A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (40 page)

"Sweet potato croquettes? That's a new one on me!"

"I'll have to try them some time soon. And Mary had peas in heart-shaped baking powder biscuits—the cunningest you ever saw!—heart-shaped date bread sandwiches with her salad, and heart-shaped ice cream with individual heart cakes."

"That was Valentine's day with a vengeance; wasn't it?"

"Yes, but it was lovely, Bob!"

That night Bettina served:

Broiled Steak Baked Potatoes
Macaroni with Tomatoes and Green Peppers
Bread Butter
Cornstarch Fruit Pudding
Cherry Sauce
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Macaroni, Tomatoes and Green Peppers
(Three portions)

¹
/
₃
C-macaroni
3 C-water
1 t-salt
1 C-canned tomatoes
3 T-chopped green pepper
¼ t-salt
¼ t-celery salt
¹
/
₈
t-onion salt
3 T-cheese, cut fine
²
/
₃
C-meat stock or milk
¼ C-crumbs
1 T-butter

Boil the water, add the salt. Add the macaroni cut in small pieces. Boil until tender (about fifteen minutes) and drain. Butter a baking dish. Add a layer of macaroni, a layer of tomatoes and some green pepper. Sprinkle with salt, celery and onion salt. Add the cheese, and continue with the layers until the dish is full. If available, use meat stock, if not, milk. Pour the liquid over the mixture. Melt the butter, add the crumbs and place on the top of the food. Place the dish in a moderate oven, and allow to bake twenty-five minutes, or until brown.

Corn Starch Fruit Pudding
(Three portions)

½ C-water
½ C-cherry juice
3 T-corn starch
¹
/
₈
t-salt
3 T-sugar
1 egg-yolk
1 egg-white

Mix thoroughly the corn starch, sugar and salt. Gradually add the cold water and then the juice. Cook over hot water until the mixture becomes quite thick. Add the egg-yolk. Mix well, cool slightly and add the egg-white stiffly beaten. Pour into a well-moistened custard mould. Allow to stand for half an hour or more. Serve with cherry sauce.

Cherry Sauce
(Three portions)

½ C-cherry juice
½ C-water
1 T-flour
½ t-lemon extract
¹
/
₈
t-salt
2 T-sugar
¼ C-cherries, cut fine

Mix the flour, salt and sugar. Add slowly the cherry juice and water. Cook two minutes. Add the cherries and extract. Serve hot over the cold pudding.

B
ETTINA and Bob arrived at half-past six, as Ruth had requested.

"She wouldn't let me come earlier, Bob," explained Bettina as they rang the bell. "I wanted to help her, you know, but she said her father and mother were out of town and Fred was to be the only guest besides ourselves, so she was sure that she could manage alone. There she is now!"

But it was not Ruth after all.

"Why, Fred; hello!" said Bob. "Did you come early to assist the cook?"

"I did," said Fred, "but she informed me at once that she wanted no inexperienced 'help' around. So I've been sitting in the living-room alone for the last half hour. She did say that I might answer the bell, but as for doing anything else—well, she was positively rude!"

And Fred raised his voice so that its penetrating tones would reach the kitchen. "The worst of it all is that I've been hungry as well as lonesome. I might endure sitting alone in the living-room if I hadn't gone without lunch today in anticipation of this banquet. And now——"

"Shame on you, Fred!" interrupted Ruth, coming in with flushed cheeks above her dainty white apron. "Did he receive you properly?"

"I leave it to you, Bettina, to say that I've received harsh treatment! Here I went and purchased four good seats for the Duchess theatre tonight."

"You did, Fred," cried Ruth. "Why, you dear boy! For that, I'll see that you are certainly fed well! Dinner is ready, people! Will you walk into the dining-room?"

Ruth's dinner consisted of:

Pigs in Blankets Candied Sweet Potatoes
Escalloped Egg Plant
Bread Butter
Date Pudding Cream

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pigs in Blankets
(Four portions)

1 C-oysters
8 slices thin bacon
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-paprika

Remove the rind from long, thin slices of bacon. Place two or more oysters upon each slice of bacon. Sprinkle the oysters with salt and pepper. Roll up and tie with a white string. Saute in a hot frying-pan until nicely browned. Garnish with parsley.

Candied Sweet Potatoes
(Six portions)

6 large sweet potatoes
1 C-brown sugar
½ C-water
1 t-salt
1 T-butter

Wash the potatoes thoroughly. Cook in boiling water until tender when pierced with a knitting needle. Drain and peel when cool enough to handle. Cut in slices lengthwise, three-fourths of an inch thick. Make a syrup by boiling the sugar, butter and water five minutes. Lay the potatoes in a pan, sprinkle with salt and pour the syrup over them. Cook in a moderate oven until the potatoes are browned, basting frequently.

Escalloped Egg Plant
(Six portions)

2 C-cubed egg-plant
3 T-butter
3 T-flour
½ t-salt
¼ t-pepper
1½ C-milk

Remove the skin from the egg-plant, and cut into slices a
quarter of an inch thick. Sprinkle the slices with salt, pile one above the other, and place a weight on the top to extract the juice. Allow to stand one hour. Wash off, and cut into quarter of an inch cubes. Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and pepper. Mix well, gradually add the milk and cook two minutes. Add the egg-plant and pour the whole mixture into a buttered baking dish. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Date Pudding
(Four portions)

1 C-flour
2 t-baking powder
¼ C-"C" sugar
10 dates, cut fine
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 egg
¹
/
₃
C-milk
½ t-vanilla
3 T-melted butter

Mix the flour, baking powder, "C" sugar, dates and salt. Add the egg, milk and vanilla. Stir vigorously and beat one minute. Add the melted butter. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven, and serve hot with cream.

"O
H, Bettina," said Alice, delightedly, as she opened the door. "I'm so glad to see you! I've just been thinking about you! What do you suppose I'm doing?"

"Getting dinner? That is what I must be doing very soon. I stopped in for only a minute on my way home."

"I am getting dinner, and I want to tell you that it is a very economical dinner. And it's going to be good, too. I thought and thought about your advice, and decided to practise it. So I searched through all my cook books for the recipes I wanted, and finally decided on this particular menu. But, Bettina, now I can tell you the flaw in your system of economy!"

"What is that? Harry doesn't like it?"

"Goodness no! Harry was delighted with the idea! My argument is this: It's going to take me an endless amount of time to plan economical meals that are also good, time that I ought to spend in polishing silver and making calls, and sewing on buttons, and——"

"I don't believe it'll be as bad as you think, Alice, dear," laughed Bettina. "For instance, if this meal tonight is good and economical, and Harry is pleased, don't forget the combination, but write it down in a notebook. You can repeat the menu in two or three weeks, and you have no idea how soon you will collect the best combinations, and ideas of economy! Tell me what you are having tonight."

That night Alice served:

Baked Eggs
Potatoes Escalloped with Bacon
Baking Powder Biscuits Butter
Peach Cup with Peach Sauce
Tea

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

THE RECIPES ALICE USED

Baked Eggs
(Two portions)

2 eggs
½ C-milk
2 T-soft bread crumbs
1 T-butter
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-paprika

Butter two individual moulds, and break an egg into each. Mix the salt and pepper in the milk, and pour half of the mixture over each egg. Melt the butter, and add the crumbs. Place the buttered crumbs on top of each egg. Bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes. Serve in the moulds.

Potatoes Escalloped with Bacon
(Two portions)

3 medium-sized potatoes
3 slices of bacon
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
2 T-flour
1 C-milk

Broil the bacon, cut each piece in three parts. Butter a casserole and place in it a layer of peeled sliced potatoes. Sprinkle part of the flour, salt and paprika over the potatoes, and add three pieces of bacon. Continue in this manner until the dish is filled. Pour the milk over the contents, and bake forty minutes in a moderate oven.

Peach Cup
(Two portions)

4 halves of canned peaches, sweetened
1 T-egg
3 T-milk
²
/
₃
C-flour
1½ t-baking powder
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 t-melted butter
¼ t-vanilla
2 T-sugar

Mash two peach halves, add the egg, milk, vanilla, melted butter, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix thoroughly. Place a tablespoon of the mixture in the bottom of a well-buttered baking cup. Add a peach half, and cover with the batter. Sprinkle one tablespoon of granulated sugar on the top and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Turn from the cups and serve hot with peach sauce.

Peach Sauce
(Two portions)

²
/
₃
C-peach juice
1 T-lemon juice
1 T-flour
½ t-butter
¼ t-salt

Mix one tablespoon of the peach juice with the flour. Gradually add the rest of the peach and lemon juice. Add the salt Cook one minute. Add the butter. Serve hot.

"S
OME dinner tonight," remarked Bob, as he sat down at the table. "Were you expecting company that didn't show up?"

"No, indeed," laughed Bettina. "I expected just you and nobody else. But maybe I did cook a little more than usual. You see I was over at Alice's this afternoon inspecting her list of next week's menus. You know she is trying to economize, and she is really doing it, but in spite of economy, Harry is having elaborate meals. I do hope he appreciates it. Nearly all of her dinners are three-course affairs, most carefully planned to look like 'the real thing' as she calls an expensive dinner. I tell her that hers are the real thing, only almost too elaborate. You see, she is trying to disguise her economy so that Harry won't miss the first meals she gave him. She makes me almost afraid that I'm not feeding you enough."

"No danger of that," said Bob, emphatically. "But what are all these economical things she is serving?"

"Wait, I wrote some of them down. Listen. Here is one:

Peanut Croquettes Olive Sauce
Duchess Potatoes Creamed Beets
Parker House Rolls
Orange Marmalade
Pea and Cheese Salad Wafers
Apricot Ice Sponge Cake

"How's that? And here's another:

Creamed Tuna
Stuffed Potatoes Mock Egg Plant
Whole Wheat Muffins Grape Jelly
Russian Salad
Fairy Gingerbread Hard Sauce

"Well," said Bob, "they sound good, but not so good as the dinners you give me."

That evening Bettina served:

Escalloped Salmon Baked Potatoes
Creamed Cabbage
Egg Rolls Currant Jelly
Chocolate Kisses
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Escalloped Salmon
(Two portions)

²
/
₃
C-flaked salmon
1 T-butter
1 T-flour
²
/
₃
C-milk
½ t-salt
¼ t-paprika
1 hard-cooked egg
1 t-lemon juice
3 T-chopped sour pickle
½ t-minced parsley
4 T-cracker crumbs
1 T-butter