Chapter III: Part 3

For such a lunch the hostess does well when she provides a number of camp-chairs in addition to the seats she already has in her rooms. It is always more agreeable to eat when one is seated than when standing and endeavoring to handle a full plate and a brimming coffee-cup at the same time. Such an effort is severe even for a man, who has been obliged to practise it all his life, but it is doubly distressing to a woman, who is in constant terror lest an unguarded movement on her own or her neighbor's part should cause an upset and a spill that might fatally damage at least one gown, and possibly more.

In preparing for a standing lunch, or for any other large reception, it is prudent for the hostess to clear her parlors of such breakables as statues, tall vases, piano lamps, etc., that rest upon pedestals or easily overturned stands. These, if not taken from the room, should be moved into corners where they will be comparatively safe from injury; while the largest pieces of furniture, such as sofas or lounges and big easy-chairs, should be wheeled back near the wall, so as not to interfere with the movements of people through the rooms. Light chairs should stand about here and there, and the camp-chairs should be stacked in some convenient closet or in the corner of the hall, whence they can be produced at a moment's notice when the refreshments are served.

The floral decorations may be either simple or ornate, according to the wishes of the hostess. Mantels banked with flowers, chandeliers and brackets draped with smilax, a profusion of roses, and baskets of choice cut flowers are very beautiful, but the rooms can be rendered attractive by less costly means. If there is to be a large number of guests, the flowers will be unnoticed by many of them unless judgment be shown in the disposition of vases. These should be placed on the mantels, on brackets, on the top of the piano, or in some other place where they will be seen readily, rather than on low tables, where they are not only hidden, but are in imminent danger of being knocked over. Palms or ferns in pots and other growing plants decorate pleasingly, and can be engaged for the evening from a florist, if the mistress of the house neither owns them nor feels inclined to buy them.

In preparing the dining-room table it should be drawn out to a size that will permit of its holding without undue crowding the dishes and plates that will be required for the lunch. If the refreshments are too numerous to be accommodated here, the sideboard should be cleared for their reception, and even one or two side-tables brought in. The table should be spread with a long white cloth. A bowl or jar or pot of flowers may be in the centre of the board. Very elaborate floral arrangements are unnecessary in the dining-room, unless a good many of the guests are expected to come out here.

At each end of the table and at intervals along the sides spaces should be left for the dishes that are to hold the refreshments. Between these may be the piles of plates and the napkins. These may either be separate or arranged together, a napkin being laid on each plate and all placed in piles, so that they may be easily distributed. Forks and spoons should also be close at hand, with the necessary utensils for serving the different dishes, that there may not be a hurried search for a carving knife or fork or a large spoon just at the last moment, when its presence might have saved delay and confusion.

The side-table should hold the coffee and chocolate cups, the wineglasses, goblets, or tumblers for water, etc. Let it be seen, by the way, that there is plenty of iced water in readiness. Many a guest at a large reception has longed for a drink of it and found it apparently the hardest thing to get which he could have selected.

Unless the hostess has a remarkably well-trained butler, and one or two other servants who understand waiting, she will be wise if she engages hired waiters to take charge of the serving of the dishes, and has her butler and maids confine their services to passing plates in the drawing-room. This is pleasanter than having the outside helpers waiting on the guests, while their skill and practice in serving render them most efficient in the work of filling plates.

The first course of a standing lunch is usually bouillon, served in cups. When these have been removed, a plate is brought to each guest containing oysters in some shape, usually fricasseed or creamed, and accompanied possibly by a lobster croquette or a sweetbread or mushroom _pâté_. The third course may comprise chicken croquettes or rissoles, accompanied by lettuce or celery salad. Both with this and the preceding course tiny square or three-cornered sandwiches of thin bread and butter, spread with some potted meat or fish, with sardines, or with lobster mayonnaise, may have been passed. After this course come the sweets—ice-creams or ices in small shapes, biscuit in paper cases, and fancy cakes—followed by coffee or chocolate. Nothing must be served that cannot be easily eaten with a fork or spoon. Light wines or a bowl of punch are always in order.

THE LUNCH BASKET.

To many people the lunch basket and its contents are quite as important as any regularly set-out meal of the day—more important than such occasional luxuries as ceremonious _déjeûners à la fourchette_ and standing lunches.

Among this number are not only the school-children who, five days out of the week, must carry what the Southern boys and girls would term a "snack" with them to school, but also the army of men and women whose employment takes them to such a distance from their homes that it is impracticable for them to return there for the midday meal. With these must not be forgotten the band of night workers who, in one capacity or another, have part in making the morning papers, and who, turning day into night, find it as essential to take a midnight as others do a midday repast.

In a less degree interest is felt in the lunch basket by those young people who regard the coming of the summer chiefly as the return of the picnic season. All these desire to know of something appetizing to supply their needs, and nearly all agree in condemning certain articles as stale and hackneyed, asserting that they are tired to death of them. Among these are generally ham and tongue sandwiches.

In making suggestions on this subject, the first thing to be considered is the basket, and to begin with, it _should_ be a basket, and not a close tin box or pail that cannot be sweetened except by scouring and scalding between the times of using. A basket, by permitting the passage of air through its interstices, prevents the food acquiring a close, musty taste; and even the basket should have frequent airings and sunnings, and an occasional plunge into hot salt and water, followed by a rinsing in fresh hot water, and a wiping and drying in the sun or near the fire.

Only fresh napkins must be used for wrapping about the lunch, and if their use proves too severe a strain upon the linen drawer, Japanese paper napkins may be substituted, or even fresh white tissue-paper, or druggist's paper. The daintiness of ribbons to tie the different parcels is all very pretty, but it is hardly possible for the hurried house-mother who has to put up even one lunch a day, much less when she has two or three to prepare. In order to succeed in making them even ordinarily attractive, she must take thought for these lunches as carefully as she does for the other meals of the day, and make provision accordingly, not waiting until the last moment, and then hastily gathering up whatever odds and ends she can find, and hurriedly cramming them all together into the basket in a manner that savors unpleasantly of the bestowal of "broken victuals" and cold bits upon the beggar at the kitchen door.

Not until she gives the matter serious thought does the housewife appreciate what a variety she can select for the lunch basket of her boy or girl, or of her husband. Hot foods are out of the question, of course, and even hot drinks, unless a tiny alcohol "pocket stove," filled and ready for lighting, and a tin or agate-iron cup, accompany the outfit. In that case, many a hot cup of _café au lait_ or chocolate, of soup or bouillon, may be enjoyed by the luncher.

But even when this cannot be managed, cold coffee and tea are not to be despised, while cold bouillon is preferred by many to the hot beef tea. Or, for a change from this, a small flask of milk or of lemonade may be carried. In any case the bottle should be a stout one, and provided with a good stopper, that no break or leakage may cause the ruin of the rest of the refection.

China makes the lunch basket too heavy, and takes up too much room. If a plate is required, let it be one of the little wooden butter plates that can be thrown away after using. It is often possible to procure a glass from which to drink, but even when it is not, a flat glass or a collapsing cup may easily be carried in the pocket; or an ordinary flask, having a cup fitted to the bottom, may be purchased and kept for service in the lunch basket. A tiny cruet for salt and another for pepper should also be part of the outfit.

Often it does not seem to occur to the housekeeper that it is quite practicable to carry a cup custard, a baked apple or pear, a tiny mould of jelly or blanc-mange, as well as uncooked fruit. While the latter is always wholesome and generally popular, there are times when one wants something else. To paraphrase Miss Woolson's words in "For the Major," "A large cold apple on a winter day is not calculated to arouse enthusiasm."

Other dainties are easily prepared. Every one who has read "Little Women"—and who has not read it?—will remember Meg and Jo March trudging off to their work on frosty mornings, each carrying the turnover that was to compose her lunch, and gaining comfort for the cold fingers from its warmth.

A tiny pie baked in a saucer, a small tart, a diminutive rice or tapioca pudding in a patty-pan, are not hard to make, and are a welcome variety at the midday "snack."

While it might possibly be an expensive item to provide potted meat for sandwiches for every day in the week, there are often odds and ends that, with a little "doctoring," may be made into excellent substitutes. The meat on the drumstick left from the roast or stewed chicken of last night may be chopped fine, moistened with a little gravy or melted butter, seasoned, and spread on thin slices of buttered bread. The bit of steak that clung to the bone may be minced, and have stirred into it a little Worcestershire sauce and a suspicion of made mustard; while the slice of cold lamb or veal, also minced, may be flavored with curry-powder and softened with melted butter to make filling for sandwiches.

The one or two cold sausages left in the pantry will make an appetizing sandwich when crushed fine with the back of a spoon, and laid between the two sides of a buttered roll or biscuit; while the last spoonful of lobster or chicken salad scraped from the bottom of the dish may be spread on buttered bread for yet another kind of sandwich.

White, Graham, brown, or whole-wheat bread may be used in turn, with an occasional roll or biscuit to still further vary monotony. Egg sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, sweetbread sandwiches, sardine sandwiches, minced ham, tongue, ham and chicken, chicken and bacon sandwiches—their name is legion.

But some one may object, one does not want _all_ sandwiches. True enough, but they are the _pièce de résistance_ of the lunch. They may be supplemented, however, by a piece of cold fowl, by, once in a while, a broiled bird, by a few pickled oysters, by deviled and plain hard-boiled eggs, by salads without number, by olives, cheese, and pickles. And for desserts are there not the little dishes already suggested, to say nothing of cake, cookies, ginger-snaps, apples, oranges, mandarins, bananas, pears, grapes, and other fruits? For school children there are such simple dainties as bread or rolls spread with jam, jelly, marmalade, or apple-sauce. And are not crackers and cheese always at hand, and almost always popular?

While all this may at first seem to impose additional labor upon the housekeeper, she will soon find, when the habit is once established of providing regularly for the lunch, that she feels it no more of a burden than she does to cater for the other meals of the day. Let her keep on the alert for new fancies, and they will come to her more rapidly than she can utilize them.

FAMILY LUNCHES FOR SPRING

These _menus_ for simple home lunches, given as were those for breakfasts—ten for each season—are not designed to serve as exact guides, but merely as suggestions to the housekeeper. They may easily be improved upon or altered. To some they will doubtless appear much too simple, while others may condemn them as being too elaborate. Certain selected recipes will accompany them.

1.

Baked Cheese Omelet. Toasted Crackers.
Strawberry Jam.
Cocoa.

_Baked Cheese Omelet._—Two eggs, two cups milk, one small cup grated cheese, one small cup fine bread-crumbs, salt and Cayenne pepper to taste, one tablespoonful melted butter. Soak the crumbs in the milk, in which you have dissolved a _tiny_ pinch of soda; beat the eggs light, and add to the bread and milk; stir in the butter, the seasoning, and, last of all, the cheese. Bake in a well-greased pudding-dish, and eat at once, before it falls.

_Toasted Crackers._—Split and toast Boston crackers. Butter them well on the inside, lay the two halves together, and serve them in a hot covered dish. They are not nearly so good when they are cold.

2.

Ham Fritters. Baked Bananas.
Bread-and-Butter.
Ginger Snaps.
Tea.

_Ham Fritters._—Two cups minced cold ham, one egg, half-pint good stock, saltspoonful dry mustard, teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce, tiny bit of scalded onion (chopped), half-teaspoonful minced parsley, one tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful flour. Heat the stock to boiling, and thicken it with the butter and flour rubbed together; stir into it the ham, seasoned with the mustard, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and parsley; add the beaten egg. Pour the mixture on a flat plate to cool. When cold and firm, make into flattened balls about the size of a small plum; drop each into a batter made of a cup of flour, two teaspoonfuls of melted butter, a small cup of warm water, the beaten white of an egg, and a little salt. Lay each fritter out of the batter into boiling fat. They will puff up at once, and should be of a delicate brown.

_Baked Bananas._—Select large ripe bananas, and bake them in the oven as you would potatoes. When the skin begins to split at the seams they are done. Take them out, and serve one to each person, as a vegetable. They should be peeled, and eaten with butter and a little salt.

_Bread-and-Butter._—Butter bread a day old on the loaf, and cut into thin slices. Double, the buttered side inward.

_Ginger Snaps._—Two eggs, two cups sugar, one cup butter, two teaspoonfuls ginger, one teaspoonful cinnamon, flour to make a stiff dough. Roll into a thin sheet, cut into rounds, and sprinkle with granulated sugar before baking. Watch closely or they will burn.

3.

A Scrap Hash. Rice Bread.
Oranges.

_A Scrap Hash._—Two cups cold beef (roast, boiled, corned, or fresh), one or two cold sausages, two or three slices cold bacon, one cup cold potato, four olives, tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce, a little cold stewed tomato (if you have it), half an onion minced fine, one cup gravy or soup stock, _or_ one cup boiling water and a tablespoonful of butter. Heat the gravy or stock to boiling in a frying-pan; stir into it the other ingredients chopped _fine_; simmer for fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. You can either serve the hash soft or let it brown on the bottom. Olla-podrida though it seems, it will be savory, and will be relished by nearly every one.

_Rice Bread._—Two cups milk, two cups boiled rice, one cup white corn-meal, three eggs well beaten, two tablespoonfuls butter, teaspoonful salt. Bake in a hot oven, in rather shallow pans.

4.

Liver Toast. Rusk. Radishes.
Stewed Pie-plant.
Light Cakes.

_Liver Toast._—One cupful cold boiled or stewed liver, half cupful brown gravy of any sort, enough mustard, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce to season the liver highly, several squares of buttered toast. Rub the liver smooth with the back of a spoon, add the seasoning, heat to boiling with the gravy, and heap or spread upon the toast. Set in the oven two minutes before sending to table.

_Rusk._—Two cups milk, two eggs, two and a half cups flour, half cup butter, one cup sugar, half a yeast-cake dissolved in warm water. Set a sponge made of the milk, the yeast, and part of the flour—enough to make a good batter. Let this rise all night. In the morning work in the beaten eggs, the sugar, butter, and the rest of the flour. Knead well, and make into balls with the hands. Set these together in the pan, let them rise until light, and bake in a steady oven. Just before taking them out brush the tops with molasses and water.

5.

Panned Oysters. Lunch Biscuit.
Stewed Prunes.
Ginger Snaps.

_Panned Oysters._—Cut small rounds of toast to fit the bottom of deep, straight-sided patty-pans. Prettier than these are the little "nappies," or china fire-proof dishes, that come for this purpose. Moisten each piece of toast with a spoonful of oyster liquor, lay on it as many oysters as the pan will easily hold, sprinkle with pepper and salt, lay a small piece of butter on top, and set in the oven for a few minutes until the oysters begin to crimp. Serve in the pans.

_Lunch Biscuit._—Two cups flour, half cup milk, one egg, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Chop the shortening into the salted flour, pour in the beaten egg and milk, making a soft dough, roll out, cut into rounds, and bake.

6.

Deviled Mutton. Hashed Potatoes.
Hot Loaf Bread.
Orange Marmalade.

_Deviled Mutton._—Rub slices of rare mutton with a mixture made as follows: One teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce, one teaspoonful vinegar, one teaspoonful made mustard, tablespoonful melted butter. Let the meat lie in this for an hour. Then dip each slice in a frying batter made as directed in recipe for "ham fritters," and fry in deep fat. Or the deviled meat may simply be boiled over a clear fire. In either case serve very hot.

_Hot Loaf Bread._—Set a loaf of French bread in the steamer for fifteen minutes, then in a hot oven for five minutes. Serve wrapped in a napkin, and cut on the table.

7.

Caviare Toast. Cold Meat.
Baked Potatoes.
Strawberries, unhulled.

_Caviare Toast._—Buy the Russian caviare, which comes in small tin cans. Cut your bread into neat squares or rounds, removing the crusts; toast and butter it, spread it with the caviare, and set it in the oven five minutes before serving.

8.

Scalloped Cod. Oatmeal Gems.
Boiled Potatoes.
Guava Jelly and Crackers.

_Scalloped Cod._—Two cupfuls picked codfish, one cupful drawn butter (with an egg beaten in it), one teaspoonful minced sour pickle, one tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce, fine bread-crumbs. Have the drawn butter hot, stir the fish into it, add the pickle and sauce, pour into a buttered baking-dish, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with bits of butter, and bake.

_Oatmeal Gems._—Two cups of the finest oatmeal, two cups milk, two eggs, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful sugar, one saltspoonful salt.

9.

Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus. Bread and Butter.
Cheese Biscuit.
Lettuce Salad.

_Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus._—Six eggs, one tablespoonful butter, two tablespoonfuls milk, salt and pepper to taste, green tips of a bunch of asparagus boiled tender. Put the butter and the milk into a frying-pan, break the eggs into this, and stir until they begin to thicken; put in the asparagus tops, season, and remove to a hot dish.

_Cheese Biscuit._—One cup grated cheese, one cup flour, one egg, pinch of salt, dash of Cayenne. Mix all together, roll into a sheet, cut into rounds, and bake to a light brown.

10.

Lobster Croquettes. Graham Bread.
Saratoga Potatoes.
Strawberries and Cream.

_Lobster Croquettes._—Meat of one large boiled lobster, half pint white sauce, two eggs, juice of a lemon, salt and Cayenne to taste. Mince the meat fine, stir it into the white sauce, add the eggs well beaten, and, last, the lemon juice. Turn out on a plate to cool. When perfectly cold, form into small croquettes with the hands, roll in beaten egg, then in fine cracker crumbs, and fry in deep fat.

FAMILY LUNCHES FOR SUMMER

In hot weather a comfortable room is essential to the enjoyment of a meal. The _salle à manger_ must be cleared of food, the soiled dishes removed, all crumbs brushed up, and the flies beaten out the moment breakfast is over, if the apartment is to be pleasant at noon. If blinds and doors are kept closed, the room may be deliciously cool and fresh by lunch-time.

With such surroundings, good digestion is much more prone to wait on appetite than in a stuffy, fly-infested room, where neither heat nor light is excluded. Among the pleasantest recollections of at least one woman are those connected with the lunches she has eaten in midsummer in a certain city dining-room, where the subdued light, the daintily arranged table, the carefully prepared and seasonable food, and the noiseless serving inclined one to feel that there were many worse fates than being obliged to spend the summer in town.

1.

Anchovy Toast. Chicken Salad.
Bread-and-Butter.
Berries and Cream.
Iced Tea.

_Anchovy Toast._—Spread crustless slices of toast first with butter, then with anchovy paste. Set in the oven five minutes, and send to table.

_Chicken Salad._—Cut into small neat pieces half the contents of a can of boned chicken or part of a cold boiled or roast chicken. Mix this with half as much celery, if you can get it; if not, arrange it in the midst of crisp lettuce leaves. Stir into it a French dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, as much vinegar, and a little pepper and salt, and pour over it a mayonnaise dressing.

_Mayonnaise Dressing._—Into a bowl set in an outer vessel of cold or iced water place the yolk of an egg. Be careful that no vestige of the white gets in. Begin whipping in salad oil drop by drop with a Dover egg-beater, beating for nearly a minute after each addition. After ten minutes, add two or three drops at a time, and when the dressing once begins to thicken, the quantity can be increased even more. If too thick, add a little vinegar to thin it. A pint of oil can be used to every egg. When done, season with salt and white pepper. Just before serving, stir into it the whipped white of an egg. The bowl, egg-beater, and materials must all be very cold, and the dressing when made must be kept on ice until used.

2.

Eggs _à la Crème_.
Raw Tomatoes. Rice Crumpets.
Sliced Peaches.

_Eggs à la Crème._—Eight eggs boiled hard, one cup white sauce, two tablespoonfuls fine crumbs, tablespoonful butter. Slice six of the eggs, and put them in a pudding-dish with the white sauce. Rub the yolks of the other two eggs through a sieve, mix them with the bread-crumbs, and sprinkle them over the top of the dish. Put bits of butter here and there, garnish the dish around the sides with points of buttered toast and the extra whites of the eggs cut in rings, and set the dish in the oven until browned on top.

_Rice Crumpets._—One cup rice, two cups flour, one cup milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful sugar; quarter of a yeast-cake, dissolved in warm water; pinch of salt. Set to rise early in the morning. When light, fill muffin-pans; let them stand fifteen minutes, and bake.

3.

Deviled Chicken.
French Rolls. Broiled Tomatoes.
Berries.

_Deviled Chicken._—Select a young and tender chicken, score it with a knife, rub it well with the sauce described in the last chapter (see "Deviled Mutton"), and broil over a clear fire.

_Broiled Tomatoes._—Slice, but do not peel, fresh tomatoes. Broil them on a toaster over the fire; remove to a hot dish; put a little butter, pepper, and salt on each one, and let them stand a minute before serving.

4.

Poached Eggs, with Anchovy Toast.
Sardines.
Boston Brown-Bread. Water-cress.
Nutmeg Melons.

_Poached Eggs, with Anchovy Toast._—Prepare slices of anchovy toast as already described, and lay on each slice a poached egg. Pour over all a cup of drawn butter in which has been stirred a teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

_Boston Brown-Bread._—Put a loaf of Boston brown-bread into the inner vessel of a double boiler, and boiling water in the outer vessel, and steam the bread until it is hot through.

5.

Game _Pâté_. Cold Tongue, sliced.
Bread-and-Butter. Radishes.
Hot Crackers.
Cream Cheese.

_Game Pâté._—Several varieties of game _pâtés_ are put up by French and American companies, and all are admirable for summer lunches or teas.

6.

Fried Pickerel. New Potatoes.
Brown-Bread.
Celery and Radish Salad.

_Fried Pickerel._—These fish are very delicious when perfectly fresh. Each fish should be rolled in flour and fried quickly in hot dripping. Take them out of the pan as soon as done.

_Celery and Radish Salad._—Cut the celery into inch lengths, and toss it up with a French dressing. Heap it in a bowl, and arrange half-peeled radishes around the mound. Pour over all a mayonnaise dressing prepared according to the directions already given. The combination of the cool celery and the pungent radishes will be found very pleasing.

7.

Jellied Tongue. Fried Bananas.
Asparagus Biscuit.
Peaches and Cream.

_Jellied Tongue._—One cup of the liquor in which the tongue was cooked, two cups good stock or gravy of any meat except mutton, half-box of gelatine, one gill cold water, one cup boiling water, two tablespoonfuls vinegar, one glass sherry, a cold boiled tongue, sliced. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for two hours. Pour over it the boiling water, the stock or gravy, and the tongue liquor, heated. Unless the gravy is highly seasoned, it is a good plan to boil a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a slice of onion, and a few sweet herbs in a cup of water, and then to strain this, and pour it over the gelatine instead of using the plain boiling water. Flavor the jelly with the vinegar, the sherry, pepper, and salt, if the last is needed. Strain all through a cloth. When the jelly begins to harden, pour a little into a brick-shaped mould or tin pan with straight sides, first wetting the mould with cold water. Arrange slices of tongue on this. Pour in more jelly, then place another layer of tongue, and continue thus until the supply of both is exhausted, making jelly the last layer. Set the mould on ice until the jelly is hard; turn it out and slice on the table. This sounds like a fussy dish, but it is less trouble than appears at first.

_Asparagus Biscuit._—Scoop out the inside of stale biscuit, leaving side walls and the foundation of crust. Set these hollow shells in the oven until dried. Boil asparagus tender in salted water, cut off the tops, mince and season them, and stir them into a cupful of drawn butter. Fill the hot shells with the mixture, and send to table.

8.

Baked Chicken Omelet. Corn Croquettes.
Brown Bread.
Strawberry Short-Cake.
Iced Coffee.

_Baked Chicken Omelet._—Into one cupful of white sauce, made as previously directed, stir a cupful of chicken, minced fine and seasoned to taste. Beat two eggs light, yolks and white separately. Add the yolks to the chicken mixture; last, stir in the whites lightly, pour into a buttered pudding dish, and bake in a quick oven.

_Corn Croquettes._—To two cupfuls of green corn, chopped, add one well-beaten egg, a teaspoonful of butter, one of sugar, salt to taste, and just enough flour to hold the ingredients together. Form into croquettes with floured hands, and fry in deep fat.

9.

Pickled Lambs' Tongues. Egg Salad.
Boiled Corn-Bread.
Loppered Milk.

_Egg Salad._—Slice hard-boiled eggs, arrange them upon crisp lettuce leaves, and pour over all a mayonnaise dressing.

_Boiled Corn-Bread._—Two cups sour milk, one cup warm water, one tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful molasses, one teaspoonful soda, one cup flour, two cups corn-meal. Mix the ingredients, beating well; pour into a Boston brown-bread mould with a tight top; set in a pot of water; boil two hours, and turn out.

10.

Welsh Rabbit. Cold Corned Ham.
Sliced Cucumbers.
Rolls.
Hot Oatmeal Crackers. Cream Cheese.

_Welsh Rabbit._—One egg, half-cup milk, one cup grated cheese; salt, Cayenne, and made mustard to taste; squares of stale bread toasted and buttered. Heat the milk in a double boiler, melt the grated cheese in this, season, add the egg, and pour the mixture over the toast. If the rabbit seems too thin, add more cheese or a few fine bread-crumbs.

FAMILY LUNCHES FOR AUTUMN

1.

Sweetbread Pâtés. Raised Corn-meal Muffins.
Fried Potatoes.
Jelly Toast.

_Sweetbread Pâtés._—Scald and blanch a pair of sweetbreads; remove bits of skin and gristle; chop rather coarsely, and stir into a cupful of white sauce; season to taste. Have ready pastry shells made hot in the oven, and fill them with the sweetbreads. Send very hot to table. A few mushrooms chopped with the sweetbreads are a pleasant addition.

_Raised Corn-meal Muffins._—Two cups milk, two cups corn-meal, one tablespoonful white sugar, one tablespoonful lard, quarter yeast-cake. Heat the milk to boiling, and pour it upon the meal. While this is warm, beat in all the other ingredients except the lard. Let it rise six hours. Add the lard. Fill muffin tins, and let the batter rise twenty minutes before baking.

_Jelly Toast._—Cut stale bread into neat rounds or squares; fry each slice in boiling deep fat; spread it thickly with some fruit jelly, and serve very hot.

2.

Deviled Ham. Sliced Potatoes.
Rye Biscuit.
Crackers and Cheese.

_Deviled Ham._—Cut cold boiled corned or smoked ham into rather thick slices, rub well with a sauce made as described on page 134 for "Deviled Mutton," and broil the ham over a clear fire.

_Sliced Potatoes._—Cut six boiled potatoes into neat slices, warm them in a steamer, transfer to a dish, and put on them a tablespoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Let them stand five minutes before serving.

_Rye Biscuit._—Two cups rye flour, one cup white flour, one and a half cups milk, one tablespoonful sugar, one tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful butter, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Rub the shortening into the flour after sifting the salt and baking-powder with it; add the sugar and the milk; roll the dough out quickly, and bake the biscuit in a brisk oven.

3.

Bouillon.
Cold Chicken Pie. Potato Salad.
Cold Bread.
Gingerbread. Cocoa.

_Cold Chicken Pie._—Stew a grown chicken until tender, putting it on in cold water, and cooking very slowly; arrange the pieces in a deep pudding dish, laying in with them two hard-boiled eggs cut into slices; pour over all a cupful of the gravy, which should be well seasoned; cover the pie with a pastry crust, and bake in a moderate oven. Add to two cups of the remaining gravy a quarter-box of gelatine soaked in a little cold water, a small glassful of sherry, and a tablespoonful of vinegar; when the pie is done, pour this gravy into it through an opening which should have been left in the top. Make this pie the day before it is to be eaten. It is an excellent dish for Sunday lunch or tea.

_Potato Salad._—Slice cold boiled potatoes; with three cups of these mix one sliced beet, one onion braised, and three or four stalks of celery; pour over them four tablespoonfuls of salad oil and three of vinegar, with pepper and salt to taste. Let all stand in a cold place at least an hour before serving.

_Gingerbread._—Two cups milk, half-cup sugar, half-cup molasses, one teaspoonful ground ginger, one teaspoonful cinnamon, one tablespoonful butter, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder; flour enough to make a good batter. Beat hard, and bake in a steady oven.

4.

Apples and Bacon. Brown-Bread Toast.
Canned Peach Short-Cake.

_Brown-Bread Toast._—Cut stale Boston brown-bread into slices, and toast, taking care not to scorch it. Butter rather liberally, and send hot to table.

_Canned Peach Short-Cake._—Make a short-cake according to previous directions; cover canned peaches with sugar, and stew them gently for half an hour in the syrup thus made; lay the sliced peaches between the layers of short-cake, and pour the syrup over each piece after it is split and buttered.

5.

Broiled Blue-Fish. Baked Potatoes.
Cold Bread.
Corn-meal Griddle-Cakes.
Maple Syrup.

_Corn-meal Griddle-Cakes._—Two cups corn-meal, one cup flour, one cup boiling water, one tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful molasses, two cups sour milk, one teaspoonful soda, saltspoonful salt. Scald the corn-meal; add the shortening, the milk and soda, the molasses, and the salted flour. Beat hard.

6.

Meat Loaf. Baked Tomatoes.
Fried Bread.
Hot Cake.

_Meat Loaf._—Two pounds raw or under-done beef or veal, minced fine; quarter-pound ham, also minced; two eggs; half-cup fine bread-crumbs; one tablespoonful melted butter; pepper, salt, chopped onion, and herbs for seasoning to taste. Work all the ingredients well together, and press closely into a brick-shaped tin. Cover this, set it in a pan of boiling water, and bake an hour and a half, taking care that the boiling water does not cook away. Turn out and slice when cold.

_Fried Bread._—Beat one egg into a cup of milk; soak in this slices of stale bread from which the crust has been trimmed. Cook on a griddle, as you would cakes.

_Hot Cake._—One cup buttermilk, two eggs, three tablespoonfuls butter, one and a half cups sugar, half teaspoonful soda, flour for a good batter (about two heaping cupfuls). Bake in a loaf, and eat warm.

7.

Broiled Smelts. Hashed Potatoes.
Raised Muffins.
Cerealine Fritters.

_Raised Muffins._—Two eggs, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful sugar, half yeast-cake, saltspoonful salt. Make a sponge in the early morning, omitting the eggs; at lunch-time add these, well beaten, and bake the muffins in a quick oven.

_Cerealine Fritters._—One and a half cups cerealine, two cups milk, saltspoonful salt. Cook the cerealine in the milk, beat it up light, and set it aside to cool in a shallow pan; cut it into squares or rounds when cold, and fry in deep fat; sprinkle with powdered sugar, and put a spoonful of jelly on top of each just before sending to table.

8.

Stewed Kidneys. Potatoes _au Gratin_.
Plain Muffins.
Sliced Oranges.

_Stewed Kidneys._—Soak two kidneys in salt and water half an hour; take out the core, and cut the remainder into small pieces. Brown a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour together with a quarter of an onion sliced; lay the pieces of kidney in this, and let them cook five minutes. Add a cup of good gravy; or, if this is lacking, half a cup of boiling water. Let the kidneys simmer in this ten minutes; take out, and serve on slices of toast, pouring the gravy over and around them.

_Potatoes au Gratin._—Two cupfuls of raw potatoes cut into dice, half-cup fine bread-crumbs, two tablespoonfuls butter. Let the potato dice lie in cold water several hours, drain them, season with salt and pepper, and put them in a well-greased pan; dot them thickly with bits of butter, sprinkle them with the crumbs, and add more butter. Bake, covered, for half an hour; uncover, and brown.

_Plain Muffins._—One egg, two cups milk, one tablespoonful lard, saltspoonful salt, half yeast-cake, flour for batter. Set them early in the morning, and let them rise until noon.

9.

Toasted Bacon. Poached Eggs.
Buttered Toast.
Quick Crullers. Cream Cheese.

_Quick Crullers._—One and a half cups sugar, one cup butter, four eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, flour for a stiff dough; roll out, and cut into fancy shapes, and fry in deep fat.

10.

Creamed Lobster. Thin Bread-and-Butter.
Salad of Cold Lamb.
Crackers and Cheese.

_Creamed Lobster._—One cup milk, half-cup cream, meat of a large lobster, two tablespoonfuls butter, one tablespoonful flour, salt and Cayenne pepper to taste, juice of a lemon. Heat the milk to boiling, and thicken with the flour and butter. Mince the lobster with a sharp knife; never chop it. Stir it into the milk, and let it become well heated; add to it the raw cream, stir up once, and take from the fire; season, add the lemon juice, and serve in small silver or china shells.

11.

A Fish "Left-Over." Stewed Potatoes.
Rice Cakes.
Roast Spanish Chestnuts.

_A Fish "Left-Over."_—The remains of any cold boiled, broiled, fried, or baked fish; three hard-boiled eggs, if you have only a half-cupful of fish (two eggs if there is more fish); one cup white sauce. Flake the fish, chop the eggs, heat both in the white sauce, season to taste, and serve either on toast or without it.

_Rice Cakes._—One egg, one cup flour, one and a half cups cold boiled rice, saltspoonful salt, three cups milk. If this amount of milk thins the batter too much, add more flour.

_Roast Spanish Chestnuts._—Cut a bit off of each, and roast them in the oven. Peel, and eat with butter and salt.

FAMILY LUNCHES FOR WINTER

1.

Curried Oysters. Rice Croquettes.
Cold Slaw.
Crackers and Cheese.

_Curried Oysters._—Heat to boiling the liquor from one quart of oysters; lay the oysters in it, and let them simmer just long enough to plump them. Take them out with a skimmer, put them where they will keep hot, and thicken the liquor by adding to it a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with two of browned flour. Into this stir a teaspoonful of curry-powder wet up in a little cold water. Salt and pepper to taste, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, return the oysters to the sauce, and serve.

_Rice Croquettes._—Two cups cold boiled rice, one well-beaten egg, one teaspoonful butter, one teaspoonful sugar, salt to taste. Work the butter, egg, salt, and sugar into the rice, make into croquettes with the floured hands, and fry in deep fat.

_Cold Slaw._—Shred half a fine white cabbage, and pour over it a dressing made as follows: Four tablespoonfuls vinegar, half-cup milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful sugar, one egg, pepper and salt. Beat the egg; stir the melted butter, the milk, salt, pepper, and sugar into this. Put the vinegar boiling hot into it, a little at a time. Pour the sauce over the cabbage, and let it become ice-cold before serving.

2.

Turkey Hash. Fried Potatoes.
Milk Toast.
Macaroons. Cocoa.

_Turkey Hash._—Remove the meat from the bones of a turkey, and cut it into neat bits; stir two cups of this into two cups of white sauce; season to taste. Make the stuffing of the turkey into neat cakes, fry them, and arrange them on the dish around the hash.

_Macaroons._—One and a half cups powdered sugar, whites of two eggs, six ounces almond paste. Beat the whites very stiff; add the sugar and the almond paste, the latter chopped fine. Make into balls with the fingers, and bake in very well greased pans in a moderate oven. Take out when they are a delicate brown, but do not remove them from the pans until they are perfectly cold. These little cakes are so delicious and so easily made that it is strange they are not more generally manufactured at home.

3.

Jellied Chicken. Hominy Croquettes.
Toasted Muffins.
Orange Cake.

_Jellied Chicken._—Cut up a chicken as for fricassee, and stew until the meat slips from the bones. Take out the chicken, and cut it into neat pieces when it has become cold. Let the gravy simmer half an hour with an onion sliced, a small bunch of parsley, a couple of stalks of celery, and a bay-leaf. Strain it, and return it to the fire with the white and freshly broken shell of an egg. Let it boil up, and strain it again, this time through a cloth. While still hot pour three cups of this liquor upon a half-box of gelatine which has soaked an hour in one cupful of cold water. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved, and add a glass of pale sherry and a couple of tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Pour part of this jelly into a wet mould, and when it begins to form lay in slices of hard-boiled egg and pieces of the chicken. More jelly follows, and more chicken, until all are used up. Turn out when the jelly is perfectly firm.

_Hominy Croquettes._—Make as directed for rice croquettes, using hominy instead of rice.

_Toasted Muffins._—Split and toast English muffins, and butter them on the inside.

_Orange Cake._—Two cups sugar, half cup butter, four eggs, three cups flour, one cup cold water, one large or two small oranges, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder. Work the butter and sugar together; add the yolks of the eggs, the juice and grated peel of the orange, the water, the whites, and the flour with the baking-powder. Bake in small cakes. If you like, reserve one of the whites of the eggs, and make an orange icing by beating with this a cup of powdered sugar and a little orange juice.

4.

Cold Ham. Celery Salad.
Batter Muffins.
Baked Apples with Cream.

_Batter Muffins._—Two cups flour, two cups milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, three eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately; one heaping teaspoonful baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Put in the whites last of all, and bake the muffins in a quick oven.

5.

Baked Sausages. Stuffed Potatoes.
Toasted Crackers. Cheese. Olives.

_Baked Sausages._—Make small cakes of sausage-meat, or prick the sausages, if you use those in skins, before putting them into the baking-pan. Bake until they are of a good brown. Take them out and thicken the fat left in the pan with a tablespoonful of flour, add a small cup of milk, boil up, and pour over the sausages in the dish.

6.

Broiled Oysters. Thin Bread-and-Butter.
Cold Chicken.
Raised Waffles.

_Raised Waffles._—One egg, two cups flour, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, saltspoonful salt, half yeast cake. Set a sponge early in the morning, and just before baking at noon beat in the butter and egg.

7.

Beefsteak. Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Lunch Cakes. Chocolate.

_Lunch Cakes._—One cup milk, four cups flour, two tablespoonfuls butter, half-cup sugar, two eggs, two tablespoonfuls currants, one teaspoonful baking-powder. Cream the butter and sugar, and stir them into the beaten eggs and milk. Add the flour and baking-powder, and last of all the currants, washed, dried, and dredged with flour. Roll out the dough, cut into rounds, and bake in a moderate oven. Split, butter, and eat while hot.

8.

Broiled Sardines on Toast. Omelet.
Nursery Muffins.
Sugar Cakes. Chocolate.

_Broiled Sardines on Toast._—Broil the sardines on a fine wire broiler, lay two on each slice of toast, and squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice.

_Nursery Muffins._—Two cups milk, two cups fine bread-crumbs, one cup flour, saltspoonful salt, one egg, one tablespoonful butter, three teaspoonfuls baking-powder. Beat the egg light, stir in the butter, the bread soaked in the milk, and the flour and baking-powder. Bake in a steady oven, greasing the muffin tins well, so that the batter may not stick to them.

_Sugar Cakes._—One cup butter, one cup sugar, four cups flour, two eggs, one teaspoonful vanilla. Cream butter and sugar, mix with the beaten eggs, add the flour and the flavoring, roll out _very_ thin, and bake in a moderate oven, sprinkling the cakes with granulated sugar just before baking.

9.

Veal Hamburg Steaks. Light Rolls.
Apple-Sauce. Jumbles.

_Veal Hamburg Steaks._—One pound lean veal, chopped fine; two teaspoonfuls onion juice; salt and pepper to taste. Mix all well, form with the hands into flattened cakes, and broil over a clear fire. Lay on each a half-teaspoonful of _maître d'hôtel_ butter, or a bit of butter the size of a hickory nut, first squeezing a few drops of lemon juice on the meat. Let them stand covered a minute before serving.

_Jumbles._—Half-cup butter, three quarters of a cup of sugar, one heaping cup flour, two eggs (the yolks only), two tablespoonfuls sherry, extract of rose to taste. Beat the yolks, cream the butter and sugar; mix these, and add the flour and the flavoring. Make into round balls with the fingers, and place them on a well-buttered tin so far apart that when they flatten they may not run into each other. Stick a raisin, a slip of citron, or a blanched almond on top of each. Bake in a steady oven to a pale yellow. Do _not_ brown. While still warm, loosen them from the pan with a sharp knife, as they become very brittle when cold.

10.

Ham and Eggs. Baked Potatoes.
Graham Biscuit.
Stewed Prunes. Fancy Cakes.

DINNER AT NIGHT

Twenty or thirty years ago the late dinner was not nearly so popular as it is now. The majority of the people dined in the middle of the day, and not a few of them considered a six-o'clock dinner as an effort after fashion that was unworthy the imitation of sensible men and women. Even in large cities servants rebelled against an alteration of the time-honored custom of serving the principal meal of the day at or near noon, while in small towns the late dinner was so unusual that it was almost impossible to persuade domestics to consent to it.

A marked change has taken place in the fashion. The evening dinner has for years been steadily gaining in popularity, and promises to become even more common than it is now. Thoughtful men and women recognize the wisdom of eating lightly at midday, when they are in the full tide of business, and reserving the heartiest repast for an hour when it can be discussed leisurely and digested peacefully. Mistresses have learned that there is a gain in keeping the morning free for house-work, instead of devoting most of it to the preparation of the dinner. The light lunch eaten in most homes demands much less time in cooking and eating than does a dinner, and leaves those who have partaken of it more fit for work than they would be were their stomachs burdened with the task of digesting soup, meat, vegetables, and dessert.

The late dinner is a more dignified meal than can possibly be made of a similar repast eaten at noon. The festal appearance imparted by the gleam of candles, lamps, or gas upon silver, china, and glass cannot be acquired by daylight. The pleasant reunion around the board of the members of the family, whose positions and interests have been divergent since morning, the happy consciousness that the work of the day is done, the knowledge that there is no toil waiting at the door of the dining-room, all bear their share in rendering the meal cheerful and care-free. More ceremony can and should be preserved at the evening dinner than is feasible at noon. The orderly sequence of courses and careful serving have a part in adding to the dignity of the meal.

These suggestions should not frighten the housekeeper who contemplates introducing the late dinner in her household. Very little extra work is involved in bestowing the touch of state referred to, and, after all, it consists chiefly in a slight additional care in waiting and serving, and to these the mistress can readily accustom the maid.

The dinner-table should be spread with a plain white cloth, under which the sub-cover of felt or canton flannel must never be lacking. Any one who has observed the thin and sleazy appearance even handsome damask presents without this felt under it, and has noticed the noise the dishes and silver make when moved about where there is but the one thickness between them and the board, will not voluntarily be long without so simple and inexpensive an addition to the elegance of her table.

It is sometimes a rather costly luxury to keep a vase of fresh flowers always ready for the table. In summer it is comparatively easy, even in the city, to get a few blossoms every day or two; but in winter, with flowers at exorbitant prices, a single spray, renewed twice a week, is an extravagance which the housewife does not always feel she can afford herself. Cheaper and quite as pretty in effect is it to have a pot of primroses, or of cyclamen, or of some other hardy house plant that will bloom for two or three weeks, and of which the first cost is but small.

In setting the table, the knife and the napkin, with a piece of bread folded in the latter, should lie at the right of the plate, the fork at the left, the spoon at right angles to both of these; between the plate and the middle of the table, the glass, butter-plate, and salt-cellar near the point of the knife, within easy reach of the right hand. An extra knife or fork may be added for each course, where either may be needed. A plate must stand at each place, although it is usually removed to make room for a hot one after the family are seated and the dinner brought on.

The space in front of the hostess is left free for the soup-tureen, and before the host is spread the carving-cloth. The carving knife and fork are laid upon this. At the corner of the table stand the large salts, if these are used instead of the individual cellars, and the pepper-cruets. Near them are the tablespoons. The water-pitcher, or carafe, the ice bowl, and any relishes in the shape of jellies, pickles, etc., are all else that is put on the table at the beginning of the meal, except the soup tureen and plates.

When the latter have been removed, the principal meat dish is set in front of the carver, and a hot plate is laid for each guest. At family dinners the carver generally does the helping, although sometimes after the meat is cut it is passed, and each person allowed to help himself.

The vegetables are next passed by the waitress, and offered at the left of each person, and after them the jelly or pickles are served. If, before the meat course, a fish dish or an _entrée_ is offered, it is passed usually in the same fashion. Next comes the salad, which is always passed, after each guest has been supplied with a clean plate. This course removed, all the soiled dishes and the small silver are removed, the table is crumbed, and the dessert is brought in. If fruit succeeds this, a fresh plate and a finger-bowl are given to each one. With the fruit comes the coffee.

Of course there are many families in which the daily _menu_ is simpler than that outlined above. In large families each added course means a perceptible increase of cost, and although the judicious manager who has a fixed allowance for household expenses may so dovetail the retrenchment of one day that it will balance the undue outlay of another, yet in most instances she will feel that if she can feed her household well and satisfy them, without providing them with five or six courses at an ordinary dinner, more than this would savor of extravagance. In some homes soup each day is considered an expensive luxury. So it is when fresh meat must be purchased to make it, or even when fresh or canned vegetables have to be bought for it; but when there are bones or trimmings from raw or cooked meats, or vegetables left over—a half-can of tomatoes, a cupful or two of mashed potato, a saucer of pease, or other similar remnants—or when fish and eggs are plentiful, the soup need be but a small item in the expense, and is really economical, as, by blunting the edge of the appetite, it renders the attack upon the next course less vigorous. There is a large variety of bean, pea, lentil, and cream soups that are cheap, palatable, and nourishing.

Salad is not a frequent dish in many homes, but in warm weather it may well be substituted sometimes for soup and cost little more. Still that may be a good dinner at which neither soup nor salad is seen. The final cup of tea or coffee adds a graceful finish to a simple dessert, and is generally enjoyed by the adult members of the family.