A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (18 page)

Cold Fried Chicken Creamed Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Sliced Peaches Chocolate Cookies
Tea Milk

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Creamed Potatoes as Bettina Served Them
(Six portions)

3 C-cold, cooked potatoes, chopped
2 T-butter
3 T-flour
6 T-grated cheese
1½ C-milk
½ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-pepper

Melt the butter, add the flour and seasoning and mix well; gradually add the milk and cheese. Cook until the consistency of vegetable white sauce (about one minute after it boils). Add the potatoes, cook four minutes, stirring constantly, and serve.

Chocolate Cookies
(Three dozen)

1 C-sugar
¹
/
₃
C-butter
1 egg
¼ C-milk
2 C-flour
½ t-cinnamon
½ t-salt
3 t-baking powder
1 square chocolate
1 t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add the sugar and cream well. Add alternately the sifted flour, salt, baking powder and egg beaten in milk. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla. Turn out on a floured board and roll a small portion at a time to one-fourth of an inch in thickness. Cut with a floured cooky cutter. Place on a buttered, floured pan and bake in a moderate oven until slightly brown. (About ten minutes.)

A
S Bettina was standing before a beautiful exhibit of honey in the agricultural building, she was startled by a hand upon her shoulder.

"Gracious, Uncle John!" she exclaimed. "How you frightened me! But I'm so glad to see you! Where is Aunt Lucy?"

"Here, somewhere. You know she took a few prizes herself and is probably hanging around to hear any stray compliments for her butter or preserves."

"Aren't you ashamed, John!" said Aunt Lucy, herself appearing like magic. "I was just looking for the queen bee among the others in this glass case."

"And here she is!" said Uncle John, laying his hand on Bettina's shoulder, and laughing delightedly at his own joke. "You've been looking in the wrong place."

"For that, Uncle John, I'm going to beg you and Aunt Lucy to come home with me to dinner. Won't you? When did you come in?"

"This morning, and we're making a day of it. We'd like to see the fireworks this evening, but perhaps we could go to your house and get back again. For that matter, you and Bob could go with us to see the fireworks. How about it?"

"Oh, that would be splendid! Bob couldn't come to the fair this afternoon, and I came with a friend."

"Well, we'll take you both home in the car. When shall we see you? Five o'clock? Fine! And you and Bob must come back with us this evening."

Dinner that night consisted of:

Broiled Ham
Hashed Brown Potatoes Pickled Beets
Bread Butter
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Hashed Brown Potatoes
(Four portions)

2 C-chopped potatoes
½ t-salt
a pinch of pepper
4 T-fat

Put fat in frying-pan, when very hot, add the potatoes, salt and pepper. Cook three minutes, allowing to cook without stirring for two minutes. Fold as an omelet and turn onto a hot platter. Garnish with parsley.

Pickled Beets
(Four portions)

6 beets
²
/
₃
C-vinegar
2 T-sugar

Wash the medium-sized beets thoroughly, and cook until tender in boiling water. Drain, cover with cold water and slip off the skins. Slice the beets into one-fourth inch slices. Cover with vinegar and sugar. Allow to stand two hours before using.

Brown Betty
(Four portions)

2 C-sliced apples
1 C-fresh bread crumbs
¼ C-brown sugar
1 t-cinnamon
3 T-butter
½ C-water

Mix the apples, all but two tablespoons of the bread crumbs, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and pour into a buttered baking-dish. Pour the water over the whole mixture. Use the remainder of the crumbs and a little melted butter for the top. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Serve hot or cold with hard sauce.

Hard Sauce for Brown Betty
(Four portions)

4 T-butter
1 C-powdered sugar
½ t-vanilla extract
½ t-lemon extract
1 t-boiling water

Cream the butter, add the boiling water, and the sugar gradually. Stir until the sauce is creamy. Add vanilla and lemon extract. Set in the ice-box to harden. Serve cold.

"Y
OU seem to have gained in weight, Frank," said Bob, as he and Bettina sat down to Sunday dinner with the Dixons.

"And what's more, I've gained in spirits! Say, there's nothing like living in a real home! Why, people, just think of having Charlotte say to me as she did yesterday, 'Frank, Bob and Bettina are coming to dinner tomorrow, and I want you to plan the menu!' And here it is! Excuse me for seeming too proud of my own good judgment and my wife's skill in cookery, but——"

"Hush, Frank! Maybe Bob and Bettina won't like your choice of dishes or your wife's cooking!"

"What!" said Bob. "I have yet to meet the person who doesn't like fried chicken! And roasting ears and new potatoes! Sa-ay!"

"It's a man-size dinner all right, isn't it?" said Mr. Dixon. "You know ever since I was a boy my idea of Sunday dinner (at least in the summer) has been fried chicken with gravy, new potatoes, boiled corn on the cob, and ice cream with sliced peaches! Because ice cream is coming, isn't it, Charlotte? At least I ordered it, and this appears to be my lucky day!"

"Indeed, it is coming," said Mrs. Dixon. "You see, Bettina, ever since I came to keep house (thanks to you) I've longed for the time to come when I could let Frank plan a company meal that I could carry out to the last detail. I have tried all these things before, although not all at the same time. I have always suspected that he would order fried chicken and
its accessories (a 'little boy dinner' I called this), so when I told him that he might plan the meal, I knew that I could cook it. You see, I have wanted to invite you and Bob—oh, I've been thinking of it for a long time, but you can cook so well that I thought perhaps you'd rather eat at home!"

"Charlotte, this is a perfect dinner—far better than I could get, I know."

"This salad is an acquired taste with me," put in Mr. Dixon. "In my boyhood, my ideal dinner did not include salad, but Charlotte said there must be one, so this was my choice. I mixed the oil-dressing myself," he added with pride.

"It was a simple dinner to get," said Mrs. Dixon. "But now, Frank, we mustn't boast any more about our own dinner, must we? Bob and Bettina will laugh at us. You see, we're regular children since we took the house, but we do have lots of fun. I wouldn't go back to hotel living for anything in the world!"

"And neither would I," said Frank, "if for no other reason than the joy of entertaining our friends at dinner this way!"

Their Sunday dinner consisted of:

Fried Chicken New Boiled Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Bread Butter
Sliced Cucumber, Tomato and Onion Salad
Oil Dressing
Vanilla Ice Cream with Peaches
White Cake Iced Tea

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Vegetable Salad
(Four portions)

2 medium-sized tomatoes
½ cucumber
1 onion

Dressing

4 T-vinegar
2 T-oil
½ t-salt
¼ t-paprika

Cut the peeled tomatoes and cucumber in one-third inch cubes, mix with the onion chopped fine. Add the dressing,
which has been well mixed, and allow to stand ten minutes in a cold place. Serve on head lettuce.

Peaches for Ice Cream
(Six portions)

2 C-peaches, sliced
²
/
₃
C-sugar

Add the sugar to the peaches and allow to stand in the ice box for ten minutes. Place peaches around the ice cream.

White Cake
(Twenty pieces)

½ C-butter
1½ C-sugar
2
²
/
₃
C-sifted flour
5 t-baking powder
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 C-milk
4 egg whites, beaten stiffly
1 t-vanilla
½ t-lemon extract

Cream the butter, add the sugar, and continue creaming for two minutes. Alternately add all the dry ingredients and the milk. Beat well. Cut and fold in the egg-whites. Add the flavoring. Bake in two buttered layer-cake pans, twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Cover with "C" sugar icing.

"C" Sugar Icing
(Twenty portions)

3 egg whites
3 C-"C" sugar
²
/
₃
C-water
1 t-vanilla

Cook the sugar and water together without stirring until the icing "clicks" in cold water. Remove from the fire and pour very slowly over the stiffly beaten egg-whites. Beat vigorously and continuously until the icing gets thick and creamy. Add the vanilla. Spread on the cake.

Vanilla Ice Cream
(Six portions)

1 qt. cream
¾ C-sugar
1 T-vanilla
¹
/
₈
t-salt

Mix cream, sugar, vanilla and salt. Place in a scalded and chilled freezer. Turn until the mixture stiffens. Pack for two hours to ripen.

"T
HIS is just the kind of a cold, rainy evening," said Bob as he pushed back his chair, "that makes me feel like making candy."

"Fine!" said Bettina. "What kind shall it be?"

"Penoche, if you have all the ingredients."

"I think I have. Let's see. It's better when it's made partly with 'C' sugar, and I have that. I wonder if there will be enough milk left for breakfast if we use a little! Well, penoche really tastes exactly as good when it is made with water instead, though, of course, it isn't so rich. But then, I think, we do have enough milk."

"First of all, though," said Bob, "we'll wash these dishes. It was a mighty good dinner tonight, Bettina. The nice kind of a hot meal that it seems good to come home to on a night like this."

"It was an oven dinner, Bob. You see, the meat loaf, the escalloped potatoes, and the rice pudding were all in the oven at once. I always try to use the oven for more than one dish if I am using it at all."

"We seem to have eaten all of this tomato sauce," said Bob, as he carried out the dish, "but there is a good deal of meat left. Will you have to make more sauce?"

"No, I planned just enough for one meal. Then, tomorrow, I'll serve the rest of the meat cold without a sauce. How did you like the rice pudding hot as it was tonight? You know I usually serve it cold."

"It tasted very good for a cold evening. There, all these
dishes are ready to wash, Bettina. Will you get out some tea towels for me?"

The dinner that night consisted of:

Hot Beef Loaf Tomato Sauce
Escalloped Potatoes
Bread Butter
Rice Pudding

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Beef Loaf
(Five portions)

1 lb. beef cut from the round
¼ lb. salt pork
½ t-salt
¼ t-pepper
¹
/
₈
t-onion salt
¼ C-cracker or bread crumbs
1 egg yolk
1 T-milk
1 T-butter

Grind the meat well, and mix all the ingredients excepting the butter. Pat into an oblong shape and place in a well-buttered pan. Add three tablespoons of water to the pan, and place the butter in small pieces on the top of the loaf. Cover the pan and bake thirty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

Tomato Sauce
(Three portions)

1 C-tomatoes, cut up
½ C-water
2 bay leaves
1 t-sugar
¼ t-ground cloves
1 slice of onion or
¹
/
₈
T-onion salt
2 T-butter
2 T-flour
¹
/
₃
t-salt

Simmer for fifteen minutes the tomatoes, water, bay leaves, sugar, cloves and onion. Strain and press out all the pulp. Melt the butter, add the flour, blend well, slowly add the strained tomato and salt. Cook one minute. Serve hot on the meat.

Escalloped Potatoes
(Three portions)