'm so glad they're coming," said Bettina. "I haven't seen Charlotte for several weeks; I have been so busy with the affairs we girls have been giving for Alice. But I wish I h...

"I feel the same old Hallowe'en thrill that I used to, years ago," said Bettina, "when I turn around suddenly and see a jack-o'-lantern grinning in at the window! Don't you love...

"Well, they're nearly finished. I saw them today, and they're lovely. The girls are to carry lavender maline muffs, too--the round kind with fluffy bows at each end, and little...

"IF you girls only would, my dear," Ruth's mother had responded to Bettina's suggestion that she and Alice entertain Ruth's house guests the entire day before the wedding, "you...

OF course a tiny Christmas tree was the centerpiece on Bettina's breakfast table, set for a nine o'clock family breakfast. All of the Christmas gifts except those that were too...

"WELL, this is something like it!" said Bob, as he sat down to dinner one evening several days after Christmas. "A good plain meal again. I'm so tired of Christmas trees and Chr...

"Oh, the same old fresh vegetables," said Charlotte wearily. "A month ago they seemed so wonderful--strawberries, asparagus, new potatoes and all--but there are no new ways to c...

RUTH'S wedding colors were to be pink and green, and pink and green were, therefore, the colors which decorated the charming dinner table laid for the wedding party and close re...