A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (6 page)

"I'm not afraid I won't be fed well," said Uncle John, "but those clouds are black in the east. If it should rain we'd have trouble getting home. Besides, I don't like to have the car standing out in a storm."

"I don't believe it'll rain, John," said comfortable Aunt Lucy. "And if it does, well, we'll manage somehow. I, for one, would like to see Bettina's kitchen—and all the rest of her house," she added.

Bettina arranged the dainty little meal on the porch table, and Aunt Lucy and Uncle John sat down with good appetites.

"This looks almost too pretty to eat," said he as he looked at his plate with its slice of jellied beef on head lettuce, served with salad dressing, and its fresh crisp potato chips. And the nasturtium and green leaf lay beside them.

"Have a radish and a sandwich, Uncle John," said Bettina. "We have plenty, if not variety. Our only dessert is fresh pears."

"But it all tastes mighty good!" said Uncle John. "Say, Bob, it is beginning to rain, I believe!"

"Sure enough, a regular storm! We must put the car in the empty garage across the street. I'm sure we can get permission." And he and Uncle John hurried out.

"It will blow over, I'm sure," said Aunt Lucy.

"But if it doesn't—why, Aunt Lucy, stay here all night! We'd love to have you! The guest room is always ready. I know you'll be comfortable, and they can manage without you at home for once, I'm sure."

"Of course they'll be all right, and it would be quite exciting to be 'company' for a change. If only Uncle John thinks he can do it!"

"It looks as if there'll be nothing else to do," said Uncle John, when he and Bob returned. "Not but what I'd enjoy it—but I haven't been away from home a night for—how long is it, Lucy?"

"Seven years last May, John. All the more reason why this'll do you good."

"Oh, I'm so glad you'll really stay!" said Bettina. "Now tell me what you like for breakfast!"

"Anything you have except those new fashioned breakfast foods," Uncle John replied. "I might feed 'em to my stock, now, but not to a human being. But don't you worry about me, Betty! Because I don't worry about the breakfast proposition. Bob here is a pretty good advertisement of the kind of cooking you can do!"

The lunch that night consisted of:

Jellied Beef Potato Chips
Radishes
Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Iced Tea Fresh Pears

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Jellied Beef
(Four portions)

1 C-cold chopped cooked beef
½ T-chopped onion
1 T-chopped pimento
½ t-salt
¼ t-pepper
1 T-chopped parsley
1 T-lemon juice
2 t-granulated gelatin
1 T-cold water
½ C-boiling water

Soak the gelatin in one tablespoon cold water for three minutes. Add the boiling water and dissolve thoroughly. Add the meat, onion, pimento, salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. Stir well together and turn into a mould that has been moistened with cold water. (A square or rectangular mould is preferable.) Stand in a cold place for two hours. When cold and firm, unmould on lettuce leaves and cut into slices. Salad dressing may be served with it.

Radishes
(Four portions)

12 radishes
1 C-chopped ice

Wash the radishes thoroughly with a vegetable brush. Cut off the long roots and all but one inch of green tops. These tops make the radishes easier to handle and more attractive. Serve in a bowl of chopped ice.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches
(Twelve sandwiches)

4 T-peanut butter
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 t-butter
1 T-salad dressing
12 slices of bread
12 uniform pieces of lettuce

Cream the peanut butter, add the butter. Cream again, add the salt and salad dressing, mixing well. Cut the bread evenly. Butter one side of the bread very thinly with the peanut butter mixture. Place the lettuce leaf on one slice and place another slice upon it, buttered side down. Press firmly and neatly together. Cut in two crosswise. Arrange attractively in a wicker basket.

"M
AY I come in?" said a voice at the screen door. "I came the kitchen way because I hoped that you would still be busy with the morning's work, and I might learn something. You see" (and Ruth blushed a little), "we are thinking of building a house and we have lots of ideas about every room but the kitchen. Neither Fred nor I know the first thing about that, so I told him that I would just have to consult you."

"How dear of you, Ruth!" said Bettina, as she put away the breakfast dishes. "Well, you shall have the benefit of everything that I know. Bob and I began with the kitchen when we planned this little house. It seemed so important. I expected to spend a great deal of time here, and I was determined to have it cheerful and convenient. I never could see why a kitchen should not be a perfectly beautiful room, as beautiful as any in the whole house!"

"Yours is, Bettina," said Ruth, warmly, as she looked around her. "No wonder you can cook such fascinating little meals. It is light, and sunny and clean looking—oh, immaculate!—and has such a pleasant view!"

"I wanted it to have lots of sunshine. We had the walls painted this shade of yellow, because it seemed pretty and cheerful. Perhaps you won't care to have white woodwork like this, but you see it is plain and I don't find it hard to keep clean out here on the edge of town! I think it is so pretty that I don't expect to regret my choice. Another thing, Ruth, do get a good grade of inlaid linoleum like this. I know the initial expense is greater, but a good piece will last a long time, and will always look well."

"How high the sink is, Bettina!"

"Thirty-six inches. You see, I'm not very tall and yet I have always found that every other sink I tried was too low for solid comfort. The plumbers have a way of making them all alike—thirty-two inches from the floor, I think. They were scandalized because I asked them to change the regulation height, and yet, I find this exactly right. And isn't it a lovely white enameled one? I am happy whenever I look at it! Don't laugh, Ruth; a sink is a very important piece of furniture! I had always liked this kind with the grooved drain-board on each side, sloping just a little toward the center. And see how easily I can reach up and put away the dishes in the cupboard, you see. I don't like a single dish or utensil in sight when the kitchen is in order. This roll of paper toweling here by the sink is very convenient for wiping off the table or taking grease off pans and dishes or even for drying glass and silver. A roll lasts a long time, and certainly does save dishcloths and towels.

"Do you use your fireless cooker often?"

"Every day of the year—I do believe. I cook breakfast food in it, and all kinds of meats except those that are boiled or fried. Then it is splendid for steaming brown bread and baking beans, and oh, so many other things! Mother keeps hers under the kitchen table, but I find it more convenient here at the right of the stove—on a box just level with the stove. Next, O Neophyte, you may observe the stove. The oven is at the side, high up so that one need not stoop to use it. It has a glass oven door through which I can watch my baking."

"I like this white enameled table. And the high stool must be convenient, too."

"It is splendid. Ruth, haven't you an old marble topped table at home? It would be just the thing for pastry making."

"Yes, I do know of one, I think, and I'll have the lower part enameled white."

"Fred can do it himself. Let him help to fix things up, and he'll be all the more interested in them, and in helping you use them."

"Bettina, this is an adorable breakfast alcove! What fun
you must have every morning! If we have one, I don't believe we'll ever use the dining room. How convenient! Here come the waffles—hot from the stove! Fred, do have a hot muffin!"

"Not at the same meal, Ruth!"

"No, he'll be fortunate if he gets anything to eat at all! He isn't marrying a Bettina. But he says he's satisfied. Bettina, does Bob help get breakfast?"

"Indeed he does. He loves to make coffee in the electric percolator and toast on the toaster. He says that an electric toaster and plenty of bath towels are the real necessities of life, but I say I cannot live without flowers and a fireplace. Oh, you will have such fun, Ruth! Let Fred help you all he will."

"I'm hearing all this advice!" suddenly shouted a big voice in her ear. "Look here, Mrs. Bettina, does Bob know that you are advising your friends to train their husbands just as you are training him?"

"Fred, you old eavesdropper! I hope that Ruth makes you get breakfast every single morning to pay for this! Aren't you ashamed? Don't you know that listeners never hear any good of themselves?"

"I suppose Fred knew he needn't worry," said rosy Ruth, as she took his arm. "Look, Fred, isn't it a dear little house? May he see it all, Bettina?"

"Yes, if he'll explain how a busy man can get away at this hour of the morning."

"Well, you see I was on my way to the office when I caught a glimpse of Ruth's pink dress at your back door. I happened to think that she said she didn't get a recipe for those 'skyrocket rolls' that you had at your party the other day. I just thought I'd have to remind her, for the sake of my future."

"What under the shining sun! Oh, pinwheel biscuits!"

"Yes—that's it!"

"Why—all right. I have it filed away in my card-index. Here—with a picture of them pasted on the card. I cut it out of the magazine that gave the recipe. They are delicious."

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Pinwheel Biscuits
(Fifteen biscuits)

2 C-flour
4 t-baking powder
3 T-lard
½ t-salt
¾ C-milk
¹
/
₃
C-stoned raisins
2 T-sugar
2 T-melted butter
½ t-cinnamon

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, work in the lard with a knife, add gradually the milk, mixing with the knife to a soft dough. Toss on a floured board, roll one inch thick, spread with butter, and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon, which have been well mixed. Press in the raisins. Roll up the mixture evenly as you would a jelly roll. Cut off slices, an inch thick—flatten a little and place in a tin pan. Bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. (These are similar to the cinnamon rolls made from yeast sponge.)

"Y
OUR set, Bob," said Bettina, as she gathered up the tennis balls. "But please say you think I'm improving! Oh, there'll come a time when I'll make you a stiff opponent, but I'll have to work up my service first! It's time to go home to breakfast now, but hasn't it been fun?"

"Fine, Betty! We'll do it again! I don't object at all to getting up early when I'm once up! And we ought to get out and play tennis before breakfast every day."

"I knew you'd like it when you'd tried it once. But it took my birthday to make you willing to celebrate this way."

"Just you wait till you see what I have for you at home! I made it all myself, with a little help from Ruth!"

"Oh, Bob, is that what you've been doing all these evenings? I'm so anxious to see it! I've begrudged the time you've spent all alone hammering and sawing away down in the basement, but I didn't let myself even wonder what it was you were making, since you had asked me not to look."

"Well, while you're beginning the breakfast, I'll be bringing your birthday gift upstairs. Then I can help you."

In a short time, when Bettina was arranging the cheerful hollyhocks on the table, she heard a low whistle behind her. There stood Bob—looking like a sandwich-man, with a brightly flowered cretonne screen draped about him.

"Well, how do you like it?"

"Oh, Bob, it's the sewing-screen I've been wanting, and it just matches the cretonne bedroom hangings! Here are the little pockets for mending and darning materials—and the
larger ones for the unfinished work! How beautifully it is made—and won't it be convenient! It will be useful as a screen, and also as a place for those sewing things, for I have no good place at all in which to keep them! It will be decorative, too! And how light it is! I can carry it so easily, and work beside it on the porch or in the living room!"

"Glad you like it! Ruth designed it, and made the pockets. I did the carpenter work."

"Bob, it's a lovely birthday gift, and I appreciate it all the more because you made it yourself. How pretty it is with all the woodwork enameled white!"

"I wanted it to match the bedroom things. Well, is that coffee done yet? Tennis certainly does give me an appetite!"

Breakfast consisted of:

Iced Cantelope
Poached Eggs on Toast
Toast Apple Sauce
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Poached Eggs
(Two portions)

2 eggs
1 t-butter
1 t-salt
1 pt. water, boiling

Butter the bottom of a saucepan or frying-pan. Fill half full of boiling water. Break the eggs one at a time in a sauce dish, and slip them very gently into the pan of boiling water. The eggs will lower the temperature of the water to a point below the boiling point. Keep the water at this point (below boiling). Allow the eggs to remain in the water four to six minutes, or until the desired consistency. Remove from the water with a skimmer and serve on slices of toast which are hot, buttered, and slightly moistened with water. The proper length of time for poaching eggs is until a white film has formed over the yolks and the white is firm. A tin or aluminum egg poacher is very convenient. When using rings, butter the rings, fill each compartment with an egg, and dip into the boiling water. These are inexpensive, and economical, as no part of the egg is wasted.