THOUSAND WAYS

IU Jr Ju . o A.O Jlj A. JM.UoJi5i_\JA!lJ

LOUISE BENNETT WEAVER HELEN COWLES LECRON

1917

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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011

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A THOUSAND WAYS TO PLEASE A HUSBAND

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THOUSAND WAYS

TO PLEASE A HUSBAND

WITH BETTINA'S BEST RECIPES

-BY- LOUISE BENNETT WEAVER

AND

HELEN COWLES LeCRON

The Romance of Cookery AND HOUSEKEEPING

Decorations by ELIZABETH COLBOURNE

A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York

Copyright. 1917

by

Britton Publishing Company, Ine.

All Rights Reserved

Made in U.S. A.

A DEDICATION

To every other little bride Who has a "Bob" to please,

And says she's tried and tried and tried To cook with skill and ease,

And cant! — we offer here as guide Bettinas Recipes!

To her whose "Bob" is prone to wear

JL sad ana Jiungry toon, Because the maid he thought so fair

Is — well — she just cant cook! To her we say : do not despair;

Just try Bettinds Book!

JUNE.

No, you cannot live on kisses, Though the honeymoon is sweet,

Harken, brides, a true word this is,- Even lovers have to eat.

CHAPTER I

HOME AT LAST

**TJOME at last!" sighed Al Bettina happily as the hot and dusty travelers left the train.

"Why that contented sigh?" asked Bob. "Because our wed- ding trip is over? Well, any- how, Bettina, it's after five. Shall we have dinner at the hotel?"

"Hotel? Why, Bob ! with our house and our dishes and our silver just waiting for us? I'm ashamed of you ! We'll take the first car for home — a street- car, not a taxi ! Our extravagant days are over, and the time has come to show you that Bettina knows how to keep house. You think that you love me now, Bobby, but just wait till you sit down to a real strawberry shortcake made by a real cook in a real home !"

Half an hour later Bob was unlocking the door of the new brown bungalow. "Isn't it a dear?" cried Bettina proudly. "When we've had time to give it grass and shrubs and flowers and a vegetable garden, no place in town will equal it! And as for porch furniture, how I'd like to get at Mother's attic and transform some of her discarded things!"

"Just now I'd rather get at some of Mother's cooking!" grinned Bob.

8 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"Oh, dear, I forgot ! I'll have supper ready in ten minutes. Do you remember my emergency shelf? Why, Bob — Bob, they must have known we were coming! Here's ice — and milk — and cream — and butter — and bread — and rolls, and even a grape fruit ! They knew, and didn't meet the train because they thought we would prefer to have our first meal alone! Wasn't that dear of them? And this will save you a trip to the corner grocery !"

Bettina fastened a trim percale bungalow apron over her traveling suit, and swiftly and surely assembled the little meal.

"I like that apron," said Bob. "It reminds me of the rainy day when we fixed the emergency shelf. That was fun."

"Yes, and work too," said Bettina, "but I'm glad we did it. Do you remember how much I saved by getting things in dozen and half dozen lots? And Mother showed me how much better it was to buy the larger sizes in bottled things, because in buying the smaller bottles you spend most of your money for the glass. Now that you have to pay my bills, Bob, you'll be glad that I know those things !"

"I think you know a great deal," said Bob admiringly. "Lots of girls can cook, but mighty few know how to be economical at the same time ! It's great to be your "

"Dinner is served," Bettina interrupted. "It's a 'pick-up meal,' but I'm hungry, aren't you? And after this, sir, no more canned things !"

And Bob sat down to:

Creamed Tnna on Toast Strips

Canned Peas with Butter Sauce

Rolls Butter

Strawberry Preserves

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Creamed Tuna on Toast Strips (Two portions)

i T-butter }/2 slice pimento

i T-flour I C-milk

% t-salt 3 slices of bread

J/2 C-tuna

With Bettinas Best Recipes 9

Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and pimento. Mix well. Gradually pour in the milk. Allow the mixture to boil one minute. Stir constantly. Add the fish, cook one minute and pour over toasted strips of bread.

Hot Chocolate (Three cups)

I square of chocolate 2 C-milk 3 T-sugar % t-vanilla

2/3 C-water 3 marshmallows

Cook chocolate, sugar and water until a thin custard is formed. Add milk gradually and bring to a boil. Whip with an Qgg beater, as this breaks up the albumin found in choco- late, and prevents the coating from forming over the top. Add vanilla and marshmallows. Allow to stand a moment and pour into the cups.

Strawberry Preserves (Six one-half pt. glasses)

4 lbs. berries 3lbs. sugar

3 C-water

Pick over, wash and hull the berries. Make a syrup by boiling the sugar and water fifteen minutes. Fill sterilized jars with the berries. Cover with syrup and let stand fifteen minutes to settle. Add more berries. Adjust rubbers and covers. Place on a folded cloth in a kettle of cold water. Heat water to boiling point and cook slowly one hour. Screw on covers securely.

On Bettina's Emergency Shelf

6 cans pimentos (small size) 6 cans tomatoes

6 cans tuna (small size) 6 pt. jars pickles

6 cans salmon (small size) 6 pt. jars olives

6 jars dried beef 6 small cans condensed mite

12 cans corn 6 boxes sweet wafers

12 cans peas 1 pound box salted codfish

6 cans string beans 3 pkg. marshmallows

6 cans lima beans 3 cans mushrooms

6 cans devilled ham (small size) 2 pkg. macaroni

CHAPTER II BETTINA'S FIRST REAL DINNER

*f QAY, isn't it great to be alive.!" exclaimed Bob, as he

**-* looked across the rose-decked table at the flushed but happy Bettina. "And a beefsteak dinner, too !"

"Steak is expensive, dear, and you'll not get it often, but as this is our first real dinner in our own home, I had to cele- brate. I bought enough for two meals, because buying steak for one meal for two people is beyond any modest purse ! So you'll meet that steak again tomorrow, but I don't believe that you'll bow in recognition !"

"So you marketed today, did you?"

"Indeed I did ! I bought a big basket, and went at it like a seasoned housekeeper. I had all the staples to get, you know, and lots of other things. After dinner I'll show you the labelled glass jars on my shelves ; it was such fun putting things away ! June is a wonderful month for housekeepers. I've planned the meals for days ahead, because I know that's best. Then I'll go to the market several times a week, and if I plan properly I won't have to order by telephone. It seems so extravagant to buy in that way unless you know exactly what you are getting. I like to plan for left-overs, too. For instance, the peas in this salad were left from yesterday's dinner, and the pimento is from that can I opened. Then, too, I cooked tomorrow's potatoes with these to save gas and bother. You'll have them served in a different way,

of course. And Oh, yes, Bob," Bettina chattered on, "I

saw Ruth down town, and have asked all five of my brides-

10

With Bettinas Best Recipes H

maids to luncheon day after tomorrow. Won't that be fun? But I promise you that the neglected groom shall have every one of the good things when he comes home at night I"

"It makes me feel happy, I can tell you, to have a home like this. It's pleasant to be by ourselves, but at the same time I can't help wishing that some of the bachelors I know could sec iv all and taste your cooking r-

"Well, Bob, I want you to feel free to have a guest at any time. If my dinners are good enough for you, I'm sure they're good enough for any guest whom you may bring. And it isn't very hard to make a meal for three out of a meal for two. Now, Bobby, if you're ready, will you please get the dessert?"

"What ? Strawberry shortcake ? Well, this is living ! I tell you what, Bettina, I call this a regular man-size meal !"

It consisted of :

Pan-Broiled Steak New Potatoes in Cream

Baking-Powder Biscuits Gutter

.Khubarb Sauce Pea and Celery Salad

Strawberry Short-cake Cream

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pan-Broiled Steak (Two portions)

I lb. steak % t-pepper

i T-butter 2 T-hot water

1 t-salt 1 t-parsley chopped

Wipe the meat carefully with a wet cloth. Remove super- fluous fat and any gristle. Cut the edges to prevent them from curling up. When the broiling oven is very hot, place the meat, without any fat, upon a hot flat pan, directly under the blaze. Brown both sides very quickly. Turn often. Re- duce heat and continue cooking about seven minutes, or longer if desired. Place on a warm platter; season with salt, pepper and bits of butter. Set in the oven a moment to melt the butter. If salt is added while cooking, the juices will be drawn out. A gravy may be made by adding hot water, butter, salt, pepper and parsley to the pan. Pour the gravy over the steak.

12 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

New Potatoes in Cream (Two portions)

4 new potatoes i qt. water i t-salt

Scrape four medium sized new potatoes. Cook in boiling water (salted) until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain off the water, and shake the kettle over the fire gently, to allow the steam to escape and make the potatoes mealy. Make the following white sauce and pour over the potatoes.

White Sauce for New Potatoes (Two portions)

2 T-butter i c-milk

2 T-flour Y? t-salt

% t-paprika

Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Thoroughly mix, slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Allow sauce to cook two minutes.

Strawberry Shortcake (Two portions)

2 T-lard 1/3 t-salt

1 T-butter 4 t-baking powder

2 c-sifted flour 1 qt. strawberries % C-milk 2/3 C-sugar

Cut the fat into the flour, salt and baking powder until the consistency of cornmeal. Gradually add the milk, using a knife to mix. Do not handle any more than absolutely neces- sary. Toss the dough upon a floured board or a piece of clean brown paper. Pat into the desired shape, and place in a pan. Bake in a hot oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Split, spread with tmtter, and place strawberries, crushed and sweetened, between and on top. Serve with cream.

CHAPTER III

BETTINA'S FIRST GUEST

*<T TELLO! Yes, this is Bettina! Why, Bob, of course! A A Is he a real woman-hater? No, I've never met any, but I'll just invite Alice, too, and tomorrow you won't be calling him that. Six-thirty ? Yes, I'll be ready for you both ; I'm so glad you asked him. He'll be our first guest ! Good- bye !"

Bettina left the telephone with more misgivings than her tone had indicated. She couldn't disappoint Bob, and she liked unexpected company, but the dinner which she had planned was prepared largely from the recipes filed as "left- overs" in her box of indexed cards.

"Well, Bob will like it, anyhow," she declared confidently, "and if Alice can come, we'll have enough scintillating table- talk to make up for disappointments."

Alice accepted with delight, promising to wear "a dream of a gown that just came home," and confessing to a sentimental feeling at the thought of dining with such a new bride and groom.

"Let's see," said Bettina in her spick and span little kitchen, "there is meat enough, but I must hard-boil some eggs to help out these potatoes. 'Potatoes Anna' will be delicious. Good- ness, what would my home economics teacher have said if she had heard me say 'hard-boil'? They mustn't really be boiled at all, just 'hard-cooked' in water kept at the boiling point. There will be enough baked green peppers for four, and enough of the pudding, and if I add some very good coffee.,

14 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

I don't believe that Bob's Mr. Harrison will feel that women are such nuisances after all! It isn't an elaborate meal, but it's wholesome, and at any rate, our gas bill will be a little smaller because everything goes into the oven."

When Alice arrived, Bettina was putting the finishing touches on her table. "Alice, you look stunning!"

"And you look lovely, which is better! And the table is charming! Those red clover blossoms in that brown basket make a perfect center-piece ! How did you think of it ?"

"Mother Necessity reminded me, my dear! My next door neighbor has roses, but I covet some for my luncheon tomor- row, and did not like to ask for any today. So I had to use these red clover blooms from our own back yard. They are simple, like the dinner."

"Don't you envy me, Harrison?" asked Bob at the table. "This is my third day of real home cooking! You were unex- pected company, too !"

The dinner consisted of :

Boubons with Tomato Sauce Potatoes Anna Baked Green Peppers Stuffed

Bread Butter

Cottage Pudding Lemon Sauce

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Boubons (Four portions)

1 C-cooked meat ground fine (one or more kinds may be used)

2 T-fresh bread crumbs % t-pepper

y2 C-milk

I T-green pepper or pimento chopped fine % t-celery salt

I egg y2 t-salt

i t-butter (melted)

Beat the egg, add milk, seasonings, melted butter, bread- crumbs and meat. Mix thoroughly. Fill buttered cups three- fourths full of mixture. Place in a pan of boiling water, and

With Bettinas Best Recipes 15

bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes. The mixture is done as soon as it resists pressure in the center. Allow them to remain in the pans a few minutes, then remove carefully upon a serving plate. They may be made in a large mould or indi- vidual ones. Serve with the following sauce.

Tomato Sauce (Four portions)

i C-tomatoes l/2 t-sugar

i slice onion Y2 C-water

4 bay leaves 2 T-butter

4 cloves 2 T-flour Y* t-salt

Simmer the tomatoes, onion, bay leaves, cloves, sugar and water for fifteen minutes, rub through the strainer. Melt but- ter, add flour and salt, add strained tomato juice and pulp. Cook until the desired consistency.

Potatoes Anna (Four portions)

ll/2 C-cooked diced potatoes y2 t-celery salt

2 hard-cooked eggs Ya t-onion salt

1 C-thin white sauce

Place alternate layers of diced cooked potatoes and sliced hard-cooked eggs in a baking dish. Season. Pour a thin white sauce over all of this. Place in a moderate oven fifteen min- utes.

Stuffed Green Peppers (Four portions) 4 green peppers 4 C-boiling water

Remove the stems of the peppers and take out all the con- tents. Remove small slices from the blossom end so they will stand. Cover peppers with boiling water, allow to stand five minutes and drain. Fill with any desired mixture. Bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes, basting frequently with hot water.

Filling for Peppers (Four portions)

1 C-fresh bread crumbs Y2 t-salt

1 t-chopped onion or Ya T-onion salt 1 T-melted butter

1/3 C-chopped ham, or 1 T-salt pork % t-paprika

2 T-water

16 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Mix thoroughly and fill the pepper cases.

Baked Cottage Pudding (Four portions)

i C-flour 1/3 C-sugar 1 2/3 t-baking powder 2 T-melted butter

% t-salt y2 C-milk

1 well-beaten egg % t-vanilla or lemon extract

Mix dry ingredients, add egg and milk. Beat well and add melted butter and extract. Bake twenty-five minutes in a well buttered mould. Serve hot with the following sauce :

Lemon Sauce (Four portions)

y2 C-sugar 1 t-butter

lYz 1 -flour 1 t-lemon extract or y2 t-lemon juice

1 C-hot water y2 t-salt

Mix sugar, flour and salt. Slowly add the hot water. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Add flavoring and butter.

CHAPTER IV

BETTINA GIVES A LUNCHEON

**r\ YOU darling Bcttina! Did you do it all yourself?" ^-^ Mary exclaimed impulsively, as the girls admired the dainty first course which their hostess set before them. "Everything is pink and white, like the wedding !"

"Yes," said Bettina, "and those maline bows on the basket of roses actually attended my wedding. And after this is over, you may see that maline again. I expect to press it out and put it away for other pink luncheons in other Junes ! Today, since my guests were to be just my bridesmaids, I thought that a pink luncheon would be the most appropriate kind."

"Isn't it fine to be in Bettina's own house? I can't realize it!" said Ellen. "And the idea of daring to cook ft whole luncheon and serve it in courses all by herself ! Why, Bettina, how did you know what to have ?"

"Well," said Bettina, "I went to the market and saw all the inexpensive things that one can buy in June! (They had to be inexpensive ! Why, if I were to tell you just what this luncheon cost, you'd laugh. But I want you to like it all before I give that secret away.) And then in planning my menu, I thought of pinky things that went together. That was all, you see.

"But didn't it take hours and hours to prepare everything ?" "Why, no. I thought it all out first, and wrote it down, and did most of it yesterday. I've found that five minutes of planning is worth five hours of unplanned work. I haven't hurried, and as Bob will have this same meal as his dinner tonight, I didn't have to think of him except to plan for more.

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18 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

You see, I estimated each portion as carefully as I could, for it isn't necessary to have a lot of left-over things. Tonight I'll wear this same pink gown at dinner so that Bob will get every bit that he can of my first luncheon except the silly girls who flattered the cook."

"Bettina, there are so many things I'd like to ask you !" said Ruth, who was a little conscious of the shining ring on her left hand. "Tell me, for instance, how you shaped these cunning timbales. With your hands ?"

"With a conical ice-cream mould. It is so easy that way."

"And this salad ! Fred is so fond of salad, but I don't know a thing about making it."

"Well, I washed the lettuce thoroughly, and when it was very wet I put it on the ice in a cloth. I poured boiling water over these tomatoes to make the skins peel off easily. And, oh, yes, these cucumbers are crisp because I kept the slices in ice water for awhile before I served them. Good salad is always very cold ; the ingredients ought to be chilled before they are mixed."

"These dear little cakes, Bettina! How could you make them in such cunning shapes ?"

"With a fancy cutter. And I dipped it in warm water each time before I used it, so that it would cut evenly. I'd love to show you girls all that I know about cooking. Do learn it now while you're at home ; it will save much labor and even tears ! Why, Bob said "

"I knew that was coming!" laughed Alice. "Girls, in self- defense, let's keep the conversation strictly on Betty's menu, and away from Betty's husband !"

And so they discussed :

Strawberries au Naturel

Kornlet Soup Whipped Cream

Croutons

Salmon Timbales with Egg Sauce

Buttered Beets Potato Croquettes

Pinwheel Biscuit Butter Balls

Vegetable Salad Salad Dressing

Wafers

Fancy Cakes Coffee

With Bettinas Best Recipes 19

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Strawberries au Naturel (Ten portions)

2 quarts strawberries I C-powdered sugar

Pick over selected berries, place in a colander and wash, draining carefully. Press powdered sugar into cordial glasses to shape into a small mould. Remove from glasses onto cen- ters of paper doilies placed on fruit plates. Attractively arrange ten berries around each mound. Berries should be kept cool and not hulled. Natural leaves may be used very effectively on the doily.

Croutons for the Soup (Ten portions)

4 slices bread 2 T-butter (melted) y2 t-salt

Cut stale bread in one-third inch cubes. Brown in the oven. Add melted butter and salt. Mix and reheat the croutons.

Salmon Timbales (Eight portions)

1 C-salmon flaked 2/3 C-milk

J4 C-bread crumbs 1 T-lemon juice

1 slightly beaten egg % t-paprika

yi t-salt

Mix ingredients in order named. Fill small buttered moulds

or cups one-half full. Set in a pan of hot water, and bake

twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with following

sauce :

Egg Sauce (Eight portions)

3 T-butter l/2 t-salt 3 T-flour J4 t-pepper iH C-milk 1 egg yolk

Melt the butter, stir flour in well, and slowly add the milk.

Let it boil about two minutes, stirring constantly. Season, add

yolk of egg, and mix well. (The oil from the salmon may be

substituted for melted butter as far as it will go.)

White Cakes (Sixteen cakes)

1/3 C-butter 3 t-baking powder

1 C-sugar Yi t-lemon extract 2/3 C-milk y2 t-vanilla

2 C-sifted flour 3 egg whites

20 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Cream butter, add sugar, and continue creaming. Alter- nately add the dry ingredients mixed and sifted. Add the milk. Beat well, add flavoring. Fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Spread evenly, two-thirds of an inch thick, on waxed paper, placed in a pan. Bake twenty minutes in moderate oven. Remove from oven, allow cake to remain in pan five minutes. Carefully remove and cool. Cut with fancy cutters.

White Mountain Cream Icing for Cakes

I C-granulated sugar % C-water

% t-cream tartar I egg white

x/2 t-vanilla

Boil the sugar, water and cream of tartar together without stirring. Remove from fire as soon as the syrup hairs when dropped from a spoon. Pour very slowly onto the stiffly beaten egg white. Beat vigorously with sweeping strokes until cool. If icing gets too hard to spread, add a little warm water and keep beating. Add extract and spread on cakes. Decorate with tiny pink candies.

CHAPTER V BOB HELPS TO GET DINNER

f f Z^1 UESS who!" said a voice behind Bettina, as two hands

^-* blinded her eyes.

"Why, Bob, dear ! Good for you ! How did you get home so early?"

"I caught a ride with Dixon in his new car. And I thought you might need me to help get dinner ; it's nice to be needed ! But here I've been picturing you toiling over a hot stove, and, instead, I nna you on tne porch with a magazine, as cool as a cucumber !"

"The day of toiling over a hot stove in summer is over. At least for anyone with sense ! But I'm glad you did come home early, and you can help with dinner. Will you make the French dressing for the salad? See, I'll measure it out, and you can stir it this way with a fork until it's well mixed and a little thick."

"I know a much better way than that. Just watch your Uncle Bob; see? I'll put it in this little Mason jar and shake it. It's a lot easier and — there you are! We'll use what we need tonight, put the jar away in the ice-box, and the next time we can give it another good shaking before we use it."

"Why, Bob, what an ingenious boy you are ! I never would have thought of that !"

"You married a man with brains, Betty dear! What is there besides the salad ?"

"Halibut steak. It's Friday, you know, and there is such good inexpensive fish on the market. A pound is plenty for

21

22 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

us. The potatoes are ready for the white sauce, the beans are in the fireless cooker, and for dessert there is fresh pine- apple sliced. The pineapple is all ready. Will you get it, dear? In the ice-box in a covered jar."

"Why didn't you slice it into the serving dish?"

"Because it had to be covered tight. Pineapple has a pene- trating odor, and milk and butter absorb it in no time."

"What else shall I do, Madam Bettina ?"

"Well, you may fix the lemon for the fish. No, not sliced; a slice is too hard to handle. Just cut it in halves and then once the other way, in quarters ; see ? You may also cut up a little of that parsley for the creamed new potatoes. That reminds me that I am going to have parsley growing in a kitchen window box some day. Now you can take the beans out of the cooker, and I'll put butter sauce on them. No, it isn't really a sauce, — just melted butter with salt and pepper. There, Bobby dear ! Dinner is served, and you helped ! How do you like the coreopsis on the table ?"

"You always manage to have flowers of some kind, don't you, Betty ? I'm growing so accustomed to that little habit of yours that I suppose I wouldn't have any appetite if I had to eat on an ordinary undecorated table !"

"Don't you make fun of me, old fellow! You'd have an appetite no matter when, how or what you had to eat! But things are good tonight, aren't they?"

Bob had helped to prepare:

Halibut Steak New Potatoes in Cream

String Beans Butter Sauce

Bread Butter

Tomato, Cucumber and Pimento Salad French Dressing

Sliced Fresh Pineapple

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Halibut Steak (Two portions)

2/3 lb. Halibut Steak */2 t-salt 3 T-flour % t-paprika

Wash one pound of Halibut steak and wipe dry. Cut in two pieces. Roll in flour, and cook ten minutes in a frying pan

With Bettinas Best Recipes 23

in hot fat. Brown on one side, and then on the other. Season with salt and paprika. Serve very hot.

String Beans with Butter Sauce (Two portions)

ij4 C-string beans i T-butter

2 C-water I t-salt

J4 t-paprika

Remove ends and strings from green beans. Add water and cook over a moderate fire for twenty-five minutes. Drain off the water, add butter, salt and paprika. Reheat and serve.

Tomato, Cucumber and Pimento Salad (Two portions)

i tomato sliced I t-salt

% C-sliced cucumbers % t-paprika I T-pimento cut fine 2 pieces lettuce

Arrange lettuce on serving dishes. Place portions of tomato, cucumber and pimento on the lettuce. Sprinkle with salt and paprika. Serve with French dressing.

French Dressing (Two portions)

4 T-olive oil l/2 t-salt 2 T-vinegar % t-paprika

Mix ingredients, which have been thoroughly chilled, and beat until the mixture thickens. Pour over the vegetables.

Pineapple Sliced (Two portions)

i pineapple Yz C-sugar

Remove the skin and eyes from the pineapple. Cut cross- wise in half-inch slices, and the slices in cubes, at the same time discarding the core. Sprinkle with sugar and stand in a cold place for an hour before serving.

CHAPTER VI

COUSIN MATILDA CALLS

t*TTELLO, is this you, Bettina? This is Mother! I'll ■*■ ■*■ have to speak in a low voice. Who do you think is here ? No, — Cousin Matilda ! Just between trains, but she says she must see how you are 'situated' ! Clementine has such a wonderful establishment now, you know! No, of course not, but I want her to see how happy you are. She seems to have the idea that an 'establishment' is necessary! Just to see the house, you know ! I know the porch isn't ready, but don't worry ! About three, then. Good-by !"

That afternoon Bettina looked anxiously through the living room window across the bare little front yard. If only critical Cousin Matilda had waited a few months before coming! But then, the only thing to do was to be as cheerful about it as possible

"So this is little Bettina!" said a majestic voice at the door. "And how is love in a cottage? How charmingly simple everything is !"

"They planned it all just as they wanted it," explained Bettina's mother proudly. "On a small scale, of course, but perhaps some day "

"But I couldn't ever be happier than I am right now, Cousin Matilda. What do you think of our big living room ? Browns and tans seemed best and safest in a little house like this, and I knew I shouldn't tire of them as of any other color ! I do so dislike going into a bungalow with one little room in blue, another in pink, and so on. The walls are all alike, even in

24

With Bettinas Best Recipes 25

the bedrooms. And the curtains are just simple cotton voiles, ecru in the living and dining rooms, and white in the bed- rooms. No side curtains to catch the dust and keep out the air. But I beg your pardon for seeming too complacent; I love it all so that I just can't help boasting."

"What is this, my dear? A wedding gift?"

"Yes, isn't it lovely? It is a sampler in cross-stitch that Bob's great-great-grandmother made ! His Aunt Margaret had it put under the glass cover of this tea cart, and gave it to us for a wedding present. See, the cart is brown willow, and I think it looks well with our furniture, don't you? This is to be a living porch, but we haven't furnished it yet except for this green matting rug. And Bob brought that hanging basket home from the florist's the other day. . . . Oh, yes, this is my Japanese garden ! Bob laughs at me, I have so much fun watching it."

"What a lovely table decoration those red cherries make in your dining room, my dear! Like a picture, in that piece of dull green pottery !"

"Yes, Bob says I decorate the table differently for every meal ! We use this breakfast alcove for breakfast, Sunday evening tea, or any informal meal when we are alone. You see how convenient it is ! I do want to put a round serving table with leaves on our living porch. Then we can eat there on warm evenings in summer."

"Bettina is very accomplished in economy," said her mother. "You must let her tell you some of her methods."

"Clementine would be interested, I'm sure," said Cousin Matilda in her languid way. "Is this your guest room?"

"Yes, and Bob and I are proud of that. We white enameled the furniture ourselves ! It is some that we found in a second- hand store, and it was certainly a bargain, though it didri\ look it at the time. I sewed the rags together for these blue and white rugs. Bob made that little open desk out of a small table that we found somewhere. Now that it is white, too, I think it is cunning. And, Cousin Matilda, I give you three guesses as to the place in which I keep my sewing machine !"

"Why, I haven't seen it yet. In the kitchen ?"

26 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"Goodness, no ! Well, I'll tell you ! This looks like a dress- ing table, but is merely a shelf with a mirror above it. The shelf has a cretonne cover and 'petticoat' that reaches the floor. And underneath it — behold the sewing machine ! Bob made the shelf high enough and wide enough to let the sewing machine slip under it ! But, Cousin Matilda, you must be tired of Bettina's economies ! Please sit down with mother in the living room and I will get the 'party.' "

And Bettina wheeled her tea cart into the kitchen, returning with luncheon napkins, plates, glasses, a pitcher of iced fruit juice, a plate of little chocolate cakes, and several sprays of wild roses.

"What delicious little cakes, Bettina ! At least you can't be called economical when you serve such rich and dainty food as this!"

"I must plead guilty still, Cousin Matilda. I made these little cakes partly from dry bread crumbs. The fruit juice is mostly from the pineapple which Bob had for dessert last night. I cooked the core with about two cups of water and added it to the lemonade."

"Bettina, Bettina! How did you learn these things? Rob- ert is certainly a lucky man, and I'm sure that some day he will be a wealthy one! You must give me the recipes you used !"

And Bettina wrote them down as follows :

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Little Chocolate Cakes (Twelve cakes)

2 eggs I C-dry bread crumbo

% C-butter 3 T-flour y2 C-sugar 1 t-vanilla

3 squares chocolate

Cream the butter, add sugar, and cream the mixture. Add the beaten eggs and stir well. Add melted chocolate, bread crumbs, flour and flavoring. Spread the mixture very thinly on a buttered pan, and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Shape with a tiny biscuit cutter, and put together in pairs with

With Bettina's Best Recipes 27

mountain cream icing between and on top. (Icing recipe al- ready given.)

Fruit Juice (Eight glasses)

I C-sugar 2 C-water il/t C-lemon juice

Boil sugar and water ten minutes without stirring, add lemon juice, and any other fruit juices. Cool and bottle. Keep on ice and dilute with ice water when desired for use. Serve mint leaves with the fruit juice.

JULY.

The market is full of delights in July:

Fresh vegetables, berries, red cherries for pie!

Good housewives and telephones seldom agree, So market yourself! You can buy as you see!

CHAPTER VII A NEW-FASHIONED SUNDAY DINNER

** 'VT" OU W*M g° t0 church with

«*• us this morning, Bet- tina?" asked Bob's cousin Henry, known also as the Rev. Henry Clinkersmith, as he came into Bettina's immaculate kitchen one Sunday.

"Yes, indeed, I will go !" Bet- tina answered him. "Is it nearly ten o'clock ? Oh, yes, nine forty- five. I'll go at once and get ready."

Cousin Henry had arrived late Saturday evening. He was rilling the pulpit of a friend that Sunday morning.

Bettina finished arranging the low bowl of pansies which was to be her table decoration. "For the dinner table," she explained to Cousin Henry.

"And Bob," she said as they walked to church (Cousin Henry was ahead with an old friend), "I do believe he was worried about dinner. There wasn't a trace of any prepara- tion to be seen! You know I made the cake and the salad dressing yesterday, and the lettuce was on the ice. The sher- bet was on the porch (I bought it, you know), and the lamb and potatoes were in the cooker."

"Well, let him worry ! How long will it take to get it ready after we get home?"

29

30 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"About fifteen minutes. The table is set, but I'll have to warm the plates and take things up. Then there's the gravy to make, of course."

"All I can say is this," said Cousin Henry at dinner, as he passed his plate for a second helping, "since you've explained the mysteries of the fireless cooker, I realize how it would have helped those cold Sunday dinners of the past generation. The women could have obeyed the fourth commandment and given their families a good Sunday dinner, too !"

That day they had :

Leg of Lamb with Potatoes Lamb Gravy

Head Lettuce Thousand Island Dressing

Mint Sauce

Bread Butter

Pineapple Sherbet Bettina's Loaf Cake

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Roast Leg of Lamb with Potatoes (Ten portions)

A 4-lb. leg of lamb % t-paprika 6 large potatoes i T-salt

2 T-lard

Wash the lamb with a damp cloth. Wipe dry and sprinkle with two teaspoons of salt. Place the lard in a frying-pan. When hot, add the lamb, and brown well on all sides. Place the meat in the fireless utensil. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and paprika. Arrange these about the leg of lamb. Place the disks, heated for baking, over and under the baking pan. Cook three hours in the fireless. Use the drippings for gravy.

Lamb Gravy (Four portions)

4 T-drippings 2 T-flour 2/3 C-water ]/2 t-salt

Place half of the drippings in a sauce-pan. Add the flour, and allow it to brown. Add slowly the water, salt and the rest of the drippings (two tablespoonsful). Boil one minute.

With Bettinas Best Recipes 31

Mint Sauce (Four portions)

% C-mint leaves 4 T-vinegar x/2 C-boiling water Y% t-paprika 2 T-sugar % t-salt

Chop the mint leaves very fine. Add the boiling water and sugar. Cover closely and let stand one-half hour. Add the vinegar, pepper and salt.

Loaf Cake (Bettina's Nut Special) (Twelve pieces)

1/3 C-butter 3 t-baking powder

1 C-"C" sugar % C-nut-meats, cut fine

1 egg lA t-salt

il/2 C-flour 2/3 C-milk

l/2 t-cinnamon 1 t-vanilla

l/2 t-lemon extract

Cream the butter, add the sugar and the egg. Mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nut-meats, salt, milk, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat two minutes. Pour into a loaf-cake pan prepared with waxed paper. Bake thirty min- utes in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER VIII CELEBRATING THE FOURTH

* **VTOW, boys, run and play while Alice and I set the picnic

-L ^ table !" said Bettina to Bob and Mr. Harrison. "See if the fish are biting ! Cultivate your patience as well as your appetites and we'll surprise you soon !"

"Bettina, let me help you unpack. Everything looks so dainty and interesting!" said Alice, as Bob and Mr. Harrison strolled off toward the river. "You ought to have allowed me to bring something, although I'll admit that I do enjoy being surprised. You were a dear to bring me with you !"

"I ?" said Bettina. "Of course I'm glad to have you here — no one is better fun — but I wish you had heard something that Bob told me. He and Harry Harrison were planning to go fishing today, all by themselves, until Harry suggested that Bob might like to bring me along. And then he added as an afterthought, that as three is a crowd, Miss Alice might be induced to come too. (Why is it that 'Miss Alice' or 'Miss Kate' or 'Miss May' always sounds so like a confirmed bache- lor?) Bob chuckled when he told me how careless and offhand Harry tried to be !"

"Betty, how pretty those pasteboard plates are with the flag- seals pasted on them !"

"I saw some ready-made Fourth of July plates, but it was more economical to make my own. And how do you like the red, white and blue paper napkins and lunch cloth? 'Lunch paper/ I ought to say, I suppose. Alice, you arrange the fruit in the center in this basket, with some napkins around it, and

32

With Bettinas Best Recipes 83

with these little flags sticking out of it in every direction. But first, my dear, please tell me why you changed the subject when I was speaking of Mr. Harrison?"

"Those devilled eggs wrapped in frilled tissue-paper look just like torpedoes."

"Alice, Alice, I learned something new about you today. Harry said that society girls got on his nerves, but that 'Miss Alice* seemed sensible enough!"

"Goodness, Betty, he has disagreed with every single thing I've said, so far! If he is being pleasant behind my back, I don't see why he should be so disapproving in his manner to me ! But if he is really beginning to think me sensible, let us by all means encourage him! Hide my frivolous new hat in the lunch-basket, and give me something useful to be doing. Can't I appear to be mixing the salad ? . . . Honestly, Betty, I do get tired of society as a single interest. But what else is there for me to do? Go into settlement work? I'd be a joke at that! Learn to design jewelry? Take singing lessons ?"

"Try the good old profession of matrimony. Why are you so fickle, Alice, my dear?"

"I'm not ; it's the men ! Every sensible one I meet is — well, disagreeable to me!"

"Meaning Harry Harrison ? He appears to be taking quite an interest, at least !"

"That is merely his reforming instinct coming to the surface. But — is everything ready now? We'll sing a few bars of the Star Spangled Banner, and I'm sure the men will come imme- diately !"

The lunch table was set with:

Lobster and Salmon Salad

Ham Sandwiches Nut Bread Sandwiches

Pickles Radishes

Potato Chips Devilled Eggs

Moist Chocolate Cake

Bananas Oranges

Torpedo Candies

Lemonade

34 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Lobster and Salmon Salad (Four portions)

I C-salmon 6 sweet pickles cut fine

y2 C-lobster 3 hard-cooked eggs, sliced

I C-diced cucumber or celery 1 t-salt y2 C-salad dressing

Mix the ingredients in the order given. Use a silver fork for mixing. Garnish with lettuce leaves.

Ham Sandwiches (Four portions)

Y2. C-chopped ham 1 T-chopped olives

2 T-pickles 3 T-salad dressing

12 slices bread

Mix ham, olives and pickles with salad dressing and spicad on lettuce or nasturtium leaves between buttered slices of bread. Trim off the crusts, and cut the sandwiches in fancy shapes.

Devilled Eggs (Six eggs)

6 hard-cooked eggs 1 t-melted butter 1 t-vinegar J4 t-chopped parsley

Y\ t-mustard % t-salt

Shell the eggs, cut lengthwise in half, remove yolks, mash them and add vinegar, mustard, melted butter, parsley and salt. Refill the whites and put pairs together. Wrap in tissue paper with frilled edges to represent torpedoes.

Moist Chocolate Cake (Ten portions)

1/3 C-butter 1 C-flour

1 C-sugar i$4 t-baking powder

2 eggs Yi t-cinnamon Y2. C-hot mashed potatoes \i t-clove

1 ounce melte.d chocolate Yz t-nutmeg Ya C-milk 1 t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add the sugar. Mix well. Add the egg yolks, slightly beaten, and the potato. Stir, add the chocolate, milk and then all the dry ingredients which have been mixed and sifted together. Fold in the white of the eggs Deaten stiffly. Add the vanilla. Pour into two layer-cake pans which have been prepared with waxed paper. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Ice with white mountain cream icing.

CHAPTER IX BETTINA'S FATHER TRIES HER COOKING

^QO she is about to try her cooking on me, is she?" said

^ Bettina's father to Bob, as he sat down at the table. "Well, I'll admit that I have looked forward to this all day. But there was a time when I was a little more skeptical of Bet- tina's culinary skill. You know, when mother was in Califor- nia two years ago last winter "

"Now, Charlie, you know that all girls have to learn at some time or other," interrupted Bettina's mother. "And I believe that Bob has fared pretty well, considering that Bettina is just beginning to keep house "

"I should say so!" said Bob, heartily. "Why, I'm getting fat ! I was weighed to-day, and "

"Don't say any more, Bob ! We'll rent the house and take to boarding! If you get fat "

"No boarding-houses for mine! Not after your cooking, Bettina! I had enough of boarding before I was married. Say — how long ago that does seem."

"Has the time dragged as much as that? Well, I'll change the subject. Dad, how do you like my Japanese garden? I think it's pretty, don't you ?"

"I certainly do, my dear. What are those feathery things ?"

"Why, don't you know that, Father? And when you were a boy, you worked on a farm one summer, too- There";, ex parsnip and a horse radish, and a beet. Then there are a few parsley seeds and grass seeds on a tiny sponge ! And see the little shells and stones that Bob and I collected for it."

"Yes, we found that pink stone up the river on a picnic a

36 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

year ago last May, before we were engaged, or were we en- gaged then, Bettina ? And the purple one "

"Oh, you needn't reminisce," Bettina interrupted hastily. "Eat your dinner."

"Every little stone Has a meaning all its own,

Every little shell

But it wouldn't do to tell!'

"I composed that poem just this minute," said Bob, undis- turbed.

"Will you help me get the dessert now, Robert? Are you ready, Mother? And Father?"

"Yes, indeed. A very fine dinner, Bettina. We never have steak fixed this way at home; do we, Mother? Can we try it some day soon ?"

"I have something for dessert that you like, Dad. Guess what !"

"What is it ? Oh, lemon pie ! That is fine, I can tell you ! But I know already that it won't be as good as your mother's ! Still, we'll try it and see!"

That evening for dinner, Bettina served :

Devilled Steak New Potatoes in Cream

Baking-powder Biscuits Jelly

Cucumber and Radish Salad

Lemon Pie

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Devilled Steak (Four portions)

2 T-butter H t-pepper

i T-onion % t-paprika

iy2 lb. flank steak ^ inch thick i t-mustard

2 T-flour i T-vinegar

i t-salt i T-flour 2 C-water

Melt the butter in a frying-pan, slice the onion in it and saute gently until golden brown in color. Remove the onion from

With Bettinas Best Recipes 37

the butter, cut the flank steak into pieces three by two inches. Dredge these lightly in one tablespoon flour and saute in the butter until well browned. Remove the meat from the frying- pan ; add the salt, pepper, paprika, mustard, vinegar and flour. Mix all together and add the water slowly. Replace the steak in the pan, cover closely and simmer one hour, or until the steak is tender. Serve on a warm platter and pour the gravy over it.

Baking Powder Biscuit (Fifteen biscuits)

2 C-flour y^ t-salt

4 t-baking powder 3 T-lard

2/3 C-milk

Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt; cut in the lard with a knife until the consistency of cornmeal. Add the milk, mixing with a knife. Pat into a rectangular shape, one- half inch thick, on a floured board. Cut with, a biscuit cutter one and one-half inches in diameter. Place side by side in a tin pan. Bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes.

Cucumber and Radish Salad (Four portions)

1 C-diced cucumbers 1 t-salt

y2 C-diced radishes % t-pepper

2 t-chopped onion 4 T-salad dressing

4 lettuce leaves

Mix the cucumbers, radishes, onions, salt and pepper. Add salad dressing. Serve on lettuce leaves.

Lemon Pie

Filling 2 egg-yolks

1 C-sugar ix/2 C-water

y2 t-salt 1 t-grated rind

juice 1 large lemon y2 C-flour 1 t-butter

Beat the egg yolks, add the sugar gradually and beat; add the flour, salt, water, lemon juice and rind. Cook in a double boiler until it thickens. Pour into the pastry shell, cover with meringue and bake in a moderate oven until the meringue is brown.

38 A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband

Pie Crust

I C-flour yz t-salt

1/3 C-lard 2 T-cold water

Cut the lard into the flour and salt with a knife. Add the water gradually, lifting with a knife that portion that was moistened first and pushing it to one side of the bowl, wet an- other portion and continue until all is moistened, using just enough water to hold together. Put together and place on a floured board. Roll the crust to fit the pan. Press the crust firmly into the bottom of the pan. Prick the sides and bottom with a fork. Crinkle the edges of the crust ; have the crust ex- tend above the edge of the pan to make a deep shell for the filling. Bake the crust first to make it more crisp. Do not butter the pan. Bake from five to six minutes in a hot oven. When the crust is done, add the filling and cover this with the meringue.

Meringue

2 egg whites beaten stiff 5 T-sugar (powdered preferred)

y2 t-lemon extract

Do not beat the egg-whites until ready for use. Then beat until stiff and add the sugar and extract, beating only a minute. Pile the meringue lightly on top of the filling, and bake the whole slowly. If baked too quickly, the meringue will rise and then fall. Bake only until it turns a golden brown.

CHAPTER X A MOTOR PICNIC

^TJ ELLO, Bettina ; this is Bob. What are you having for

* ■■■ dinner to-night?"

"It's all in the fireless cooker ! Why ?"

"Couldn't you manage to make a picnic supper of it? One of the men at the office has invited us to go motoring to-night with him and his wife, and, of course, I said we'd be delighted. They're boarding, poor things, and I asked if we couldn't bring the supper. He seemed glad to have me suggest it. I suppose he hasn't had any home cooking for months. Do you suppose you could manage the lunch ? How about it ?"

"Why, let me think ! How soon must we start?"

"We'll be there in an hour or a little less. Don't bother about it — get anything you happen to have."

"It's fine to go, dear. Of course, I'll be ready. Good-bye !"

Bettina's brain was busy. There was a veal loaf baking in one compartment of the cooker, and on the other side, some Boston brown bread was steaming. Her potatoes were cooked already for creaming, and although old potatoes would have been better for the purpose, she might make a salad of them} As she hastily put on some eggs to hard-cook, she inspected her ice box. Yes, those cold green beans, left from last night's dinner, would be good in the salad. What else? "It needs something to give it character," she reflected. "A little canned pimento — and, yes — a few of the pickles in that jar."

Of course, she had salad dressing — she was never without it. Sandwiches? The brown bread would be too fresh and soft for sandwiches, but she could keep it hot, and take some

SU

40 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

butter along. "I'm glad it is cool to-day. We'll need hot coffee in the thermos bottle, and I can make it a warm supper — except for the salad."

She took the veal loaf and the steamed brown bread from the cooker, and put them into the oven to finish cooking.

"How lucky it is that I made those Spanish buns ! And the bananas that were to have been sliced for dessert, I can just take along whole."

When Bettina heard the auto horn, and then Bob's voice, she was putting on her hat.

"Well, Betty, could you manage it ?"

"Yes, indeed, dear. Everything is ready. The thermos bot- tle has coffee in it, piping hot ; the lunch basket over there is packed with the warm things wrapped tight, and that pail with the burlap over it is a temporary ice box. It holds a piece of ice, and beside it is the cream for the coffee and the potato salad. It is cool to-day, but I thought it best to pack them that way."

"You are the best little housekeeper in this town," said Bob as he kissed her. "I don't believe anyone else could have man- aged a picnic supper on such short notice. Come on out and meet Mr. and Mrs. Dixon. May I tell them that they have a fine spread coming?"

"Don't you dare, sir. It's a very ordinary kind of a sup- per, and even you are apt to be disappointed."

But he wasn't.

Bettina's picnic supper that cool day consisted of:

Warm Veal Loaf Cold Potato Salad

Fresh Brown Bread Butter

Spanish Buns Bananas

Hot Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Veal Loaf (Six to eight portions)

2 lbs. lean veal 4 t-onion salt

y2 lb. salt pork 1 T-salt

6 large crackers H t-pepper

2 T-lemon juice 4 T-cream

With Bettina's Best Recipes 41

Put two crackers in the meat grinder, add bits of meat and pork and the rest of the crackers. The crackers first and last prevent the pork and meat from sticking to the grinder. Add other ingredients in order named. Pack in a well-buttered oread-pan. Smooth evenly on top, brush with white of an Qgg and bake one hour in a moderate oven. Baste frequently. The meat may be cooked in a fireless cooker between two stones. It is perfectly satisfactory cooked this way, and requires no basting,

Boston Brown Bread (Six portions)

I C-rye or graham flour $4 C-molasses

I C-cornmeal JA C-sugar

I C-white flour il/2 C-sour milk or i% C-sweet

I t-salt milk or water

iV2 t-soda 2/3 C-raisins

Mix and sift dry ingredients, add molasses and liquid. Fill well-buttered moulds two-thirds full, butter the top of mould, and steam three and one-half hours. Remove from moulds and place in an oven to dry ten minutes before serving. 1 — If sweet milk is used, 1 T-vinegar to 1^4 C will sour the milk. 2 — Baking powder cans, melon moulds, lard pails or any at- tractively shaped tin cans may be used as a mould. 3 — Two methods of steaming are used: (a) Regular steamer in which the mould, either large or individual, is placed over a pan of boiling water. Buttered papers may be tied firmly over the tops of uncovered moulds, (b) Steaming in boiling water. The mould is placed on a small article in the bottom of a pan of boiling water. This enables the water to circulate around the mould. Care must be observed in keeping the kettle two- thirds full of boiling water all of the time of cooking. (Bet- tina used the method in the fireless cooker.) She started the brown bread in the cooker utensil on the top of the stove. When the water was boiling vigorously, she placed it over one hot stone in the cooker. The water came two-thirds of the dis- tance to the top of her cans. In the cooker, she did not have to watch for fear the water would boil away. After fastening the lid tightly on the cooker-kettle in which the bread was to steam, she did not look at it again for four hours. (It takes a little longer in the cooker than on the stove.)

CHAPTER XI BETTINA HAS A CALLER

THE next morning Bettina was alone in her little kitchen when the door bell rang.

"Why, Mrs. Dixon ; how do you do ?" she said, as she opened the door and recognized the visitor. "Won't you come in?"

It must be admitted that Bettina was somewhat embarrassed at the unexpected call at so unconventional a time. Mrs. Dixon was dressed in a trim street costume, but under her veil Bet- tina could see that her eyes were red, and her lips quivered as she answered :

"Forgive me for coming so early, but I just had to. I know you'll think me silly to talk to you confidentially when I met you only yesterday, but I do want your advice about some- thing. You mustn't stop what you are doing. Couldn't I come into the kitchen and talk while you work?"

"Why, my dear, of course you can," said Bettina, trying to put her at her ease. "You can't guess what I was doing! I was washing my pongee dress; someone told me of such a good way!"

"Why, could you do it all yourself?" said Mrs. Dixon, open- ing her eyes wide. "Why not send it to be dry-cleaned ?"

"Of course I might," said Bettina, "but it would be expen- sive, and I do like to save a little money every month from my housekeeping allowance. There are always so many things I want to get. You see I'm doing this in luke-warm, soapy water — throwing the soap-suds up over the goods, then I'll rinse it well, and hang it in the shade to drip until it gets dry.

42

With Bettina s Best Recipes 43

I won't press it till it is fully dry, because if I do, it will be spotted."

"How do you learn things like that?"

"Oh, since I've been married, and even before, when I thought about keeping house, I began to pick up all sorts of good ideas. I like economizing; it gives me an opportunity to use all the ingenuity I have."

"Does it? I always thought it would be awfully tiresome. You see, I've lived in a hotel all my life ; my mother never was strong, and I was the only child. I liked it, and since I've been married, we've lived the same way. I never thought of anything else and I supposed Frank would like it, too — but lately — oh, all the last year — he's been begging me to let him find us a house. And then" — (Bettina saw that her eyes had filled with tears) — "he has been so different. You have no idea, my dear. Why — he hasn't been at home with me two even- ings a week — and "

"You must be dreadfully unhappy," interrupted Bettina, wondering what she could say, since she disliked particularly to listen to any account of domestic difficulties. "But why not try keeping house? Maybe that would be better. Why, Bob doesn't like to be away from home any evenings at all."

"But you've just been married !" said Mrs. Dixon, tactlessly. "Wait and see how he'll be after a few years !"

"Well, that's all the more reason for trying to make him like his home. Have you thought of taking a house ?"

"That was just the reason I came to you. You seem to be so happy living this way — and it surprised me. I knew last evening what Frank was thinking when he saw this little house — and then when you unpacked the lunch — tell me honestly, did you cook it yourself?"

"Of course," said Bettina, smiling.

"Wasn't it hard to learn ? Why, I can't cook a thing — I can't even make coffee ! Frank says if he could only have one break- fast that was fit to eat " and she buried her face in her

handkerchief.

"Why, Mrs. Dixon !" cried Bettina, cheerfully, though her heart was beating furiously. "Your trouble is the easiest one

44 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

in the world to remedy ! Your husband is just hungry — that's all ! I'll tell you — we'll make this a little secret between us, arid have such fun over it! You do just as I tell you for one month and I'll guarantee that Frank will be at home every sin- gle minute that he can !"

"Do you suppose I can learn?"

"I'll show you every single thing. We'll slip out this very day and look for a little house — to surprise Frank ! And I'll teach you to cook by easy stages !"

"Oh, will you?" smiled Mrs. Dixon, showing an adorable dimple in her round cheek. "You don't know how much bet- ter I feel already ! When can we begin ?"

"Right now — with coffee — real, sure 'nough coffee that will make Frank's eyes stick out ! Have you a percolator ?"

"No, but I can get one."

"It isn't necessary at all. I'll tell you how to do without it, and then using one will be perfectly simple."

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Coffee (Four cups)

7 T-coffee *A T-egg white

3 T-cold water 4J4 C-boiling water

Scald the coffee pot, add the coffee, cold water and egg- white. Mix thoroughly, add the boiling water. Boil two min- utes. Allow to stand in the pot one minute. Serve.

Twin Mountain Muffins

2 C-flour i egg

4 t-baking powder I C-milk

YA t-salt I T-melted butter

*4 C-sugar

Mix and sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat the egg, add the milk; add these liquid ingredi- ents to the dry ones. Beat two minutes. Add the melted butter. Fill well buttered muffin pans one-half full. Bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.

CHAPTER XII BETTINA AND THE EXPENSE BUDGET

CCn UTH asked me today how we manage our finances,"

A^ said Bettina over the dinner table. "She said that she and Fred were wondering what plan was best. I'm so glad I have a definite household allowance and that we have bulgeted our expenses so successfully. The other day I was reading an article by Carolyn Claymore in which she says that three- fourths of the domestic troubles are caused by disagreements about money."

"Then we haven't much to quarrel about, have we, Betty? That is true in more than one sense. But I'm sure that this way seems to suit us to a T."

'Tm even saving money, Bob."

"I don't see how you can when you give me such good things to eat, and when we have so much company."

"Well, I plan ahead, you know — plan for my left-overs be- fore they are left, even. I do think that an instinct for buying and planning is better than an instinct for cooking. And either one can be cultivated. But it was certainly hard to get that budget of expenses fixed satisfactorily, wasn't it? I told Ruth that no two families are alike, and that I couldn't tell her just what they ought to spend for clothes, or just what groceries ought to cost. After all, it is an individual matter which things are necessities and which are luxuries. The chief thing is to live within your means, and save as well as invest some- thing— and at the same time be comfortable and happy. I told Ruth we started with the fixed sums and the absolute neces-

45

46 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

sities, and worked backward. I told her they must absolutely be saving something, if only a quarter a week. Then, that Fred must manage the budget of expenses that comes within his realm, and not interfere with hers, and that she must do the same with the household expenditures, and not worry him. It takes a lot of adjusting to make the system work satisfac- torily, but it is certainly worth it."

"Did you tell Ruth about the envelope system that my sister Harriet, uses ? She says she is so careless naturally that when George gives her her allowance each month, she has to put the actual cash in separate envelopes, and then vow to herself that she will not borrow from the gas money to make the change for the grocer-boy, and so forth. That is the only way she can teach herself."

"My cousin's wife used to keep the most wonderful and complete accounts, but she couldn't tell without a lot of work in hunting up the items how much she already had spent for groceries or clothes or anything. She had to change her method, and it was she who taught me to keep my accounts in parallel columns, a page for a week, because you give me my allowance each week. I like this way so much, for I can tell at a glance how my expenses are comparing with the allotted sum."

"I like to look at your funny, neat little notebook, Bettina, all ruled so carefully for the week, and the headings, such as gas, electricity, groceries, meat, milk, laundry, across the top."

"Don't make fun of my notebook. I couldn't keep house without it. In case of fire, I'd save it first of all, I know ! It is almost like a diary to me! I can look back over it and remember, 'That was the day Bob brought Mr. Green home and we almost ran out of potatoes !' Or This was the day I thought my brown bread had failed, but Bob seemed to like it !' " she exaggerated.

"Failures in cooking ! Why, Bettina, I don't know the mean- ing of the words ! And I don't see how you can feed me so well on the sum I give you for the purpose. I'd feel guilty, only you don't look a bit unhappy or overworked."

"I should say not !"

With Bettinas Best Recipes 41

"You surely don't remember how to cook all the things you give me 1"

"No, indeed, Bob, not definitely, that is. You see, on the shelf by my account book, which you smile over, I have my card index with lots and lots of recipes filed away. Then I have notebooks, too, with all sorts of suggestions tucked in them just where I can lay my hand on them."

"Betty dear, you've given me a real glimpse into your busi- ness-like methods ! Some men seem to think that it doesn't take brains to run a house well, but they don't know. It re- quires just as much executive ability and common sense as it does to manage a big business."

That night the dinner for two consisted of :

BETTINA'S RECIPES

Cold Ham Green Peppers Stuffed with Rice

Light Rolls Peach Butter

Hot Fudge Cake

CA11 measurements are level)

Light Rolls

2 T-sugar ^ C-flour

Yi t-salt 2 T-melted butter

l/2 C-scalded milk i egg, well-beaten

^2 yeast cake 2 T-lukewarm water

flour

Add the sugar and salt to the scalded milk and when luke- warm, add the yeast dissolved in the lukewarm water, and three-fourths of a cup of flour. Cover and set in a warm place to rise. Then add the melted butter, the well-beaten egg, and enough flour to knead. Let rise in a warm place. Roll to one-half an inch in thickness and shape with a biscuit cutter. Butter the top of each. Fold over, place in a buttered pan, close together. Let rise again for forty-five minutes and then bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes.

Green Peppers Stuffed with Rice

6 green peppers 1 T-chopped green pepper

1 C-white sauce 3 onions cooked and cut fine

Yi C-cooked rice l/2 t-paprika

4-8 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Cut the stem ends from the peppers, and remove all seeds ; add one-eighth of a teaspoonful of soda to each pepper, fill with water and allow to stand one-half hour. Mix one cup of white sauce with the rice, onions, chopped pepper and paprika. Fill the pepper cases and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Hot Fudge Cake

1/3 C-butter y2 C-hot water

1 C-sugar 2 C-flour

2 egg yolks 1 t-cinnamon 2 squares (or ounces) of choc- 1 t-soda

olate, melted 1 t-baking powder

x/2 C-molasses */$ t-salt y2 C-sour milk 1 t-vanilla

2 egg whites

Cream the butter, add the sugar and continue creaming. Add the egg yolks, melted chocolate, molasses, sour milk, hot water, flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Beat two minutes, and add the stiffly beaten egg whites. Fill well- buttered muffin pans one-half full, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes. Serve hot as a dessert, with whipped cream.

CHAPTER XIII MRS. DIXON AND BETTINA'S EXPERIMENT

*fT'M so happy!" said Mrs. Dixon, as she stopped at Bet-

«■■ tina's door one cool morning. "But I'm nervous, too ! What if Frank shouldn't like it?"

"Oh, but he will !" Bettina assured her. "He'll think he's the luckiest man in town, and I almost believe that he is ! He'll love that dear little white house with the screened porch ! Why, the very grass looks as if it longed to spell 'Welcome' like •some of the door mats I've seen ! And think of the flower boxes ! You were very fortunate to rent it for a year, fur- nished so nicely, and probably when that time is up you'll be ready to build or buy one of your own."

"You are a dear to cheer me up this way, but I'm nervous in spite of you. Perhaps I should have consulted Frank before I promised to take the house."

"But he has been urging you to keep house for so long! And I know he'll be grateful to you for sparing him the worry of hunting one himself. Besides, he'll like being surprised."

"Well, I'll go back to the hotel for luncheon with him, and then I'll phone him later to meet me at the house. I won't tell him a thing; I'll just give him the address.. Til say it's very, very important. That will surprise him and perhaps will frighten him a little. He never does leave his office during business hours, but it will take only a few minutes for him to run out here in the car. Goodness, I'm forgetting what I came for! Do you suppose I am too stupid to try to make those Spanish buns Frank liked so much? We had them at the picnic, you know. I have three hours after luncheon until he ■comes, and I just long to give him some good coffee and some

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50 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Spanish buns that I've made myself ! That little kitchen looks as if it would be so nice to work in ! I tried coffee a little while ago over at the house, and really — it was fine ! It looked just like yours ! I was so surprised ! To think of my doing such things!"

"Of course you could make Spanish buns; it would be fine if you would. I'll tell you, — why not let me come over for an hour right after luncheon and superintend? Then I'll slip home so that you can be alone when Frank comes. I could tell you some other things about cooking while we're there together, — things you may write down in your new notebook. For example, I've often wondered that so few housekeepers can make good white sauce."

"What in the world is that?"

"It's used in cream soups, and it's the cream part of creamed vegetables and meat and fish, and then there is a thicker white sauce that is used to bind croquettes — that is, hold the ingre- dients together. There are really four kinds of white sauces and they are very simple to make. I think everyone should know the right way to make them, for they are useful in preparing so many good things."

"I'm glad we'll be near you because I can ask you so many- questions."

"And I'm glad that it is summer, because you can have so many things that require little or no cooking, and by fall, I'm sure you will be an accomplished housekeeper."

"Will you come over at two, then, or earlier if you can?"

"Of course I will !"

And as Mrs. Dixon hurried away Bettina felt a sympathetic thrill at the happiness two other people were about to find.

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Spanish Buns (Twelve Buns)

]/2 C-butter 3 t-baking powder

1 C-sugar 1 t-cinnamon

1 egg-yolk Va, t-powdered cloves

y3 C-milk 1 egg-white beaten stiffly

iH C-flour 1 t-vanilla

Y* C-currants

With Bettinas Best Recipes 51

Cream the butter and sugar, add the tgg yolk. Mix and sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves ; add these and the milk to the first mixture. Beat one minute. Add the vanilla and the stiffly beaten egg white. Bake in well buttered muffin pans twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Ice with con- fectioner's icing.

Confectioner's Icing (Twelve portions)

3 T-cream I t-vanilla

i C-powdered sugar

Mix the cream and vanilla, add sugar slowly until the con- sistency to spread (more sugar may be needed). This is a most satisfactory frosting and is easily and quickly made. It is suitable for hot weather.

White Sauces (Four portions) i — Soup

I T-flour i C-liquid

1 T-butter & t-*alt

This is the consistency for creamed soups.

a — Vegetable Sauce

2 T-butter i C-milk 2 T-flour yA t-salt

This white sauce is used for creamed vegetables, creamed fish, etc. This amount is required for two cups of vegetables.

3 — Pattie Sauce

3 T-butter i C-milk

3 T-flour 1/3 t-salt

This sauce is used for oyster or other patties.

4 — Croquette Sauce

3 T-butter i C-milk

4 T-flour 1/3 t-salt

This is called a binding white sauce and is used to hold other ingredients together.

52 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Method of Preparing White Sauces

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour and salt, stirring constantly. When well mixed add the liquid, a little at a time. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. This is far better than mixing the flour with a little of the liquid when cold, as so many people do when creaming potatoes or other things. If the white sauce seems too thick for the purpose, thin with a little more liquid before removing from the fire.

CHAPTER XIV A RAINY-DAY DINNER

THE rain had been falling all day in a heavy downpour, and Bettina had ventured out only to gather some red clover blooms for the porch table, which she was now setting for dinner. In spite of the rain, it was not cold, and she liked the contrast of the cheerful little table, with its white cloth and bright silver, and the gray day just outside the screen.

"If Bob would only come home early, how nice it would be !" she thought. "Perhaps that's he at the telephone now."

However, it proved to be Mrs. Dixon. "I phoned to ask you if I should throw away the yolks of two eggs. I've just used the whites."

"Oh, no, Mrs. Dixon ! Beat them up well, and add a little cold water to them. Then set them in the ice-box. They will be just as good later as they would be now. You may want them for salad dressing or something else."

"If I ever have the white of the egg left, shall I treat that the same way?"

"No, don't beat that up at all, nor add any water. Just set it in the refrigerator as it is. I'm so glad you called up, Mrs. Dixon. Will you and your husband take dinner with us next Sunday ? Perhaps we might all go to church first."

"We'd love to do that! I've just been worrying over Sun- day dinner, and you've restored my peace of mind. But won't it be a great deal of work for you ?"

"I won't let it be. I don't believe in those heavy, elaborate Sunday dinners that take all the morning to prepare. We'll just come home from church and have it in half an hour. You may help me."

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54 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"We'd love to come. I have so much to tell you. Fve been very busy, but Frank has helped, and it has been such fun! You don't know how he enjoys the little house ! Well, good- bye till tomorrow !"

"Boo !" shouted Bob in her ear, as she hung up the receiver. "I discovered your dark secret this morning! Frank Dixon told me!"

"Well, what did you think of it?"

"The only possible solution in that case. You are their good angel — that is, if she doesn't poison Frank with her cooking, or burn the house down when she's lighting the fire."

"She won't, don't worry ! She takes to housekeeping as if she had always done it. Her house is immaculate; she has been cleaning and dusting and polishing from morning to night. I'm almost ashamed of mine !"

"I'm not!" said Bob, decidedly. "I don't see how you can keep it clean at all with a man like me scattering papers and cigar ashes everywhere. And I'm always losing my belong- ings, and always will, I suppose."

"That's only a sign that we haven't discovered the proper place for them all yet. But we'll work it out in time. Well, are you hungry ?"

"Hungry ? I should say so ! Why, I could almost eat you !"

"Well, Bob, we have a rainy-day dinner tonight that I hope you'll enjoy. Hash! Does that frighten you?"

"Not your hash, Betty."

"Well, everything is ready."

The rainy evening menu consisted of :

Browned Hash Creamed Cauliflower

Date Muffins Butter

Apple Sauce Cake Chocolate

BETTINA'S RECIPES (All measurements are level)

Browned Hash (Two portions)

I C-chopped cold cooked beef % t-pepper I C-cold boiled potatoes diced i T-milk

a few drops of onion juice i T-fat (lard, butter or one- 2/3 t-salt half of each)

With Bettina's Best Recipes 55

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Spread the mixture evenly in a hot frying-pan in which the fat has been placed. Cook without stirring until a crust is formed on the bottom; fold over like an omelet and place on a hot platter.

Creamed Cauliflower (Two portions)

i head cauliflower I t-salt

4 C-water I C-vegetable white sauce

Separate cauliflower into sections, wash well and cook in boiling salted water until tender. (About half an hour.) Drain and cover with vegetable white sauce.

Date Muffins (Ten muffins)

54 C-sugar 54 C-milk

54 C-dates cut fine i^ C-flour

i egg 4 t-baking powder

*4 t-salt 2 T-butter (melted)

Mix the sugar, dates, baking powder, flour and salt. Add milk in which one egg has been beaten. Beat two minutes. Add butter, melted. Fill well-buttered muffin pans half full of the mixture, and place in the oven. Bake twenty minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Apple Sauce Cake (Ten portions)

Y* t-powdered cloves : C-hot, thick, strained, sweet- light ened apple sauce

I C-mixed, chopped raisins, nut

meats and dates I t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add the sugar gradually. Stir well. Add the well-beaten egg. Mix the soda and apple-sauce, and add to the first ingredients. Alternately with the flour and spices, add the vanilla and fruit. Beat for two minutes. Turn into a square pan, and sift granulated sugar over the top. Bake in a moderate oven one-half hour.

y2 C-butter

i C-sugar i egg, beaten iYa C-flour i t-soda

V/2 t-cinnamon

CHAPTER XV BUYING A REFRIGERATOR

»*OOMETHING in refrigerators?" said the clerk politely

^ to Mrs. Dixon and Bettina.

"You talk to him," said Mrs. Dixon. "I don't know a thing about a refrigerator ; that's why I begged you to come."

"Well," considered Bettina, her red brown head on one side, "we want one that will hold not less than a hundred pounds of ice. The large ones are much more economical in the long run. Here, Mrs. Dixon, is a hundred-pound fellow. May we examine it, please?"

"Certainly, madam."

"No, this won't do. See, Mrs. Dixon, the trap is in the bottom of the food chamber. That is wasteful and incon- venient, because in cleaning it you would have to leave the door of the larger compartment open. That would let the cold air out and waste the ice. Anyhow, you know the trap is the sewer of the refrigerator, and has no business in the food chamber. The trap really ought to be in the bottom of the ice chamber, where it can be cleaned without removing the food, or opening the door of the food compartment. Besides, I prefer to have the ice put in at a door on the side of the front, not on the top. Yes, here is the kind I mean. I like this trap, too. See, Mrs. Dixon, isn't it fine? It has a white enamel lining and shelves of open wire that can be removed."

"It looks nice, doesn't it? And when I get some white shelf paper on those shelves it will be like an attractive cupboard."

"Oh, my dear ! You mustn't do that ! That would prevent the circulation of air through the ice-box, which is the very

56

With Bettinas Best Recipes 57

thing that makes the food compartment cold. You see, that circulation of air goes on through these open-wire shelves. Another thing, I've seen people cover the ice with news- papers to keep it from melting, as they thought. But they were mistaken. Any friction causes warmth, and ice keeps better when there is nothing touching it."

"Well, if you like this one, I'll ask the price of it."

"It will be expensive, I'm afraid, but the most economical in the long run. Are you staying downtown to meet Mr. Dixon ?"

"Yes, I'd like him to see the refrigerator. He takes such an interest in these household things I'm getting."

"Well, good-bye, dear. I must hurry home to get dinner. It won't take long, but I'll have to go, or Bob will get there first, and I'm a little sentimental about being there to greet him at the door."

Bettina's dinner that night consisted of :

Broiled Lamb Chops

Boiled New Potatoes New Peas in Cream

Vegetable Salad

Bread Butter

Rhubarb Pudding

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Broiled Lamb Chops (Three portions) 3 chops i t-salt

Wipe chops and place in a red-hot frying-pan. As soon as the under surface is seared, turn and sear the other side. Turn down the fire a little, and continue to cook, turning chops often. Cook seven minutes if liked rare. When cooked, sprinkle with salt and spread with butter.

Creamed New Peas (Three portions)

I qt. peas */& t-soda

l/2 t-salt

Shell one quart of peas, cover with cold water and let stand ten minutes, wash well, and drain off the water. Cover with boiled water and cook twenty to fifty minutes, according to age

58 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

of peas. A pinch of soda may be added to the water. It soft- ens the skins on the peas. Add salt when the peas have cooked twenty minutes.

White Sauce for Peas (Three portions)

I T-butter % t-salt

I T-flour y2 C-milk

Melt the butter, add the flour and salt, mixing well, and the milk, stirring constantly. Cook two minutes. Add the peas.

Rhubarb Pudding (Three portions)

1 C-cooked, sweetened rhubarb I T-cold water

sauce I egg-white

2 T-flour }i t-salt

Add the water slowly to the flour and mix well. Add the rhubarb sauce and cook until very thick (about five minutes). Add the stiffly beaten white of egg, mix thoroughly and turn into moistened moulds. Serve cold with cream.

CHAPTER XVI

POLLY AND THE CHILDREN

f*TT7"ILL you look at the way that child eats her cereal!" ▼ » ejaculated Polly at the breakfast table. "And I simply can't get her to eat it at home ! In fact, on warm days like this, she won't eat any breakfast at all."

"I like Aunt Betty's cereal; it looks so pretty," explained little Dorothy gravely, looking down at her plate of moulded cereal surrounded by plump red raspberries.

"I hope you don't mind my serving it cold today," said Bettina. "It seemed so warm yesterday that I cooked the cereal and put it in moulds in the refrigerator."

"No indeed ! The change is a regular treat for the children. They like fixed-up things like this, and it certainly does give anyone an appetite."

"Well, in hot weather, no one feels much like eating, any- how, so I try to make things as attractive as I can. And I want the children to have just what they like. . . . You needn't be afraid of this cream, Polly. We buy it from a neighbor, and I am absolutely sure that it is both clean and good. I'm ashamed to say that we have no certified milk in thi. town. Isn't that dreadful? And people keep on buying it of dairies that they don't know one thing about ! Why, I've seen women who had just moved to town, and who knew noth- ing about conditions here, begin housekeeping by cleaning house thoroughly from top to bottom, and at the same time, leave an order for milk with the first dairy wagon that happened to drive down their street! And they buy groceries and meat from the nearest stores without knowing that three blocks

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60 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

away there may be other stores that are better, cleaner and less expensive. Shouldn't you think that women would insist upon knowing all about the food they are giving their children? It seems to me that much common sense in a housewife is a great deal more important even than knowing how to cook and sew."

"I think that knowing how to plan and buy is more import- ant than knowing how to do things with your hands," said Polly. "After all, it's the result that counts. You're a won- der, Bettina, because you have a useful head and useful hands, too, but I haven't. So I try to know as much as possible about every article of food and clothing that I buy, and to be sure that I am getting the very best value from Tom's money, but I don't know how to cook or sew or trim hats or embroider. I like friends and babies and outdoor exercise, but I'll confess that I don't like housework."

"Well, Tom and the children seem to be perfectly contented and happy, and so do you. Therefore, you are a successful housekeeper."

"You are the right kind of a sister-in-law to have, Betty ! I quite approve of Bob's choice !"

The breakfast that morning consisted of :

Moulded Cream of Wheat

Raspberries

Sugar Cream

Poached Eggs on Toast

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Wheat Cereal (Three portions)

I C-wheat 2 T-cold water 1/3 C-raspberries

Cook the wheat according to the instructions on the pack- age, only cook twice as long as the directions suggest. Mix cereal and cold water. Add boiling water slowly. This method prevents lumping. Wet individual moulds with cold water, place raspberries around the inside of the mould and fill with the wheat. Allow to remain in mould for fifteen minutes.

With Bettinas Best Recipes 61

Remove from mould, surround with more berries and serve. If desired cold, chill in the refrigerator. Cereals may be cooked in a double boiler or a fireless cooker.

Method of Cooking Cereals

Put the water and salt in the upper part of double boiler and place directly over the flame. When the water boils, add the cereal very slowly, stirring constantly. Cook for five min- utes directly over the fire. Place the upper part in the lower part of the double boiler containing boiling water, and cook the required time. All cereals must be thoroughly cooked.

AUGUST.

Twenty little jelly -glasses, twenty pots of jam,

Twenty jars of pickles and preserves,

Making other wealth than this avvear a stupid snam,

Ah, you dears! What color, gleam and curves!

CHAPTER XVII BETTINA PUTS UP FRUIT

*«TTONK! Honk !" sounded *1 an auto horn at Bet- tina's door one cool morning, as a crowd of lively voices also summoned her.

"Bettina, O, Bettina! We've come to get you to play tennis with us this morning. You must! You've been neglecting us for Bob and we're jealous." "Oh, girls, I simply can't! I have just bought quarts and quarts of cherries and currants of a boy who came to the door, and I must take today to put them up !"

"That's easy ! Leave 'em till tomorrow !" said Alice cheer- fully.

"I can't do that, because they're just at the canning point and it isn't a good thing to have them a bit over-ripe. Then these are freshly picked, and that is the best way to have them."

"I'll stay and help; may I?" said Ruth, who had suddenly developed a deep interest in things domestic.

"Why, of course I'd love to have you, Ruth, but seeding cherries is slow work, and I believe that playing tennis would be more exciting."

"But not half so interesting as to hear you tell me how you do things. I love to listen."

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04 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"We'll all stay," suggested Mary. "It'll do us good. But you'll have to lend us big aprons ; can you ?" And she looked down at her white middy, skirt, and shoes.

"Come on !" shouted Elsie. "You can lecture as we seed cherries, Bettina. How are you going to put them up ?"

"Well, Bob likes plain currant jelly, and plain canned cher- ries awfully well. I may preserve some cherries with currant juice, too, but I think I'll not do anything very elaborate today."

"Goodness, that sounds elaborate enough to suit me ! Will you be looking over the currants while we are stoning cher- ries?"

"Leave the stones in half of them, girls; many people like them that way better."

"What were you doing to all those jars?"

"Just getting ready to sterilize them. You see I'll put them on a folded cloth, in this big kettle of cold water. Then I'll slowly heat the water to the boiling point, and fill the jars immediately with the fruit and syrup. I must scald the rub- ber rings, too, before I use them."

Bettina was rapidly looking over currants as she talked. "Girls, do you notice my jelly strainer? See, it's a piece of cheese-cloth fastened into a wire strainer. It can be attached to any kettle. I haven't used it yet, but I know that it will be very convenient. You know it's best to strain the juice through the cheese-cloth without pressure. If I have the cloth double, the juice will be quite clear. If I wanted an especially clear jelly, I could even have the juice pass through a flannel or felt bag."

"How on earth can you tell when the jelly jells?" asked Ruth.

"Well, I test it this way. I take up, in a cold silver spoon, a little of the mixture that is cooking. If it jells and breaks from the spoon, it has been cooking long enough. Of course I remove the rest from the fire while testing it, because it might be done."

"Bettina, cooking and jelly-making and things like that seem to be so natural for you !" cried Ruth. "I get so frightened

With Bettinas Best Recipes 65

sometimes when I think what if I should be a poor house- keeper and make Fred unhappy !"

"Alice," said Mary, "Heaven forbid that either of us should ever be talking like that about a man !"

"Goodness, I should say so !" declared Alice emphatically, a little too emphatically, thought Bettina.

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Currant Jelly

2 qts. currants sugar

Pick over currants, but do not remove the stems. Wash and drain. Mash a few with a vegetable masher in the bottom of a porcelain-lined or granite kettle. Add more currants and mash. Continue adding currants until all are used. Bring to a boil slowly and let simmer without stirring until the cur- rants appear white. Strain through a coarse strainer, and allow juice to drain through a jelly bag. Measure the juice, and boil ten minutes. Gradually add an equal amount of heated sugar, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, and continue boiling until the test shows that the mixture has jelled. When filling sterilized glasses, place them in a pan containing a little boiling water. This keeps the glasses from breaking when hot jelly is poured in. Fill and set the glasses of jelly aside to cool. Cover with hot melted paraffin.

Canned Cherries

6 qts. cherries iJ/2 qts. sugar

y2 pt. water

Measure the cherries after the stems have been removed. Stone if desired. If they are stoned, be sure to save the juice. Put the sugar and water in a kettle and stir over the fire until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cherries and heat slowly to the boiling point. Boil ten minutes skimming carefully. Put into sterilized jars, filling the jars to overflowing with the syrup. Seal securely. (When filling the jars stand them in a pan containing boiling water. This keeps them from break- ing.)

66 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Bettina's Jelly-Making Suggestions

I. Use a porcelain-lined or a granite kettle,

z. Let juice drip from a cheese cloth or flannel bag.

3. Measure equal quantities juice and sugar.

4. Boil juice ten minutes, add heated sugar. (Heated by being

placed in warm oven.)

5. Boil until it drops thick from a cold silver spoon, or jells on a

plate.

6. The smaller the quantity of jelly made at a time, the clearer

it is.

7. Cook no more than three cups of jwice at a time.

8. Skim carefully.

9. Boil regularly.

10. Pour in sterilized glasses.

11. Let stand in bright sun twenty-four hours.

12. Cover with very hot paraffin. This kills any bacteria that may

have collected.

13. Keep jelly in a cool, dark, dry place.

CHAPTER XVIII

A COOL SUMMER DAY

* * TTTHY, hello, Ruth !" cried Bettina at the door one after- ▼ V noon. "I haven't seen you for weeks, it seems to me ! What have you been doing ? Come in and give an account of yourself I"

"First let me deliver these nasturtiums that mother sent," said Ruth. "She always remembers how fond you are of flowers."

"Thank you, they're lovely ! I need them tonight for my table, too. Will you come into the kitchen with me while I put these in water ?"

"M-m," said Ruth. "Something smells good ! In the oven ?"

"Yes, pork chops, baked apples and escalloped potatoes. Peek in and see 'em."

"Outch !" cried Ruth, holding her hand in sudden pain. "I forgot that that pan was hot, and started to pull it out to see better ! I'm a perfect idiot ! I do that every time I have any- thing in the oven !"

"That's a shame, Ruth, dear! Here, apply a little of this olive oil! It's the nearest remedy I have. Vaseline is good, too, or baking soda. Hold it with the damp cloth to keep out the air."

"It feels better already," said Ruth. "I made some ginger- bread last evening for dinner — Fred was there — and burned my hand in the same way exactly. And even at such a cost the gingerbread wasn't very good. I think I didn't bake it quite long enough. How long ought it to be in the oven ?"

"Well, gingerbread takes longer than most quick-breads.

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68 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Here, let me give you my time-guide for baking, and you can keep it in your card-index. Then it's always at hand when you want to refer to it."

"Thank you, that's a good idea, Bettina. May I sit down here at the kitchen table and copy it?"

"Do, I'll get you a pencil and a piece of paper. Ruth, won't you stay to dinner tonight?"

"I can't possibly, Bettina. I am going out with mother, and should be at home now dressing. Oh, by the way, I had a chance to refer last night to something you made me copy and put with my recipe cards. 'How to Remove Grass Stains' ! I got it on my white dress — a dreadful looking stain — and im- mediately referred to my card-index. It said, 'Moisten with alcohol or camphor, allow to stand five minutes, and wash out with clear water.' The stain came out like magic ! I used cam- phor ; we didn't happen to have any alcohol in the house."

"I'm so glad it came out ; that is such a pretty white dress. And weren't you glad you knew just where to find a remedy? It seems a little trouble to index things, but it is really worth doing."

"I think so, too. Well, there's Bob, and I must rush off. Bob, you're going to have a good dinner tonight! I've just been investigating!"

Bob had :

Pork Chops Escalloped Potatoes

Baked Apples

Bread Butter

Fresh Pears

Tea

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Baked Apples

4 apples l/2 C-water

8 T-sugar l/2 t-cinnamon

2 T-butter

Select apples of uniform size. Wash and core. Place in a pan, cover the bottom with water. Fill each cavity witn s'lgar,

With Bettinas Best Recipes 69

a dash of powdered cinnamon and a tiny lump of butter. Bake for thirty minutes, basting occasionally. Serve around the platter of pork chops.

Bettina's Time-Guide for Baking Quick Breads

Pop-overs — Thirty minutes in a hot oven.

Baking-powder biscuits — Ten to fifteen minutes in a hot oven.

Corn bread — Twenty-five to forty minutes in a moderate oven.

Muffins — Twenty to twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

Gingerbread — Thirty to forty-five minutes in a slow oven.

CHAPTER XIX

BOB AND BETTINA ALONE

ffTITHY, Bob, look at the front of your Palm Beach suit!" * * exclaimed Bettina, after she had greeted Bob at the door. "What in the world have you been doing ?"

"Pretty bad ; isn't it !" said he, ruefully. "Frank Dixon brought me home in his car, and he had some sort of engine trouble. We worked on it for awhile, but couldn't fix it, so he phoned the garage and I came home on the street car. I must have rubbed up against some grease. Do you suppose my clothes are spoiled ?"

"No-o," said Bettina, slowly, "not if I get at them. Let me see ; what is it that takes out auto grease ? Oh, I know ! Bob, you go and change your clothes right away while I'm cooking the meat for dinner. Then I'll doctor these."

"What will you do to them?"

"I'll rub them with lard, and let it stay on them for about an hour. Then after dinner I'll wash them out in warm water and soap, and then — well, Bob, I believe they'll be all as good as new."

"I thank you, Mrs. Bettina."

When Bob returned and Bettina was putting the dinner on the table, she smiled to herself over a new idea that had popped into her head.

"Bob, what would you think if I should enter some of my nut-bread at the state fair ?"

"Well, is that what you've been smiling at all this time? I think it would be fine. If I were judge you'd get first prize in

70

With Bettinas Best Recipes

a minute ! Say, strikes me this is a pretty good dinner I" It consisted of :

Ham Mashed Potatoes

Escalloped Onions

Rolls Butter

Dutch Apple Cake Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Ham (Three portions)

2/3 lb. ham 2 T-water

sVipe a slice of ham (one-third of an inch thick) and remove aie rind. Place in a hot frying-pan. Add the water. Cook until brown on both sides (about fifteen minutes).

Escalloped Onions (Two portions)

I C-cooked onions 3 T-fresh bread crumbs

y2 C-vegetable white sauce 2 T-butter

Mix the onions with the white sauce and pour into a but- tered baking dish. Melt the butter and add the fresh bread crumbs. Place the buttered crumbs on top of the onions. Brown the mixture in the oven (about fifteen minutes).

Dutch Apple Cake (Two portions)

1 C-floui 1 egg well beaten

Ya t-salt 1/3 C-milk

2 t-baking powder 1 sour apple

1 T-butter 2 T-sugar y2 t-cinnamon

Mix flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in the butter. Add the milk and egg. Mix well. Spread one-half an inch thick in a shallow pan. Pare and cut the apples in lengthwise sec- tions. Lay in rows in the dough with the sharp edges pressed lightly into the dough. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with lemon sauce.

72 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Lemon Sauce (Two portions)

y2 C-sugar I C-water

J/s t-salt i t-butter

I t-flour 2 T-lemon juice

Mix the sugar, salt and flour well. Add the water slowly. Cook seven minutes. Add the butter and lemon juice. Serve hot.

CHAPTER XX

BETTINA ATTENDS A MORNING WEDDING

fSTTOW lovely !" Bettina whispered to Bob after the beau- <■■ =*- tiful ceremony had taken place in the rustic grape arbor. "How like Cousin Kate this is ! But I had no idea that Frances planned to be married out of doors, had you?"

"She told me that they were hoping for fair weather, but weren't counting on it."

"And this is a regular golden day ; isn't it ! What a time to remember ! Bob, look at Cousin Kate's flowers ! A natural altar, without decoration ! Poppies, sweet-peas, nasturtiums, cosmos, more kinds than I can count ! It's a little earlier than they usually have weddings, too; isn't nine-thirty early?"

"Yes, but Frances thought that this would be the prettiest time for it, and you know they aren't at all conventional."

"What are you two gossiping about?" shouted big Cousin Charles in Bettina's ear : "don't you see enough of each other at home without avoiding the rest of us at a time like this? Go and kiss the bride and congratulate the groom as soon as you can get to them. Fanny wants to see you particularly, Bet- tina. Breakfast is to be served on the porch; don't forget that you two are to be at the bride's table !"

The wide porch looked very charming. Each table seated four, except the one for the bridal party and near relatives, which was in the center, surrounded by the others. On each table was a basket of pink sweet-peas and trailing greenery. Each simple white place-card held a flower or two, slipped through two parallel cuts across the corner. Frances was seated at the groom's left, and at her left sat her new brother-

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74 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

in-law, who was the best man. Next to him was the minister's wife, then jolly Cousin Charles, the bride's father, then the groom's mother. At the right of the groom sat Anne, Fanny's sister, who was maid-of-honor ; and next to her sat the clergy- man. Then came the bride's mother and the groom's father. Beyond him sat Bettina, then Bettina's cousin Harry, then Aunt Nell and Bob. That was all, for there were few near relatives and Bettina's father and mother were in California.

"Frances looks well; doesn't she?" said Aunt Nell to Bet- tina. "No showers, no parties or excitement, and you can see how simple the wedding has been. Cousin Kate is so sensible, and so is Frances. I can tell you already that the breakfast menu will be dainty and delicious, but simple."

She was right, for it consisted of :

Watermelon Cubes

(Served in Sherbet Glasses)

Fried Spring Chicken New Potatoes

Creamed Peas

Hot Rolls Butter

Currant Jelly Peach Ice Cream

Bride's Cake Coffee

Nuts Candy

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Fried Chicken

1 2^2-lb. chicken ]/2 t-paprika

4 T-flour 4 T-fat (lard and butter)

2 t-salt 2 T-water

To Prepare the Chicken for Serving and Cooking

Cut the legs from the body, break the joint at the thigh and cut in two. Cut of! the neck and wings. Break the breastbone and cut in two lengthwise. Break the back in two pieces length- wise, if desired. Plunge the pieces into cold water and allow to drain. Sprinkle each piece with salt and paprika, and roll in flour. Place the fat in a frying-pan. When very hot add the chicken. Allow all the pieces to brown thoroughly ; cover the pan with a lid and add the water, lower the fire and cook

With Bettinas Best Recipes 76

over a moderate fire for thirty minutes. Turn frequently to prevent scorching.

Gravy (Six portions)

3 T-fat from frying-pan I t-salt

i T-butter y± t-paprika

6 T-flour \y2 C-milk

I t-parsley chopped

Loosen the pieces of chicken which have stuck to the frying- pan, add the butter, stir constantly until the butter "bubbles," add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix thoroughly. Add the milk slowly, cook for two minutes, add the chopped parsley and pour the gravy into a gravy bowl for serving.

Bride's Cake (Thirty pieces)

I V2 C-sugar 3 t-baking powder

y2 C-butter % t-cream of tartar

2T/2 C-flour l/2 t»almond extract

% t-salt 1 t-vanilla

2/3 C-milk 4 egg-whites

Cream the butter, add the sugar and continue creaming the mixture. Mix and sift three times the flour, salt, baking pow- der and cream of tartar. Add these dry ingredients alternately with the milk to the first mixture. Add the almond and vanilla extracts. Beat two minutes. Cut and fold in the egg-whites which have been stiffly beaten. Pour the cake batter into a large, round loaf cake pan, having a hole in the center. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. When the cake is re- moved from the oven, allow it to stand in a warm place for five minutes, then with a spatula and a sharp knife, carefully loosen the cake from the sides, and turn out onto a cake cooler. When cool, cover with White Mountain Cream Icing.

Suggestions for Serving the Bride's Cake

The Bride's Cake may be baked in this form and placed in the center of the table for the central decoration. A tall, slen- der vase, filled with the flowers used in decorating, may be placed in the hole in the cake. Place the cake upon a paste- board box four inches high and one inch wider than the cake.

76 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

This gives space to decorate around the cake. The cake and box may be placed on a reflector, which gives a very pretty ef- fect. If cake boxes containing wedding cakes are distributed among the guests as favors, use the one in the round pan for centra: decoration and bake others in square pan. Square pieces may then be cut, wrapped in waxed paper, and placed in the boxes.

CHAPTER XXI AFTER THE "TEA"

* f T^\ OESN'T it bore you to think of cooking when you've

■"-^ been out all afternoon?" asked Mrs. Dixon, wearily. "And today the refreshments were so elaborate and every- thing was so stiff and tiresome !"

"I usually anticipate feeling this way," said Bettina, "and plan to have something at home that is already prepared, and that I can get together without much trouble. Then I put on a house dress as quickly as I can, for I can't bear to cook in party clothes. But I'm sure I don't know what I am going to have for dinner tonight. Bob and I had planned to go down- town to dinner with some friends, but just before I went out this afternoon he phoned that the invitation had been with- drawn because of somebody's illness."

"Goodness !" cried Mrs. Dixon, "what will you do ? Go downtown yourselves?"

"No; Bob doesn't enjoy that, and neither do I. I can man- age somehow, for of course there are always things in the house to get. I'll tell you. I'll phone Bob to bring Mr. Dixon here, and you can see what an emergency supper is like."

"Oh, I couldn't think of it! You're tired, and it's nearly six now !"

"Well, what of that? You can help. And I know you're dreading to get dinner at home. We'll just combine forces."

Bettina went to the telephone and called Bob. "Hello, dear ! Please bring Mr. Dixon home to dinner with you; Charlotte is going to stay. And if you come in his car, will you stop on

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78 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

the way and get a watermelon that has been on ice? Be sure it's cold I"

"And now," she said to Mrs. Dixon, "let me get into a house- dress, and then for a sight of the refrigerator."

"Oh, what beautiful glazed apples I" exclaimed Mrs. Dixon ten minutes later.

"They were to have been for breakfast, but I'll have them for dinner instead. Then there are enough cold boiled potatoes for creamed potatoes ; and, besides that, we'll have an omelet. And then I'll stir up some emergency biscuit "

"And you can explain everything that you do !"

"Well, for the omelet — we'll take four good-sized eggs — one for each of us "

"What else goes in? Milk?

"No, I think that hot water makes a more tender omelet. Then I'll use a few grains of baking powder to assist in holding it up, though that isn't necessary. We'll beat the yolks and whites separately till they're very light. Goodness! There come the men !"

"Here's your watermelon, Bettina !" called Bob. "A big fel- low ! Don't forget to save the rind for pickles, will you ? Why, hello, Mrs. Dixon ! Frank's here !"

The menu that night consisted of :

Omelet Creamed Potatoes

Glazed Apples

Emergency Biscuit Butter

Watermelon

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Omelet (Four portions)

4 eggs Y% t-pepper

4 T-hot water I T-butter

l/2 t-salt a little parsley

Beat the yolks until thick and lemon colored. Add hot water (one tablespoonful to an tgg), salt and pepper. Beat the whites till stiff and dry. Cut and fold into the first mixture. Heat the omelet pan, add the butter, turn the pan so that the

With Bettina's Best Recipes 79

melted butter covers the sides and bottom of the pan. Turn in the mixture, spread evenly, turn down the fire and allow the omelet to cook slowly. Turn the pan so that the omelet will brown evenly. When well puffed and delicately browned underneath, place the pan on the center shelf in a moderate oven to finish cooking the top of the omelet. Crease across center with knife and fold over very carefully. Allow to re- main a moment in pan. Turn gently with a spatula onto a hot platter. Garnish with parsley. An omelet is sufficiently cooked when it is firm to the touch when pressed by the finger.

Creamed Potatoes (Four portions)

2 C-cold diced potatoes r/2 t-salt

I T-chopped parsley % t-paprika

I T-chopped pimento i C-vegetable white sauce

Add the potatoes, sprinkled with salt and pepper, to vegetable white sauce. Add pimento and parsley. Cook three minutes, stirring constantly.

Emergency Biscuit

2 C-flour y2 t-salt

4 t-baking powder 3 T-fat (lard and butter)

7/8 C-milk

Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the fat. Add the milk, mixing with a knife. Drop by spoonfuls on a buttered pan, placing one inch apart. Bake twelve minutes in a hot oven.

Glazed Apples (Six portions)

6 apples i]/2 C-water

V/2 C-"C" sugar 1 t-butter

Boil the sugar and water six minutes in a deep saucepan. Do not stir. Pare and core the apples. Place them in the syrup as soon as pared, to prevent them from discoloring. Cook until apples are tender. Remove the apples from the syrup and boil the sugar and water longer if it is not thick enough. Add the butter to the syrup and pour in and around the apples. Serve hot or cold. Granulated sugar may be used, but "C" sugar gives a better flavor.

CHAPTER XXII BETTINA GIVES A PORCH BREAKFAST

BETTINA had risen early that beautiful July morning, for she had much to do. Bob had insisted upon helping her, and at eight, Ruth was coming.

"Such a simple breakfast after all, Bob ! Do you think she'll like it?"

"Sure she will! If she doesn't I'll disown her! Say, Bet- tina, I haven't had my breakfast yet, and ten o'clock sounds far away. May I have just one doughnut with my coffee ?"

"Why, Bobby, Bobby ! Did I forget you? Your Aunt Eliz- abeth and the whole suffrage cause is on my mind this morn- ing, but I didn't think even that could make me forget you. Help yourself to anything you see that looks good !"

The Aunt Elizabeth on Bettina's mind was an aunt of Bob's who was to be in town between nine and twelve, in conference with some of the leading suffragists of the city. She wished to see the bungalow, and at ten o'clock Bettina was giving a breakfast for her and the women with whom she was to con- fer. It was with fear and trepidation that Bettina had invited them, although she declared to herself that she was sure, sure, sure, of every dish on the menu !

As she arranged the great graceful yellow poppies in the center of the porch table, set for six, she was feeling somewhat nervous.

"Bob, you must go now, or you'll be too late for the train. Take a taxi home, not a street car."

"Taxi! You don't know my Aunt Elizabeth. She'd say, 'Say, young man, if you aren't saving your money any better

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With Bettina s Best Recipes 81

than this, you ought to be/ And we'd probably end by walk- ing.

"Hurry, dear."

The train proved to be late, and Ruth and Bettina were ready to the last detail. While beautiful, distinguished-looking Aunt Elizabeth was dressing, Bettina was meeting guests at the door. Before she realized it, she had introduced everybody to the guest of honor, and was ushering them out to her charming porch table.

"Oh, Ruth," she said in the kitchen, "isn't my Aunt Eliza- beth lovely? I'll say 'mine' now, not Bob's. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to be frightened."

The breakfast consisted of :

oulded Cereal on Bananas	Whipped Cream
Codfish Balls	Egg Souffle
Green Peas
Twin Mountain Muffins	Jelly
Doughnuts	Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Codfish Balls (Four portions)

1 C-raw salt fish I egg, well-beaten

2 C-raw potatoes % t-pepper

i t-butter more salt if needed

l/z C-cracker crumbs I T-water

Shred the fish. Pare and quarter potatoes. Place the fish and potatoes in a stewpan and cover with boiling water. Boil twenty-five minutes or till the potatoes are soft. Do not boil too long or they will become soggy. Drain well, mash and beat until light. Add butter, seasoning and egg. Shape, roll in crumbs, egg mixed with water, more crumbs, and fry in deep fat. These may be shaped into flat cakes, rolled in flour and sauted in hot fat. Garnish with parsley.

Egg Souffle" (Four portions)

or y4

2 T-butter	I t-salt
2 T-flour	a pinch of cayenne
2 C-milk	t-paprika
4 eggs	i C-white sauce
	2/3 C-cooked peas

82 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Melt the butter, add the flour and gradually add the milk. Cook three minutes, add seasoning and the well-beaten yolks. Fold in the beaten whites and turn into buttered moulds. Set in a pan of hot water and bake in a slow oven until firm (about twenty-five minutes). Serve with a white sauce, highly seasoned, to which has been added one cup oi cooked peas. Pour the sauce around the souffle.

Potato Doughnuts (Three dozen doughnuts)

I C-mashed potatoes, hot	Yz C-sweet milk
Yz C-sugar 2 T-melted butter	2 eggs 3 C-flour
3 t-baking powder H t-salt	% t-grated nutmeg Vz t-powdered cinnamon

Beat the eggs, add the sugar. Mash the potatoes and add the butter and the milk. Add this mixture to the eggs and sugar. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinna- mon sifted together. Roll one-fourth of an inch thick, cut with a doughnut cutter, and fry in hot deep fat.

CHAPTER XXIII A PIECE OF NEWS

AS Bettina was putting the finishing touches on her porch table, set for dinner, and humming a little song as she tried the effect of some ragged robins in a mist of candy-tuft, all in a brass bowl, she heard a murmur of voices at her front door.

"Ill tell just Betty ; no one else must know — yet. But what if I haven't the courage to tell even her ?"

"Perhaps she'll suspect anyhow !"

"Goodness, Harry ! You make me afraid to go in ! Is my expression different?"

The answer was not audible to Bettina, though she was sure that she heard whispers and a little suppressed laughter. Cer- tainly it had sounded like Alice's voice ! What ? Could Mr. Harrison be with her ? For a moment Bettina stood stock still, feeling like an eavesdropper. Then she let out a gasp of amaze- ment. "Well !" was all she said, and sat down to think. When the door-bell rang, she could not at first gain the composure necessary to answer it.

"Why, how are you, Alice? I haven't seen you for ages! And Mr. Harrison ! Do come in ; you must stay to dinner, for you're just in time. Bob will be home any minute."

"Oh, we couldn't stay !" answered Alice. "Har — Mr. Har- rison and I were walking home from town, and when we came to this house, we couldn't help stopping to say 'hello.' "

Bettina was conscious of a strained feeling in the air, which made her want to giggle — or shake Alice. After all, she couldn't help overhearing! And yet she might be mistaken!

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84 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

She found herself saying — she scarcely knew what — to keep up the conversation.*

"Do stay ! We have a funny little dinner tonight, but I believe you'll like it. Bob had been rather over-worked at the oFiCe lately — and I tried today to think of some of his favorite dishes for airmen I iwated to have a jolly little meal to take his mind off his worries. And it would help a lot if he could see you two people. Do stay! Do you care for blueberry tarts, Mr. Harrison ? Well, that's to be our dessert !"

"My, that sounds fine !" said Mr. Harrison. "Couldn't we stay, after all?" he asked, turning to Alice.

"Well, if you really, truly want us," said Alice to Bettina.

"Why, of course I do! I'm delighted to see you! I think we're fortunate. Mr. Harrison, you are usually so busy that we scarcely dare invite you !"

"I suppose I ought to be at work today, but I'm taking a little holiday. I couldn't put my mind on business."

He was actually blushing, Bettina thought. Suddenly she found Alice's arms around her and Alice's laughing face hid- den on her shoulder. "Don't, Harry ! Let me be the one to tell her !"

And so Bob found them, all laughing and talking at once.

"Hurrah !" said he when he heard the news. "The best pos- sible idea! Is dinner ready, Bettina? Get out some grape juice and we'll drink to the health and future happiness of Alice and Harry ! I'm the man that made this match !"

Dinner that night consisted of :

Fish a La Bettina (Four portions)

Fish a la Bettina Rice Cakes

Stuffed Tomato Salad

Rolls Butter

Iced Grape Juice Blueberry Tarts

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Fish a la Bettina (Four portions)

I C-medium white sauce 2 T-chopped pimento l 1/3 C-cooked fish 2 T-chopped sweet pickle

y* t-paprika

With Bettinas Best Recipes 85

Mix ingredients in order given, heat and serve on wafers.

Rice Cakes (Four portions)

lY C-boiled rice I egg yolk

y2 t-salt 6 T-crumbs

4 T-fat (lard and butter mixed)

Mix the rice and salt with the egg. Shape into flat cakes, two and a half inches in diameter and one-half an inch thick. Roll in bread crumbs and saute in hot fat until brown on both sides. (About eight minutes.) If the egg does not sufficiently moisten the rice, add one tablespoon of milk.

Stuffed Tomato Salad (Four portions)

4 tomatoes Y t-salt

I C-chopped cabbage Y t-paprika

4 T-salad dressing

Stuff fresh tomatoes with cabbage, seasoned, and mixed with salad dressing. Arrange the tomatoes on lettuce leaves and place one tablespoon salad dressing on the top. Add a small piece of green pepper or a sprig of parsley to the salad dressing.

Blueberry Tarts (Four portions)

Fill muffin pans with plain pastry. Place two tablespoons of mixture on each crust. Cover with pastry strips and bake twenty minutes.

Blueberry Mixture

Yz C-blueberries I T-butter Y\ C-sugar i T-vinegar

I t-cinnamon

Mix the berries, sugar, butter cut in small pieces, vinegar and cinnamon. Cook, stirring constantly, over a moderate fire for three minutes.

CHAPTER XXIV

BETTINA ENTERTAINS HER FATHER AND MOTHER

ffTT7*E had no such steak as this in California!" declared » » Bettina's father with satisfaction, as Bob served him a second helping.

"But then," said Bettina's mother, "did you find anything in California that you thought equalled anything in your own state? Father never does," said she, laughing. "He seems to enjoy traveling because it makes him feel that his own home is superior to every other place on earth. And it is," she agreed, looking about her happily. "I can say that after a summer spent in California, I'm more than thankful to be back again."

"I was afraid that you and father would be so anxious to open up the house that you wouldn't agree to come here for your first meal."

"Of course we're anxious to get home," said Mother, "but after you wrote Father that if he would come here to dinner tonight you would have a steak cooked just to suit him, he was as eager as a boy to get here."

"Well, who wouldn't look forward to it, after a summer spent in hotels ?" said Father. "And I must say that Bettina's dinner justifies my eagerness. It's exactly right — steak and all."

"Now for dessert !" said Bob. "This coffee that I've been making in the percolator is all ready, Bettina !"

For dinner that night they had ■

86

With Bettinas Best Recipes 87

Pan-broiled Sirloin Steak Mashed Potatoes

Carrots

Head Lettuce Thousand Island Dressing

Sliced Bananas Quick Cake

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pan-Broiled Steak (Six portions)

2 lb. sirloin steak an inch and a y2 t-salt

half thick I T-parsley

I T-butter I T-lemon juice

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth. Have a tin pan sizzling hot. Place the meat in the pan and cook directly under the broiling flame. Turn frequently with spoons, as a fork will pierce the meat and allow the juices to escape. A steak an inch and a half thick should be cooked from eight to ten min- utes. Place the steak on a hot platter. Sprinkle with salt, lemon juice and parsley. Dot with butter. Serve very hot.

Gravy (Six portions)

2 T-drippings from the steak y2 C-water 2 T-flour y2 C-milk

VA t-salt

Pour the drippings from the steak into a pan, add flour and mix well. Allow the flour to brown, add water and milk very slowly to the flour and drippings. Add the salt and allow to cook until the gravy thickens. If there are not two tablespoons of drippings, add sufficient butter to equal the amount.

Carrots (Six portions)

6 medium-sized carrots y2 t-salt

2 T-butter */\ t-pepper

Wash and scrape the carrots, cut into two-thirds inch cubes and cook until tender in enough boiling water to cover. (About fifteen minutes.) Drain, add the butter, salt and pepper. Heat thoroughly and serve. Carrots may be scraped and steamed whole or cooked whole in boiling water.

88 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Quick Cake (Sixteen pieces)

i/3 C-butter	I 2/3 C-flour
ilA C-brown sugar	3 t-baking powder
i egg	1 t-cinnamon
y2 C-milk	y2 t-nutmeg
'4 >salt	Q 4atss, tzit C_2S

Cream the butter, aaa tne sugar and* mix well. Add the egg and .Hilk, salt, flour, bakine powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and dates. Beat for two minutes. Bake in a well-buttered loaf cake pan for thirty-five minutes.

Icing

1 egg white £4 C-powdereH sugar

2 T-cold water y2 t-vanilla

Beat the tgg white until very stiff; add water and sugar gradually. Beat thoroughly and add the flavoring. Beat until it will stand alone, then spread on cake. More sugar may be added if necessary.

Thousand Island Salad Dressing (Six portions)

j4 C-olive oil lA t-paprika

juice of half a lemon r t-Worcestershire sauce

juice of half an orange % t-mustard

I t-onion juice 1 T-chili sauce

% t-salt 1 T-green pepper cut fine

1 t-chopped parsley- Place all the above ingredients in a pint fruit jar, fit a rub- ber and top tightly on the jar, shake vigorously until well mixed and creamy, and pour over head lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, peas, beans or spinach. Serve as a salad.

CHAPTER XXV THE BIG SECRET

ff/^OME in, Alice! Now do say that you'll stay to din-

^^ ner, for we can talk afterward."

"Well, if you'll take me out into the kitchen where you are working. You see, I have all this to learn, and I'm depending on you to help me."

"Of course I'll help, Alice, but you are so clever about any- thing that you care to do that I know you'll soon outstrip your teacher. Tell me first, does anyone know the Big Secret yet?"

"Not a soul but Bettina, Bob, and my family. That is what I came to talk about."

"Oh, Alice. I'd love to be the one to give the announcement luncheon, or the breakfast, or whatever you prefer to have it !"

"Would you do it, really ? Bettina, I've been longing to have you offer, but it is work and trouble, and I didn't want to suggest it.'x

"Why, Alice, I just enjoy that kind of work! I'd be flat- tered to be allowed to have it here. Of course, you know that I can't do anything very elaborate or expensive, but I'm sure that between us we can think up just the prettiest, cleverest way of telling it that any prospective bride ever had !"

"Bettina, my faith is in you !"

"When do you plan to be married ?"

"Late in October or early in November, I think. And I'd prefer not to have it announced for a month. You see, I don't want to allow time for too many festivities in between."

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90 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"Oh, Alice, if you take my advice, you won't have any showers or parties at all. I know you! If you do allow it, you'll have more excitement than any bride in this town !"

"Well, Harry advises me not to, but oh, Betty, you know how it is ! I know so many people, and I do like fun, and then Mother likes to think of me as the center of things. She's afraid that when I am married to Harry I'll become as quiet as he is, and then too, I honestly don't think she'd feel that I was really married without it. You know sister Lillian had lots of excitement and more parties crowded into a day than "

"Yes, and she was so tired that she nearly fainted when she stood up to be married !"

"That's true, but she liked the fun, anyhow. She says that a girl can have that kind of fun only once, and she's silly to deny herself. Well, I'll have a whole month to think it over in. I've been sitting here all this time, Bettina, trying to de- cide what it is that you are making — those croquettes, I mean."

"They are potato and green corn croquettes, and Bob is very fond of them. I made them because I happened to have some left-over corn. Until I learned this recipe, I didn't know what to do with the ears of cooked green corn that were left."

"And what is the meat dish ?"

"Well, that is made of left-overs, too, but I think you'll like it. Creole Lamb, it is called. It is made of a little cold cooked lamb that was left from last night's dinner. The rhubarb sauce that I am serving with the dinner was our dessert last night. But I do have a very good new dessert !"

"New or not, the dinner does sound good. There is Bob, now, and I'm so glad, for I confess that my appetite is even larger than usual !"

The menu that night was as follows:

Creole Lamb

Potato and Green Corn Croquettes

Rhubarb Sauce

Bread Butter

Head Lettuce French Dressing

Lemon Pie Cheese

SEPTEMBER.

Apple-tree, apple-tree, crowned with delight, Give me your fruit for a pie if you will;

Crusty I'll make it, and juicy and light!

Give me your treasure to mate with my skill!

CHAPTER XXVI

RUTH MAKES AN APPLE PIE

t*T'LL tell you, Ruth," said ■*■ Bettina, in answer to some questions, "you come home with me now, and make an apple pie for our dinner! I'll watch and direct you, and perhaps I can show you what made the crust tough on the one you made at home. Do come. I can't prom- ise you an elaborate dinner to- night, for my funds are very low and I must be careful. But I had planned to make an apple pie myself. Bob is so fond of it that no matter what else we may have, an apple pie dinner is a feast to him." "But goodness, Bettina ! I might spoil it !" "No, you wouldn't, and I would show you just what to do. I suspect that you handled the dough too much before and that was what made the pie seem tough."

"I suppose I did; I was so anxious to have it well mixed."

"Did you use your fingers in mixing in the shortening? I

know that many good cooks do it, but it is really better to use

a knife, with the blade flat. And then roll the pastry out just

as lightly as possible."

"Do you make pastry with lard or butter?" "I usually make it with an equal amount of each. Lard makes a more tender crust than butter, and a whiter crust, but I think butter gives it a better flavor."

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94 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Bettina and Ruth had reached home by this time, and Bet- tina brought out the materials for Ruth's pie. "I'll give you ice-water to moisten the pastry," said she; "it isn't necessary, but it is really better in the summer time. And while you're mixing in the shortening with this knife, I'll be cooking some eggs hard for eggs a la goldenrod which I am going to give you tonight."

"Eggs a la goldenrod !" exclaimed Ruth, "How good that does sound !"

"It is a very good luncheon-dish, but I find it also good for dinner when I'm not having meat. I think it looks appe- tizing, too."

"I must learn how to make it. You know Father comes home at noon, and it is hard to think of a variety of luncheon-dishes. I usually have eggs or cheese in some form or other, but 'eggs a la goldenrod,' are new to me."

"We also have cottage-cheese tonight," said Bettina. "I plan to make it about once a week. Ruth, I believe I hear Bob now! Well, he'll have to wait half an hour or more for his dinner !"

That night they had :

Eggs a la Goldenrod Potato Cakes

Strained Honey Cottage Cheese

Bread Butter

Apple Pie Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Eggs a la Goldenrod (Four portions)

3 hard-cooked eggs i]/2 C-milk 3 T-butter *^ t-salt

3 T-flour l/s t-pepper

Ys t-parshy

Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the milk gradually. Cook until a white sauce consistency. Add chopped egg-whites. Pour this mixture over slices of toast arranged on a platter. Force the yolks through a strainer on top of the sauce on the toast. Garnish with parsley and serve hot.

With Bettina's Best Recipes 95

Potato Cakes (Four portions)

2 C-mashed potatoes I T-lard i T-butter

Form cold seasoned mashed potato into cakes two inches in diameter. Pip the cakes lightly into a little flour. Allow one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon lard to get very hot in a frying-pan. Put in the cakes, brown on each side, and serve.

Cottage Cheese (Four portions)

I qt. sour milk % t-paprika I t-salt i T-cream

Place thick freshly soured milk over a pan of hot water, not boiling. When the milk is warm and the curds separate from the whey, strain off the whey in a cheese cloth. Put into a bowl, add salt, pepper and cream to taste. Stir lightly with a fork.

Some of Bettina's Pastry Rules

One — All the materials must be cold.

Two — Always roll one way and on one side of the pastry.

Three — Shortening should be handled as little as possible.

Four — Dough should be mixed with a knife and not touched with the hands.

Five — Shortening should be cut in with a knife.

Six — Cook pastry in a hot oven having the greatest heat at the bottom so that it may rise before browning. Crust is done when it slips from the pan.

CHAPTER XXVII

BETTINA MAKES APPLE JELLY

* fTX7'HAT have you been doing?" asked Bob, as he and * » Bettina sat down to dinner.

"Oh, Bob, I've had the nicest day ! Mother 'phoned me this morning that Uncle John had brought her several big baskets of apples from the farm, and that if I cared to come over to help, we would put them up together, and I might have half. Well, we made apple jelly, plum and apple jelly, and raspberry and apple jelly. I had made all these before, and knew how good they were, but I learned something new from Mother that has made me feel happy ever since."

"And so you came home, and in your enthusiasm made this fine dandy peach cobbler for dinner !"

"Bob, that was the very way I took to express my joy !"

"Well, what is this wonderful new apple concoction?"

"Perhaps it isn't new, but it was new to me ! It is an apple and mint jelly, and I know it will be just the thing to serve with meat this winter."

"How did you make it? (I hope you are noticing how inter- ested I'm becoming in all the cooking processes!)"

"Well, I washed and cut into small pieces four pounds of greening apples. Then I washed and chopped fine one cup of fresh mint, and added it to the apples. I covered the mix- ture with water, and cooked it all till the apples were so tender that they were falling to pieces. I strained it then, and used three-fourths of a cup of sugar for each cup of juice. I cooked this till the mixture jellied, and then I added four teaspoons of

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With Bettinas Best Recipes 97

lemon juice and enough green vegetable color paste to give it a delicate color."

"Isn't that coloring matter injurious?"

"Oh, no, Bob ! It's exactly as pure as any vegetable, and it gives things such a pretty color. Why, I use it very often, and I'm sure that more people would try it if they knew how suc- cessful it is ! It is such fun to experiment with. Of course, I never use anything but the vegetable coloring."

"Well, go on with the jelly. What next ?"

"That's all, I think. I just poured it into glasses, and there it is, waiting for you to help me carry it home from Mother's. Now, Bob, won't that be good next winter with cold roast beef or cold roast veal ? I know it will be just the thing to use with a pork roast !"

"I'm growing very enthusiastic. Sounds fine. But speaking of cooking, this is a mighty good dinner. I like peach cobbler as well as any dessert there is."

"I'm glad you like it. But I forgot to tell you, Bob, that I'm to have all the apples I can use in the fall. Uncle John has promised them to me. Then Mother says we'll make cider. Won't that be fine?"

"I should say it will ! Cider and doughnuts and pumpkin pie ! Makes me long for fall already ! But then, I like green corn and watermelon and peaches, so I suppose I can wait."

That evening Bettina served :

Sliced Beef Loaf

Sauted Potatoes Creamed Corn

Cinnamon Rolls Butter

Peach Cobbler Cream

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Sauted Potatoes (Two portions)

2 large potatoes cooked l/2 t-salt 2 T-lard J4 t-pepper

98 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Peel cold boiled potatoes. Put two tablespoons of lard in the frying-pan. When hot, add the potatoes and season well with salt and pepper. Brown thoroughly on all sides. (They should cook about ten minutes.)

Creamed Corn (Two portions)

I C-corn cut from the i t-butter cob i T-milk or cream

y* C-water y2 t-sugar

XA t-salt

Cook the corn and water together very slowly for twenty minutes, or until the water is all cooked out. (Place on an as- bestos mat to prevent burning.) Add butter, milk, sugar and salt. Serve hot.

Cinnamon Rolls (Twelve rolls)

2 T-sugar 54 C-lukewarm water

y* t-salt iy2 C-flour

I C-milk (scalded and 3 T-butter lukewarm) 4 T-sugar

I yeast cake % C-butter

y2 C-sugar

Mix sugar, salt and scalded milk. When lukewarm, add the yeast cake dissolved in one-fourth of a cup of lukewarm water. Add one and a half cups flour. Cover and set in a warm place to rise. When double in bulk, add the butter (melted), four tablespoons sugar and more flour (enough to knead). Let rise, knead and roll into a sheet half an inch thick, spread with a mixture made by adding melted butter, one and a fourth cups sugar and the cinnamon. Roll up like a jelly roll. Cut in slices three- fourths inch thick. Place in a pan one inch apart, let rise again. Bake in a moderately hot oven JVenty-five minutes.

Peach Cobbler (Two portions)

1 C-flour 3 good-sized reaches

1 t-baking powder 1/3 C-sugar % t-salt H t-vanilla

1 T-butter % C-sugar

% C-milk 54 C-water

With Bettinas Best Recipes 99

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (baking powder, salt and flour), and add the milk. (The resulting dough should be of biscuit dough consistency.) Peel and slice the peaches, mix well with the sugar (one-third cup) and place on the bottom of a baking dish, (not tin.) Place dough shaped to fit. on the top of the pei ,hes. Make three holes to allow the steam to escape. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Boil the sugar and water four minutes. When the cobbler has cooked for twenty minutes, pour the syrup over it and allow to cook ten minutes more. Cream may be served with the cobbler if desired.

CHAPTER XXVIII

A SUNDAY DINNER

**\X 7"E 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 von ? And won't ycu 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. an4 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."

"Well, I learned today to make waffles," said Uncle Eric.

For dinner that day Bettina served :

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With Bettinas Best Recipes 101

Roast Beef Brown Gravy

Browned Potatoes Baked Squash

Lettuce French Dressing

Lemon Sherbet Devil's Food Cake

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Roast Beef (Eight portions)

$l/2 lb. rump roast of beef 2 t-salt 4 T-flour K C-hot water

Roll the roast in the flour and set on a rack in a dripping- pan. Place in 1 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.

Brown Potatoes (Six portions)

6 potatoes 1 t-salt

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

Browned Gravy (Six portions)

4 T-beef drip- 1 C-water

pmgs 2 T-flour % t-salt

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.

Baked Squash (Six portions)

1 squash il/2 t-salt

2 T-butter ^ t-paprika

Wash and wipe the squash, and cut into halves, then quar- ters. Remove the seeds. Place the pieces of squash, skin

102 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

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.

Devil's Food Cake (Sixteen pieces)

1/3 C-butter 1 t-vanilla

1 C-sugar 2/3 t-soda

1 egg 2 C-flour 2/3 C-sour milk

2 squares of melted chocolate

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 p?per for twenty-five minutes in a mod- erate oven.

Icing (Sixteen portions)

2 C-"C" sugar 2 egg-whites beaten stiffly Yz C-water I t-vanilla

Cook the sugar and water together until it clicks wnen 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 XXIX BOB MAKES PEANUT FUDGE

**T 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 ?"

"Don't worry about that, Bettina. Put it in the bank."

"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."

That night they had for dinner:

Liver and Bacon Creamed Turnips

Fruit Gems Apple Sauce

Tea

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104 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Creamed Turnips (Two portions)

1 C-turnip cubes 1 T-flour 1/3 t-salt H t-salt

1 T-butter j/2 C-milk

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 tea- spoon salt, blend well, add the milk gradually and cook until creamy. Add the turnips and serve.

Liver and Bacon (Two portions)

4 slices bacon I t-salt 2/3 lb. liver % t-paprika

3 T-flour

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.

Fruit Gems (Nine Gems)

2 C-flour Y^ C-milk

3 t-baking powder 1 tgg

3 T-sugar 1 T-melted butter

Yi, t-salt 1/3 C-seeded, chopped

raisins or currants

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.

With Bettina's Best Recipes 105

Peanut Fudge (Six portions)

I C-"C" sugar 2/3 C-milk

1 C-granulated sugar 1 T-butter x/i t-cream of tartar 1 t-vanilla

2 squares of chocolate x/2 C-broken peanuts

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 XXX DINNER AT THE DIXONS

^TS 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 preach- ments against boarding and hotel living. Why, she quite ap- proves 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

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With Bettinas Best Recipes 107

to give me when I was a boy, and the cookies she would man- age to treat me with afterward! I used to anticipate those pleasant scoldi js !"

"If a scoldiug always comes before food," said Bob, "Char- lotte must have given you an extra good one before inviting us to partake of that delicious-looking chocolate pier*

That evening they had :

Cold Sliced Ham Creamed Potatoes

Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice

Peach Butter

Chocolate Pie

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice (Six portions)

6 tomatoes 2 T-grated cheese

y2 C-rice, cooked I t-chopped onion

l/2 C-green pepper, J4 t-salt chopped i T-butter

Remove a piece one inch in diameter from the stem end of ">ach 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.

Chocolate Pie Crust (Six portions)

I C-flour 54 t-salt 1/3 C-lard 3 T-ice water

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 min- utes).

Filling (Six portions)

1 C-sugar 2 egg yolks

5 T-flour il/2 squares melted % t-salt chocolate

2 G-milk Y2 t-vanilla

108 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Mix well the sugar, flour and salt. Add gradually the milk and beaten egg yolks. Cook in a double boiler fifteen min- utes. 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).

Meringue 2 egg whites 4 T-sugar

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

CHAPTER XX*I

A GOOD-BY LUNCHEON FOR BERNADETTE

f*"DIG 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 ceremoni- ously 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 Impos- sible Room-mate," "When You Feel the First Pangs of Home-

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110 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

sickness," "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.

The menu consisted of :

Iced Cantaloupe Balls

Chicken Croquettes Potatoes in Cream

Green Peppers Stuffed with Corn

Rolls Peach Pickles

Cherry Salad Wafers

Chocolate Cream Pudding

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Chicken Croquettes (Eight croquettes)

V/2 C-cooked chopped i t-parsley chopped fine chicken lA C-thick white sauce

H t-celery salt H t-salt

I t-lemon mice 2 C-crumbs

4 T-egg, beaten

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.

Green Peppers Stuffed with Corn (Six portions)

I C-corn-pulp, cooked 2 T-bread crumbs J4 t-salt z/i t-pepper

1 egg-yolk y2 t-sugar

% C-milk 1 T-butter

6 green peppers

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.

With Bettinas Best Recipes 111

Cherry Salad (Six portions)

2 C-California y2 C-hazelnuts cherries 6 lettuce leaves

6 T-salad dressing

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

Chocolate Cream Pudding (Six portions)

2 C-milk 1^2 squares of melted

5 T-cornstarch chocolate

Yi C-sugar 3 T-hot water

Yl t-salt 2 egg-whites

i t-vanilla

Mix the cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add cold milk gradu- ally, 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 pud- ding.

CHAPTER XXXII

BETTINA PLANS AN ANNOUNCEMENT LUNCHEON

** A ^^ so * t^ou&^t, if you were willing, I would have the J~\ 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."

"But he won't be at the announcement party!"

"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'd love to, of course, if you really want us."

"Indeed I do, but we'll have to hurry, for it's after five

now."

"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.

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With Bettinas Best Recipes 113

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?"

"Oh, no, no, Bettina ! Let fate do her worst ! I'm re- signed."

Supper that night consisted of :

Cold Sliced Ham Beet Salad

Bread Butter

Tea Cakes Apple Sauce

Iced Tea

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Beet Salad (Four portions)

I C-cold boiled beets cut in i hard-cooked egg, diced

54-inch cubes 1/3 C-diced cucumber

1/3 C-cold boiled potatoes, cubed l/2 t-salt

1/3 C-diced celery x/2 C-salad dressing

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

"Lightning" Tea Cakes (Twelve cakes)

V/2 C-flour 1/3 t-salt

24 C-granulated or 3 T-butter (melted)

powdered sugar 1 egg 2 t-baking powder l/2 C-milk l/3 t-vanilla

114 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

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 XXXIII RUTH AND BETTINA MAKE PREPARATIONS

ff/^wH, Bettina, aren't the butterflies darling?" exclaimed

V_>/ 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 1iad 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 !"

The dinner consisted of:

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116 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Beef Loaf Sweet Potatoes

Corn on the Cob

Bread Butter

Apricot Cobbler

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Beef Loaf (Three portions)

I lb. beef ground x/2 t-salt

% lb. salt pork, ground % t-pepper

54 t-onion salt % C-tomato

1/3 C-fresh bread crumbs J4 C-water

1 egg 1 T-fat drippings

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.

Sweet Potatoes (Three portions) 3 potatoes H t-salt 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.

Bettina's Apricot Cobbler (Three portions)

1 C-cooked and sweetened 1/3 t-salt

apricots 2 T-butter

1 T-flour 1/3 C-milk

y2 t-cinnamon 1/3 C-sugar

1 C-flour H C-water

2 t-baking powder y2 t-vanilla

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 XXXIV

A RAINBOW ANNOUNCEMENT LUNCHEON

ffy^vH, Bettina, how lovely!" cried the ten guests in a V^/ 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 oth- ers 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 hov- ered 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 but- terfly from her favor cup. "Goodness, it's attached to some-

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118 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

thing !" Pulling gently by the rainbow tulle to which the but- terfly 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 ?

The other girls, in great excitement, drew forth their little bags.

"Rice !" declared Mary, "though it looks yellow !"

"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 al- most hysterically. For one small card which read, "Discov- ered by" and the two names, in gold letters, was tied to the little bag by the gold cord.

"Alice, how did you ever manage to keep it a secret ?" asked someone.

"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 any more," 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 t^at x expect to be as domestic is 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.

"It looks too pretty to eat," said Dorothy.

"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."

With Bettina s Best Recipes 119

"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 dis- agreeably 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 won- der who'll be the next to discover the treasure at the foot of the rainbow ?"

The menu consisted of :

Fruit Cups in Orange Baskets

Cream of Celery Soup Whipped Cream

Salt Wafers

Tuna Moulds Egg Sauce

Potatoes a la Bettina

Green Peppers Stuffed with Creamed Cauliflower

Rolls Butter

Head Lettuce, Russian Dressing Thin Sandwiches in Fancy Shapes

Marshmallow Cream Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Tuna Loaf (Eight portions)

V/t C-tuna I t-lemon juice

i C-fresh bread crumbs I t-chopped green pepper

2 eggs (just the yolks may I t-salt

be used) % t-paprika

120 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, picking the fish apart with a silver fork. Mould firmly in a loaf. Roll in flour, and place in a buttered bread pan. Dot with butter, and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. This same recipe may be distributed among fancy individual moulds, filled half full. Arrange a star-shaped piece of pimento, green pepper, beet or egg in the bottom of a fancy aluminum mould. An attractive design may be made by putting the star cut from any vegetable with radiating pieces of any other kind of vege- table of a different color. Place the design firmly on the fish. Set the moulds in a pan of hot water and bake until the mixture is firmly set. (About thirty minutes.) Remove from the oven, let moulds stand three minutes, and then, with the assistance of a knife, slip them from the pan, unmould all the moulds in one flat pan, and keep them hot until needed. Do not forget that the mould must be thoroughly buttered before using. When ready to serve, make a regular vegetab1e white sauce (two T-butter, 2 T-fiour, 1 C-milk, % t-salt). When ready to serve and while steaming hot, add one beaten egg yoke. The hot sauce will cook the tgg. Pour around the mould.

CHAPTER XXXV AN EARLY CALLER

BOB had scarcely left the house the next morning when Bettina was called to the door. "I couldn't resist com- ing !" said Alice. "The announcement party was lovely, and I must thank you for doing it. Aren't you tired to pieces ?"

"No, Ruth helped me a great deal, and by the time Bob came home to dinner, the luncheon dishes were washed and put away and the house was in apple-pie order."

"Everything tasted delicious, Bettina. Maybe it sounds al- together too practical for my own announcement party, but I'm armed with a pencil and a notebook, and I do want to get some of those recipes of yours !"

"You're welcome to them all, Alice, of course. They are all recipes that I have used over and over again, and I'm sure of them."

"What kind of soup was it? Celery? I thought so. Wasn't it hard to prepare?"

"Why, Alice, it was canned celery soup, diluted with hot milk. Then I added a teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a teaspoonful of chopped red pepper."

"But surely it had whipped cream in it, Bettina!"

"Yes, I put a teaspoonful of whipped cream in the bottom of the bouillon cup and poured the hot soup on it, so that it would be well mixed."

"Well, that accounts for it ; I thought it must be made with whipped cream. Oh, Bettina, everything was so pretty ! The tulle bows on the baskets holdine the wafers and the rolls —

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122 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

and the butterflies perched on them ! How did you ever think of it?"

"Well, butterflies are a happy choice for decorations ! They can be put anywhere, and they are easy to make — at least Ruth says so."

"You use paper doilies a great deal, ciont you ? Aren't they expensive?"

"Expensive ? Well, I wish you'd price them ! They are so inexpensive that I like to use them even for a very informal meal ; they add such a dainty touch, I think."

"I must write down the recipes for your tuna loaf, and green peppers stuffed with cauliflower, and Russian dressing — and oh, that wonderful kind of rainbow dessert! Bettina, what was that dessert?"

"Marshmallow cream made with gelatine and cream and marshmallows and whites of eggs. I puzzled a long time over \ real 'rainbow' dessert, and finally decided on marshmallow cream with a few variations. Come into the kitchen, where I keep my card index, and I'll get all the recipes for you."

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Potato Balls (Four portions)

4 potatoes i t-salt i C-crumbs 2 T-egg

Boil potatoes of uniform size with the skins on. When cold, ©eel, roll in crumbs, to which salt has been added and then the beaten egg and crumbs. Deep fry in very hot fat.

Green Peppers Stuffed with Cauliflower (Four portions)

4 green peppers 1 C-vegetable sauce

1 C-cooked cauliflower 2 T-crumbs 1 T-butter, melted

Cut a thin slice from the stem end of each large green pepper find remove the seeds. Parboil ten minutes, and fill with creamed cauliflower and buttered crumbs. Bake until the skins are tender, basting occasionally with butter and water.

With Bettina's Best Recipes 123

Marshmallow Cream (Four portions)

2 t-granulated gelatin i t-lemon extract

4 T-cold milk % lb. marshmallows, cut in 2/3 C-sugar one-fourth cubes

I 1/3 C-double cream 4 toasted marshmallows

I t-vanilla extract 4 pecans

1 egg white well beaten 4 almonds

Soften the gelatin in milk for five minutes, and dissolve by setting the dish in boiling water. Add the sugar. Allow the mixture to cool. When it begins to congeal, add the flavor- ings. Beat in the whipped cream, and continue beating until it is firm. Fold in the egg-white and the marshmallows cut in cubes. When the mixture begins to set, pile lightly in sherbet cups. Place one-half of a toasted marshmallow on the top, and arrange pecan meats and candied cherries in a conventional design. Set aside one hour to cool and harden.

Bettina colored the mixture with vegetable coloring of a very delicate green. Then on the top she placed a teaspoon ful of white whipped cream, then the toasted marshmallow and the different fruits. Bettina browned the marshmallows quickly in the oven, after she had cut them the desired shape. She used cups with handles, and decorated them with fluffy bows of variegated tulles. To make these bows, she took strips of each color desire^ one inch wide, tied them together, and "fluffed them out." She might have gained a real rainbow effect by dividing the marshmallow cream (when mixed, but not yet firm) into three bowls, and coloring them green, laven- der and pink, with delicate vegetable colors. Then, having beaten in the whipped cream, she might have placed in each sherbet cup three layers, pink, lavender and green. Then, on the top, she might have placed the whipped cream.

OCTOBER.

Oh, hazy month of glowing trees,

And colors rich to charm our eyes!

Yet — not less fair than all of these Are Mother's fragrant pumpkin pies!

CHAPTER XXXVI A KITCHEN SHOWER FOR ALICE

"D

ID you want me for something, Mary ?" asked Alice at the door. "Mother said you had telephoned."

"Come in ! Come in !" cried Iten girls at once, while Bettina whispered to Ruth : "Thank goodness, she's come ! The muf- fins are all but done !"

What in the world!" said Alice. "A party for you!" "And I'm wearing my old suit!"

"We caught you this time, but never mind. Come in, and take off your things."

As soon as Alice reappeared in the living room, a small table was drawn up before the open fire. Two girls appeared, wear- ing gingham aprons and carrying overflowing market baskets. "This is a kitchen ishower for you, Alice," Ruth explained somewhat ceremoniously. "But if you are willing, we will use the utensils in serving the luncheon and afterwards present them to you. May we unpack the baskets?" "Do," said Alice, laughing.

From the larger basket, Ruth removed twelve white enam- elled plates of different sizes (suitable for holding supplies in the refrigerator), and twelve cross-barred tea towels. The

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latter she passed around to be used as napkins, and Mary dis- tributed the plates. On the small serving table before the fire, a white muslin table cover was placed. As she unfolded it, Ruth read from the attached card :

"If breakfast you should chance to eat Upon the kitchen table — I'll make it dainty, fair and neat So far as I am able."

When the steel forks and spoons of various sizes were taken out and passed around, two glass measuring cups were found to hold loaf sugar wrapped in frilled paper. Upon one of these Ruth read :

"Please eat us all, but let your sweet Sweet hours be duly treasured, For we belie the worldly eye —

True sweetness can't be measured."

A glass rolling-pin filled with stick candy came next, and its sentiments read, and meanwhile the girls had begun to read aloud the advice pinned upon the tea-towels, such as :

"No matter what his whims and wishes — Just tell him he must wipe the dishes !"

and

"But if he breaks a cup or plate, Just throw the pieces at him straight."

"What vindictive dish-towels!" said Alice. "They're not a bit sentimental !"

When the contents had been removed and all the verses read, the large basket was presented to Alice, who read from its handle :

With Bettinas Best Recipes 127

"To market, to market, to buy your supplies ! You'll go there in person, if careful and wise."

"I will, Mr. Basket, with you over my arm!" answered Alice.

Meanwhile the girls had carried in the salad in an earthen- ware mixing-bowl, the muffins heaped high in a small basket with a dainty dustcloth over them, the coffee in a large enam- elled pitcher, and the "molasses puffs" wrapped in frilled paper in a basket suitable for holding supplies. "Bettina's apples" were arranged in two flat enamelled pans. All the food was served informally from the small table, and the merriment grew as the luncheon progressed.

"I wish that all the meals Harry and I have together might be as jolly as this one ! I'm sure I should be glad to eat always from kitchen dishes, if that is what makes the fun," said Alice.

At the kitchen shower, the luncheon was as follows :

Bettina's Potato Salad Bettina's Spiced Beets Twin Mountain Muffins Currant Jelly- Molasses Puffs Bettina's Apples Coffee Stick Candy

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Bettina's Potato Salad (Twelve portions)

3 C-cold boiled potatoes, diced 3 T-diced pimento

1 C-diced celery 2 t-salt

l/2 C-diced hard-cooked egg 1 T-chopped onion

54 C-diced sweet pickles 1 C-salad dressing

12 lettuce leaves

Mix all the ingredients in the order named. Serve the salad very cold on crisp lettuce leaves.

Bettina's Spiced Beets (Twelve portions)

5 large, cooked beets, 1 T-"C" sugar

sliced 6 cloves

y2 C-vinegar 1 t-salt

Vs t-pepper

Heat the vinegar, add the cloves, sugar, salt and pepper.

128 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Pour over the beets, cut in one-third inch slices. Allow to stand one hour before serving.

Molasses Puffs (Twelve portions)

Y$ C-molasses I egg, well beaten

Y$ C-sugar 2 t-ginger

1/2 C-hot water 1 t-cinnamon

1/3 C-butter and lard 2 t-soda

(melted) 3 C-flour

Mix the molasses and sugar. Add the hot water and fat. Beat well, add the egg and mix thoroughly. Sift the ginger, cinnamon, flour and soda together, and add to the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. Fill well-buttered muffin pans three- fourths full. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five min- utes. Ice with "C" sugar icing.

Icing

2 egg-whites beaten 2 C-"C" sugar stiffly

Cook the sugar and water together until it "clicks" when a little is dropped into cold water. Pour the syrup slowly over the stiffly beaten egg whites. Beat vigorously until cool and creamy. Add the vanilla and spread on the cakes. If the icing gets hard before it is cool, add two tablespoons of water and continue beating. The secret of good icing is steady, constant beating.

Bettina's Apples (Twelve portions)

12 apples Y\ t-cinnamon

3 C-"C" sugar y2 t-vanilla 2 C-water 18 marshmallows

1 T-butter

Wash, peel and core the apples: Place in a broad flat pan in which the sugar and water have been thoroughly mixed. Cook the apples, turning often until tender, remove from the syrup and place in a serving dish. Fill the center with one- half a marshmallow. Add the cinnamon and butter to the syrup and cook five minutes or until it thickens. Pour over and around the apples. Decorate with a marshmallow cut into fourths. Serve warm.

CHAPTER XXXVII JUST THE TWO OF THEM

ffTT seems good to be alone this evening, doesn't it, Bet-

-*- tina?" said Bob, as they sat down to dinner. "Or are you growing so accustomed to gaiety lately that a dinner for two is a bore?"

"Bob!" said Bettina reproachfully. "If I thought you really believed that I was ever bored by a dinner for the two of us, — well, I'd never be in a wedding party again ! Alice likes excitement, and I suppose that next week will be very gay, but after the wedding I hope that you and I can have a quiet winter, with just invitations enough to keep us from becoming too stupid."

"But tell me what the wedding will be like. Is it all planned down to the last detail? I suppose it is, although Harry doesn't seem to have any idea what it is to be."

"Poor Harry, he seems to be left out of most of the showers and parties so far."

"Don't pity him; he wouldn't go if he could. I'm just wondering what they'll do after the wedding. Will Alice go and Harry stay at home ? Or, will he be obliging and force himself to go, too?"

"I don't know, I'm sure. Alice is so full of life that I don't see how she can settle down and never go anywhere, as Harry would have her. But time will tell. Perhaps they'll compro- mise. Meanwhile, we must plan some sort of a shower or prenuptial party that Harry can enjoy, too. One with the men included, 1 mean. Of course, I know he hates parties, but I

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130 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

think he would really like a very jolly informal one with just a few friends I"

The dinner for two consisted of:

Cold Sliced Lamb Baked Potatoes

Creamed Carrots and Peas

Bread Butter

Apple Dumplings

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Creamed Carrots and Peas (Three portions)

y2 C-cooked, diced y2 t-salt

carrots 1 T-butter

l/2 C-peas 1 T-flour

y2 C-milk

Melt the butfter, add the flour and salt, gradually add the milk. Cook two minutes. Add the peas and carrots. Serve very hot.

Apple Dumpling (Three portions)

y2 C-flour 1 T-lard

1 t-baking powder 2 T-milk

% t-salt 2 apples

4 T-sugar y2 t-cinnamon

Mix the flour, baking-powder and salt, cut in the lard with a knife. Add the liquid, mixing to a soft dough. Roll on a v/ell floured board to one-fourth of an inch in thickness. Wash, pare and quarter the apples. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Cut the dough in five inch squares ; place two quarters of apple in the center of a square ; moisten the edges of the dough with water and bring the four corners together around the apple. Place in a tin pan and bake in a moderate oven until the apples are soft. (About thirty minutes.) Serve warm with cream.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A LUNCHEON IN THE COUNTRY

ff/^H, Charlotte, I've just come from the loveliest lunch- _\J eon," said Bettina, coming face to face with Mrs. Dixon in front of her own home.

"You have? Another for Alice?"

"No, this was in the country — on the interurban, at Cousin Kate's. Frances, her daughter, who was married last spring, has come home on a visit, and Cousin Kate was entertaining for her."

"Tell me about it !"

"Oh, it was just an informal luncheon, but I couldn't help thinking how delicious everything was, and at the same time inexpensive. In fact, I wrote down several of Cousin Kate's recipes after the guests had gone, and I'm sure that there aren't many such inexpensive luncheons that are also so good."

"You must let me have some of the recipes."

"Of course I will. Come in now, and copy them."

"I can't possibly, Bettina. As it is, I'm afraid that Frank will be home before I am. It's almost six o'clock now."

"Is it? Then I must hurry in and start dinner; I want to make some muffins. I hate to have Bob eat a cold dinner just because I've been out in the afternoon ; in fact, I usually spend more time than usual in the morning fixing some dessert that he especially likes, if I'm to be out in the afternoon. Good-bye, Charlotte !"

"Good-bye, dear !"

The luncheon menu was as follows :

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132 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Oyster Cocktail in Pepper Cases

Cream of Celery Soup Croutons

Cheese Timbales Creamed Peas

Baked Apples

Baking-Powder Biscuit

Green Bean Salad Salted Wafers

Lemon Sherbet Devil's Food White Icing

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

'K~7i measurements are lever)

Oyster Cocktail in Pepper Cases (Six portions)

6 green peppers I T-lemon juice

i pint oysters I T-horseradish

5 T-tomato catsup y2 t-salt l/2 t-tabasco sauce

Cut the stem end from the sweet green peppers. Remove the seeds and allow to stand in iced water. Pick over the oysters to remove any shells, and surround with chipped ice until ready to serve. Mix the catsup, lemon juice, horse radish, salt and tobasco sauce. Fill each pepper with four oysters, and put on tablespoon of the mixture on the top. Serve very cold.

Cheese Timbales (Six portions)

i T-butter ^ t-paprika

i T-flour % C-fresh, soft bread crumbs

y C-milk J4 C-grated American cheese

y2 t-salt i egg

Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix well, gradually add the milk, cheese and bread crumbs. Cook three minutes, and then stir in the egg, well beaten. Butter six timbale moulds well. Place the cups in a pan of hot water and cook fifteen minutes in a moderate oven. Allow to stand three minutes, and remove from the moulds. Serve hot with creamed peas.

Bettina's Green String Bean Salad (Six portions)

i C-cooked green beans i t-salt

% C-cut celery % t-paprika

K C-pimento, cut fine x/2 C-salad dressing

i hard-cooked egg, diced 6 pieces of lettuce

With Bettinas Best Recipes 133

Mix thoroughly the beans, celery, pimento, egg, salt and paprika. Add the salad dressing and serve on a piece of crisp lettuce.

Devil's Food Cake (Twenty-four pieces)

2 C-brown sugar 3 squares chocolate

1 C-milk 2 C-flour *4 C-butter 1 t-soda

2 eggs 1 t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add one cup sugar. Mix egg yolks, the other cup sugar, one-half cup milk and chocolate; cook two minutes, stirring constantly. When cool, add this to the first mixture. Add the rest of the milk, vanilla, the flour and soda sifted together. Beat two minutes. Add stiffly beaten egg whites. Fill two tin pans prepared with waxed paper, bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes. When cool, ice with white icing.

CHAPTER XXXIX A "PAIR SHOWER" FOR ALICE

WHEN Bettina called the girls into the dining-room after several hours spent in hemming dish towels for Alice, they exclaimed that the time had passed so quickly. The table was set for twelve, and the chair at the right of the hostess was gaily decorated with white ribbon and white paper flowers.

"Oh, for me?" cried Alice. "How important I feel!,, As soon as the girls were seated, Ruth rose and placed be- fore the guest of honor a large wicker basket heaped high with packages of all shapes and sizes, each wrapped in white tissue paper and tied with white ribbon. A card hung from the handle of the basket. "I'll read it aloud !" laughed Alice.

"Dear Alice, we have tried to choose Some gifts for you that come by twos.

A few, perhaps, you'll often use, While some may comfort and amuse,

If you should chance to get the blues,

When household cares your mind confuse.

"This basket, which our blessing bears,

Besides the gifts that come in pairs, Our friendship and our love declares.

'Twill share your troubles and your cares And hold the hose that Harry wears.

So keep them free from holes and tears."

"Goodness !" cried Alice. "The thought of my future cares

134

With Bettina s Best Recipes 135

frightens me ! But now I must open all the packages !" She discovered a salt and pepper shaker, a pair of guest towels, a pair of hose, a sugar bowl and a creamer, and many other gifts in pairs. It was a long time before the girls could calm down sufficiently to eat the luncheon that Bettina, with Ruth's assistance, set before them. Bettina served:

Bettina's Tuna Salad

Date Bread Sandwiches Salted Peanuts

Maple Ice Cream White Cake with Maple Icing

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Tuna Salad (Twelve portions)

2 C-tuna fish 4 T-pimento, cut fine

2 C-diced celery 2 t-salt

3 hard-cooked eggs, diced J/2 t-paprika

3 T-green pepper, chopped fine 1 T-lemon juice

4 T-sweet pickle, chopped fine 1 C-salad dressing

Mix the tuna, celery, eggs, sweet pickle, pepper, salt and paprika with a silver fork. (Care should always be taken not to mash salads.) Add the salad dressing; more than a cup may be necessary. Keep very cold, and serve attractively on a lettuce leaf.

Salad Dressing (Twelve portions)

4 egg-yolks 1 t-mustard

]/2 C-vinegar 4 T-sugar

l/2 C-water Y\ t-paprika

1 t-salt 2 T-flour

Beat the tgg yolks, add the vinegar. Mix the salt, mustard, sugar, paprika and flour thoroughly. Slowly add the water, taking care not to let the mixture get lumpy. Pour into the yolks and vinegar. Cook slowly, stirring constantly until thick and creamy. Thin with sour cream or whipped cream.

Date Bread (Eighteen Sandwiches)

1 C-graham flour 2 t-salt

2 C-white flour 1/3 pound of dates, cut fine

3 t-baking powder il/2 C-milk 1/3 C-"C" sugar 1 egg

136 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

Mix the flour, baking-powder, sugar, salt and dates ground fine. Beat the egg with a fork, and add the milk. Pour slowly into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly and pour into two well-buttered bread pans. Allow to stand fifteen minutes and bake forty minutes in a moderate oven. When cold, cut very thin and spread with butter for sandwiches. Date bread is better for sandwiches when one day old.

Maple Icing

ll/2 C-maple sugar 2/3 C-milk

1/4 C-granulated sugar 1 t-butter % t-cream of tartar

Cook all the ingredients together until a soft ball is formed when a little is dropped into cold water. Beat until creamy enough to pour on the cake.

Salted Peanuts (Twelve portions)

2/3 lb. peanuts (shelled) 4 T-olive oil 2 t-salt

Cover the peanuts with boiling water; allow to stand for fifteen minutes. Place one-third of the amount in a strainer (allowing remainder to stay in water) and remove the skins. Prepare all the peanuts the same way. Place two tablespoons of oil in the frying pan, when hot add the peanuts; stir con- stantly with a fork and cook over a moderate fire fifteen min- utes. When brown remove the nuts, add another tablespoon of oil and another third of the peanuts, continue until all the nuts are cooked. Add the salt. Lard may be used in place of oil, but the latter makes the nuts taste and brown better.

CHAPTER XL BOB MAKES POPCORN BALLS

f f /^\H, I forgot to tell you, Bettina," said Bob at the dinner

^-^ table, "the Dixons are coming over this evening. Frank asked me if we would be at home."

"I'm so glad they're coming," said Bettina. "I haven't seen Charlotte for several weeks; I have been so busy with the affairs we girls have been giving for Alice. But I wish I had known this afternoon that they were coming. I'd like to celebrate with a little supper, but I haven't a single thing in the house that is suitable."

•There's the cider that Uncle John brought us," suggested Bob.

"Yes," said Bettina, "we might have cider. But what else ?"

"I'll tell you," said Bob, "I'll make some popcorn balls. I've made them before, and I know exactly how."

"I'll help," said Bettina.

"No, I won't need you at all ; I'm the chef."

"Well, Bobbie, at least you'll let me look on. May I be washing the dishes at the same time?"

"Yes, I'll permit that. These are going to be champion popcorn balls, I can tell you, Bettina — as big as pumpkins!"

"We'll serve them in that large flat wicker basket, and I'm sure they'll look and taste delicious. But we must hurry, Bob; it's after seven now!"

For dinner that night they had:

Broiled Ham Mashed Potatoes

Chili Sauce Creamed Onions Hot Scones

Prune Blanc Mange with Cream

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138 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Broiled Ham (Four portions)

i lb. ham 2 C-milk

Soak a one-half inch slice of ham in one cup of lukewarm milk for half an hour. Drain and wipe dry. Place in a hot tin pan and cook for five minutes directly under the flame, turning frequently to prevent burning.

Scones (Fourteen scones)

2 C-flour 1 egg

4 t-baking powder2/3 C-milk 1/3 t-salt 1 T-"C" sugar

2 T-lard J/2 t-cinnamon

Mix the flour, baking-powder and salt. Cut in the lard with a knife, add all but one teaspoonful of the beaten egg, then add the milk gradually. Mix with a knife into a soft dough. Pat into a square shape one-half inch thick. Brush over the top with one teaspoonful of egg and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon (mixed thoroughly). Cut into one and one- half inch squares. Place in a tin pan and bake twelve minutes in a hot oven.

Prune Blanc Mange (Four portions)

2 T-cornstarch l/i t-salt

2 T-sugar ]/2 C-cooked, cut prunes

4 T-cold milk y2 t-lemon extract

2/3 C-hot milk y2 t-vanilla

Mix the cornstarch, sugar and salt, and add the cold milk slowly. Gradually add the hot milk. Cook in a double boiler for twenty minutes. Add the prunes, lemon extract and vanilla. Beat well, and serve cold with cream.

CHAPTER XLI

AND WHERE WAS THE DINNER?

ii TJ ELLO !" called Bob at the door one evening. 11 No answer.

"Hello, Bettina!" he called again. Again the dark house gave forth no reply.

Feeling, it must be admitted, a little out of harmony with a world that allowed weary and hungry husbands to come home to dark and empty houses when the clock said plainly that it was a quarter after six, Bob made his way to the kitchen. Perhaps Bettina had left his dinner there for him; perhaps she had been called away, or perhaps, even, she had rushed out on some errand after dinner preparations were begun. The kitchen, however, was -so immaculate as to seem distinctly forbidding to a hungry man whose appetite was growing keener every minute. And he had been thinking all the way home that a hot dinner would taste so good !

At that moment a clamor of voices at the door aroused him.

"You poor old Bob !" cried Bettina, kissing him twice before Fred and Ruth without the least embarrassment. "Have you waited long?"

"It seemed hours," admitted Bob.

"Ruth and I have been to a tea for Alice. Fred came for her there, and I persuaded them to come home to dinner with me. I'll give you each something to do while I stirr up a little cottage pudding. Then dinner will be ready in half an hour."

"Half an hour?" cried Bob. "But, Bettina, where is the dinner? I didn't see any!"

"In the fireless cooker, you crazy boy! Are you 'most starved?"

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140 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

"Well," said Bob, "that cooker was the neatest, stiffest- looking thing in the kitchen! I didn't dream that it was busily cooking a dinner. Say, I'll be glad to see a hot meal again !"

The dinner consisted of :

Round Steak with Vegetables

Dutch Cheese

Bread Plum Butter

Cottage Pudding Vanilla Sauce

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Round Steak with Vegetables (Six portions)

2 lbs. round steak 2 T-flour 6 potatoes 2 T-lard

6 carrots 2 t-salt

6 onions % t-paprika

H C-water

Pound the flour into the round steak with the edge of a small plate. This breaks the fibers of the meat, making it more tender. Wash and peel the potatoes, slicing in half lengthwise. Scrape the carrots, and cut into one-half inch slices lengthwise. Wash the onions and remove their outside skins. Sprinkle the vegetables with one and a half level tea- spoons of salt, and the paprika. Add the water, and place in the bottom of the large fireless cooker utensil. Place the lard in a frying pan, and when hot, add the meat. Brown thor- oughly on each side. Salt the meat with one-half level tea- spoon of salt, and place in the kettle on top of the vegetables. Place the heated disks of the fireless cooker over and under the utensil, and cook at least one hour in the cooker.

Cottage Pudding (Six portions)

iH C-flour	1 egg
3 t-baking powder	y2 C-milk
YA t-salt	y2 t-vanilla
Yz C-sugar	3 T-melted butter

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the egg, milk and vanilla, and beat one minute. Add the melted butter, and pour into a well buttered tin pan. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve warm with vanilla sauce.

With Bettinas Best Recipes 141

Vanilla Sauce (Six portions)

2/3 C-sugar y2 t-lemon extract

3 T-flour yA t-salt

1 t-vanilla il/2 C-water 1 t-butter

Mix the sugar, flour and salt thoroughly. Add the water slowly. Boil two minutes. Add the vanilla, lemon extract, and butter. Beat one minute and serve. If too thick, more water may be added.

CHAPTER XLII ALICE TELLS HER TROUBLES

** A ND the minute I caught a glimpse of you, Bettina, at

-**■ the tea this afternoon, I thought, 'Oh, if Betty would only ask me to go home with her to a sensible homelike din- ner, with no one there but herself and Bob ' "

"Not even Harry, Alice?"

"No, not even Harry ! I'm so sick and tired of teas and dressmakers and wedding gowns and bridesmaids that Fm tired even of Harry, too ! Almost."

"But, Alice, then why do it all ? Why have all this fuss and feathers?" And Bettina's knife, with which she was cutting bread, came down with a click of vehemence. "It has always seemed silly to me — all the worry and bother "

"But what can I do now, Bettina? I've started, and I'll have to go through with it ! Why, even now, I ought to be home for dinner — mother has several guests — but I phoned her that I had a headache and was coming here, where I could be quiet. And I do have a headache — and no appetite, and "

"Just wait till you taste this nice brown meat that I have in the oven, Alice ! The trouble with you is that you've been eating silly party food for such a long time. And tonight you are to have a sensible dinner with plain people."

"Plain people? Who calls me plain?" interrupted Bob, com- ing in like a tornado. "Hello, Alice! How can you spare any time from all these festivities I hear about?"

For dinner that night they had :

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With Bettinas Best Recipes L43

Rolled Flank of Beef with Bread Dressing

Browned Potatoes Hot Slaw

Prune Pudding Cream

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Rolled Flank of Beef (Four portions)

1 lb. round steak one inch thick I t-salt

2 T-flour 2 one-inch cubes of suet

Wipe the meat, trim the edges, pound on both sides with the edge of a plate to break the tendon. Place the dressing (given below) on the steak, roll, and tie with a cord. Roll in the flour and salt. Place in a small dripping pan, put the suet on the top of the meat, add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan, and bake in a moderate oven for fifty minutes. Baste frequently.

Bread Dressing

i C-soft bread crumbs % t-celery salt

i T-melted butter */2 t-sak

i t-chopped parsley % t-pepper

y2 t-chopped onion 2 T-water

Mix all the ingredients in the order named, stirring lightly with a fork. Place in shape on the meat. Care should be taken not to have the dressing soggy or heavy.

Prune Pudding (Four portions)

1 C-cooked, seeded and 1 t-vanilla chopped prunes Y$ C-sugar

54 C-nut meats, cut fine 1 t-baking powder y2 C-milk y& t-salt

Mix all the ingredients in the order named. Pour into a well-buttered shallow earthenware dish. Place the dish in a pan of hot water and bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven, or until the mixture is firm. Serve warm. Individual amounts may be made in moulds.

CHAPTER XLIII THE DIXONS COME TO DINNER

*</^HARLOTTE, you must have Bettina tell you how to

^■^ cook fish this way," said Frank.

"It's the Bechamel sauce on it that you like, I suspect," said Bettina. "And it isn't at all hard to make. I serve it with so many things. We like it with carrots "

"Oh, is it the very same sauce that you serve with carrots?" said Charlotte. "I can make it, Frank. I'll have it for din- ner one of these days, with halibut, just as Bettina has served it tonight."

"There is only one thing to think about especially in making it," said Bettina. "After you have beaten the egg slightly, add a very little of the hot liquid to it, and then pour the mixture into the rest. Then cook it a short time, not long, as a sauce made with egg sometimes separates."

"I'll remember," said Charlotte. "You do have such good meals, Bettina. How do you manage it? Sometimes I can think of the best things to cook, and other days I don't seem to have a bit of imagination !"

"I plan my menu all out a week, and sometimes two weeks, ahead," said Bettina. "It is really quite a complicated process, as I want to have a variety, as well as inexpensive things that are on the market. Of course, I may change my plans in many details, but I keep to the general outline. Planning the meals seems simple, but it really requires a lot of thinking sometimes. Excuse me while I bring in the dessert. Bob, will you please help me take the plates?"

The menu that night consisted of:

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With Bettinas Best Recipes H5

Sauted Halibut Steak Bechamel Sauce

Potato Cubes Butter Sauce

Sliced Cucumbers and Onions with Vinegar

Rolls Butter

Prune Whip Whipped Cream

Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Bechamel Sauce (Four portions)

2 T-butter 1/3 t-salt 2 T-flour Y% t-paprika

\y2 C-milk 1 egg-yolk

Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and pepper, mix well, and gradually add the milk. Cook until it thickens. (Not as thick as white sauce for vegetables.) Add the egg yolk. Serve immediately.

To add egg yolk to the hot liquid, beat the egg slightly, add a small portion of the hot liquid slowly and pour it all into the remainder of the hot liquid. Cook only a short time, as the mixture may separate if cooked longer.

Potato Cubes (Four portions)

2 C-raw potatoes cut JA t-salt

in 24-inch cubes 4 C-boiling water

Add the salt to the boiling water, add the potatoes and boil till tender. (About ten minutes.) Drain and shake over the fire for a moment. Add the sauce, and serve.

Butter Sauce (Four portions)

2 T-butter 1 t-chopped green pepper

1 T-chopped parsley % t-paprika

Mix together, heat and add to the potatoes.

Prune Whip (Four portions)

1/3 lb. prunes 1 T-lemon juice 3 egg-whites l/2 C-sugar

Pick over and wash the prunes, then soak for several hours in cold water, enough to cover. Cook slowly until soft, about

146 A Thousand Ways To Please a Husband

fifteen minutes. Rub through a strainer. Add sugar and lemon juice and cook five minutes ; the mixture should be the consistency of marmalade.

Beat the whites until stiff, add the prunes when cold, pile lightly into a buttered baking dish and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve with cream.

CHAPTER XLIV THE WEDDING INVITATIONS

BOB and Bettina had scarcely sat down to dinner one crisp cold evening, when they heard laughing voices at the door. "It sounds like Alice/' said Bettina. "What can she be up to now ? And Harry, too !"

Bob had already thrown open the door, and there, as Bettina had guessed, were Alice and Harry, each carrying a large box.

"We've come to deliver your invitation to the wedding," said Alice. "It may be unconventional, but it's fun. The rest we are going down to mail — that is, if we don't get frightened at the idea, and pitch the boxes in the river instead."

"If that's the way you feel," said Harry firmly, "I'll carry