Place the meat, which has been wiped with a damp cloth, upon a meat board. Cut into four pieces. Pound the flour into the meat on both sides, using a meat pounder or the side of a heavy saucer. Butter the casserole, add a layer of meat, then onions and green peppers. Add the carrots. Add the salt to the water and pour over the meat. Cover closely. Place in a moderate oven and allow to cook slowly for two hours. More water may be needed before the meat is done. Serve in the casserole.
Arrange the lettuce, which has been washed and chilled, upon three plates. Sprinkle the lettuce with salt and serve with the following dressing:
Beat the salad dressing, add the oil, pickle, pimento, catsup, celery, nut meats, salt and paprika. Beat one minute. Pour three tablespoons of the mixture over each portion of the lettuce. Serve very cold.
Beat the eggs, add the sugar, salt, vanilla, and lemon extract. Mix thoroughly. Butter four custard cups. Fill a pan four inches deep with hot (not boiling) water. Set the cups in the pan and place in a moderately slow oven for thirty-five or forty minutes (or until a knife inserted in the custard comes out clean). Serve cold with maple syrup poured over it.
"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 to make cookies tomorrow!"
"Is she?" said Bob. "Well, don't eat 'em all up before I get here. Save me six fat ones, with raisins in. Don't forget the raisins."
"I set the table, Uncle Bob, and I made the rice croquettes into that cunning shape, and when they were fried, I put in the jelly! Don't they look nice?"
"The most artistic rice croquettes, I ever ate!" declared Bob.
"And wait till you see the dessert! I fixed that; Aunt Bettina showed me how. But I won't tell you what it is—yet. I know you'll like it, though."
"Well, you're a great little helper, Mildred, aren't you!"
"That's just what Aunt Bettina says. And I've learned so many things! I didn't know before that it was easier to cut up marshmallows with the scissors than any other way. Oh, Aunt Bettina! I almost told him about our dessert!"
"Marshmallows? Marshmallows?" said Bob. "A clue, I do believe! I have it: 'Marshmallows served with scissors!'"
"Oh, Uncle Bob, you're too funny!" cried Mildred, shouting with laughter.
"Appreciated at last!" said Bob.
For dinner that night they had:
Wipe and trim the chops. Place on a hot tin pan four inches from a direct hot flame (under a broiler). Cook two minutes, turn and thoroughly cook the other side for two minutes. Lower the flame a little, add the salt and pepper, and cook for eight minutes more. (A little longer if the chops are very thick.) Remove to a warm platter, dot with butter, add the parsley and serve immediately.
Mix the steamed rice, egg-yolk, butter, paprika, salt and parsley. Shape into flat disks one inch thick and three inches in diameter. Roll in flour. Make an indentation in the center of each with a spoon, to hold the jelly. Fry in hot deep fat until brown. Drain, the wrong side up. Heat in a hot oven and serve hot. Place a cube of jelly in the center of each.
Beat the cream until stiff, add the vanilla, marshmallows and sugar. Arrange the cake in glass sherbet dishes. Place a tablespoon of cherries and a tablespoon of juice on each slice. Place one and a half tablespoons of the whipped cream mixture on each portion. Allow to stand in a cold place for five minutes.
"Oh, you'll like Mr. Jackson, Mildred. He's one of Uncle Bob's best friends, and so nice and jolly!"
"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 one and do my own cooking."
"Will you live all alone?" asked Bettina.
"I'll adopt some children—seven or eight, I think,—all girls. I don't want any boys around."
"Your bungalow will have to be larger than this to accommodate them all if you adopt seven or eight."
"I don't want a large one; that would spoil the fun. I'll let the children take turns sleeping on the floor. Children always love to sleep on the floor, and mothers never like to have them do it! I wonder why? Now, will you let me brown the flour for the gravy?"
"Yes, dear. Put half a cup of white flour in that frying-pan over the fire and keep stirring it constantly until it is a nice brown color, about like powdered cinnamon."
"This way?"
"Yes, Mildred; a little darker than that, but keep stirring it so that it won't burn. There, that's exactly right!"
That evening Bettina served:
Allow the lamb to stand in cold water for ten minutes. Remove and wipe dry. Place the fat in a frying-pan. Add the meat and cook until thoroughly browned on all sides. Place in the fireless cooker (or a slow oven) and surround the meat with the potatoes. Sprinkle with the salt and paprika. Add the water. (If in the cooker, place the heated disks under and over the meat.) Cook two hours.
Remove the meat from the pan in which it was cooked (also remove the potatoes) and add sufficient water to the stock in the pan to make one and a half cups all together. Melt the butter, add the browned flour and a tablespoon of the stock. Mix well, and add the salt and pepper. Add the remaining stock; cook, stirring constantly for two minutes. Pour into a heated gravy dish. Serve at once.
Arrange two pieces of lettuce on each plate. Slice an egg, a radish and an onion and arrange these upon the lettuce leaves. Sprinkle each portion with a fourth of the seasoning. Place two tablespoons of salad dressing on each portion. Have all the ingredients cold before combining.
"You did?" said Bob, feigning astonishment. "You rolled them out with a rolling pin, I suppose, and——"
"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 years. "Good cooks always pat down the dough—they never roll it out."
"Well, what do you do first? Stir up the dough with a spoon?"
"No, indeed; you use a knife. Then you pat the dough down, and cut out the dear little biscuits with a biscuit cutter."
"And put them side by side in a nicely buttered pan? I know how!"
"But you don't butter the pan," said Mildred triumphantly. "Or flour it, either. Aunt Bettina says that lots of people think the pan has to be buttered or floured, but they're wrong. It's lots better to put the biscuits into a nice clean pan."
"But don't they stick to it, and burn?"
"No, indeed! They don't burn a bit! Look at these!" said Mildred, delighted to find the opportunity to impart some of her newly acquired knowledge.
"Well, what else did you help Aunt Bettina to make?"
"These nice stuffed onions. It was fun to make them, even though I don't like onions. I ground up the dry bread that Aunt Bettina keeps in the jar by the stove."
"Well, you can tell Mother Polly that Aunt Bettina will make a good cook of you yet!"
For dinner that night they had:
Wash and peel the onions. Cook for ten minutes in boiling water. Rinse with cold water to make them firm. Push out the centers. Place the onions in a well-buttered baking pan and fill each onion with filling. Place in a moderate oven for twenty minutes.
Mix the crumbs, tomato pulp, butter, parsley, pimento, salt, egg yolks and celery. Cook for one minute. Fill each onion case carefully with the mixture. Then pour the following sauce about the onions before placing them in the oven:
Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix well, add the milk, and cook for one minute.
Mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in the fat with a knife. Add the soda to the milk, and when the effervescing ceases, add slowly to the dry ingredients. (All the milk may not be needed.) When a soft dough is formed, toss onto a floured board. Pat into shape, cut with a biscuit cutter, and place side by side on a tin pan or baking sheet. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderately hot oven.
"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 the very best way to do everything! Why, Mother, I think she's a better cook even than Selma, and not half so cross when I bother!"
"Bother!" said Bettina. "Why, Mildred, you've been a real help to me!"
"I hope so," laughed Polly, "but I'm not so sure. Children never worry me—it's fortunate, isn't it?—but I don't see how on earth anyone can cook with a child in the kitchen! I wanted Selma to teach Mildred, but I hadn't the heart to insist when she objected to the plan."
"H—m, Selma!" said Mildred with scorn. "Why, Mother, Selma doesn't even know enough to line her cake pans with waxed paper! She butters 'em! And I don't believe we have a spatula in the whole house!"
"A—what?" said Polly in a puzzled tone. "I don't believe I——"
"Don't you know what a spatula is, Mother?" asked Mildred didactically. "Why, it's one of those flattened out spoon-things to use in the kitchen. We ought to have one. And—Mother, you ought to see how much mayonnaise Aunt Bettina makes at a time! It'll keep, you know."
"Goodness!" said Polly tragically. "What a dreadful thing it will be to live with a child who knows more than I do!"
For dinner that night they had:
Wash and peel the onions. Cook in one quart of water. Allow to boil five minutes. Change the water and continue boiling ten minutes. Change the water again, and when thoroughly cooked (about fifteen minutes more), remove from the fire and drain.
Melt the butter, add the flour and salt and mix thoroughly. Add the milk and cook one minute. Add the onions, and pour the mixture into a well-buttered baking dish. Place the buttered crumbs on the top of the onions and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes.
Cream the butter, add the sugar and cream the mixture, add the egg-yolks, mix well and add the coffee, vanilla, flour and baking powder. Beat two minutes. Add the stiffly beaten egg-whites. Pour the mixture into two layer-cake pans prepared with waxed paper. Bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. When cool, spread with the mocha icing.
Mix the vanilla with the coffee. Add the powdered sugar slowly until the proper consistency to spread. Spread over one layer and place the upper layer on the lower. Place the icing on the top layer and on the sides. More sugar may be needed.
"But you can always smile Selma out of her 'spells,' Mother," coaxed Mildred. "And just think, Selma doesn't even know what a fireless cooker is! We'll have to explain it to her."
"What can you make in a fireless cooker, Mildred?" asked Polly of her little daughter, who was fairly bursting with her newly acquired information.
"Oh, Mother, this roast! Isn't it good? Aunt Betty kept it in the cooker almost four hours, and think how much gas that saved!"
"Well, I'll admit that such an item would appeal to your father, Mildred," Polly replied, "so I think I'll leave it to you to get around him and Selma. I'm sure," she continued, turning to Bob, "that such an undertaking can reasonably be expected to occupy Mildred for some time. But I do like the roast."
"The roast?" said Bob. "It is good, Polly, but you needn't think that this is a company meal, especially. Why, Bettina gives me company dinners every day!"
For dinner that night they had:
Place the bacon drippings in a frying-pan. Roll the beef in the flour, and when the fat is hot, add the beef and brown thoroughly on all sides. Place the meat in a kettle, and add the vegetables. Pour the water in the frying-pan to remove any fat. Pour all over the meat. Add the bay leaf, cloves and salt. Cover closely and allow to cook very slowly for three and a half hours. Turn the meat after the second hour. This is a good fireless cooker recipe.
Remove the meat from the kettle. Strain the stock into a bowl. To the flour, add the water. Mix well, and gradually add the stock. Mix and cook one minute. Pour the gravy over the meat and reserve the remaining stock and vegetables for soup.
Strain the vegetables through the strainer, pressing thoroughly to remove all the pulp. Add the stock and one-half a cup of water. Reheat and serve for dinner with croutons or salted wafers.
When the water is boiling, add the salt. Add the rice and allow it to boil twenty minutes. More water may be needed. Stir occasionally with a fork. Pour into a strainer, and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Toss into a buttered vegetable dish. Sprinkle with paprika and dot with butter. Set in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes.
"With a conical ice cream mould, Alice," Bettina answered. "It is very simple. And I'll tell you another thing. I made those croquettes yesterday, not today."
"You don't mean that you fried them yesterday?"
"Yes, I did, Alice. In deep fat."
"But they were warm, not cold."
"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 served immediately after they were fried, and you know frying in deep fat is really a nuisance when it has to be done at the last minute. For instance, today I had the biscuits to make, and the soup and sweet potatoes to prepare. And I believe in being leisurely when giving a luncheon, so I certainly would not serve croquettes if they had to be made that day. I tried reheating them once when Bob and I were here alone and discovered that they were delicious. So I've always, ever since, fried my croquettes the day before."
"Hereafter I'll serve croquettes at luncheon myself," said Alice. "You have taught me something."
For luncheon that day Bettina served:
Cook the peas, water and sugar slowly for fifteen minutes. Strain, and rub all the pulp through the strainer. Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix thoroughly and gradually add the milk. Boil one minute and add the pulp and liquid from the peas. Cook one minute. Serve in hot soup plates or bouillon cups.
Cut the slices of bread one-half an inch thick. Butter, and sprinkle with salt. Cut into strips, the length of the slice and half an inch wide. Place on a tin pan, and cook directly under a fire or in an oven until a delicate brown. Serve warm.
Melt the butter, add the flour, paprika, celery salt, onion salt, salt and pimento. Gradually add the milk and cook thoroughly for one minute. Add the meat and allow the mixture to cool. When cool, shape into the desired shape, preferably conical. Roll in the crumbs, dip in the egg and water mixed, then dip in the crumbs and allow to stand for fifteen minutes or more. Fry in deep fat.
Beat the egg whites thoroughly, add the sugar, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well, add the dates, nuts and vanilla. Pile lightly in a well-buttered baking-dish. Place the dish in a pan of hot water and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Allow the pudding to remain in the oven a little while after the heat is turned off. If cooled slowly, it will not fall. The pudding may be baked in individual moulds if preferred, and may be served with whipped cream.
Bettina started in surprise. "Why, Ruth, I didn't see you coming up the walk!"
"I knew you didn't. But what on earth are you doing out here on your front steps? Enjoying the weather?"
"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'm always tempted to do that when the first signs of spring appear, and then I'm generally sorry a few days later."
"I'll have to put mine away soon, too. Do tell me, Bettina, just how you go about it."
"Well, I always hang mine in the sun for a while, then I beat them well, comb them out with a steel comb, and wrap them up."
"With moth-balls?"
"That is a good way, but not at all necessary. I always wrap mine in a newspaper—a good tight package. Moths don't like printer's ink, you know, and furs so wrapped are perfectly safe."
"Then, Bettina, you don't need to add that you label the package, for I know that you do, you thoroughly thorough housekeeper!"
Bettina laughed. "Well, Ruth, I do label it. Labelled packages are so much better to have, for very often you need to get something out in a hurry."
For dinner that night Bettina served:
Place one tablespoon of butter in a frying-pan and when hot add the onion. Let the onion cook until it is brown. Add the salt and parsley, the rest of the butter, the potatoes and the paprika. Stir well. Cook until the potatoes are well browned.
Mix the beans, celery, nut meats, green pepper, pickles and salt. Add the salad dressing. Serve very cold on lettuce leaves.
Cream the butter and lard, add the sugar, and mix well. Add the two eggs well beaten. Mix and sift thoroughly the flour, baking powder, salt, cloves and cinnamon. Add the dates and nuts. Stir these dry ingredients into the first mixture. Add the vanilla. Mix thoroughly and drop from the end of the spoon upon a well larded and floured baking pan. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.
"Twelve or fifteen, I think. Now let me tell you Ralph's own idea for entertainment. I suppose I'm a doting aunt, but it sounds very possible to me."
"Did Ralph suggest the kind of a party he wished? Well, isn't he a clever boy! And he's only eleven years old, too."
"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 the corner. When the children arrive, we'll have the parade. We'll have ready the horns, drums, and so forth, for the band, and some of the children will represent the various wild animals. The parade will lead to the refreshment table (after some circus games, perhaps), which will be set outdoors if it is warm enough. The table must represent a circus ground (I've seen those paper circuses downtown, haven't you?), and the refreshments must carry out the scheme. So, Bettina, do help us to plan the details!"
Bettina's dinner that night consisted of:
Have a frying-pan very hot. Add the ham and brown thoroughly on both sides. Add the water and let boil for one minute. Remove the ham. Stick the cloves into it, and place it in the bottom of a casserole. Add the parsley and paprika to the water in the pan, and pour the liquid over the meat. Cover and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Roll the potatoes (which have been washed and peeled) in the flour, and add to the casserole. Baste with the liquid. Cover and cook three-fourths of an hour. Serve in the casserole.
Wash the cabbage and chop into half inch pieces. Cook in boiling water fifteen minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Make a white sauce by melting the butter, adding the flour and salt, and then adding the milk. Cook two minutes, stirring constantly. Add the cabbage, and pour into a well-buttered open baking dish. Melt the one tablespoon of butter, add the crumbs and mix well. Spread the buttered crumbs over the top of the cabbage. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven. Serve in the dish.
Mix the corn starch and salt in the upper part of the double boiler. Add the milk slowly, stirring all the time. Add the sugar. Place the upper in the lower part of the double boiler and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent lumping. When very thick, add the egg-yolk, the vanilla and lemon extracts and the cocoanut. Beat one minute. Cook again for three minutes. Place in a buttered baking dish. Beat the egg-white and when very stiff, add the two tablespoons of sugar. Pile lightly on the top of the pudding and place in a moderate oven for ten minutes to brown the meringue.
"It's a circus!" explained Ralph to curly-headed Margery, who was adding her own piping voice to the general din.
A small American flag floated from a flag pole in the center of the table, and around it were arranged paper circus tents and circus wagons of the five and ten cent store variety. Animal crackers were all about, and the animal sandwiches and animal cakes in flat baskets looked almost too real to be eaten.
Smooth boards on supports represented circus seats, and on these the children soon clambered, eager to eat as children always are.
The paper napkins, decorated with animals, were folded before the places to represent tents. The salad faces, which Ralph called "clowns," leered up from the plates.
But the joy was not to be all in seeing. There was a favor for each child to carry away, the favors from the table being claimed by matching the numbers on each one with a corresponding number on the pieces of candy passed at the close of the meal.
The refreshments consisted of: