A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (46 page)

The dinner consisted of:

Round Steak En Casserole Baked Potatoes
Lettuce Salad Bettina Dressing
Steamed Custard Maple Syrup
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Round Steak En Casserole
(Three portions)

1 lb. round steak, cut one inch thick
½ C-flour
1 T-onion, cut fine
2 T-green pepper, cut fine
1 C-diced carrots
2 C-water
2 t-salt

Place the meat, which has been wiped with a damp cloth, upon a meat board. Cut into four pieces. Pound the flour into the meat on both sides, using a meat pounder or the side of a heavy saucer. Butter the casserole, add a layer of meat, then onions and green peppers. Add the carrots. Add the salt to the water and pour over the meat. Cover closely. Place in a moderate oven and allow to cook slowly for two hours. More water may be needed before the meat is done. Serve in the casserole.

Lettuce Salad
(Three portions)

6 pieces of lettuce
½ t-salt

Arrange the lettuce, which has been washed and chilled, upon three plates. Sprinkle the lettuce with salt and serve with the following dressing:

Bettina Dressing

²
/
₃
C-salad dressing
1 t-olive oil
2 T-chopped pickle
1 T-chopped pimento
1 T-pimento catsup
¼ C-celery, cut fine
2 T-nut meats, cut fine
¼ t-salt
¼ t-paprika

Beat the salad dressing, add the oil, pickle, pimento, catsup, celery, nut meats, salt and paprika. Beat one minute. Pour three tablespoons of the mixture over each portion of the lettuce. Serve very cold.

Steamed Custard
(Four custards)

1½ C-milk
2 eggs
3 T-sugar
¼ t-salt
¼ t-vanilla extract
¼ t-lemon extract
¹
/
₈
t-grated nutmeg

Beat the eggs, add the sugar, salt, vanilla, and lemon extract. Mix thoroughly. Butter four custard cups. Fill a pan four inches deep with hot (not boiling) water. Set the cups in the pan and place in a moderately slow oven for thirty-five or forty minutes (or until a knife inserted in the custard comes out clean). Serve cold with maple syrup poured over it.

"M
ILDRED helped me get the dinner tonight," said Bettina, as they sat down at the table.

"Indeed I did, Uncle Bob!" exclaimed the little girl delightedly. "And I'm having so much fun that I don't ever, ever, ever want to go home! Aunt Bettina is going to show me how to make cookies tomorrow!"

"Is she?" said Bob. "Well, don't eat 'em all up before I get here. Save me six fat ones, with raisins in. Don't forget the raisins."

"I set the table, Uncle Bob, and I made the rice croquettes into that cunning shape, and when they were fried, I put in the jelly! Don't they look nice?"

"The most artistic rice croquettes, I ever ate!" declared Bob.

"And wait till you see the dessert! I fixed that; Aunt Bettina showed me how. But I won't tell you what it is—yet. I know you'll like it, though."

"Well, you're a great little helper, Mildred, aren't you!"

"That's just what Aunt Bettina says. And I've learned so many things! I didn't know before that it was easier to cut up marshmallows with the scissors than any other way. Oh, Aunt Bettina! I almost told him about our dessert!"

"Marshmallows? Marshmallows?" said Bob. "A clue,
I do believe! I have it: 'Marshmallows served with scissors!'"

"Oh, Uncle Bob, you're too funny!" cried Mildred, shouting with laughter.

"Appreciated at last!" said Bob.

For dinner that night they had:

Lamb Chops Rice Croquettes
Creamed Peas
Bread Butter
Sponge Cake Whipped Cream
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Broiled Lamb Chops
(Three portions)

3 lamb chops
1 T-butter
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika
¹
/
₈
t-parsley

Wipe and trim the chops. Place on a hot tin pan four inches from a direct hot flame (under a broiler). Cook two minutes, turn and thoroughly cook the other side for two minutes. Lower the flame a little, add the salt and pepper, and cook for eight minutes more. (A little longer if the chops are very thick.) Remove to a warm platter, dot with butter, add the parsley and serve immediately.

Rice Croquettes with Jelly
(Three croquettes)

1 C-steamed rice
1 egg-yolk
1 T-butter
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
¼ t-salt
1 t-chopped parsley
3 T-flour
2 T-grape jelly

Mix the steamed rice, egg-yolk, butter, paprika, salt and parsley. Shape into flat disks one inch thick and three inches in diameter. Roll in flour. Make an indentation in the center of each with a spoon, to hold the jelly. Fry in hot deep fat until brown. Drain, the wrong side up. Heat in a hot oven and serve hot. Place a cube of jelly in the center of each.

Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream
(Three portions)

3 slices of stale cake (three by three by one inch)
8 marshmallows cut in cubes
3 T-canned cherries
3 T-cherry juice
4 T-whipping cream
½ t-vanilla
1½ T-sugar

Beat the cream until stiff, add the vanilla, marshmallows and sugar. Arrange the cake in glass sherbet dishes. Place a tablespoon of cherries and a tablespoon of juice on each slice. Place one and a half tablespoons of the whipped cream mixture on each portion. Allow to stand in a cold place for five minutes.

"C
OOKING a company dinner is such fun!" sighed Mildred. "I like the dinner part, but I always wish that the company would stay away at the last minute."

"Oh, you'll like Mr. Jackson, Mildred. He's one of Uncle Bob's best friends, and so nice and jolly!"

"The jolly men always like to tease, and the ones who aren't jolly are always cross. I don't intend to get married myself. I'm going to live in a nice little bungalow like this one and do my own cooking."

"Will you live all alone?" asked Bettina.

"I'll adopt some children—seven or eight, I think,—all girls. I don't want any boys around."

"Your bungalow will have to be larger than this to accommodate them all if you adopt seven or eight."

"I don't want a large one; that would spoil the fun. I'll let the children take turns sleeping on the floor. Children always love to sleep on the floor, and mothers never like to have them do it! I wonder why? Now, will you let me brown the flour for the gravy?"

"Yes, dear. Put half a cup of white flour in that frying-pan over the fire and keep stirring it constantly until it is a nice brown color, about like powdered cinnamon."

"This way?"

"Yes, Mildred; a little darker than that, but keep stirring it so that it won't burn. There, that's exactly right!"

That evening Bettina served:

Leg of Lamb with Browned Potatoes
Gravy
Egg and Lettuce Salad
Strawberry Shortcake Cream
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Leg of Lamb and Browned Potatoes
(Four portions)

3 lb. leg of lamb
6 potatoes
1 T-salt
¼ t-paprika
2 T-bacon fat
¹
/
₃
C-boiling water

Allow the lamb to stand in cold water for ten minutes. Remove and wipe dry. Place the fat in a frying-pan. Add the meat and cook until thoroughly browned on all sides. Place in the fireless cooker (or a slow oven) and surround the meat with the potatoes. Sprinkle with the salt and paprika. Add the water. (If in the cooker, place the heated disks under and over the meat.) Cook two hours.

Gravy
(Four portions)

4 T-browned flour
1 T-butter
1 t-salt
¼ t-white pepper
1½ C-meat stock and water

Remove the meat from the pan in which it was cooked (also remove the potatoes) and add sufficient water to the stock in the pan to make one and a half cups all together. Melt the butter, add the browned flour and a tablespoon of the stock. Mix well, and add the salt and pepper. Add the remaining stock; cook, stirring constantly for two minutes. Pour into a heated gravy dish. Serve at once.

Egg and Lettuce Salad
(Four portions)

8 pieces of lettuce
4 hard-cooked eggs
4 radishes
4 young onions
2 t-salt
½ t-paprika
¼ t-celery salt
8 T-salad dressing

Arrange two pieces of lettuce on each plate. Slice an egg, a radish and an onion and arrange these upon the lettuce leaves. Sprinkle each portion with a fourth of the seasoning. Place two tablespoons of salad dressing on each portion. Have all the ingredients cold before combining.

"I
HELPED to make the cunning little biscuits, Uncle Bob," explained Mildred at dinner.

"You did?" said Bob, feigning astonishment. "You rolled them out with a rolling pin, I suppose, and——"

"Oh, no, Uncle Bob! You ought never to use a rolling pin, Aunt Bettina says!" said Mildred in a horrified tone, as if she had been cooking for the First Families for a score of years. "Good cooks always pat down the dough—they never roll it out."

"Well, what do you do first? Stir up the dough with a spoon?"

"No, indeed; you use a knife. Then you pat the dough down, and cut out the dear little biscuits with a biscuit cutter."

"And put them side by side in a nicely buttered pan? I know how!"

"But you don't butter the pan," said Mildred triumphantly. "Or flour it, either. Aunt Bettina says that lots of people think the pan has to be buttered or floured, but they're wrong. It's lots better to put the biscuits into a nice clean pan."

"But don't they stick to it, and burn?"

"No, indeed! They don't burn a bit! Look at these!" said Mildred, delighted to find the opportunity to impart some of her newly acquired knowledge.

"Well, what else did you help Aunt Bettina to make?"

"These nice stuffed onions. It was fun to make them, even though I don't like onions. I ground up the dry bread that Aunt Bettina keeps in the jar by the stove."

"Well, you can tell Mother Polly that Aunt Bettina will make a good cook of you yet!"

For dinner that night they had:

Rolled Stuffed Steak Potatoes au Gratin
Stuffed Onions
Sour Cream Biscuits Currant Jelly
Sliced Bananas Cream
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Stuffed Onions
(Four portions)

4 onions
½ C-bread crumbs
1 T-tomato pulp
1 T-butter
1 t-parsley
1 T-pimento
1 egg-yolk
¼ C-cooked celery
½ t-salt

Wash and peel the onions. Cook for ten minutes in boiling water. Rinse with cold water to make them firm. Push out the centers. Place the onions in a well-buttered baking pan and fill each onion with filling. Place in a moderate oven for twenty minutes.

Filling

Mix the crumbs, tomato pulp, butter, parsley, pimento, salt, egg yolks and celery. Cook for one minute. Fill each onion case carefully with the mixture. Then pour the following sauce about the onions before placing them in the oven:

White Sauce
(Four portions)

2 T-butter
2 T-flour
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₆
t-paprika
1 C-milk

Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Mix well, add the milk, and cook for one minute.

Sour Cream Biscuits
(Four portions)

2 C-flour
½ t-salt
3 t-baking powder
3 T-fat
¼ t-soda
²
/
₃
C-sour milk

Mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in the fat with a knife. Add the soda to the milk, and when the effervescing ceases, add slowly to the dry ingredients. (All the milk may not be needed.) When a soft dough is formed, toss onto a floured board. Pat into shape, cut with a biscuit cutter, and place side by side on a tin pan or baking sheet. Bake fifteen minutes in a moderately hot oven.

"S
O you've been teaching Mildred to cook?" asked Polly as they sat down to dinner.

"Oh, Mother, I've learned so much!" cried Mildred with enthusiasm. "And when I'm married, I'm going to have a dear little kitchen just like Aunt Betty's! Aunt Betty does know the very best way to do everything! Why, Mother, I think she's a better cook even than Selma, and not half so cross when I bother!"