A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes. Louise Bennett Weaver
downtown to meet Mr. Dixon?"
"Yes, I'd like him to see the refrigerator. He takes such an interest in these household things I'm getting."
"Well, good-bye, dear. I must hurry home to get dinner. It won't take long, but I'll have to go, or Bob will get there first, and I'm a little sentimental about being there to greet him at the door."
Bettina's dinner that night consisted of:
Broiled Lamb Chops
Boiled New Potatoes New Peas in Cream
Vegetable Salad
Bread Butter
Rhubarb Pudding
BETTINA'S RECIPES
(All measurements are level)
Broiled Lamb Chops (Three portions)
3 chops
1 t-salt
Wipe chops and place in a red-hot frying-pan. As soon as the under surface is seared, turn and sear the other side. Turn down the fire a little, and continue to cook, turning chops often. Cook seven minutes if liked rare. When cooked, sprinkle with salt and spread with butter.
Creamed New Peas (Three portions)
1 qt. peas
1/8 t-soda ½ t-salt
Shell one quart of peas, cover with cold water and let stand ten minutes, wash well, and drain off the water. Cover with boiled water and cook twenty to fifty minutes, according to age of peas. A pinch of soda may be added to the water. It softens the skins on the peas. Add salt when the peas have cooked twenty minutes.
White Sauce for Peas (Three portions)
1 T-butter
1 T-flour
1/8 t-salt ½ C-milk
Melt the butter, add the flour and salt, mixing well, and the milk, stirring constantly. Cook two minutes. Add the peas.
Rhubarb Pudding (Three portions)
1 C-cooked, sweetened rhubarb sauce
2 T-flour
1 T-cold water
1 egg-white
1/8 t-salt
Add the water slowly to the flour and mix well. Add the rhubarb sauce and cook until very thick (about five minutes). Add the stiffly beaten white of egg, mix thoroughly and turn into moistened moulds. Serve cold with cream.
CHAPTER XXIII
BETTINA'S SUNDAY DINNER
"THIS seems like old times!" remarked Mr. Dixon, as he and his wife strolled leisurely home from church with Bob and Bettina. "I haven't had this peaceful Sunday feeling since I was a youngster. Then all the Sundays were like this, cool, quiet and sunny—sprinkled all over with little girls in smooth curls and white leghorn hats, and little boys in uncomfortable, hot clothes a size too large, and newly polished shoes. I often recall the plentiful Sunday dinners, too!"
"Don't get your hopes too high!" said Bettina. "Though I will promise you one treat, wild roses on the table. Bob and I walked out into the country last evening and found them."
"What can I do?" inquired Mrs. Dixon, when she and Bettina were alone in the kitchen.
"You can sit here and talk to me while these potatoes are cooking and the veal birds getting done. You see, the birds have already cooked three-quarters of an hour this morning before I went to church. The waxed beans are in the fireless cooker; I have to make the butter sauce for them. And you see I have the new potatoes all prepared, standing in cold water. I have only to cook them in boiling salted water till they are done. That won't take long, as they aren't large. I set the table on the porch this morning. Bob can make the coffee in the percolator in a little while, when we're ready. He usually starts it when we come to the table, and then it is ready in time to serve last. By the way, if you like the Thousand Island dressing we are to have for the head lettuce, I'd like to give you the recipe. It is a very popular one just now."
"Oh, I've eaten it! Frank is very fond of it, and used to order it every chance he had at the hotel. Will you really tell me how to make it? So many good dinners now end with the salad and cheese and coffee, and I think Thousand Island dressing on head lettuce makes a splendid salad."
"Of course I'll show you. Well, the iced cantaloupe, which is our first course, is in the ice-box. Our dessert today is just cake with chocolate cream frosting, and coffee. It is such a simple Sunday dinner, but that's the kind I believe in!"
BETTINA'S SUNDAY DINNER
Iced Cantaloupe
Veal Birds Boiled New Potatoes
Gravy
Waxed Beans Butter Sauce
Bread Butter
Head Lettuce Thousand Island Dressing
Salt Wafers
Cake with Chocolate Cream Frosting
Coffee
BETTINA'S RECIPES
(All measurements are level)
Veal Birds (Six portions)
1½ lb. veal steak
4 slices bacon
1 T-butter
½ C-crumbs, fresh
½ t-salt
¼ t-paprika
2 T-milk
2 T-fat
Cut veal from the round (veal steak) into strips, four by two and a half inches. Put the trimming and four slices of bacon through the food chopper. Cook the chopped meat three minutes in the butter. Add to this the fresh bread crumbs, salt, pepper and milk. Spread this mixture on the strips of veal. Roll and tie securely with white cord, roll in flour and sauté until browned a little on both sides, in two tablespoons fat in frying pan. Place in a casserole or small covered pan. Season each bird with salt and a small piece of butter. Pour an inch and a half of water into the pan. Cook an hour, or a little less, in a moderate oven. Gravy may be made by adding four tablespoons of water to two level tablespoons of flour, mixing carefully and gradually pouring into the stock in which the meat has been cooked. Bring to a boil.
Thousand Island Salad Dressing (Six portions)
½ C-olive oil
2 T-lemon juice
2 T-orange juice
1 t-onion juice
¼ t-salt
¼ t-paprika
1 t-Worcestershire sauce
¼ t-mustard
1 t-chopped parsley
Place all the above ingredients in a pint fruit jar, fit a rubber on the jar cover, and shake vigorously until the dressing is well mixed and creamy. Pour over tomatoes, asparagus, peas, beans, spinach or lettuce. Serve as a salad.
Cake with Chocolate Cream Filling (Six portions)
½ C-butter
1 C-sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
1½ C-sifted flour
2 t-baking powder
¼ t-mace
½ t-vanilla
½ C-milk
1 egg-white, stiffly