A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband

Add the chopped pimento, green pepper and salt to the cottage cheese. Work all together well, shape into balls one inch in diameter. Place a ball in the center of each slice of pineapple, which has been arranged upon a piece of lettuce. Place a nut meat upon the top of each cheese ball. Serve one tablespoon of salad dressing upon each service.

Cook apricots, sugar and water until the apricots are soft. (About five minutes.) Cool, add the lemon juice and freeze. When the mixture is half frozen, add the stiffly beaten white and continue freezing until stiff. More sugar may be used if desired.

CHAPTER L

"WE'LL treat Uncle Eric so well that he'll have a good time in spite of himself," Bob had said when he had proposed that his gruff old uncle be invited. "I'll take Saturday afternoon off, and we'll go to the matinee, then we'll come home to dinner, and then go again to the theatre in the evening." For a great actor was to be in town, and this was the reason for Uncle Eric's possible visit. "If he'll only come," Bob had added doubtfully.

"He'll come," said Bettina confidently, for she felt that she had discovered the soft spot in Uncle Eric's heart. "We'll have a good dinner, too."

Bob remembered what she had said about the dinner and repeated it to himself as they stepped from the street car after the matinee. "It's late, Bettina," he said anxiously, "will it take you long to get dinner?"

To warm it over! But then, all of Bettina's dinners were good, so he resolved not to worry. Nevertheless, he could not help leaving Uncle Eric for a few minutes to come into the kitchen. "What can I do to help?"

"Not a thing, Bob dear. You see, I had this whole dinner ready this morning, and I have warmed it all up in the oven. I have discovered that croquettes are exactly as good when fried in the morning, and so are veal cutlets. And wait till you try the cauliflower!"

"I trust you, Bettina," said Bob, laughing. "It all looks mighty good to me. Here, I'll help you put it on the table."

Wipe the meat, place in one and one-half pints of boiling water, to which has been added one level teaspoon of salt. Boil gently until tender (about thirty minutes). Remove from the water and allow to cool until easy to handle. Remove the bone and skin, and cut into pieces for serving. Mix the paprika, salt (one-third of a teaspoon) and the cracker crumbs. Roll each piece of meat in the crumbs, then in the egg, to which the water has been added, and again in the crumbs. Pat the crumbs onto the meat. Arrange the meat on a platter and allow to stand fifteen minutes. Have sufficient fat in a pan to cover articles of food. When the fat is smoking hot, add the veal cutlets, and turn to cook each side. When a delicate brown (after about five minutes), remove and drain on paper. Keep hot in the oven. Place the veal cutlets on a platter and arrange baked apples around the edges. Serve the potato croquettes on the same platter, garnished with parsley.

Mix the mashed potatoes, celery salt, parsley, onion extract, egg yolk, milk, salt, butter and paprika. Beat two minutes. Shape into balls two inches in diameter. Roll in flour and allow to stand fifteen minutes. Cook in deep fat three minutes or more until a delicate brown. Drain on brown paper and keep hot in a moderate oven.

Soak the cauliflower in cold water to which a tablespoon of vinegar has been added. Cut apart and cook in a quart of water to which salt has been added. Make white sauce and add the cauliflower. Pour into a well-buttered baking dish. Cover with buttered crumbs. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER LI

"WE have gone 'over home' for so many Sunday dinners lately," Bettina had said to her mother, "that I want you and father to come here tomorrow."

"But, Bettina," her mother protested, "isn't it too much work for you? And won't you be going to church?"

"I can't go to church tomorrow, anyhow, for Bob's Uncle Eric is to be in town all morning; he leaves at noon, and the Dixons have offered us their car to take him for a drive. Don't worry, Mother, I'll have a simple dinner—a 'roast beef dinner,' I believe. I often think that is the very easiest kind."

Sunday morning was so beautiful that Bettina could not bear to stay indoors. Accordingly, she set the breakfast table on the porch, even though Uncle Eric protested that it was too far for her to walk back and forth with the golden brown waffles she baked for his especial delight. When he and Bob had eaten two "batches," Uncle Eric insisted that he could bake them himself for a while. He installed Bettina in her chair at the table, and forced waffles upon her till she begged for mercy.

"Gracious!" Bettina exclaimed as she heard the "honk" of the Dixons' automobile at the door. "There are the Dixons already and we have just finished breakfast! Bob, you and Uncle Eric will have to go on without me, for I must get the roast in the oven and do the morning's work."

Roll the roast in the flour and set on a rack in a dripping-pan. Place in a hot oven and sear over all sides. Sprinkle the salt over the meat and add the hot water. Cover the meat and cook in a moderate oven. Baste every fifteen minutes. Allow fifteen minutes a pound for a rare roast, and twenty minutes a pound for a well done roast. When properly done, the outside fat is crisp and brown.

Wash and peel the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt. Forty minutes before the roast is to be done, add the potatoes. During the last ten minutes of cooking the lid may be removed from the meat and potatoes to allow all to brown nicely.

Place four tablespoons of beef drippings in a pan, add the flour and allow to brown. Add the rest of the drippings, the water and the salt. Cook two minutes. Serve hot.

Wash and wipe the squash, and cut into halves, then quarters. Remove the seeds. Place the pieces of squash, skin down, in a baking-dish and bake in a moderate oven until tender (about one hour). Remove from the oven, mash up with a fork, and add to each portion one-half a teaspoon of butter, one-fourth a teaspoon of salt, and one-eighth a teaspoon of paprika. Reheat in the oven and serve hot.

Cream the butter, add the sugar and continue to cream the mixture. Add the egg, well beaten, and the chocolate. Mix well. Add the soda and flour sifted together, and the sour milk and vanilla. Beat three minutes. Bake in two layer cake pans prepared with waxed piper for twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

Cook the sugar and water together until it clicks when a little is dropped into a cup of cold water. Pour slowly over the beaten egg whites. Beat vigorously until creamy. Add the vanilla. Pour on one layer of the cake. Place the upper layer on top, and pour the rest of the icing upon it. Spread evenly over the top and over the sides.

CHAPTER LII

"I USUALLY complain when it rains—I have that habit—but I must confess that I like a rainy evening at home once in a while," said Bob, as he and Bettina sat down at the dinner table. "Dinner on a rainy night always seems so cozy."

"Liver and bacon don't constitute a very elaborate dinner," said Bettina. "But they taste good for a change. And oh, Bob, tonight I want you to try a new recipe I heard of—peanut fudge. It sounds delicious."

"I'm there," said Bob. "I was just thinking it would be a good candy evening. Then, when the candy is done, we'll assemble under the new reading lamp and eat it."

"Yes, it'll be a good way to initiate the reading lamp! Wasn't it dear of Uncle Eric to give it to us? I kept wondering why he was so anxious to know just what I planned to do with the money I won for my nut bread at the fair. I even took him around and pointed out this particular lamp as the thing I had been saving for. And here it arrived the day after he left, as a gift to me! It was dear of Uncle Eric! But now what on earth shall I do with my fair money?"

"But I'd like to get something as sort of a monument to my luck. Have you any particular needs, Bob?"

"Not a need in the world! Except for one more of those fine fruit gems over there."

Peel the turnips. Cut into one-half inch cubes. Soak in cold water ten minutes. Cook in boiling water in an uncovered utensil until transparent no longer. Drain and sprinkle with salt. Melt the butter, add the flour and the one-fourth teaspoon salt, blend well, add the milk gradually and cook until creamy. Add the turnips and serve.

Cover slices of calves' liver cut one-half inch thick with boiling water. Allow to stand five minutes. Drain and cut into pieces for serving. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Have a frying pan very hot. Add sliced bacon. When the bacon has cooked on each side, pile up on one side of the pan and add the liver, placing a piece of bacon on top of each portion of liver, thus preventing the bacon from getting too well done, and also seasoning the liver. Brown the liver thoroughly on both sides. (It should be cooked about ten minutes.) Serve hot.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Break the egg into the milk, stir well, pour into the dry ingredients. Beat vigorously one minute. Add the melted butter and raisins or currants. Bake in nine well buttered gem pans for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

Mix the sugar, cream of tartar, chocolate, milk and butter. Cook over a moderate fire until the fudge forms a soft ball when a little is dropped into cold water. Remove from the fire, allow to stand without stirring for twenty minutes. Beat vigorously until creamy. Add the vanilla and peanuts. When very thick remove to a buttered plate. Allow to harden and cut in squares.

CHAPTER LIII

"IS it still as much fun to keep house as it was at first, Charlotte?" asked Bettina as she and Bob sat down to dinner with the Dixons.

"Fun?" said Charlotte. "Bettina, look at me! Or better still, look at Frank! And the funny part of it all is that Aunt Isabel thinks our keeping house is a result of her preachments against boarding and hotel living. Why, she quite approves of me now! And I'll just keep quiet and let her feel that she was the one who did it, but all the while in my heart I'll be remembering that it was the sight of your happiness that roused my ambition to make a home myself."

"I tell you," said Mr. Dixon, "we can never thank you enough, Bettina. Now shall I play 'Home Sweet Home' on the piano? And will you all join in the chorus?"

"Not if you sing, too," said Mrs. Dixon, smiling at her husband's foolishness. "I've learned a great deal from you, since I began, Bettina, and not the smallest lesson is that of having company without dreading it. I don't try to make things elaborate, just dainty and simple food such as we have every day. Why, tonight I didn't make a single change for you and Bob! And I don't believe I should dread even Aunt Isabel's sudden arrival now."

"Aunt Isabel is really a good soul, Bettina," said Frank. "Charlotte has never learned how much worse her bark is than her bite, and she takes it to heart when Aunt Isabel speaks her mind. Why, I remember so well the scoldings she used to give me when I was a boy, and the cookies she would manage to treat me with afterward! I used to anticipate those pleasant scoldings!"

"If a scolding always comes before food," said Bob, "Charlotte must have given you an extra good one before inviting us to partake of that delicious-looking chocolate pie!"

Remove a piece one inch in diameter from the stem end of each tomato. Take out the seeds. Fill the shells with the rice, pepper, cheese, onion and salt, well mixed. Place a small dot of butter on top of each. Place in a small pan and bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

Mix the flour and salt, cut in the lard with a knife, add the liquid slowly, stirring with the knife. More water may be needed. Roll out thin, fit onto a tin pan, prick with holes, and bake in a hot oven until light brown (about seven minutes).

Mix well the sugar, flour and salt. Add gradually the milk and beaten egg yolks. Cook in a double boiler fifteen minutes. Add the melted chocolate. Cook until thick (about ten minutes), and add the vanilla. Fill the baked shell, and cover with meringue. Place in a moderate oven and cook until the meringue is a delicate brown (about five minutes).

Beat the whites of eggs very stiff. Add the sugar. Pile lightly on the chocolate mixture. Brown in the oven. Chocolate pie should be served cold.

CHAPTER LIV

"BIG success!" was what Bettina's eyes telegraphed to Ruth across the purple and white asters in the center of a long porch table. Ruth was giving a farewell luncheon for Bernadette, her young cousin, who was leaving that night for a fashionable New York school. Although there was no suggestion of it in the dainty dishes the two girls served to the hungry and vivacious young guests, Ruth was "trying out" her cooking with all of the stage-fright of the beginner. The recipes and suggestions were chiefly Bettina's, and the two had been busy in Ruth's kitchen since early that morning. Bernadette was a critical young person, although light-hearted and affectionate, and Ruth felt that she could set her humble efforts before no sterner judge. Yet all the while, as she tasted each course in its turn, her mind was running on, "Will Fred like this? Some day I'll be serving this to Fred!" It was certainly a satisfaction to feel one's self able to cook a luncheon acceptable to "the younger society set!"

With each course an enormous motto, supposedly of the "Don'ts for School Girls' Series," was brought in ceremoniously on a tray and suspended from the chandelier over the table, until finally five huge, if foolish, "Don'ts" were dangling there for Bernadette's inspection.

With the last course, Ruth, in the postman's hat, coat and bag, brought in an endless supply of letters for Bernadette, to be opened at such times as "When You Meet Your Impossible Room-mate," "When You Feel the First Pangs of Homesickness," "When Reprimanded by a Horrid Old Teacher", "When Forced to Mend Your Own Stockings," etc.-

Bernadette seized them all delightedly, glanced at the covers and cried out, half in laughter, half in tears, "Oh, girls, I simply can't go 'way off there! I'll die!" Her friends fell upon her with scoldings and hugs, and in the midst of the noise and clamor, Ruth and Bettina slipped out to laugh and talk over Ruth's first serious culinary effort.

Mix the chicken, celery salt, lemon juice, parsley, salt and thick white sauce. Shape into croquettes. Roll in cracker crumbs, beaten egg and more crumbs. Deep fry. Serve hot.

Scoop out the contents of the peppers. Mix the corn, salt, egg yolk, milk, bread crumbs, pepper and sugar. Fill the peppers. Dot with butter. Place in a pan and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Cover the bottom of the pan with water. Baste the peppers frequently.

Remove the seeds from two cups of California white cherries, and fill with filberts or hazel nuts. Arrange on crisp lettuce leaves, and serve with salad dressing.

Mix the cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add cold milk gradually, mixing well. Melt the chocolate in the hot water, and add it to the other mixture. Cook in the double boiler ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Beat three minutes. Add the stiffly beaten white and the vanilla. Mould, chill and serve. If the chocolate does not melt in the hot water, cook over the fire a minute. Whipped cream may be served with the pudding.

CHAPTER LV

"AND so I thought, if you were willing, I would have the luncheon the last of this week," said Bettina to Alice one sultry afternoon which they were spending on Bettina's porch.

"That's dear of you, Bettina. Oh, how queer it will seem to have everyone know about it! You must let me help with the luncheon, of course."

"No, indeed, Alice! Ruth and I are going to do it all alone, and the guest of honor is not to lift a finger! You can advise us, of course, but you mustn't arrive that day till everything is ready. I want to tell you about a few plans I've made. I wish I could consult Harry, too."

"No, but he's the leading man in the drama, and important even when off the stage. Let's telephone him to come here to dinner tonight. It is so warm that I have planned only a lunch, but we can set the porch table and have a jolly informal time. Do call him up, Alice."

"I'll help you," said Alice, after Harry had given his hearty acceptance. "Let me fix the salad."

"All right, and I'll stir up some little tea cakes. It's better not to cut those beets too small, Alice; it makes them soft. I never add them till just before I serve the salad. There, that's fine! Do you want to fix the parsley to garnish the ham? Ham looks so much better with parsley that I never fail to garnish it. I have nasturtiums for the center of the table, and we'll garnish the salad with them, too."

"It will be a festive little meal. What else can I do while you're baking the tea cakes?"

"You can make the iced tea, Alice. You do everything so easily and deftly that I love to watch you. And you have never cooked at all until lately, have you?"

"No, but I really like it. Wouldn't it be a joke if I should become very domestic?"

"Well, your fate is pointing in that direction! Time is swiftly passing, and in a few short weeks—Alice, shall I call off the announcement luncheon?"

Mix the beets, potatoes, celery, egg, cucumber and salt very lightly together with a fork. Mix with salad dressing. Serve in a bowl garnished with nasturtium leaves and flowers.

Sift and mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a "well" in the center of the mixture and pour in the melted butter, egg, milk and vanilla. Stir all together and beat vigorously for two minutes. Fill well buttered muffin pans half full of the mixture and bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER LVI

"OH, Bettina, aren't the butterflies darling?" exclaimed Ruth, looking once more at the table display of her work. "And with everything ready to begin in the morning, won't things be easy for us both? What shall I do next?"

"Not a thing, Ruth dear. You've worked too hard all this afternoon, I'm afraid. Now we're going to sit down to a good hot dinner, and tell Bob all about our preparations."

"M—m! Something smells good!" said Ruth. "I've been so busy with all these cunning things that I haven't even thought of eating. But now that you mention it, I'll admit that I have a fine healthy appetite."

"Well, dinner is almost ready, and Bob will be here any minute. It's all in the oven except the corn: meat loaf, sweet potatoes and apricot cobbler."

"Oh, how good it sounds! More sensible than all our fluffy dishes for the announcement luncheon. But then, I do love fluffy things. I'm sure Alice will like it, and all the others, too. Makes me 'most wish I'd kept my engagement a secret, and announced it with ceremony as Alice is doing. But I couldn't, somehow."

"No, you couldn't, Ruth, and neither could Fred. He'd give it away if you didn't. So I guess there's no use wishing you had kept it. Anyhow, you just suit me as you are. You've been such a dear to help with the luncheon! Goodness, there's Bob now!"

Mix the ground beef and salt pork, add the onion salt, fresh crumbs, egg, salt, pepper and tomato. Mix thoroughly. Shape into a loaf which will fit into a small buttered pan. Add the water and pour fat drippings over the top. (Bacon fat is good.) Cover the pan, and allow to cook in the oven one-half hour. Uncover the loaf, basting frequently, and brown it. This will take fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve hot. More water may be added while cooking if necessary.

Peel the potatoes, salt them with one-fourth a teaspoon of salt in each potato, and place them in the pan with the meat. This gives the potatoes a good flavor.

Mix the apricots, one tablespoon flour and cinnamon. Mix and sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter with a knife. Add the milk until a soft dough is formed. Place the apricot mixture in a baking-dish and the dough on top of the apricots. Cook the water and sugar together for three minutes. Add the vanilla. When the cobbler has baked fifteen minutes pour syrup over it. Bake ten minutes more in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER LVII

"OH, Bettina, how lovely!" cried the ten guests in a chorus, as Ruth and Bettina ushered them into the softly lighted dining-room. Not one had had even a glimpse of the luncheon table before, for Ruth had been entertaining them on the porch while Bettina put on the finishing touches. It all seemed a burst of soft rainbow colors. "What is it?" cried someone. "How did you ever get the rainbow effect?"

"Let's not examine it too closely," said Bettina. "You know a rainbow after all is nothing but drops of water with the sun shining through, and maybe my rainbow table has a prosy explanation, too."

From the low mass of variegated garden flowers in the center—pink, yellow, lavender, orange, blue, and as many others as the girls could find—ran strips of soft tulle in rainbow colors. The strips were attached at the outer end to the dainty butterflies which perched lightly on the tulle covered candy cups. These candy cups held pink, lavender and green Jordan almond candies. More butterflies in all sizes and colors hovered among the flowers. Upon the plain white name cards, little butterflies had been outlined in black and decorated in butterfly colors. Ruth and Bettina had cut with the scissors around this outline and then, when it had been cut almost away, had folded back the butterfly so that it stood up on the card, as ready for flight as its brothers and sisters.

"Aren't they cunning?" exclaimed Barbara, taking her butterfly from her favor cup. "Goodness, it's attached to something!" Pulling gently by the rainbow tulle to which the butterfly had been pasted, she drew forth from the greenery in the center a little golden bag. It was in reality a little fat bag of soft yellow silk tied with gold cord and holding something that, seen through the mesh, appeared to be—gold?

"It's the bag of gold at the foot of the rainbow!" exclaimed Ruth, with flushed cheeks. "Discovered by——"

"Harry Harrison and Alice!" cried the girls, laughing almost hysterically. For one small card which read, "Discovered by" and the two names, in gold letters, was tied to the little bag by the gold cord.

"Well, it would have been harder if you had all known Harry, but you see, we haven't been with the crowd much lately, have we? Now admit it! You haven't even missed me!"

"But you're more of a butterfly than any of the rest of us. And the limits of the old crowd don't always bound your flutterings."

"I'm not a butterfly anymore," said Alice. "I suppose I'll have a butterfly wedding (Harry will detest it, but he'll have to give in that once), but after that I expect to be as domestic as Bettina here, though not such a success at it, probably. Aren't these orange baskets the prettiest things?"

The girls, in their excitement, had almost forgotten to eat, but now they looked down at their plates. Fruit cups in orange baskets, with handles of millinery wire twisted with pink, green, yellow and violet tulle, added to the rainbow effect. The baskets were placed on paper doilies on tea plates, and were artistically lined with mint leaves.

"Ruth will feel hurt if you don't like it, but I know you will," said Bettina. "She prepared this course, and made most of the table decorations, too."

"And didn't you wish that you were announcing something yourself, Ruth?" asked Mary. "Although I don't believe the crowd could stand two such surprises! We've known Fred and you so long that your engagement seems the natural thing, but when a perfectly strange man like Mr. Harrison happens by, and helps himself to one of our number—well, it certainly takes my breath away! Where did you first meet him, Alice? Was it love at first sight?"

"Love at first sight? Bob introduced us—here, in this very house, and I thought—well—I thought Harry the most disagreeably serious man I'd ever had the misfortune to meet! And he thought me the most disagreeably frivolous girl he had ever seen! So our feud began, and of course we had to see each other to fight it out!"

"And then comes Bettina's rainbow luncheon to show us how serious the feud proved to be," laughed Barbara. "What? More courses, Bettina? This is a beautiful luncheon! I wonder who'll be the next to discover the treasure at the foot of the rainbow?"