"How's that? And here's another:
"Well," said Bob, "they sound good, but not so good as the dinners you give me."
That evening Bettina served:
Melt the butter, add the flour and mix well. Add the milk and cook one minute. Add the salmon, salt, paprika, egg diced, lemon juice, pickle and parsley. Mix thoroughly with a silver fork, being careful not to let the mixture get pasty. Pour into a well-buttered baking dish, melt the butter and add the crumbs. Place buttered crumbs on the top. Bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven.
Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the fat with a knife. Add the egg and milk, using the knife to make a soft dough. Toss onto a floured board. Roll out to a thickness of one-fourth an inch. Cut out with a round cooky cutter, three inches in diameter. Brush over with milk. Fold over like pocket-book rolls. Place in a tin pan and brush over the top with one tablespoon of milk to which has been added one teaspoon of sugar. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes.
Beat the egg-whites very stiffly. Add very carefully the powdered sugar. Cut and fold in the bread crumbs and the baking powder. Add the chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla. Drop the mixture from the tip of a spoon, two inches apart upon a well-greased pan. Bake in a moderate oven twelve to fifteen minutes.
"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."
"You'll talk all the better for something to eat," said Bettina, "and so will Bob. Won't you, Bob?"
"Well," said Bob, with a grin, "I will admit that coming home in the cold has given me something of an appetite. Then too, I'll tell you, Donald, that Bettina's after-theatre suppers aren't to be lightly refused! Yes, on the whole, I think we'd better have the supper. We couldn't get you for dinner tonight, and you're leaving so early in the morning that you see you won't have had any real meal at our house at all!"
Meanwhile, Bettina was busying herself with the little supper, for which she had made preparations that morning. When she had creamed the oysters and placed them in the ramekins, she popped them in the oven. Next she put on the coffee in her percolator, and placed in the oven with the oysters the small loaf of bran bread that she had steamed that morning. "Bob likes it better warm," she said to herself.
Then she arranged her tea-cart with plates, cups, silver, napkins and peach preserves, not forgetting the rice parfait from the refrigerator.
When she wheeled the little supper into the living room, Bob and Donald welcomed her with delight. "I take it back; I am hungry after all!" said Donald.
Bettina served:
Heat the oysters until they are plump. Drain. Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix well. Add the milk slowly and cook until creamy. (About two minutes.) Add the oysters, and place one-third of the mixture in each well-buttered ramekin. Melt the butter (two teaspoons) and add the crumbs, stirring well. Place the buttered crumbs on top of the mixture in each ramekin. Brown in the oven for fifteen minutes. Sprinkle with parsley, and garnish with hard-cooked egg cut in slices.
Mix the bran, flour, soda, baking powder, salt, raisins and nuts. Add the molasses, sugar, milk and water. Stir well for two minutes. Fill a well-buttered mould one-half full of the mixture. Cover with the lid, well-buttered, and steam for two hours. The steaming may be done in the fireless cooker, if desired.
Soak the gelatin in cold water for five minutes. Add the hot milk and allow it to dissolve thoroughly. Add the sugar, salt, nut meats and rice, and mix well. When thoroughly cooled, add the whipped cream. Pour into a well-buttered mould, and allow to stand in a cool place for two hours. Serve cold. Whipped cream may be served with the parfait if desired.
"I like that recipe," said Bettina, "and it is so easy to make."
"What have you been doing all day?" Bob asked, "Cooking?"
"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 for it! Our refreshments are to be served from the dining-room table, you know, and our central decoration is to be a three-cornered black hat filled with artificial red cherries. Of course we'll have cherry ice, and serve cherries in the tea, Russian style. The salad will be served in little black three-cornered hats; these filled with fruit salad, will be set on the table and each guest will help herself. The thin bread and butter sandwiches will be cut in hatchet shape. And—oh, yes, I forgot the cunningest idea of all! We'll serve tiny gilt hatchets stuck in tree-trunks of fondant rolled in cocoanut and toasted brown. Isn't that a clever plan? Charlotte saw it done once, and says it is very effective."
"It sounds like some party! And I'll feel especially enthusiastic if you don't forget to plan for one guest who won't appear—or perhaps I should say two, for I know Frank won't want to be forgotten."
For dinner that night Bob and Bettina had:
Place the milk, onion and celery over the fire. Allow to get very hot. Remove from the fire and let stand for ten minutes. Remove the celery and onion from the milk. Melt the butter, add the flour. Mix well and slowly add the milk. Cook until the consistency of white sauce. Add the egg, well beaten, the salt, paprika, and beef. Pour into well-buttered individual dishes.
Place in a moderate oven and bake twenty-five minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to stand two minutes. Remove from the moulds and garnish with parsley.
Mix the tomatoes, salt, paprika, cheese and celery. Add half the bread crumbs. Pour into a well-buttered baking dish. Melt the butter, add the remaining crumbs and place on top of the mixture. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven.
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, bran and sugar. Add the milk and water. Beat vigorously for one minute and then add the butter. Pour into a well-buttered bread pan and bake forty minutes in a moderate oven.
"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 something new to me!"
"It is cinnamon toast," said Bettina, "and so easy to make. I was busy all morning, and didn't have time to make anything but these date kisses for tea, but cinnamon toast can be made so quickly that I decided to serve it."
"I like orange marmalade, too, Bettina," said Alice. "I wish I had made some. I have spiced peaches, and a little jelly, but that is all. Next summer I intend to have a perfect orgy of canning. Then my cupboard will be even better stocked than Bettina's—perhaps! I opened a jar of spiced peaches last evening for dinner, and what do you think! Harry ate every peach in the jar! I had expected them to last several days, too."
"I hoped you saved the juice," said Bettina.
"I did, but I don't know why. It seemed too good to throw away, somehow."
"Have you ever eaten ham cooked in the juice of pickled peaches? It's delicious. Just cover the slice of ham with the juice and cook it in the oven until it is very tender. Then remove it from the juice and serve it."
"It sounds fine. I'll do it tomorrow."
That afternoon Bettina served:
Make a delicate brown toast and butter each slice. Mix the sugar and cinnamon, and place in a shaker. Shake the desired quantities of sugar and cinnamon over the hot buttered toast. Keep in a warm place until ready to serve.
Add the salt to the white of an egg, and beat the egg-white very stiff. Then add the sugar, baking powder, nuts, dates and lemon extract. Drop from a teaspoon onto a buttered pan. Bake in a slow oven until delicately browned. (About twenty-five minutes.)
Wash thoroughly the rinds of the fruits. Weigh the fruit, and slice it evenly. To each pound of fruit, add one quart of cold water. Let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours. Cook slowly for one hour. Drain. Weigh the cooked fruit, and add an equal weight of sugar. Cook with the sugar for thirty minutes, or until it stiffens slightly when tried on a dish. Pour into sterilized jelly glasses. When cool seal with hot paraffin.
Bettina poured the tea and placed in each cup a red cherry. The guests helped themselves to trays, napkins, forks and spoons, and each took a portion of Washington salad, served in a small, black, three-cornered hat, lined with waxed paper. Each took also a rolled sandwich, tied with red, white and blue ribbon, and a nut bread sandwich in the shape of a hatchet.
The Washington fondant, rolled in cocoanut and toasted to represent tree trunks, with small gilt hatchets stuck in them, occasioned great delight. "How did you ever think of it?" Ruth asked, and Bettina gave Charlotte the credit, though she in turn disclaimed any originality in the matter.
"One thing is lacking," said Bettina. "Charlotte and I should be wearing colonial costumes. We did think of it, but happened to be too busy to make them."
That afternoon Charlotte and Bettina served:
Mix the pineapple, marshmallows, grapefruit, white cherries and nuts. Add the salad dressing. Serve immediately. Place waxed paper in the paper cups of the small, black, three-cornered hats. Place one serving of salad in each cup. Put one teaspoon of whipped cream on top and half a cherry on that. Stick a tiny silk American flag into each portion.
Mix the flours, baking powder, salt, nut meats and sugar. Break the egg in the milk and add to the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly, pour into a well-buttered bread pan and allow to rise for twenty minutes. Bake in a moderate oven for fifty minutes.
When the nut bread is one day old, cut in very thin slices. Cream the butter and spread one piece of bread carefully with butter. Place another piece on the top. Press firmly. Make all the sandwiches in this way. Allow to stand in a cool, damp place for one hour. Make a paper hatchet pattern. Lay the pattern on top of each sandwich and with a sharp knife, trace around the pattern. Cut through carefully and the sandwiches will resemble hatchets. This is not difficult to do and is very effective.
Cut the bread very thin with a sharp knife. Remove all crusts. Place a damp cloth around the prepared slices when very moist, and tender. Spread with butter which has been creamed with a fork until soft. Roll the sandwiches up carefully like a roll of paper. Cut the ribbon into six-inch strips, and tie around the sandwiches. Place in a bread box to keep moist. Pile on a plate in log cabin fashion.
"Bettina, this is Mr. MacGregor, of MacGregor & Hopkins, you know. Mr. MacGregor, my wife, Bettina. I've been trying to get you all afternoon to tell you I was bringing a guest to dinner and to spend the night. The storm seems to have affected the lines."
"Oh, it has! I've been alone all day! Haven't talked to a soul! Welcome, Mr. MacGregor, I planned Bob's particular kind of a dinner tonight, and it may not suit you at all, but I'm glad to see you, anyhow."
Mr. MacGregor murmured something dignified but indistinct, as Bob cried out heartily, "Well, it smells good, anyhow, so I guess you can take a chance; eh, MacGregor?"
Bettina had a hazy idea that Mr. MacGregor, of MacGregor & Hopkins, was somebody very important with whom Bob's firm did business, and although she knew also that Bob had know "Mac," as he called him, years before in a way that was slightly more personal, her manner was rather restrained as she ushered them into the dining-room a few minutes later. However, the little meal was so appetizing, and the guest seemed so frankly appreciative, that conversation soon flowed freely. Bob's frank comments were sometimes embarrassing, for instance when he said such things as this:
"Matrimony has taught me a lot, MacGregor! I've learned—well, now, you'd never think that all this dinner was cooked in the oven, would you? Well, it was: baked ham, baked potatoes, baked apples, and the cakes—Bettina's cakes, I call 'em. You see, my wife thinks of things like that—a good dinner and saving gas, too!"
"Oh, Bob!" said Bettina, with a scarlet face.
"You needn't be embarrassed, Bettina, it's so! I was just telling 'Mac' as we came in, that two can live more cheaply than one provided the other one is like you—always coaxing me to add to our bank account. It's growing, too, and I never could save before I was married!"
The dinner consisted of:
Remove the rind from ham. Stick the cloves into both sides. Place in a pan just the size of the meat. Pour the vinegar, water, sugar and mustard (well mixed) over the ham. Baste frequently. Bake in moderate oven until crisp and tender (about forty-five minutes).
Cream the cheese, add salt, pepper and vinegar. Add the oil gradually. Mix well, shake thoroughly. Pour over the lettuce and serve.
Wash and core apples of uniform size. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Fill the apples. Press a marshmallow in each apple also. Dot the top with a piece of butter. Place the apples in a pan, add the remaining sugar, cover the bottom with water, and bake until tender (twenty-five to thirty minutes), basting often. Serve hot or cold.
Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Add the egg and the sour milk. Beat two minutes. Add the melted butter; beat one minute. Fill well-buttered muffin pans one-half full. Bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.
"Oh, Bettina," said he in a disappointed tone, "why not eat in the breakfast alcove? I'd like to show MacGregor how much fun we have every morning."
"Won't he think we're being too informal?"
"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 primitive—with our electric percolator and toaster——"
"Sorry, Bob, but you can't use the toaster this morning; I'm about to stir up some pop-overs."
"Well, I'll forgive you for taking away my toy, inasmuch as I do like pop-overs. Let me help you with them, Bettina; this is one place where you can use my strong right arm."
"Yes, indeed I can, Bob. I'll never forget those splendid pop-overs that you made the first time you ever tried. They look simple, but not very many people can make good ones. The secret of it is all in the beating," said she, as she stirred up the smooth paste, "and then in having the gem pans and the oven very hot."
"Well, these'll be good ones then," said Bob, as he set about his task. "You light the oven, Betty, and put the gem pans in it, and then before you have changed things from the dining-room to the alcove, I'll have these pop-overs popping away just as they ought to do!"
The percolator was bubbling and the pop-overs were nearly done when they heard Mr. MacGregor's step. "He's exactly on time," chuckled Bob. "That's the kind of a methodical fellow he is in everything."
"Well, there's no time when promptness is more appreciated than at meal-time," said Betty, decidedly. "I like him."
"Come on out here!" called Bob, cheerfully. "This is the place in which we begin the day! We'll show you the kind of a breakfast that'll put some romance into your staid old head. I made the pop-overs myself, and I know they're the best you ever saw—likewise the biggest—and they'll soon be the best you've ever eaten!"
When Bob had finished removing the pop-overs from their pans, the two men took their places at the table to the merry tune of the sizzling bacon Bettina was broiling.
"I never entertained a stranger so informally before," said she.
"And I was never such a comfortable guest as I am at this minute," said Mr. MacGregor, looking down at his breakfast, which consisted of:
Add the milk slowly to the flour and salt, stirring constantly, until a smooth paste is formed. Beat and add the remainder of the milk, and the egg. Beat vigorously for three minutes. Fill very hot gem pans three-fourths full. Bake thirty minutes in a hot oven. They are done when they have "popped" at least twice their size, and when they slip easily out of the pan. Iron pans are the best.
"Why, Charlotte. Come in!" she cried a moment later, for it was Mrs. Dixon with a napkin-covered pan in hand, whom she found at the door.
"I've brought you some light rolls for your dinner, Bettina," said Charlotte. "I don't make them often, and when I do, I make more than we can eat. Will they fit into your dinner menu?"
"Indeed they will!" said Bettina. "I'm delighted to get them. Now I wish I had something to send back with you for your dinner, but I seem to have cooked too little of everything!"
"Don't you worry," said Charlotte, heartily. "When I think of all the things you've done for me, I'm only too glad to offer you anything I have! Well, I must hurry home to get our dinner. That reminds me, Bettina, to ask you this: When you escallop anything, do you dot the crumbs on top with butter?"
"No, Charlotte, I melt the butter, add the crumbs, stir them well, and then spread them on the top of the escalloped oysters, or fish, or whatever I am escalloping."
"I'm glad to know the right way of doing, Bettina. Good-bye, dear."
For dinner Bob and Bettina had:
Mix the ham, salt, crumbs and paprika. Add the egg, well beaten, and the milk. Pour into a well-buttered tin or aluminum individual moulds. Place in a pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Unmould on a platter. Serve hot or cold.
Place the lettuce leaves on the serving plates. Arrange carefully portions of grapefruit, marshmallows, celery and cheese upon the lettuce. Sprinkle with salt and paprika. Pour the salad dressing over each portion and serve cold.
Cook half the sugar, the chocolate and the water until smooth and creamy (two minutes). Add the milk while the mixture is hot. Stir until smooth. Beat the egg, add the rest of the sugar and the salt. Add to the custard mixture. Mix well. Pour into two well-buttered custard moulds. Place the moulds in a pan surrounded by hot water. Set in a moderate oven and cook until a knife piercing it will come out clean. (Generally thirty minutes.) Allow to stand fifteen minutes in a warm place. Unmould and serve cold.
"No, she isn't," said Uncle John, shaking his head solemnly, "and the fact is, I shouldn't be here myself if it weren't for a sort of conspiracy; eh, Bettina?"
"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 beautiful new fireless cooker for Aunt Lucy. Haven't you, Uncle John?"
"Well!" said Bob, heartily. "That's fine! How did you happen to think of it?"
"Well Bob, she's been dreading the summer on the farm—not feeling so very strong lately, you know—and this morning she was just about discouraged. It's next to impossible to get any help out there—she says she's given up that idea—and at breakfast she told me that if the spring turned out to be a hot, uncomfortable one, she believed she'd go out and spend the summer with Lem's girl in Colorado. I naturally hate to have her do that, so I concluded to do everything I could to keep her at home. I telephoned to Bettina, and she promised to help me. The very first thing she suggested was a fireless cooker, and we bought that today. I believe your Aunt Lucy'll like it, too."
For dinner Bettina served:
Soak the crumbs, milk and egg together for five minutes. Add the beef, salt, paprika, parsley, onion and celery salt. Shape into flat cakes one inch thick, two and a half inches in diameter. Place the fat in the frying-pan and when hot, add the cakes. Lower the flame and cook seven minutes over a moderate fire, turning to brown evenly. Serve on a hot platter. Garnish with parsley. Serve with egg sauce.
Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix well, add the milk, and cook for two minutes. Add the hard-cooked egg sliced, or cut in small pieces. Serve hot with the meat balls.
Soak the gelatin in cold water for three minutes. Add the boiling water, and when thoroughly dissolved add the sugar. Allow to cool. Beat the egg-white stiff. When the gelatin begins to congeal, beat it until fluffy, add the extracts and then the egg-white. Beat until stiff. Pour into a moistened cake pan. When hard and cold, remove from the pan, cut in one inch cubes and pile in a glass dish.