A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (19 page)

4 potatoes (medium sized)
2 T-flour
2 T-butter
1 T-salt
¼ t-pepper
milk (about one cup)

Wash and peel the potatoes. Slice very thin. Mix through the sliced potatoes, the flour, salt, pepper and the butter in
small pieces. Place the mixture in a well-buttered pan or baking dish, and cover with milk. Usually one cup suffices. Bake in a moderate oven forty-five to fifty minutes. (Do not fill the pan more than three-fourths full, as the potatoes will boil over.)

Rice Pudding
(Three portions)

1¼ C-milk
1 egg
4 T-sugar
¼ t-salt
1 t-vanilla
1 C-cooked rice
1 t-butter
¹
/
₈
t-grated nutmeg

Beat the egg, add the sugar, salt, nutmeg, vanilla, and milk. Add the rice. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered baking dish and dot over with the butter. Bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes. It may be served hot or cold. Cream may be served with it if desired.

Penoche

2 C-"C" sugar
1 C-granulated sugar
1 T-butter
²
/
₃
C-milk
¼ t-cream of tartar
¼ C-nut-meats
1 t-vanilla

Mix the sugar, butter, milk and cream of tartar. Cook, stirring occasionally to prevent from scorching, until a soft ball is formed when a little candy is dropped in cold water. Remove from the fire, and do not stir until it is cool. Put back on the stove for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from stove, and beat vigorously until very creamy. Add the nuts and vanilla. When hard and creamy, remove from the pan, patting into shape and kneading until soft and creamy. Place on a buttered pan, patting to the thickness of three-fourths of an inch. Cut into the desired shape.

[157]
[158]

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!

"I
'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 promise you an elaborate dinner tonight, 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."

Bettina and Ruth had reached home by this time, and Bettina 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 appetizing, 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
3 T-butter
3 T-flour
1½ C-milk
½ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-pepper
¹
/
₈
t-parsley

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.

Potato Cakes
(Four portions)

2 C-mashed potatoes
1 T-lard
1 T-butter

Form cold seasoned mashed potato into cakes two inches in diameter. Dip 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)

1 qt. sour milk
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika
1 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.

"W
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 interested 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 mixture 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
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 successful 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
Sautéd Potatoes Creamed Corn
Cinnamon Rolls Butter
Peach Cobbler Cream

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Sautéd Potatoes
(Two portions)

2 large potatoes cooked
2 T-lard
½ t-salt
¼ t-pepper

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)

1 C-corn cut from the cob
½ C-water
1 t-butter
1 T-milk or cream
½ t-sugar
¼ t-salt

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

Cinnamon Rolls
(Twelve rolls)

2 T-sugar
½ t-salt
1 C-milk (scalded and lukewarm)
1 yeast cake
¼ C-lukewarm water
1½ C-flour
3 T-butter
4 T-sugar
¼ C-butter
½ 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 twenty-five minutes.

Peach Cobbler
(Two portions)

1 C-flour
1 t-baking powder
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 T-butter
¼ C-milk
3 good-sized peaches
¹
/
₃
C-sugar
¼ t-vanilla
¼ C-sugar
¼ C-water