A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (36 page)

"Charlotte has been making some small calendars to send out," said Frank. "She has used her kodak pictures, and I'm
afraid they're mostly of me! I don't know what some of my friends will say when they see me with an apron around my neck, seeding cherries!"

"They'll be surprised, anyhow," said Charlotte. "I rather like that picture myself!"

For dinner that night Bettina served:

Escalloped Oysters Baked Potatoes
Head Lettuce Russian Dressing
Baking Powder Biscuits Apple Jelly
Prune Whip Cream
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Escalloped Oysters
(Four portions)

2 C-oysters
2 C-cracker crumbs
3 T-melted butter
1 t-salt
¼ t-pepper
1½ C-milk

Look over the oysters carefully and remove any particles of shell. To the melted butter add salt, pepper and cracker crumbs. Place a layer of crumbs in the bottom of a well buttered baking dish, and add the oysters and more crumbs until the dish is filled. Pour the milk over the oysters and crackers. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

Russian Dressing
(Four portions)

1 C-salad dressing
1 t-chopped pimento
1 t-chopped green pepper
1 t-vinegar
½ t-paprika
¼ t-salt
½ C-olive oil
½ C-chili sauce

To the cup of salad dressing, add the oil, chili sauce, seasonings, vinegar and finely chopped vegetables. Beat two minutes. Pour over head lettuce.

Prune Whip
(Four portions)

¹
/
₃
lb. prunes
3 egg-whites
1 T-lemon juice
½ C-sugar

Look over and wash the prunes. Soak for three hours in
cold water. Cook until soft. Rub through a strainer, and add the sugar and lemon juice. Cook this mixture for five minutes. Beat the egg whites until very stiff, and add the prunes when cold. Pile lightly into a buttered baking dish and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve with cream.

"D
EAR Bettina," wrote Polly, "somehow I never do like to write letters—certainly not at this busiest time of the year!—but I simply must tell you about a luncheon that Elizabeth Carter and I gave the other day for one of our holiday brides. (Angeline Carey; do you remember her? A dear girl—rather quiet, but with plenty of good common sense.)

"We had a large Christmas table (aren't they simple and effective?), with a Christmas tree in the center, strung with tiny electric lights, and hung with tinsel and ornaments. Strings of red Christmas bells stretched from the chandelier above the table to the four corners. The favors at each place were several kinds,—Santas, little Christmas trees, snow men and sleds, all of them concealing at their bases the boxes holding the salted nuts. The place-cards were simply Christmas cards.

"Before the guest of honor stood a small Santa, larger, however, than any of the other Santas, and in his hands were the ends of twenty or more narrow green ribbons, each leading to a separate shower-package at the base of the tree. These packages (it was a miscellaneous shower) made an interesting-looking heap, but we didn't ask Angeline to open them until we had reached the salad course. Then she drew each one toward her by the end of a ribbon, opened it, and read the verse on the gift. You have no idea how clever some of
the gifts and verses were! Margaret McLaughlin—do you remember her?—had dressed a dishmop in two tea towels, making the funniest old woman! This she introduced as Bridget, Angeline's cook-to-be! One of the girls who sketches cleverly had illustrated her card with pictures of Angeline in her kitchen.

"But I am forgetting our table decorations! We had furnished four rooms for Angeline, doll size, and the furniture of each was grouped along the table. Besides the living room, bedroom, dining room and kitchen, we presented Angeline and Dean with an auto (in miniature, of course), a cow, a horse, several ducks and chickens, a ferocious dog and a sleepy cat. Weren't we good to them? And lo and behold! beside the auto stood Dean himself, disguised as a little china kewpie man; while Angeline, always a lady, stood gracefully in the living room and refused to help him with his menial tasks, or to assist Nora, who was hanging out the clothes in the back yard. Angeline was a kewpie, dressed in style.

"We had the greatest fun finding and arranging these decorations! And now I must tell you about the luncheon itself. I'm even enclosing our recipes, for I know you'll be interested...."

"Hello, there, Bettina!" called Bob at this moment, coming in with a rush, "is dinner ready? What do you suppose I've done? I've absolutely forgotten to send a Christmas gift to Aunt Elizabeth, and I know she'll feel hurt. Will you go with me after dinner to get it?"

Polly's luncheon menu was as follows:

A CHRISTMAS SHOWER

Grapefruit with Maraschino Cherries
Chicken Croquettes Candied Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Peas
Light Rolls Butter
Cranberry Jelly
Vegetable Salad Salad Dressing
Santa Claus Sandwiches
Chocolate Ice Cream a la Tannenbaum
Christmas White Cake
Salted Nuts Coffee Candy Canes

"I wish, Bettina," Polly's letter continued, "that you might have seen the cunning sandwiches that we served with the salad. They were cut with a star-shaped cooky cutter, and on each one was perched a tiny Santa Claus. The sandwiches were arranged on a tray decorated with Christmas tree branches.

"And now comes the dessert. The chocolate ice cream was served in small flower pots lined with waxed paper, and in each flower pot grew a miniature Christmas tree. Around the base of the tree, whipped cream was heaped to represent snow. They were really very cunning.

"Served with the ice cream was a large round white cake decorated very elaborately with icing bells and holly. On the top was placed a real candy bell, large and red. This cake was carried in to Angeline to cut. Around the base, inside the cake, were twenty tiny favors wrapped in waxed paper. They were of all sorts: pipes, canoes, flat irons, animals, birds, many things, but all very tiny. Narrow white bows tied on each favor indicated its position in the cake so that the pieces could be cut to give each guest a favor. Angeline cut her piece first and drew her favor by pulling the little white ribbon. It was really great fun drawing and unwrapping the favors, and the girls tried to interpret the meaning of each. Mary Katherine, Angeline's younger sister, drew the ring, and delightedly proclaimed that she would be the next bride. At this the girls looked a little doubtful, for at the table were no less than six engaged girls besides Angeline. Mary Katherine may fool them—who knows?—but I hope not, for she is far too young and silly to 'settle down' for many years.

"With the coffee we served striped candy canes.

"Well, Betty, I believe I've told you everything about our Christmas luncheon. Do write me soon again, for I love to get your letters. Stir Bob up to write occasionally; he has forgotten his sister—now that he has a wife.

"Yours always,
"Polly."

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Chicken Croquettes
(Twenty-five croquettes)

A 3-lb. chicken, cooked and cut fine
1 lb. lean veal, cooked and cut fine
4 T-chopped green pepper
½ t-paprika
2 t-salt
1 C-chicken fat
½ C-flour
1 T-salt
2 C-milk
2 eggs
3 T-water
3 C-cracker crumbs

Melt the chicken fat. Add the flour and salt and mix well. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. When the mixture gets thick and creamy, allow it to cook, with an asbestos mat under the pan, for five minutes. This cooks the flour thoroughly. Beat one minute to make it creamy. Add the chicken, veal, green pepper, paprika and salt. Allow the mixture to cool. Take one tablespoon of the cooled mixture, and dip in the beaten egg to which the water has been added. Dip in the crumbs and shape any desired shape, preferably conical. Allow the croquettes to stand at least one hour before frying. Fry in deep fat and drain on brown paper. Keep hot in the oven until serving.

Vegetable Salad
(Twenty portions)

10 tomatoes
2 t-salt
1 t-paprika
1 C-cottage cheese
1 C-pimentoes, cut in strips
½ C-green pepper, cut in strips
20 pieces of lettuce
2 C-salad dressing
½ C-oil from the canned pimento
½ C-whipped cream

Arrange the lettuce leaves (washed) on salad plates. Place one slice of tomato, two slices of pimento and two slices of green pepper on each. Sprinkle the vegetables with pepper and salt. Add two teaspoons of cottage cheese. Place one teaspoon of salad dressing on each portion.

To prepare the salad dressing, mix boiled dressing and pimento oil together and then add the whipped cream. Mix well, and pile attractively on the salad.

"T
HE Christmas feeling is everywhere now!" said Bettina, as she arranged a small artificial fir tree in the center of the table. "It may be a little early, but I can't keep from using Christmas decorations tonight. Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, you look wonderfully festive with snow at your foot and your branches strung with tinsel and ornaments! All that you lack is candles, but I shall use my red shaded candles on the table instead. Let me see, everything is ready, even to the biscuits which are in the ice box waiting to be popped in the oven when the guests arrive. The salad is mixed and waiting, and that Washington pie does look delicious! I'm glad I made it, for Bob is so fond of it. Wonder why Bob doesn't come! I want him to see the table and the tree before the others get here! And build up the fire in the fireplace. It's snowing hard outside, and I want it to be warm and cozy inside. There's someone! Well, off goes my apron!"

The "someone" proved to be Bob, who came in, very pink as to his face, and very white as to his snow-covered shoulders.

"It's growing colder every minute!" said Bob. "Well, a Christmas table! I like that! Makes a fellow feel festive!"

"I couldn't resist the spirit of Christmas," said Bettina.

"I couldn't, either," said Bob, taking a half-dozen gorgeous yellow chrysanthemums from their wrappings. "So I bought you an early Christmas gift. Like 'em?"

For dinner, Bettina served:

Pork Tenderloins Candied Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Cauliflower
Baking Powder Biscuits Butter
Currant Jelly
Orange and Cherry Salad Wafers
Washington Pie Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Orange and Cherry Salad
(Two portions)

2 oranges
½ C-white cherries
½ C-diced celery
¹
/
₈
t-salt
½ C-salad dressing

Remove the white membrane from the pulp of two oranges, and cut each section into half, crosswise. Add the seeded cherries, celery and salt. Mix thoroughly. Add the salad dressing, and serve very cold on lettuce leaves.

Washington Pie
(Six portions)

1
¹
/
₃
C-sugar
3 eggs
½ C-water
½ t-lemon extract
2 C-flour
2 t-baking powder

Beat the egg-yolks five minutes, add the sugar and beat three minutes. Add the water, lemon extract, flour and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Fold in the beaten egg whites very carefully. Bake twenty-five minutes in two round shallow pans in a moderate oven. When cool, put the following filling between the layers. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.

Cream Filling for Washington Pie

²
/
₃
C-sugar
¹
/
₃
C-flour
½ t-salt
1½ C-milk
1 egg-yolk
½ t-vanilla
½ t-lemon extract

Mix thoroughly the sugar, salt and flour. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Pour into the top of a double boiler, and cook until very thick. Add the egg-yolk, vanilla and lemon extract, and cook two minutes. Beat until creamy and cool. Spread on the cake. Serve Washington pie with whipped cream if desired.

B
OB had walked home from the office through the falling snow—and it was no short distance—with thought for neither snow nor distance. He was distinctly worried,—Christmas only two weeks off, the first Christmas since he and Bettina had been married, and as yet he had no idea what sort of a Christmas gift he ought to purchase for his wife. What did she need? Unfortunately he had heard her say only a few days ago that she didn't need a thing. What did she secretly long for? A glass baking dish! Shucks, what an unromantic present! Surely Bettina had been teasing him when she mentioned such a prosy gift as that! Well, if he didn't have some inspiration by the day before Christmas there would be nothing to do but get her violets, or candy, or perhaps some silly book that she didn't want.

"Hello, Bob!" said a voice almost at his feet.