A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (34 page)

Chop the suet, and sprinkle with one tablespoon of flour to prevent sticking. Add the raisins, currants, "C" sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves and bread crumbs. Add the egg and milk beaten together, add the vanilla, mix the soda in the molasses and add to the first mixture. Fill a well-buttered pudding mould one-half full. Steam two hours. Serve with hard sauce.

Hard Sauce

¹
/
₃
C-butter
2 T-hot water
¾ C-brown sugar
½ t-vanilla
½ t-lemon extract

Cream the butter, add water and gradually add the sugar. Continue mixing until very creamy. Add the vanilla and lemon extract. Chill and serve over the hot pudding.

"A
ND what is in this dish, Bettina?" asked Bob, as he lifted the hot cover.

"Candied sweet potatoes, dear, and I'm almost sure that you'll like them. I made them in the fireless cooker, and they're really more candy than potatoes."

"They'll suit me, then," said Bob. "The sweeter the better! My mother used to cook up candied sweet potatoes with a lot of brown sugar syrup—say, but they tasted good about this time of year when I would come in from skating! Well, I believe these are exactly like hers!"

"Only hers weren't made in a fireless cooker," said Bettina. "Now, Bob, as soon as you have allayed your hunger a little we must put our heads together long enough to get an idea for Christmas cards. If we have something made, it may take several weeks, and you know it is no small task to address several hundred of them. As soon as we have ordered them, we'd better make out our Christmas list. But first, what shall the cards be? Think, Bob!"

"Goodness gracious sakes alive, but thinking is hot work! Well, how's this? Suppose we don't have cards engraved—they're expensive, and besides, 'twould take too long! We'll find some plain white correspondence cards—or perhaps white cards with a red edge—and envelopes to go with them, and in the corner of the card we'll stick a tiny round snapshot of the house. Then we'll write this verse very neatly and sign it 'Bettina and Bob.' Perhaps you can improve on this, however:

Beefsteak Fireless Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Carrots
Pineapple Charlotte Custard Sauce

"Bob, that's the very thing!" cried Bettina.

For dinner that night they had:

Beefsteak Fireless Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Carrots
Pineapple Charlotte Custard Sauce

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Fireless Sweet Potatoes (Candied)
(Six Portions)

6 large sweet potatoes
1 C-brown sugar
¼ C-water
1 t-salt
¼ t-pepper
1 T-butter

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Slice them lengthwise in one-half inch slices. Make a syrup by boiling for five minutes the brown sugar and water. Add the butter. Arrange the potatoes in a fireless cooker utensil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pour the syrup over them. Place the heated disks under and over the pan of potatoes, and cook in the fireless an hour and a half.

Pineapple Charlotte
(Four portions)

2 T-corn starch
4 T-cold water
¼ t-salt
¼ C-sugar
1 C-boiling water
2 egg-whites
1 t-vanilla
½ t-lemon extract
2 slices of pineapple cut in slices lengthwise

Mix the corn starch, salt and sugar; gradually add the cold water, stirring well, and then add the hot water. Cook about five minutes, stirring constantly. Then add the vanilla, and the egg-whites stiffly beaten. Pour into a moistened mould in which the slices of pineapple have been arranged. Set in a cool place for two hours. Serve with custard sauce.

Custard Sauce
(Four portions)

1½ C-milk
2 egg-yolks
¼ C-sugar
½ t-vanilla
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 T-flour
¼ t-lemon extract

Mix well the sugar, salt and flour, gradually add the beaten egg-yolks, and the milk. Cook in a double boiler until the mixture coats a silver spoon yellow. Add the vanilla and lemon extract. Beat one minute. Serve very cold.

DECEMBER.

Roasting turkeys! Rich mince pies!
Cakes of every shape and size!
Santa, though they're fond of you,
Christmas needs us housewives, too!

"W
HO can that be?" said Bettina, laying down her napkin. "Someone is at the door, Bob, I think. I wonder why he doesn't ring?"

"Hello!" said Bob, throwing open the door. "Why, Bettina! It's Alice and Harry! When did you get home?"

"We're on our way home now," said Harry, as he set down the suitcases he was holding. "Say, these are heavy! We thought we'd stop in for a minute to rest."

"Welcome home!" said Bettina. "Just think, we don't even know yet where you went for your wedding trip, though we suspected California."

"California it was," said Alice, "along with all the other recent brides and grooms. We escaped any particular notice; there were so many of us. It was rather a relief, though."

"Have you had your dinner?" asked Bettina, a little embarrassed at the thought of the "dinner for two" that she and Bob were just finishing. There was certainly not enough left for another person, not to suggest two. But then, of course there was her ample emergency shelf.

"We had our dinner on the diner," said Harry, "or we shouldn't have dared to stop at this hour."

"Do come on out to the kitchen," said Bettina. "Bob is
about to make some delicious sour cream candy, aren't you, Bob? Surely that is a splendid way to entertain a newly returned bride and groom."

"Fine!" said Harry, "though we can't stay long. We must hie to our own apartment and get rid of the dust of travel. We're looking forward to the time when we can return some of your hospitality. I shall learn to make even better candy than Bob's!"

For dinner that night Bettina had:

Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes
Apple Sauce
Bread Butter
Perfection Salad Salad Dressing

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes
(Two portions)

2 sweet potatoes
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika
2 chops
¹
/
₃
C-boiling water

Pare sweet potatoes, add salt and place in the bottom of a small roasting pan. Wipe pork chops and place on top of the potatoes. Place the pan, uncovered, on the top shelf of a hot oven in order to brown the chops. Brown on one side and then turn gently and brown on the other. Sprinkle with a little salt and paprika, and add one-third of a cup of boiling water. Cover, and bake one hour, or until the potatoes are done. Baste frequently.

Perfection Salad
(Three portions)

1 T-granulated gelatin
4 T-cold water
4 T-vinegar
1 T-lemon juice
1 C-boiling water
4 T-sugar
½ t-salt
²
/
₃
C-diced celery
½ C-shredded cabbage
1 green pepper, chopped
2 T-pimento, cut fine

Add the cold water to the gelatin, and let it stand for five minutes. Add the boiling water. When thoroughly dissolved add the vinegar, salt, lemon juice and sugar. Mix well. Add
the celery, cabbage, green pepper and pimento when the jelly begins to set. Pour into a mould which has been dipped in cold water. Allow to set in a very cold place for one hour. Serve with salad dressing.

Sour Cream Candy
(Six portions)

2 C-brown sugar
1 t-vanilla
½ C-sour cream or ½ C-sour milk plus 1 T-butter
¼ t-cream of tartar

Mix the sugar, cream of tartar and the sour cream or milk. Cook until a soft ball is formed when dropped in cold water. Remove from the fire and allow to cool. Beat until creamy and place in a well-buttered pan.

"A
ND what have you been doing all day?" asked Bob after he had related his own experiences at the office. "Just my usual work this morning, and this afternoon I went to a meeting of the social committee of our Young People's League; you know I've promised to help this winter. They plan a social to be given in about two weeks to raise money for the orphanage fund, and I do think their idea is a clever one. You see, it's a 'firelight social'; admission ten cents. Mrs. Lewis has offered her house for it. Invitations are to be sent to all members of the church, Sunday school and league, inviting people to 'come and read pictures in the fire.' The cards are to be decorated with little pen and ink sketches of hearthstones with burning logs on them. Of course there will be a huge log in her big fireplace. Then as soon as the guests are gathered around, someone is to read aloud that passage from 'Our Mutual Friend,' where Lizzie Hexam reads the pictures in the firelight for her brother. Then pencils and paper will be passed among the guests and each one writes a short description of the pictures he sees in the fire. In ten minutes these are collected and read aloud, with a prize for the best one. Then corn will be popped and marshmallows toasted, and weird ghost stories told. (Of course certain clever people have been asked beforehand to be prepared.) Then supper will be served by candlelight; it will consist of things like sandwiches, cider, coffee, nuts and cookies. Don't you think a firelight social will be fun?"

"Sure it will! But I'm glad tonight we can be alone by our own firelight, Bettina!"

That evening for dinner Bettina served:

Fried Oysters Baked Potatoes
Bettina's Relish Asparagus on Toast
Apple Tapioca Cream
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Fried Oysters
(Two portions)

12 oysters
½ C-cracker crumbs
1 T-egg
1 T-water
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
2 T-fat

Look over the selected large oysters to remove the shells. Mix the egg, water, salt and paprika. Dip the oyster in the egg mixture and in the crumbs. Place the fat in the frying-pan, and when hot add the oysters. Brown nicely on each side, three minutes. Serve very hot on a hot platter. Garnish with parsley.

Bettina's Fried-Oyster Relish
(Two portions)

1 C-cabbage, cut fine
1 green pepper, cut fine
1 pimento, cut fine
¼ t-celery salt
¹
/
₈
t-mustard
¼ t-salt
1 T-"C" sugar
2 T-vinegar

Mix the celery salt, mustard, salt and sugar, add the vinegar. Pour over the pimento, green pepper and cabbage. Serve as a relish with oysters and meats. This relish should be served within one-half hour after it is made.

Asparagus on Toast
(Two portions)

½ can asparagus tips
1 C-vegetable white sauce
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-pepper
2 slices of toast