A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (32 page)

"He isn't bald and he isn't solemn," declared Catherine with some spirit.

"Forgive me, Catherine dear! He is a lamb and a darling and everything else you want me to say!"

"I want you to say? Why, Edna, aren't you ashamed!" said Catherine, growing very red. "Who ever heard of such nonsense?"

"I love to tease you, Catherine. It's so easy! So you won't help me get my hat? I want a beautiful purple one—or else a perky little black one. I haven't decided whether to be stately and gracious, or frivolous and cunning. But I do know that I will not look as if I were about to cram the multiplication table into the head of some poor little innocent!"

"Don't worry, Edna," said Bob. "You won't look that way at all. In fact, I wonder that you can be serious long enough to impress the members of the school board when they come visiting."

"She doesn't try to impress them; she just smiles at them instead, and that does just as well," said Catherine. "But she's not so utterly frivolous as her conversation sounds. She wants to hear the convention addresses just as much as I do—and I know she'll be there this afternoon. In fact, I intend to save a seat for her."

"Between you and Professor Macy?" asked Edna, innocently. "Or on his left?"

"Shame on you, Edna," said Bettina. "Now you girls tell me just what you'd like for dinner! Aren't there some special dishes you're hungry for?"

"Pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes!" said Edna. "Our landlady never has them, and I often dream of the joy of ordering such delicacies!"

And so that evening for dinner Bettina had:

Pork Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes
Baked Apples
Bread Butter
Cottage Pudding with Chocolate Sauce
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pork Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes
(Four portions)

1½ lbs. pork tenderloin
1 t-salt
¼ t-pepper
4 large sweet potatoes

Wipe the tenderloins which have been prepared by cutting into small pieces (by the butcher). Place in a small roaster and put in a hot oven. When brown on each side, season with salt and pepper. Pare the potatoes and place in the pan with the meat. Baste every ten minutes with one-fourth cup of water if there are not sufficient drippings to baste both the potatoes and meat. Cook until the potatoes are done (about forty-five minutes).

Baked Apples
(Four portions)

4 Jonathan apples
8 T-"C" sugar
2 t-cinnamon
1 C-water
½ t-vanilla

Wash and core the apples. Fill each with one tablespoon of sugar and one-half teaspoon of cinnamon. Place in a small tin pan just large enough to hold them. Add the water and the rest of the sugar, and bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Baste frequently with the syrup. After the apples have cooked thirty minutes, add the vanilla to the syrup.

Bettina's Cottage Pudding
(Four portions)

½ C-sugar
¼ t-salt
1 C-flour
2 t-baking powder
3 T-chopped nuts
½ t-vanilla
1 egg
½ C-milk
3 T-melted butter

Mix the sugar, salt, flour, baking powder and nuts. Add the egg and milk and mix well. Add the vanilla. Beat vigorously for two minutes, and then add the melted butter. Pour into well-buttered gem pans, filling each half full. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce
(Four portions)

½ C-sugar
2 T-flour
1 C-water
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 square of chocolate
¼ t-vanilla

Mix thoroughly the sugar, flour and salt. Add the water and the chocolate. Cook slowly until the chocolate is melted (about two minutes). Add the vanilla and serve hot. If too thick, add more water until the desired consistency is reached.

"I
'LL stay at home and help you this morning; may I, Bettina?" asked Edna, looking wistfully around at Bettina's white kitchen.

"No, indeed, my dear. It is such a simple little luncheon that I have planned that I can easily do it all alone. And you must go to the meeting. All I ask is that you won't forget to come home at noon."

"Edna would much rather fuss around with you in this dear little kitchen than to go to the meetings," said Catherine, "but I won't let her. She is always crazy to cook and do housework and things like that, but she came to this convention with me, and I intend to have her get the benefit of it. Do you hear me, you bad girl? It's almost time for us to be there. Go and get your things!"

"This is the way I'm managed all the time!" complained Edna to Bettina. "Do you wonder that I look thin and pale?"

"Poor Edna!" said Bettina, smiling at her round figure and rosy cheeks. "Now do run along with Catherine. But don't forget we'll have three other guests at noon! So wear your prettiest smile!"

"And I'll help you serve!" Edna smiled back.

That day for luncheon, Bettina had:

Creamed Oysters on Toast
Pear Salad Brown Bread Sandwiches
Pecan Ice Cream Sponge Cake
Mints Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Creamed Oysters on Toast
(Six portions)

6 pieces of toast, cut circular
3 T-butter
4 T-flour
¼ t-paprika
1 t-salt
1½ C-milk
2 C-oysters

Pick over the oysters, and drain off the liquor. Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika, and mix thoroughly. Gradually add the milk, cook until thick and creamy (about three minutes), and add the oysters. Serve very hot on toast. Garnish with parsley.

Pear Salad
(Six portions)

6 halves of pear
½ C-cottage cheese
1 T-chopped pimento
1 T-chopped green pepper
6 halves of walnuts
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
6 T-salad dressing
6 pieces of lettuce

Arrange the pears on the lettuce leaves. Mix the cheese, pimento, green pepper and paprika thoroughly. Fill the half of the pear with the mixture. Place salad dressing over the mixture and lay one nut meat on top of each portion. Serve cold.

Pecan Ice Cream
(Ten portions)

1 qt. of cream
¾ C-sugar
1½ T-vanilla
½ C-pecan meats, cut fine

Mix the cream, sugar and vanilla. Fill a freezer half full of the mixture. When half frozen add the pecan meats. Continue freezing until stiff. Pack and allow to stand two hours to "ripen" before serving.

Sponge Cake
(Ten portions)

6 egg-yolks
1 C-sugar
1 t-lemon extract
6 egg-whites
1 C-flour
¼ t-salt

Beat the egg-yolks until thick and lemon colored. Add the sugar gradually and continue beating, using a Dover egg-beater.
Add the extract and whites of the eggs very stiffly beaten. Remove the egg beater and cut and fold the flour which has been sifted four times, the salt having been added to the last sifting. Bake one hour in an unbuttered, narrow pan in a slow oven.

Genuine sponge cake has no baking powder or soda in it. The eggs must be vigorously beaten so that the cake will rise. A very slow oven is necessary. Increase the heat slightly every fifteen minutes.

Do not cut sponge cake; it should be broken apart with a fork.

"B
ETTINA, what makes the gas stove pop like that when I light it? I've often wondered."

"Why, Ruth, that's because you apply the match too soon. You ought to allow the gas to flow for about four seconds; that fills all the little holes with gas and blows out the air. Then light it, and it won't pop or go out. The flame ought to burn blue; if it burns yellow, turn it off, and adjust it again."

"Well, I'm glad to know that. Sometimes it has been all right and sometimes it hasn't, and I never realized that it was because I applied the match too soon. I'm glad I came today."

"I'm glad, too, but not because of instructing you, I'm not competent to do that in very many things, goodness knows! When I called up and asked you to lunch, it was because I had such a longing to see what lovely things you'd be making today. You will have the daintiest, prettiest trousseau, Ruth!"

"I love to embroider, so I'm getting great fun out of it. I tell Fred it's a treat to make pretty things and keep them all! They were usually for gifts before! Oh, lobster salad?"

"No, creamed lobster on toast. There, Mister Lobster, you're out of your can. I always hurry him out in double-quick time onto a plate, or into an earthenware dish, because I'm so afraid something might interrupt me, and I'd be careless enough to leave him in the opened can! Though I know I never could be so careless. Then I never leave a metal fork standing in lobster or canned fish. It's a bad thing."

"I knew about the can, but not about the fork, though I don't believe I ever do leave a fork or a spoon in anything like that."

"Would you prefer tea, coffee, or chocolate with these cookies for dessert?"

"Coffee, I believe, Bettina. Aren't they cunning cookies! What are they?"

"Peanut cookies. I think they are good, and they are so simple to make. They are nice with afternoon tea; mother often serves them. There—lunch is all ready but the coffee, and we'll have that last."

Luncheon consisted of:

Creamed Lobster on Toast
Head Lettuce French Dressing with Green Peppers
Bread Butter
Peanut Cookies
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Creamed Lobster on Toast
(Two portions)

²
/
₃
C-lobster
2 T-butter
A few grains of cayenne pepper
¹
/
₃
t-salt
2 T-flour
1 C-milk
½ t-lemon juice
1 egg-yolk
3 slices of toast

Melt the butter, add the salt, cayenne and flour. Gradually add the milk, cook until thick, stirring constantly unless in double boiler. Add the egg-yolk. Add the lobster, separated with a fork, and the lemon juice. Serve very hot on toast, garnished with parsley.

Head Lettuce
(Two portions)

1 head lettuce

Remove the outside leaves and the core. Soak in cold water with one-half teaspoon salt in it, with the head of the lettuce down. Cut into quarters. Serve a quarter as a portion.

French Dressing with Green Peppers
(Two portions)

½ t-salt
¼ t-pepper
2 T-vinegar
4 T-olive oil
2 T-chopped green peppers

Mix the salt, pepper, and green pepper. Add the vinegar. Beat well and add the olive oil slowly. Beat with a silver fork until the dressing thickens.

Peanut Cookies
(Two dozen)

½ C-sugar
3 T-butter
1 egg
1 t-baking powder
¼ t-salt
1 C-flour
½ C-chopped peanuts
½ t-lemon juice

Cream the butter, add the sugar, mix well, and add well-beaten egg. Add the baking-powder, salt, flour, chopped peanuts, and lemon juice. Mix thoroughly, and drop two inches apart on a greased baking-tin or in pans. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.

"S
AY, this feels good!" said Bob, as he warmed his hands by the cheerful blaze.

"Doesn't it!" said Bettina, enthusiastically. "And see, I've set the dinner table here by the fireplace. It's such fun when just the two of us are here. Isn't the log burning well?"

"I wondered if we could use one of our new logs tonight—thought about it all the way home. And here you had already tried it! November has turned so much colder that I believe winter is coming."

"So do I, but I don't mind, I don't want a warm Thanksgiving."

"Dinner ready? M—m, what's that? Lamb chops? Escalloped potatoes? Smells good!"

"Come on, dear! After dinner, we'll try those nuts we left so long out at Uncle John's. Do you think they're dry enough by this time? Charlotte phoned me that they had tried theirs, and found them fine. By the way, she and Frank may come over this evening."

"Hope they do. Listen—I hear a car outside now."

"Sure enough, that's Frank and Charlotte. Go to the door, Bob! We'll persuade them to eat dessert with us.... Hello, people! Come in; you're just in time to have some tea and a ginger drop-cake apiece."

"That's what we came for, Bettina!" shouted Frank, laughing. "And then you must come out in the car with us. It's a beautiful, clear, cold night, and you'll enjoy it—if you take plenty of wraps!"

For dinner that night Bettina served:

Lamb Chops Escalloped Potatoes
Egg Plant
Bread Butter
Ginger Drop-Cakes
Tea

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Broiled Lamb Chops
(Two portions)

2 lamb chops
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika