Part 9

_Peach Brown Betty._—Stew a pound of evaporated peaches until tender and plump; place a layer of these in the bottom of a pudding dish, sprinkle them plentifully with sugar, and strew them quite thickly with fine bread-crumbs, scattering a little cinnamon over this; then arrange another layer of peaches, more sugar, crumbs, and spice, and so continue until the dish is full. Just before adding the last layer, which should be of crumbs, pour in as much of the liquor in which the peaches were stewed as the dish will hold without "floating" the contents. After the top stratum of crumbs is in place, dot it with bits of butter; bake it covered for half an hour in a moderate oven, uncover and brown. Eat with hard sauce.

_Hard Sauce._—One tablespoonful butter, one cup powdered sugar, half-teaspoonful flavoring. Cream the butter and sugar together until very light, flavor, press into a cup or small mould, turn out, and pass with the pudding.

2.

Boiled Mutton, Sauce Soubise. Mashed Turnips. Baked Hominy. Apple Charlotte.

_Boiled Mutton, Sauce Soubise._—In purchasing your mutton, select a fine large leg, and have it cut in two, in such a way that the knuckle and the lower part of the leg will make a good piece for boiling, leaving the upper part for roasting.

_Sauce Soubise._—Four onions chopped, one tablespoonful flour, one tablespoonful butter, one cup of the liquor in which the mutton was boiled; pepper and salt to taste. Stew the onions until very tender; drain them, and rub them through a colander; put the butter and flour together in a little saucepan, cook them until they bubble; add the mutton liquor, which must have been cooled and skimmed; stir all together until thick and smooth; add the pepper, salt, and the strained onions; pass with the boiled mutton. If properly made, this is a very appetizing sauce.

_Baked Hominy._—To two cupfuls of cold boiled hominy add a tablespoonful of melted butter, a tablespoonful of white sugar, one egg beaten, a cupful of milk, and a little salt; beat all together until light, and bake in a buttered pudding dish. Serve as a vegetable.

_Apple Charlotte._—Two eggs, two cups milk, half-cup sugar, two cups rather stiff apple-sauce. Make a boiled custard of the yolks of the eggs, the milk, and the sugar; whip the whites of the eggs very light, and beat them into the apple sauce, which should have been well sweetened while hot. Heap the sauce and whites in a dish, and pour the custard over it. Set in the ice-box, or some other cold place for half an hour before sending to the table.

3.

Mutton and Rice Broth. Roast Mutton. Creamed Parsnips. Mashed Potatoes. Sponge-Cake Trifle.

_Mutton and Rice Broth._—Strain and skim the liquor in which the mutton was boiled; put it over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of raw rice, and let it cook about three quarters of an hour, until the rice is soft; stir into it a cup of boiling milk which has been thickened with a tablespoonful of flour. After this is added to the broth, let it boil up once, and then serve.

_Creamed Parsnips._—Boil and peel parsnips; cut them in slices, and, after spreading each slice with butter, lay in a vegetable dish, and pour over them a white sauce made of a cup of boiling milk cooked until thick with two teaspoonfuls of flour and one of butter; pepper and salt to taste.

_Sponge-Cake Trifle._—Cut a stale sponge-cake into slices, and pour over each piece enough sherry to moisten it thoroughly. Spread the cake with raspberry or strawberry jam, and cover all with a pint of whipped cream, slightly sweetened.

4.

Veal Cutlets. Baked Tomatoes. Creamed Spaghetti. Asparagus Salad. Crackers and Cheese. Coffee. Light Cakes.

_Baked Tomatoes._—Select fine large tomatoes, and cut a small piece out of the stem end of each. In this hole place a small lump of butter, about half the size of a hickory-nut. Bake the tomatoes slowly for half an hour; take up, and keep hot while you thicken the juice left in the pan with a teaspoonful of flour wet up in a very little cold water. Set the pan on top of the stove, and let its contents boil up once. Season to taste with pepper and salt, and pour this sauce over the tomatoes.

_Creamed Spaghetti._—One half pound spaghetti boiled tender in two quarts boiling water, slightly salted; one tablespoonful butter; two teaspoonfuls flour; one cup milk; four tablespoonfuls grated cheese; pepper and salt to taste. Cook the butter and flour together; add the seasoning and the cheese. Drain the spaghetti, put it in a deep dish, and pour the sauce over it.

_Asparagus Salad._—Boil a bunch of asparagus until tender; drain it, and put it on the ice. When perfectly cold, pour over it a half-cupful mayonnaise dressing into which has been stirred a teaspoonful of French mustard. Canned asparagus may be used when the fresh is out of season.

5.

Cream Corn Soup. Stewed Pigeons. Baked Potatoes. Fried Bananas. Apricot Fritters.

_Cream Corn Soup._—One can corn, three cups boiling water, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, two tablespoonfuls flour, one egg, pepper and salt to taste. Drain the liquor from the corn, and chop the latter fine; cook it in the boiling water for an hour; rub it through the colander, and return it to the fire. Have the milk hot in a farina kettle. Thicken it with the flour and butter; season, and pour a little at a time upon the beaten egg. Stir this in with the hot corn _purée_, and serve at once.

_Stewed Pigeons._—Cut pigeons in half, place a layer of salt pork cut in thin strips in the bottom of a saucepan, and lay the pigeons on this; sprinkle with a little chopped onion; pour over them enough hot water to cover them, put a closely fitting top on the pot, and cook them slowly for two hours. Take out the birds and the pork, and keep them hot while you thicken the gravy left in the pot with a little browned flour wet up in cold water; boil up once, pour over the pigeons, and serve.

_Fried Bananas._—Select firm bananas, peel them, and slice them lengthwise; dip them in egg, roll them in very fine cracker-crumbs, and fry them in deep fat to a light brown. Serve on a napkin laid in a deep dish.

_Apricot Fritters._—Stew evaporated apricots until tender, adding, when half done, sugar in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls to every cupful of juice. When the apricots are tender, take them out, leaving the syrup to reduce by boiling until it is quite thick. Dip each piece of apricot into a frying batter made of a cup of flour, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a small cup of warm water, and the white of an egg beaten light; drop these fritters into boiling deep fat. When done, lay on a piece of brown paper in a colander for a few minutes, transfer to a hot dish, and pour the hot syrup over and around them.

6.

Broiled Shad. Canned French Pease. New Potatoes. Lettuce. Preserved Ginger. Fancy Cakes.

_Canned French Pease._—Drain the pease, and put them in a frying-pan with a tablespoonful of melted butter smoking hot; toss the pease about in this until they are heated through and well coated with the butter; season with pepper and salt, and serve at once.

_Lettuce._—Dress on the table with a plain French dressing.

FAMILY DINNERS FOR SUMMER

1.

Green-Pea Soup. Roast Shoulder of Veal. Boiled Potatoes. Asparagus with Eggs. Cherry Dumplings.

_Green-Pea Soup._—One quart shelled pease cooked until tender, one quart milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, one teaspoonful sugar, one tablespoonful flour, salt to taste. Press the pease, after they have been boiled and drained, through a colander; put them back on the fire, and stir into them the milk, boiling hot, thickened with the butter and flour and seasoned with the sugar and salt. Boil up once, and serve.

_Asparagus with Eggs._—One bunch asparagus, two hard-boiled eggs, one cup white sauce. Boil the asparagus until tender; cut the stalks into inch lengths, rejecting the hard woody portions; chop the hard-boiled eggs coarsely, and stir with the asparagus into the white sauce, which must be boiling hot. Serve at once.

_Cherry Dumplings._—Make a biscuit crust of two cups of flour, a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into it, a little salt, a teaspoonful of baking-powder, and milk enough to make a soft dough. Roll out into a sheet a quarter of an inch thick, and cut into squares about three inches across. Stone the cherries; put a spoonful into the centre of each square of paste; sprinkle with sugar, fold the edges across, and pinch them together. Lay them with the pinched edges downward in a pan, and bake to a light brown. Eat with a hard sauce made as directed in the preceding chapter.

2.

Fish Chowder. Broiled Lamb Chops. Raw Tomatoes. Young Onions Stewed. Strawberry Méringue.

_Fish Chowder._—Two pounds fresh fish, two good-sized potatoes, one cup milk, a quarter of a pound of salt pork, one onion minced, one tablespoonful chopped parsley, enough boiling water to cover all the ingredients after they are in the pot. Cut up the fish, the pork, and the potatoes (which should have been peeled and parboiled) into pieces less than an inch square. Place in a pot or saucepan first a layer of pork, then one of fish strewn with onions and parsley, then one of potatoes; repeat the layers in this order until all the materials are used. Pour in the water, cover closely, and let it cook slowly a full hour. Split and butter half a dozen Boston crackers; let them soak in the cupful of milk over the fire for five minutes; take them out, and lay them in the tureen, and pour the chowder over them. Pass lemon with it.

This chowder is even better the second day than the first, although there is rarely much left over.

_Strawberry Méringue._—Line a pie-dish with puff paste, bake this carefully, and then place in it a thick layer of hulled strawberries; rather small ones are best for this purpose. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and heap over them a méringue made of the whites of four eggs whipped stiff with half a cup of powdered sugar. Just before putting it in stir lightly into it a cupful of the berries. Set the pie-plate containing the méringue in the oven long enough to brown delicately, and eat when perfectly cold.

3.

Asparagus Soup. Boiled Chicken. Green Pease. Summer Squash. Raspberry Pudding.

_Asparagus Soup._—Boil a bunch of asparagus until it is very tender. When done, cut off the green tips, and put them aside, and rub the stalks in a colander, getting all of them through that you can. Heat four cups of milk in a double boiler, add the strained asparagus to this, and thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed in one of flour. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add the asparagus tops (which should have been kept hot), and serve.

_Raspberry Pudding._—Two cups raspberries (red or black), three cups flour, three eggs, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Beat the eggs very light, and mix with the butter, melted, and the milk. Stir into this the flour sifted with the salt and baking-powder, taking care that the batter does not lump. Dredge the berries with flour, add them to the pudding, and boil this in a plain pudding mould, set in a pot of boiling water, for three hours. Take care that the water does not come over the top of the mould. Serve with hard sauce.

4.

Egg Soup. Roast Lamb. Mint Sauce. Beets. Succotash. Green Pease. Melons.

_Egg Soup._—One quart milk, four eggs, one onion sliced, one tablespoonful flour, one tablespoonful butter, salt and pepper to taste. Heat the milk to scalding in a double boiler with the onion. Thicken the milk with the flour and butter, and season to taste. Poach the eggs in boiling water, lay them in the bottom of the tureen, and strain the soup upon them. Simple and nutritious.

_Mint Sauce._—Four tablespoonfuls vinegar, one tablespoonful mint chopped very fine, one tablespoonful white sugar, a very little salt and pepper. Pour the vinegar upon the sugar and mint, and let them stand in a cool place a full hour before using. Add the salt and pepper just before sending to table.

For the benefit of those who are sometimes unable to procure the fresh herb, it may be stated that the dried mint sold in bottles is an excellent substitute.

5.

Cheese Soup. Beef _à la Mode_. Fried Cucumbers. Cauliflower. Green Corn. Fresh Fruit.

_Cheese Soup._—One egg; a half-cupful grated cheese; one onion; two cups milk; two cups veal, chicken, or other white stock; one tablespoonful flour; one tablespoonful butter; pepper and salt to taste. Heat the milk and stock with the onion. Remove the latter, and thicken the liquid with the butter and flour rubbed smooth together. Stir in the cheese, pour a little of the soup on the egg beaten light, add this to the soup in the pot, season, and serve immediately. It is a good plan to put a tiny pinch of soda into the milk before adding the cheese.

_Beef à la Mode._—Select a good piece of beef from the round, and "plug" it thickly with beef suet or with strips of fat salt pork. Make other incisions into which to crowd a force-meat made of finely chopped salt pork mixed with twice the bulk of bread-crumbs, and seasoned with herbs, allspice, onion, and vinegar. Fasten the meat securely in shape with a stout band of cotton cloth, lay it in a pot, pour over it three cups of boiling water, cover closely, and cook slowly for three hours, or until tender. Turn the meat once. Thicken the gravy left in the pot with browned flour, and pass with the meat.

This piece of meat will be as good cold as it is hot, and makes a welcome _pièce de résistance_ upon which to rely for lunch or tea.

_Fried Cucumbers._—Peel the cucumbers; slice them lengthwise, making about four slices of a cucumber of ordinary size. Lay them in salt and water for an hour, take out, drain, and dry. Dip first in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry as you would egg-plant.

6.

Boiled Cod. Egg Sauce. Lima Beans. Mashed Potatoes. Tomatoes. Mayonnaise Dressing. Baked Peach Pudding.

_Baked Peach Pudding._—Two cups flour, one cup milk, one egg, one teaspoonful baking-powder, one tablespoonful butter, saltspoonful salt, eight medium-sized peaches, peeled and stoned. Beat the egg with the milk, stir in the butter, melted, and the flour sifted with the salt and baking-powder. Place the peaches in the bottom of a pudding dish, sprinkle them well with sugar, pour the batter over them, bake the pudding in a quick oven, and eat it before it has time to fall. Serve either hard or liquid sauce with it.

FAMILY DINNERS FOR AUTUMN

1.

Cauliflower Soup. Roast Beef. Baked Tomatoes and Corn. Boiled Sweet Potatoes. Fried Egg-Plant. Cocoanut Custards.

_Cauliflower Soup._—Cut a medium-sized cauliflower into small clusters, chop all except two bunches, and put all on the fire in four cups of boiling water with a minced onion and a couple of sprigs of parsley; cook until tender. Remove the unchopped bunches, and lay them aside, while you rub the chopped and boiled portion through a colander; return what comes through the sieve to the stove. Have ready in a double boiler a pint of scalding milk; thicken this with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with an equal quantity of flour, and then mix with the strained cauliflower. Season to taste, drop in the reserved clusters cut into small bits, and serve the soup immediately.

_Baked Tomatoes and Corn._—Cut a slice from the top of each of several large firm tomatoes; scoop out about two thirds of the pulp, taking care not to break the sides; fill the cavities thus left with green corn, boiled, cut from the cob, and chopped fine with a little butter, pepper, and salt; arrange the tomatoes thus stuffed in a baking-dish, put a few bits of butter here and there between them, and bake half an hour. If you have a half-cupful of good gravy, pour this over them instead of putting the butter between them.

_Fried Egg-Plant._—Peel and cut the egg-plant into slices less than half an inch thick an hour before it is to be cooked; lay the slices in salted iced water, with a plate over them to keep them from floating. Just before dinner wipe each slice dry, lay it in beaten egg, and then roll it in salted and peppered cracker-crumbs. Have ready lard or really good dripping in a frying-pan, and fry the slices brown.

_Cocoanut Custards._—Three eggs, three cups milk, half-cup sugar, half a cocoanut grated, one teaspoonful vanilla. Heat the milk to boiling; pour it upon the beaten eggs and sugar; return to the fire, and cook the custard until it thickens. When it reaches the right consistency take it from the stove, and when it has partially cooled stir in the vanilla and cocoanut. Fill small cups with this, set them in a pan of boiling water in the oven, and bake until set.

2.

Veal Soup. Stewed Lamb _à la Jardinière_. Creamed Potatoes. Sliced Peach Pie.

_Veal Soup._—Two pounds lean veal from the leg (cut into small pieces), a few veal bones well broken, two quarts cold water, one onion, two stalks celery, a little parsley, two tablespoonfuls rice, salt and pepper to taste. Slice the onions, and fry them in the soup-pot to a good brown in a little dripping; put the meat in on them, and when this has browned add the veal bones, the celery, the parsley, and water. Let all simmer gently for several hours. Set the soup aside with the meat in it until cool; skim, strain, and return to the pot, with the raw rice and the seasoning. Let the soup cook slowly until the rice is tender, and then serve. Pass grated cheese with this soup.

_Stewed Lamb à la Jardinière._—Select a good-sized breast of lamb, and lay it in a saucepan; pour over it enough cold water to nearly cover it, and put a closely fitting lid on the pot. While it is simmering gently, parboil half a cupful of string or Lima beans, half a cupful of green pease (fresh or canned), two small carrots cut into neat, thin slices, and a few clusters of cauliflower. When the lamb is nearly done, lay these vegetables on it; put with them two tomatoes sliced, and cook about fifteen minutes. In serving this dish arrange the vegetables around the meat, and pour over them the gravy, which should be thickened with browned flour after the meat and vegetables have been taken from it.

_Sliced Peach Pie._—Line a pie-plate with a good paste, and cover it with peaches, sliced, but not peeled; sprinkle thickly with sugar, and bake in a steady oven. There must be no top crust, but a méringue may be added when the pie is nearly done, and lightly browned. This pie is very good.

3.

Tomato Soup _Maigre_. Baked White-Fish. Mashed Potatoes. Fried Oyster-Plant. Rice-and-Pear Pudding.

_Tomato Soup Maigre._—Fry a sliced onion brown in butter or good dripping in the bottom of the soup-pot; pour in the chopped contents of a can of tomatoes and two cups of boiling water; stew until tender, rub through a colander, return to the fire; add a half-cupful of boiled rice; thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with one of flour; boil up, and serve.

_Baked White-Fish._—Select a good-sized fish, and stuff it with a dressing of bread-crumbs well seasoned and moistened with a little melted butter. Sew the fish up carefully; pour a cupful of boiling water over it after it is laid in the dripping-pan, and bake (covered) for an hour, basting several times with butter. Remove the threads before sending to table.

_Rice-and-Pear Pudding._—Three cups boiled rice, two eggs, one cup sugar, one cup milk, stewed or canned pears. Stir the beaten eggs, the sugar, and the milk into the rice; put a layer of this in the bottom of a pudding mould, and cover this with a stratum of pears; follow this with more rice, then more pears, and continue thus until all the materials are used; set the mould in boiling water, and boil for an hour. Eat the pudding with a hot custard sauce.

4.

Potato Purée. Beef's Heart, Stuffed. Stewed Sweet-Potatoes. Scalloped Squash. Méringued Apples.

_Potato Purée._—Two cups mashed potato, one onion, four cups boiling water, one stalk celery, one cup milk, one teaspoonful butter, one tablespoonful flour, pepper and salt to taste. Cook the potato, onion, and celery in the water for half an hour; rub through a colander, return to the fire; add the milk, thicken, and season.

_Méringued Apples._—Eight fine large apples, peeled, cored, and quartered; two tablespoonfuls butter, juice of a large lemon, one cup white sugar, nutmeg to taste, whites of three eggs, half-cup powdered sugar. Heat the butter, sugar, lemon juice, and nutmeg in a double boiler; drop the quartered apples into this, and let them cook until tender; take them out and lay in a glass dish, cover with a méringue made of the whites of the eggs and the powdered sugar, and pass the syrup from the apples in a little pitcher, with the méringued fruit.

5.

Julienne Soup. Irish Stew. Creamed Carrots. Stewed Corn. Peach-and-Tapioca Pudding.

_Peach-and-Tapioca Pudding._—One small cupful tapioca, one can peaches, half-cup sugar. Soak the tapioca overnight in three cupfuls of water; the next day arrange the canned peaches in a dish, pouring over them about a cupful of the liquor from the can; sprinkle them well with sugar, pour the tapioca on them, and bake until this is clear. Eat hot with hard sauce.

6.

Salmon Soup. Mutton Chops. Baked Onions. Stuffed Egg-Plant. Cream Rice Pudding.

_Salmon Soup._—One can salmon, one cup bread-crumbs, one quart water, two cups milk, one teaspoonful butter, pepper and salt to taste. Pick to pieces the contents of a can of salmon, removing the bones, bits of skin, etc.; put over the fire with the water and seasoning, and cook half an hour; stir in the butter, the milk, and the crumbs, and serve. Pass sliced lemon with this.

_Stuffed Egg-Plant._—Boil an egg-plant thirty minutes, cut it in half, and scrape out the inside; mash this up with two tablespoonfuls of butter, and pepper and salt to taste; fill the two halves of the shell, sprinkle with crumbs, and brown in the oven.

_Cream Rice Pudding._—Three cups milk, three tablespoonfuls rice, one cupful sugar, one teaspoonful vanilla. Wash the rice, put it with the milk, sugar, and flavoring into a pan, and bake in a slow oven for three or four hours. Every time a crust forms on top, stir it in, until just before taking it from the oven. Eat cold.

FAMILY DINNERS FOR WINTER

1.

Turnip Purée. Roast Turkey. Fried Parsnips. Browned Onions. Mashed Potatoes. Orange Roly-Poly.

_Turnip Purée._—Eight turnips, one onion, one stalk celery, four cups water, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful flour, pepper and salt to taste. Peel and cut up the turnips, and put them over the fire with the onion in the four cups of water; let them cook until tender, and then rub them through the colander, and put them back on the fire. Cook the butter and flour together in a saucepan; add the milk, stir into the turnip, season to taste, and serve.

_Browned Onions._—Peel rather small onions, and boil them until tender; drain off the water, and pour over the onions a cupful of soup or gravy; let the onions simmer in this for ten minutes; then take them out, and keep them hot while you thicken the gravy with browned flour. Pour over the onions just before sending to the table.