A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (17 page)

"C" Sugar Icing
(Sixteen pieces)

1 C-"C" sugar
¹
/
₃
C-water
¹
/
₈
t-cream of tartar
1 egg white
½ t-vanilla

Mix the sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook until the syrup clicks when a little is dropped in cold water. Do not stir while cooking. Have the mixture boil evenly but not too fast. Pour gently over the beaten white of the egg. Stir and beat briskly until creamy. Add vanilla. Place on the cake. If too hard, add a tablespoon of water.

"I
HAD resolved," said Mrs. Dixon, at Bettina's dinner-table, "not to accept another invitation to come here until you people had eaten again at our house. But your invitations are just too alluring for me to resist, and your cooking is so much better than mine, and I always learn so much that—well—here we are! For instance, I feel that I am about to learn something this very minute! (Now, Frank, please don't scold me if I talk about the food!) Bettina, how did you ever dare to cook cabbage? It looks delicious and I know it is, but I tried cooking some the other day and the whole house has the cabbage odor in no time. Yours hasn't. Now what magic spell did you lay on this particular cabbage?"

"Let me answer that," said Bob. "I want to show off! Bettina cooked that as she always cooks onions and turnips, in a a large amount of water in an uncovered utensil. Isn't that correct, Bettina? Send me to the head of the class!"

"Yes, you're right. I did boil the cabbage this morning, and of course I have a well-ventilated kitchen, but I don't believe the odor would be noticeable if I had cooked it just before dinner."

"I never used to eat cabbage," said Bob, "but I like Bettina's way of preparing it. She never lets it cook until it gets a bit brown, and so it has a delicate flavor. Most people cook cabbage too long."

"Another question, Teacher. How did you manage to bake
these potatoes so that they are so good and mealy? Mine always burst from their skins."

"Well," said Bettina, "I ran the point of the knife around the outside of the potato. This cutting of the skin allows it to swell a little and prevents it from bursting. Then I baked it in a moderate oven. Another thing. I've discovered that it is better not to pierce a potato to find out if it is done. I press it with my fingers, and if it seems soft on the inside, I remove it from the oven and press the skin until it breaks, allowing the steam to escape. If I don't do that, a mealy potato becomes soggy from the quickly condensing steam."

"Oh, Bettina, I'm so glad to know that! I like baked potatoes because I know they are so digestible, but I never can make them like these. Now I won't monopolize the conversation any longer. You men may discuss business, or the war, or anything you choose."

The dinner that night was as follows:

Hamburger Steak Lemon Butter
Baked Potatoes Escalloped Cabbage
Bread Butter
Prune Soufflé

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Hamburger Steak
(Six cakes)

1 lb. of beef cut from the round
¼ t-salt
1 t-onion salt or onion juice
¹
/
₈
t-pepper

Grind the meat twice and add the seasoning. Shape into cakes two and a half inches in diameter and one inch thick, handling as little as possible. Place on a hot pan and cook under the broiler twelve minutes, turning when brown. Dot with butter and serve hot.

Lemon Butter for the Steak
(Four portions)

2 T-butter
½ t-salt
½ T-lemon juice
½ T-minced parsley
¼ t-paprika

Mix in order given and spread on hot meat of any kind, broiled steak, chops or fish.

Baked Potatoes
(Four portions)

Select potatoes of a uniform size. Wash thoroughly with a vegetable brush. Run the point of the knife around the outside of the potato. Bake in a moderate oven forty to sixty minutes.

Escalloped Cabbage
(Four portions)

2 C-cooked cabbage
1 C-white sauce
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
¼ C-bread crumbs
1 T-butter

Remove the outer leaves of a two and a half pound head of cabbage. Cut in half (using but half for dinner). Wash thoroughly and cut in shreds or chop moderately fine. Put in a large kettle of rapidly boiling water. Boil for twenty minutes. Drain well, add one-half a teaspoon salt. Make the white sauce, add the cabbage and paprika, mix well. Place in a buttered baking dish. Cover with buttered crumbs and place in a moderate oven until browned.

Prune Soufflé
(Four portions)

¼ lb. prunes
6 T-sugar
1 T-lemon juice or ½ t-lemon extract
2 egg whites

Wash the prunes thoroughly, cover with water, and allow to soak three hours. Cook slowly in the same water until soft. Remove the stones from the prunes, and save the pulp and juice. Add sugar, cook until very thick (about three minutes). Stir constantly. Cool, add the lemon juice. Cut and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Fill a well-buttered open tin mould half full of the mixture. Place the pan in another pan filled with boiling water. Cook in a slow oven until well raised, firm, and light brown in color (about twenty-five minutes). Serve with the following custard sauce:

Custard Sauce
(Four portions)

2 egg yolks
4 T-sugar
1 T-flour
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1½ C-milk
½ t-lemon extract

Beat egg yolks until light, in the upper part of a double
boiler. Add sugar, flour and salt. Mix well and slowly add the milk. Cook over the lower part of the boiler until thick enough to coat a silver spoon. Beat well, add the extract, and cool.

"W
HAT shall I do with this butter, Bettina?" inquired Bob, who was helping to clear off the table after dinner one evening. "Put it in the ice-box?"

"The butter from the table?" asked Bettina. "No, Bob, I keep that left-over butter in a covered dish in the cupboard. You see, there are so many times when I need butter for cake making or cooking, and prefer not to have it very hard. Then I use that cupboard butter. There's the doorbell, Bob. Now who do you suppose that can be?"

"A telegram from Uncle Eric," said Bob, when he returned from the door. "Well, isn't that the limit! He's coming tonight!"

"Tonight!" echoed Bettina.

"Yes, on business. You see, there are so many people in town for the state fair and there are several that he must see. He's a queer old fellow—Uncle Eric is—and he has some queer notions. Doesn't like hotels, or anything but home cooking. He doesn't want anything elaborate, but he's pretty fussy about what he does want. I'm sorry for you, Bettina, but I guess we'll have to make him welcome. He's been pretty good to me, in his funny way, and so I suppose he feels he can descend on us without warning."

"But, Bob—tonight! Why, I'm not ready! I haven't groceries in the house, or anything! And I was planning to give you a cooked cereal for breakfast tomorrow."

"It's too bad, Betty," said Bob sympathetically, "but it seems
as if we'll just have to manage some way. Uncle Eric has been good to me, you see. He's an old fogy of a bachelor, but he has a warm heart way down underneath his crusty exterior. And——"

"Don't you worry, Bob," said Bettina heartily. "We will manage. As a rule, I think it's pretty poor taste for anyone to come without warning or an invitation, but maybe Uncle Eric is an exception to all the rules. Tell me about him; do you have time? When does the train get in? Do you have to meet it?"

"I guess I'd better hurry right off now."

"But, Bob, tell me! What must I have for breakfast?"

"Anything but a cereal, Betty! Uncle Eric draws the line at cereals. He has an awful time with his cooks, too. They never suit him."

"Goodness, Bob!" said Betty, in despair. "And I have almost nothing in my cupboard. It's as bare as Mother Hubbard's!"

"Good-bye, dear! I'm off! I know you'll think of some thing."

Bettina smiled hopelessly at the masculine viewpoint, and as soon as Bob had gone she sat down to think, a dish towel in one hand and a spoon in the other.

"Be a sport, Bettina," she murmured to herself. "If Uncle Eric doesn't like his breakfasts, it's his own fault for coming. Get a pencil and paper and plan several cereal-less breakfasts, so that while he is here you will never be at a loss."

Thus fortified by her common sense and what is less common, her sense of humor, Bettina soon evolved the following breakfast menus for Uncle Eric:

(1)
Cantaloupe
French Toast Maple Syrup
Broiled Bacon
Coffee
(2)
Fresh Pears
Creamed Beef on Toast
Coffee
(3)
Cantaloupe
Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes
Syrup
Coffee
(4)
Baked Apples
Broiled Ham Graham Muffins
Coffee
(5)
Fresh Plums
Codfish Balls Twin Mountain Muffins
Coffee
(6)
Cantaloupe
Waffles Syrup
Coffee
(7)
Watermelon
Corn Oysters Syrup
Toast
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

French Toast
(Three portions)

6 slices stale bread
2 eggs
¼ t-salt
T-sugar
²
/
₃
C-milk

Beat the eggs slightly, add salt, milk and sugar. Place in a shallow dish. Soak bread in the mixture until soft. Cook on a hot, well-greased griddle, browning on one side and then turning and browning on the other. Serve hot with maple syrup.

Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes
(Four portions)

2 C-flour
3 t-baking powder
1 C-milk
1 t-salt
1 egg, well-beaten

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, add the milk to the well-beaten egg, and pour the liquid slowly into the dry ingredients. Beat thoroughly for one minute. Put a spoonful on
a hot, well-greased griddle. When done on one side, turn, and brown on the other. Never turn more than once.

Broiled Bacon
(Three portions)

6 slices of bacon

Place bacon slices, which have had the rind removed, on a hot tin pan and set directly under a flame for three minutes. Turn and broil the other side.

Corn Oysters
(Three portions)

¹
/
₃
C-corn
¹
/
₃
C-bread crumbs
1 well-beaten egg
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-pepper
½ t-sugar

Mix the corn, egg, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and sugar. Shape into cakes two inches in diameter and one-half an inch thick. Grease a griddle or a frying-pan thoroughly, and when very hot, place fritters on the pan. When brown on one side, turn over onto the other side. Serve hot, with syrup.

T
HE next morning when Bob and Uncle Eric had partaken of a cereal-less breakfast, and Uncle Eric had even complimented the cook, Bettina called her mother on the telephone.

"I was about to call you, Bettina. Won't you go to the fair with us this afternoon? You know Cousin Mabel and the children are here from Ford Center, and Cousin Wilfred may arrive some time this morning."

"You do have your hands full this week, don't you, Mother? Uncle Eric is at home only for breakfast, and I called up to ask if you would all come here to dinner tonight."

"Oh, Bettina! I'm afraid it will be too much work for you, dear!"

"I'll plan a simple meal, Mother; one that I can get together in a hurry. In fact I've already planned it."

"But, in that case, you couldn't go to the fair with us this afternoon, could you? And it's said to be especially good today."

"Why, yes, I could go. I can get the most of my dinner ready this morning. What time would you start?"

"At two, I think. Well, Bettina, we'll come, but you must make the meal simple, for we won't be back till six."

"Don't worry, Mother."

Bettina hastened to make her preparations, and at half after one her house was in order and she was ready to go. Besides, she was comfortably conscious of a well-filled larder—cold fried chicken ready and waiting, cold boiled potatoes to be
creamed, green corn to be boiled, peaches to be sliced, and delicious chocolate cookies to delight the hearts of the children.

"It will take only a few moments," she thought as she arranged the nasturtiums on her dining table, "to set the table, cream the potatoes, boil the corn, slice the peaches and make the tea. And I believe it's the sort of a dinner that will suit them."

The dinner for state fair guests consisted of: