Chapter 6

TWO BON VOYAGE BREAKFASTS.

"I take my leave of you Shall not be long but I'll be here again."

I.

Use the national colors for decorations for a bon voyage breakfast. This will remind the guest of honor that "East, West, Hame's Best." Use blue and white hyacinths and red tulips, carnations or roses and tiny silk flags can be used for place cards. Carry out the same idea in the ices, candies, etc. One pretty floral decoration for a bon voyage breakfast is a ship and the place cards can have a tiny ocean steamer for decoration. Ask each guest to bring some little gift. Tie these with tissue paper and baby ribbon, leaving a long end of the ribbon. Make a little bag of flowered chintz or silk and place the gifts inside. Have cards labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., one for each day of the voyage. Slip the end of the ribbon through a card and leave the labeled ends of the ribbons sticking out of the top of the bag. This will give a little remembrance for each day on shipboard, a very pleasant remembrance too. A packet of ship letters each labeled a certain day, is another gift much prized by travelers.

II.

Have three tables, with six guests at a table with La France roses for decorations, and silver for all the courses laid at each cover.

The guest cards are little circular marine water color sketches, no two alike. The menu is as follows:

_Grape Fruit with strawberries_ _Salmon Croquettes_ _Fried Mush_ _Jelly_ _Steamed Chicken_ _Hot Rolls_ _Shoestring Potatoes_ _Coffee_ _Vegetable Salad_ _Wafers with Melted Cheese_ _Molded Cherry Jelly with English Walnuts, served with Whipped Cream_ _Sponge Cakes_

The grape fruit is served in halves with one large strawberry in the center of the fruit. The salmon croquettes are molded in pyramidal form, a bit of cress laid on the top, and the mush which has been made the night before is cut in cubes an inch square, dipped in eggs and cracker dust, then dropped in deep fat, the only way to fry mush a delicate brown and preserve its softness. A spoonful of current jelly completes a color scheme.

STEAMED CHICKEN.

Grind with a food chopper the meat of two raw chickens and half a pound of pickled pork. Add a cup of sifted bread crumbs, half a cup of thick sweet cream, half a cup of butter, half a can of chopped mushrooms, a little minced parsley, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with the hands and put into well greased timbale cups and steam three hours.

SAUCE.

Make a sauce for this by mixing the liquor of the mushrooms, half a cup of cream, the rest of the mushrooms, chopped; heat and thicken with half a cup of cracker dust. Serve very hot.

VEGETABLE SALAD.

With the smallest sized potato scoop, cut out a pint of potato balls about the size of common marbles and boil in salted water until tender. Let them cool, and add a pint of the largest peas, three stalks of minced celery, a good sized cucumber cut fine, ten drops of onion juice. Salt and pepper any good cooked dressing, to which add two large spoonfuls of thick cream and two of olive oil. Serve on a lettuce leaf, pour over the dressing, and last of all put on the top of the salad three little balls of red pickled beet cut with the potato scoop, and half embedded in the dressing.

Make a gelatine jelly, flavored with juice of two lemons and cherries. Serve with whipped cream, into which beat finely sifted crumbs of three macaroons.

WHO TAKES THE CAKE?

"Who takes the cake?" is a most merry-making scheme to assist in entertaining at a breakfast. The hostess provides upon slips of paper, what may be termed cake-conundrums. These are neatly written and wound upon coarse steel knitting needles into little rolls and tied with baby-ribbon to match the color scheme of the table.

These are brought in just after serving the coffee and passed to the guests. The hostess announces that each is to guess the name of the cake suggested on her slip; adding, the one who gives the most correct answers wins the prize of a delicious cake. This should be exhibited. The hostess has a list of the answers, and when one misses the "hit," she reads it aloud to the merriment of the crowd. For instance, one slip reads: Name the President's cake. The answer is (Election). The parenthesis must not appear on the slips. A list recently used, and very wittily selected, is given for suggestion:

Name the Geologist's cake. (Mountain.) Name the Advertiser's cake. (Puff.) Name the Farmer's cake. (Corn.) Name the Tailor's cake. (Measure.) Name the Milliner's cake. (Ribbon.) Name the Devout cake. (Angel Food.) Name the Jeweler's cake. (Gold.) Name the Lover's cake. (Kisses.) Name the Author's cake. (Short cake.) Name the Pugilist's cake. (Pound.) Name the Office-seeker's cake. (Washington.) Name the Idler's cake. (Loaf.)

Many others can be added by the clever hostess.

BREAKFAST AND TEA FOR CHRISTMAS OR THANKSGIVING.

BREAKFAST.

_Oranges and Grapes_ _Farina with Dates and Cream and Sugar_ _Chicken Croquettes_ _Oysters in Potato Balls_ _Rice Muffins with Maple Syrup_ _Coffee_ _Chocolate with Whipped Cream_

TEA.

_Scalloped Oysters_ _Turkey Salad_ _Cheese Balls_ _Bread and Butter Sandwiches_ _Strawberry Trifle_ _Gipsy Jelly with Whipped Cream_ _Lemon Cocoanut Cake_ _Meringues filled with Preserved Walnuts_ _Tea_ _Cocoa with Whipped Cream_

OYSTERS IN POTATO BALLS.

Cook the potatoes the day before. While hot mash them, season nicely with salt, paprika and a little celery salt. Add a generous lump of butter, and one or two lightly beaten eggs. Form into little balls with the hands floured. The next morning scoop out a hollow large enough to hold two or three nicely seasoned oysters, press over the part removed, egg and bread-crumb, and fry in a wire basket in deep hot fat. Drain a minute on unglazed paper, and serve at once.

RICE MUFFINS.

Sift together half a teaspoonful of salt, a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, and two cupfuls of flour. Add two well-beaten eggs to one cupful of sweet milk, and stir into the flour, with one teaspoonful of melted butter and one cupful of dry boiled rice. Beat thoroughly, and bake in buttered pans for thirty-five minutes. Serve with maple syrup.

TURKEY SALAD.

Cut the cold turkey meat into dice and mix it with twice the quantity of diced celery and one cupful of broken walnut meats. Mix all well together and moisten with a good boiled dressing. Serve in a nest of bleached lettuce.

CHEESE BALLS.

Roll rich pastry out very thin, cut it into circles with a small tumbler, put two teaspoonfuls of grated cheese in the center of each, add a dash of cayenne and a teaspoonful of finely chopped walnut meats, then draw the edges of the paste together over the cheese, pinching it well to form a little ball. Bake in a hot oven to a very pale brown. Before serving reheat in the oven.

STRAWBERRY TRIFLE.

Cut one large stale sponge cake in horizontal slices the whole length of the loaf. They should be half an inch thick. Beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff snow, divide it into two portions; into one stir two level tablespoons of powdered sugar and one-half of a grated cocoanut; into the other stir the same amount of powdered sugar and one-half pound of sweet almonds blanched and pounded. Spread the slices of cake with these mixtures, half with the cocoanut and half with the almond, and replace them in their original form. The top crust should be cut off before slicing the cake as it is used for a lid. Hold the sliced cake firmly together and with a sharp knife cut down deep enough to leave only an inch at the bottom, and take out the center, leaving walls only one inch thick. Soak the part removed in a bowl with one cupful of rich custard flavored with lemon. Rub it to a smooth batter, then whip into it one cupful of cream which has been whipped to a dry stiff froth. Fill the cavity of the cake with alternate layers of this mixture and very rich preserved strawberries. Then put on the lid and ice with a frosting made with the whites of three eggs, one heaping cupful of powdered sugar and the juice of one lemon. Spread it smoothly over the sides and top of the cake, and keep in a very cold place until time to serve. Then place it on a silver or crystal dish, and put alternate spoonfuls of the whipped cream mixture and preserved strawberries around the base.

MERINGUES FILLED WITH PRESERVED WALNUTS.

Beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff firm snow, stir into it three-fourths of a pound of powdered sugar, flavor with a little lemon or rose water, and continue to beat until very light. Then drop them from a spoon, a little more than an inch apart, on well buttered paper, keeping them as nearly egg-shaped as possible. Place the paper on a half-inch board and bake in a slow oven until well dried out. Remove from the paper, scrape out the soft part from the underside, and before serving fill with preserved walnuts and stick each two together. The preserved walnuts are a very delicious sweet but one rarely met with.