A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (23 page)

From the low mass of variegated garden flowers in the center—pink, yellow, lavender, orange, blue, and as many others 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 hovered 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 butterfly from her favor cup. "Goodness, it's attached to something!"
Pulling gently by the rainbow tulle to which the butterfly 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 almost hysterically. For one small card which read, "Discovered 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 anymore," 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 that I expect to be as domestic as 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."

"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 disagreeably 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 wonder 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)

1½ C-tuna
1 C-fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs (just the yolks may be used)
1 t-lemon juice
1 t-chopped green pepper
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika

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 vegetable 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 vegetable white sauce (two T-butter, 2 T-flour, 1 C-milk, ¼ t-salt). When ready to serve and while steaming hot, add one beaten egg yoke. The hot sauce will cook the egg. Pour around the mould.

B
OB had scarcely left the house the next morning when Bettina was called to the door. "I couldn't resist coming!" 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 altogether 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 holding the wafers and the rolls—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, don't 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 a 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
1 C-crumbs
1 t-salt
2 T-egg

Boil potatoes of uniform size with the skins on. When cold, peel, 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-cooked cauliflower
1 C-vegetable sauce
2 T-crumbs
1 T-butter, melted

Cut a thin slice from the stem end of each large green pepper and 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.

Marshmallow Cream
(Four portions)

2 t-granulated gelatin
4 T-cold milk
²
/
₃
C-sugar
1
¹
/
₃
C-double cream
1 t-vanilla extract
1 egg white well beaten
1 t-lemon extract
¼ lb. marshmallows, cut in one-fourth cubes
4 toasted marshmallows
4 pecans
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 flavorings. 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 teaspoonful 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 desired, 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, lavender 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.

"A
ND here we are, busily planning Alice's affairs," said Bettina, "when we might be talking of yours, Ruth. Are you sure, sure, sure, that you don't want any parties, or showers, or affairs of any sort?"

"Sure, sure, sure!" said Ruth, emphatically. "I may be silly, Bettina, but to me such a fuss beforehand takes something away from the beauty of the wedding! And then there are other reasons. We've had to postpone building till next summer, and may not be married till the house is done—you know that. So we'll have been engaged a long time. It seems to me that after a long engagement like ours, it is better to have a simple wedding and no parties. Alice's is happening just as I always expected that it would—a surprising announcement, a short engagement, and many parties, with an elaborate wedding as the climax! Sometimes I think that sort would be the kind to have—but you see, Bettina, when you're expecting to be married only once, you want to have just the kind that seems best to you."

"And yours will be just right for you, Ruth," said Bettina, warmly. "You are you, and Fred is Fred, and I can't imagine either of you caring for much excitement. And when you are in your new house——"

"I'm going to have you over at least once a week to just such a dear little luncheon as this! Or rather—as much like it as I can devise. Bettina, how did you have time to cook such good things?"

"Well," said Bettina, "Bob will have these same things for
dinner tonight, with the addition of some cold sliced meat. So now, Ruth, we have a long afternoon before us—to sew and talk!"

Bettina's luncheon consisted of:

Bettina's Mexican Salad Brown Bread
Apricot Preserves
Orange Cake Hot Chocolate

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Bettina's Mexican Salad
(Four portions)

1 cucumber diced
2 tomatoes cut in one-inch cubes
1 C-cut celery
¼ C-cooked beets
1 T-chopped parsley
2 T-green pepper, cut fine
¹
/
₃
C-cottage cheese
1 t-salt
²
/
₃
C-salad dressing
4 lettuce leaves

Mix all the ingredients in order given and serve on lettuce leaves.

Brown Bread (Baked)
(Two loaves)

2 C-graham flour
2 C-white flour
2 t-soda
1 t-salt
½ C-molasses
2 C-sour milk

Mix well the graham flour, white flour, soda and salt. Add the molasses and sour milk; mix thoroughly. Pour into two well-buttered bread tins, and bake forty minutes in a moderate oven.

Orange Cake
(Sixteen pieces)

¹
/
₃
C-butter
1 C-sugar
2 eggs beaten separately
Grated rind of one orange
3 t-baking powder
¼ t-salt
¼ C-orange juice
¼ C-milk
1
²
/
₃
C-flour
½ t-lemon extract