CHAPTER II.

HOW TO SEND THE INVITATION--HOW TO SERVE IN PROPER FORM DINNERS AND LUNCHEONS WITH MENUS AND RECIPES.

THE INVITATION.

Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Brown request the pleasure of Mr and Mrs. Jones' company at Dinner, on Wednesday, January 17, at seven o'clock.

16 Overton Street, January 2.

The invitation should be addressed to the lady invited as "Mrs. George W. Jones."

Mr. and Mr. George W. Jones accept with pleasure Mr. and Mrs. Brown's kind invitation to Dinner, on Wednesday, January 17, at seven o'clock.

268 West Avenue, January 3.

Address envelope to "Mrs. Reuben Brown."

These are for formal dinners. If the dinner is an informal affair, a simple note addressed to the wife, asking her and her husband to dine is sufficient.

When the guests have arrived the servant in charge should announce the dinner to the lady of the house.

The host takes the lady who is to sit at his right, and leads the way. The hostess brings up the rear with the guest who is to occupy the same position at her right.

Cards, with the name of the guest are usually placed at each place.

The custom now is for the servant to pass the dishes to each guest, the meats, etc., being carved into convenient size for the purpose. They are passed to the left side of the guests. All dishes, glasses, etc., not again required on the table, should be removed when the dessert is served.

The forks, knives and glasses to be used, should be placed on the table at the first setting. For formal dinners usually three or four forks, including an oyster fork, and three knives, including a silver one for the fish course, if fish is served.

A napkin is neatly folded and placed on the plate with a small piece of bread partly folded within it, if soup is served.

DINNER MENUS.

MENU I.

_Sardine Canapes,_ _Cream of Asparagus, Croutons, Celery,_ _Pimolas, Salted Pecans, Deviled Crabs in Shell,_ _Fried Sweetbread, Macaroni, Tomato Sauce,_ _Cheese Ramakins, French Rolls, Cabbage and Celery Salad,_ _Chocolate Loaf, Charlotte Russe Filling,_ _Coffee._

MENU II. MORE ELABORATE.

_Oyster Cocktails, Potage a la Reine,_ _Celery, Pimolas, Salted Almonds, Pickles,_ _Creamed Fish in Scallop Shell, Toast Sticks,_ _Fillet of Beef, Mushroom Sauce,_ _French Rolls, Potato Balls, Asparagus,_ _Orange Frappe, Chicken Croquettes, Green Peas,_ _Shrimp Salad, Wafers, Almond Meringues, Maple Parfait,_ _Crackers, Cheese, Cafe Noir._

MENU III. A FULL COURSE DINNER.

_Blue Points, Brownbread Sandwiches,_ _Cream of Tomato, Wafers, Olives, Celery, Salted Almonds,_ _Timbales of Halibut, Bechamel Sauce,_ _Sweetbread and Mushroom Patties, Green Peas,_ _Roast Turkey, Chestnut Stuffing, Potato Balls,_ _Parker House Rolls, Tutti Frutti in Apple Cups,_ _Asparagus, Melted Butter, Maraschino Punch,_ _Quail on Toast, Rice Croquettes, Current Jelly,_ _Tomato Jelly Cups filled with Celery and Nut Salad,_ _Fruit, Nuts, Bon Bons, Almond Cake,_ _Vanilla Ice Cream, Claret Sauce, Crackers, Cheese,_ _Cafe Noir, Creme de Menthe._

The sardine canapes, given as a first course in Menu I, is a dainty appetizer made of sardines, boned, rubbed to a paste with a little creamed butter and seasoned to taste with Worcestershire and a few grains of cayenne. Spread small thin rounds of toast with the mixture, cover with white of hard boiled egg rubbed through a sieve and place an olive in the center of each. Cream soups are considered especially dainty. The deviled crabs are easily prepared. Pick the meat from the shells, mix with a cream sauce and season highly with mustard, cayenne and lemon juice. Wash and trim the shells, fill rounding with the mixture, cover with buttered crumbs and bake until brown. Parboil the sweetbreads, split and cut in pieces about the size of a large oyster. Egg and bread crumb them, fry, arrange on nests of boiled macaroni and pour the tomato sauce over them. Serve the cheese ramakins, which is cheese souffle baked in ramequin dishes, with this course.

The chocolate loaf is made of a sponge cake, hollowed out, covered inside and out with a plain chocolate icing. Fill shortly before serving with cream, whipped, sweetened and flavored, and serve very cold.

* * * * *

The first course in Menu II, is oyster cocktails, which are now in high favor. Serve either in sherry glasses, lemon, orange or grapefruit shells. Choose small, firm oysters of fine flavor and allow six to a person. Cover with a sauce made of a tablespoon of lemon juice, a teaspoon each of vinegar and catsup, a fourth of a teaspoon of Worcestershire, an eighth of a teaspoon of grated horseradish, two drops Tobasco sauce and a few grains of salt. The Potage a la Reine is easily made and very excellent. Mash fine the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and mix with them a half a cup of bread crumbs, soaked until soft, in half a cup of rich milk. Stir into this gradually the cooked breast of a chicken chopped fine as meal and a pint of hot cream. Boil two minutes, then add a quart of clear chicken broth, salt, pepper and celery salt to season. To prepare the following course mix some flaked fish with a rich cream sauce, fill into scallop shells, cover with buttered crumbs and bake. Serve with the fillet of beef as a single course the mushrooms, rolls, potatoes and asparagus. The hot rolls given throughout the menus are made with yeast according to any favorite rule, the different names only indicating a difference in shape. Orange frappe is simply an orange water ice frozen to a mush and served in frappe glasses. The rules for croquettes and salad are too familiar to need special repetition. Add some chopped almonds to the usual recipe for meringues and bake in a slow oven. When done, press in the bottoms. Fill with the parfait before serving. To make the parfait, beat the yolks of four eggs until light, add three-quarters of a cup of maple syrup and cook over hot water until it thickens. Beat until cold, then stir into a pint of cream whipped until stiff. Fill into a mould and let stand about four hours well packed in ice and salt.

A favorite first course in season is blue points on the half shell, as given in Menu III. Allow six to a person, and arrange in a circle on a bed of cracked ice with a quarter of lemon in the center of the plate. Cut the bread for sandwiches very thin, butter it, place two pieces together and stamp in rounds. Serve the cream of tomato in bouillon cups with a spoonful of whipped cream floating on the surface. To make the Timbales, cook a pound of fresh halibut in boiling salted water, drain and force through a fine meat chopper. Add to this pulp three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt, a few grains of cayenne, a third of a cup of cream whipped until stiff, and the stiffly beaten whites of three eggs. Fill small, buttered timbale moulds with the mixture, half surround with hot water and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with a white sauce, to which add the beaten yolks of eggs and, if liked, a little minced parsley and lemon juice. Instead of serving the usual cranberry sauce with the turkey, scoop out the inner pulp of some small red apples and fill them with a mixture made, during the summer, of the various fruits in season, almost their weight in sugar and preserved. Maraschino punch is simply a strong lemon ice as a foundation, flavored highly with maraschino. Serve in punch glasses with a maraschino cherry in the center of each. Make some tomato jelly with gelatine and mould it in small cups. Unmould on shredded lettuce, hollow out each one and fill with a mixture of diced celery, chopped English walnuts and rich mayonnaise. The almond cake is made of the plain white cake foundation, baked in two layers. Spread thickly between the layers and on top of the cake an abundance of boiled icing made very rich with a quantity of blanched almonds chopped very fine. Serve with each portion of plain vanilla ice cream a spoonful or more of sauce made of a cup of sugar and half a cup of water boiled to a thick syrup, and to which is added, when cool, four tablespoons of claret. Chill on ice.

THE EASE OF A COURSE DINNER.

Many of our housewives who want the elegance of a course dinner, yet who are limited to the services of one maid, would be much amazed at the ease with which they can both cook and serve if a little forethought be used in the menu.

COCKTAIL.--A preliminary cocktail, prepared beforehand from a bottled sauce or catsup and marinated oysters or clams, makes a good beginning and can be made ready in the early morning and placed on ice to great advantage.

SOUP.--A clear soup with vermicelli or noodles can be cooked the day before and may simmer quietly for half an hour before serving time without further care.

FISH.--Fish is well represented by deviled crabs, seasoned and turned into little mounds in the center of cockle shells. This may be done any time several hours previous to the feast and all they need at meal time is a simple browning in the oven.

MEAT.--Large and substantial roasts are not only hard to prepare and serve but also fill the oven to the exclusion of everything else, so why not have delicious little steaks, fillet of beef, with canned French peas, and pomme de terre au gratin, served in ramekins and prepared early in the day from mashed potato and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

SALAD.--Most salads may, without serious injury, be mixed several hours before using and placed in a large bowl in the refrigerator, placing it on the lettuce leaves at serving time. Cheese balls are better made early and iced.

DESSERT.--Certainly for dessert nothing could be more delicious, more appetizing or more decorative than individual Charlotte Russe, more popular than ice cream with hot maple or chocolate sauce and stuffed wafers, or more soul satisfying than a tutti frutti French cream, all of which may be either ordered from the caterer or made at home early.

With bonbons, coffee, cigars and liqueurs (if used) this provides for a really elaborate dinner of eight courses, which could be prepared for that matter by the housewife herself in the forenoon, inasmuch as the only thing which must be actually cooked at mealtime is the steak. Almost any maid could be trusted to do the rest.

A FINE MENU.

_Shell Fish,_ _Bread and Butter Sandwiches,_ _White Bouillon, Creme de Marron,_ _Wafers, Maraschino Cherry,_ _Pate Franciere, Tarragon Eggs,_ _Salmon Creams, Green Dressing,_ _Whole Small Yellow Tomatoes, French Dressing,_ _Roast of Sirloin, Pickled Walnuts,_ _Stewed Brussels Sprouts, Creamed Mashed Potatoes,_ _White Sherry Sherbet,_ _Broiled Quail, Green Grape Jelly,_ _Salade Mignon, Salade de Cherry,_ _Cheese Cakes,_ _Roses Glace Daintee, Petite Fours,_ _Salon Refreshment,_ _Glaces de Fruits, Confections,_ _Nuts,_ _Cafe, Cordials._

"CREME DE MARRON"--(Nut Soup.)--One quart of chestnut meats which have been skinned, then stew tender in enough water to a little more than cover. Press through a fine sieve into the cooking pot, then add one quart of white stock. Heat to boiling point, then add ample pinch of salt and dash of white pepper, few drops of nutmeg, onion and celery essence. Lastly one pint of beaten cream. Color a rich green with a few drops of spinach extract.

SALADE MIGNON.--Two medium sized white potatoes pared and steamed tender, then cooled and cut into neat dice. One cup of solid cooked peas, one cup of small button mushrooms, one cup of finely minced celery, one cup of small pickled white onions cut into halves. Mix the vegetables lightly with a good white mayonnaise, then fashion in pyramid form on salad plate, and garnish with lettuce hearts and a few pink geranium blossoms.

PATE FRANCIERE.--Line eight fluted pate tins with a delicate pastry crust, then fill with rice and bake a dainty brown in moderate oven. Remove the rice and fill them with the following force meat: Two pairs of chicken livers, steamed tender then minced fine, four steamed cocks combs, one cup of fried scallops. Moisten the ingredients with a brown gravy highly seasoned with paprika and truffle, and fill neatly into the crusts. Put on a perforated top previously baked, and serve on a folded napkin.

ROSES GLACE DAINTEE.--One half package of gelatine soaked in one and a half cups of white wine for thirty minutes, then set the bowl into boiling water, until the gelatine is dissolved. Add one half cup of sugar, a few drops of orange flower water to flavor, a few drops of spinach extract to color a delicate green. Strain and set away to cool.

When it begins to thicken beat in one pint of whipped cream. Add two ounces of candied rose petals, turn into square mold and when set turn out on lace paper mat on crystal dessert platter. Garnish with roses.

Here are three more menus:

_Watermelon Cut in Dice Shape Piled on Plate with_ _Wreath of Cress,_ _Broiled Spring Chicken, Strips of Bacon,_ _New Potatoes Creamed, Broiled Tomatoes,_ _French Rolls, Spiced Peaches,_ _Pineapple Mousse,_ _Coffee._

Out of the beaten track:

Little Neck Clams on the Half Shell, and without the customary slices of lemon and various sauces and horseradish. It is a mistake to spoil the flavor of any food with highly-seasoned sauces.

Next, Chicken Okra Soup, into which, just before serving, is poured a small pitcher of plain cream.

For the fish course, instead of the usual small separate portions, have a Planked Whitefish served from the plank, with Plain Butter Sauce. Accompanying this have small Baked Potatoes, cut open in the center and with a small piece of butter placed in each one.

Instead of the hereditary Cucumber Salad, have young cucumbers quartered lengthwise, not sliced. Cucumbers prepared in this way are much more delicious, because the knife cuts through most of the seeds. They should be pared so that a great deal of the outside is taken off. The best dressing is about three parts olive oil and one part vinegar, with a little pepper and salt, poured over the cucumbers just before serving. Cucumbers allowed to stand in dressing for any length of time become rubbery and indigestible.

Here serve for each guest half a small Broiled Chicken on Toast, with Potatoes au Gratin, and large delicious young Marrowfat Peas.

Serve as a separate course, Lettuce cut in thin strips, over which is sprinkled powdered sugar and a plentiful amount of plain cream is poured.

For dessert have a large dish of delicious ripe strawberries.

Following this have plain unsweetened wafers buttered with Roquefort Paste (which is made of Roquefort cheese and butter in equal quantities) and dusted with cinnamon. Then serve Turkish coffee.

A MID-SUMMER DINNER.

Have table prettily decorated with a centerpiece of ice and ferns. The ice frozen in a miniature iceberg, and encircled by low, spreading maidenhair ferns and gleaming tiny opalescent lamps. Keep the candles for the lamps in the ice chest all day and they will burn slowly and steadily through the evening. Let cut glass canoes hold the nuts, olives and bonbons. The meat courses should be served in thin white Japanese porcelain, but the other viands are to be served in cut glass dishes. The name cards are made of squares of gray paper simply lettered with the guests' names and the date--the letters formed by icicles. The menu is as follows:

_Clams,_ _Cold Bouillon,_ _Soft Crabs,_ _Mushrooms, Fillets of Beef,_ _Beets, Potato Straws,_ _Tomatoes, Sweetbreads,_ _Chicken Salad a la Prince,_ _Peach Ice,_ _Curacoa Cream,_ _Frozen Melon, Coffee._

The clams are served in ice shells, lying on beds of crisp cress, and the bouillon, strong and highly seasoned, served in little cut glass bowls. With the fricasseed crabs serve a smooth cool sauce, having lemon and mustard as its predominating flavor. Juicy little fillets of beef, that melt in the mouth, are next brought on lettuce leaves, with fricasseed mushrooms on toast, frozen pickled beets and potato straws. The sweetbreads are parboiled, chopped up with asparagus tips and truffles, and formed into cones with white chaudfroid sauce, then chilled to the freezing point. With them are served tomatoes filled with shaved ice, chopped cress and tartare sauce. But the triumph of cookery is the salad, each ingredient proportioned and blended into a pleasing whole. The white meat of two chickens, cut into small fillets and each dipped into a semi-fluid jelly made as follows: Three hard boiled eggs, an anchovy, one tablespoonful of minced capers, two tablespoonfuls of grated ham, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a pinch of chili pepper rubbed through a sieve and mixed well with two tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise and three of semi-fluid aspic. Then small molds are lined with aspic and a fillet--ornamented with strips of beets and cucumbers--put in each; enough aspic to cover poured in and the molds set on ice.

A rich mayonnaise is made, and peas, cut up cucumbers and string beans stirred through it. When the time comes to serve the salad, the molds are turned out on leaves of crinkly white lettuce, with a border of mayonnaise around them. The peach sherbet is served in little fluted cups of ice, set in a circle of fern fronds and pink carnations on cut glass plates. Three drops of cochineal are added to the ice just before freezing to give it a delicate pink hue. After the gelatine is dissolved in a rich custard and begins to thicken, the curacoa and the whipped cream are added, and stirred together very lightly. Individual orange-shaped molds are filled with the cream and put on ice to harden. When turned out of the molds, a little twig and leaves of crystalized ginger are inserted in each orange. Sherry wine is poured in the heart of the melon, and, after it has ripened on ice for two hours, the melon is cut open and the seeds removed. Cut out oval-shaped pieces with a big spoon and set back on the ice till wanted. Take to the table in a deep glass bowl, splints of ice shining among its juicy pink morsels. Then the coffee, the toasted crackers and blocks of frozen cheese.

LUNCHEON MENUS.

There are but few particulars in which a formal luncheon differs materially from a dinner. Fruit or a fruit salpicon is usually preferred to oysters as a first course. The soup or bouillon is served in cups rather than soup plates, and entrees or chops take the place of heavy joints or roasts. The usual hour for a luncheon is between one and two o'clock, and artificial light is considered inappropriate for such an occasion. If the table used is a handsome and highly polished one, the cloth may be dispensed with, if desired. Instead use a handsome center piece with small doilies under the plates and other dishes to protect the table. If there are a large number of guests, they are usually served at small tables, prettily decorated with a few flowers.

If the luncheon is to be a formal affair word your invitation thus: "Mrs. Harris requests the pleasure of Mrs. Brown's company at luncheon, Tuesday, September twenty-seventh, at one o'clock." If it is an informal affair simply write a little note on this order:

Dear Mrs. Brown,

Will you not join us at luncheon Tuesday at one o'clock? My friend, Mrs. Black, is with me and I should like to have you meet her.

Sincerely yours, Date.

Put your street and number at the head of the note. Invitations to informal luncheons are also permissible by telephone or verbally.

SIMPLE LUNCHEON.

_White Grapes on Mat of Natural Leaf,_ _Creamed Oysters in Swedish Timbale Cases,_ _Saratoga Potatoes, Twin Biscuits, Pickles, Olives,_ _Moulded Chicken in Aspic, Mayonnaise Wafers,_ _Marshmallow Cake, Orange Jelly, Whipped Cream,_ _Chocolate._

Have the fruit at each place when the guests are assembled. Garnish with any preferred flowers, which should serve also as a souvenir of the occasion. Substitute other fruit if grapes are not seasonable. Both timbale cases and Saratoga potatoes given in the next course, may be prepared early. The potatoes, of course, must be reheated. Fill the creamed oysters into the cases, surround with the potatoes and serve the biscuits, olives and pickles on the same plate. Make the biscuits with baking powder, roll out the dough half the usual thickness, cut out and put two rounds together, brushing first the lower round with melted butter. To make the moulded chicken, separate some stewed chicken into small pieces. Fill loosely into small buttered moulds with a slice of hard boiled egg in the bottom of each. Cover with the strained and clarified chicken broth, to which sufficient gelatine has been added to stiffen it, and stand aside to harden. Turn out on shredded lettuce and serve surrounded with mayonnaise. Bake a sponge cake in a large sheet, cover thickly with boiled icing and decorate with marshmallows cut in halves, and placed on the top at regular distances. Cut in squares, with a marshmellow in the center of each. The orange jelly may be made more elegant if candied fruit and nuts are added to it.

MORE ELABORATE LUNCHEON.

_Salpicon of Fruit,_ _Sweet Wafers, Cream of Celery, Crisp Crackers,_ _Olives, Pickles, Salted Almonds,_ _Lobster a la Newburg, Puff Paste Points,_ _Fried Chicken, Vermicelli Toast, Shredded Potatoes,_ _Oyster Patties, Mushrooms, Waldorf Salad,_ _Popcorn, Bon Bons, Nuts, Figs and Raisins, Macaroons,_ _Frozen Pudding, Cream Mints, Coffee._

For the salpicon of fruit, make a foundation of three-quarter orange juice, one-quarter lemon juice, and powdered sugar to sweeten. Add sliced bananas and other fruit in season. Serve very cold in punch glasses. Serve the cream of celery in bouillon cups with whipped cream on top. The puff paste points and patty shells may be made of the same paste. Serve the fried chicken, vermicelli toast and potatoes on one plate. If very young spring chickens are used, cut in halves or quarters; larger chickens may be cut in smaller pieces. It is nice, only rather expensive, to use the breasts only, cut in two or three pieces. To make the vermicelli toast, cut the bread in rounds and toast it, cover with a rich, thick cream sauce, to which add the chopped whites of several eggs, and sprinkle thickly over all the yolks rubbed through a ricer. A pretty way of serving the Waldorf salad is in apple cups. Cut off the tops and hollow out some large red apples, fill with a mixture of the scraped apple, celery, nuts and mayonnaise, replace the top and insert a celery plume for the stem. Serve surrounded with hot buttered popcorn. A plain, but very elegant frozen pudding is easily made of whipped cream, sweetened and flavored. Pack in a mold in layers, dot each layer liberally with candied fruit, nuts and grated chocolate. Pack in ice and salt for at least four hours.

Of course these dishes can be varied to suit the season and the occasion. The main thing is to be prepared for your company by being at home yourself, and in this way you will make everybody else at home.

A BERRY LUNCHEON.

For table decorations, ribbons and candle shades use crushed strawberry tints; flowers to correspond. Primroses in a pinky purple are good. Blossoms tied with white satin ribbon make pretty decorations.

Instead of an oyster course, have strawberries served European fashion, with their hulls on, sprinkled with powdered sugar. At the end of the meal serve strawberry shortcake, the real Southern article.

Fill the rolled French omlette with strawberry jam.

The bonbons are strawberries dipped in white fondant.

MID-SUMMER LUNCHEON.

For a small luncheon have on the table four cut glass bowls filled with waterlilies, resting on the lily pads set on chop plates filled with water. In the center of the table three tall cathedral candles rising from a mass of asparagus fern. Have the bonbons in green and white and the pistachio nuts in bohemian glass bowls of pink, gold, violet and green. Make the place cards of waterlilies cut out of water-color paper and painted. The menu is red and white raspberries, iced clam bouillon, lamb chops, peas, potato roses, cucumber and nut salad served in green peppers cut to imitate lily buds, ice cream of pistachio and lemon ice molded in pond lily forms, cakes iced in green and white and coffee.

A RURAL LUNCHEON.

For the main course prepare young chickens cut in halves and fried Southern style. Serve with hot cream gravy and corn fritters. On the side of the plate put potato croquettes and two slices of thin, crisp bacon. A crisp salad of sliced tomatoes or stuffed tomatoes and strawberries and cream would make this a simple appetizing meal which you need not hesitate to serve your city friends. A delicious dish is macaroni Milanaise. Cook spaghetti well, fry it in butter and serve with mushrooms. Also serve small bits of tongue, grated Swiss cheese and a tomato sauce. Morning glories make a pretty table decoration. Place them on the vines in a cut glass bowl in the center of the table and let them run riot over the cloth. Paint morning glories in the corner of the name card. Serve the strawberries from a china platter wreathed in the morning glories.

BUFFET LUNCHEON FOR SIXTY.

For the first course have luscious fresh strawberries served on strawberry leaves dotted with tiny wild flowers and on flowered plates. With the strawberries the sugar is served in tiny paper cups. The second course is puree of corn served in odd Egyptian cups with whipped cream on top. The chicken croquettes are molded in form of tiny chickens with cloves for the eyes, and bits of celery tops for wings. The chicken rests on a nest of fried shoestring potatoes. With this is served a round of toast with first a slice of fried tomato and on top of that creamed asparagus tips. On the same plate are hot rolls and tiny pickles. Salted pecans and almonds should be passed during the entire luncheon. The salad course is a head of lettuce for each one. The heart of the lettuce is removed and filled with cucumber salad. Cheese straws are served with this. The ice cream is served in the form of strawberries and rests on a paper doily resembling Mexican drawnwork. The cake is a tiny white column, iced, with two candy strawberries on the side. The candies are peppermints in form of strawberries. Coffee served as a last course.