VI Cousin Matilda Calls

"Yes, and Bob and I are proud of that. We white enameled the furniture ourselves! It is some that we found in a second-hand store, and it was certainly a bargain, though it didn't look it at the time. I sewed the rags together for these blue and white rugs. Bob made that little open desk out of a small table that we found somewhere. Now that it is white, too, I think it is cunning. And, Cousin Matilda, I give you three guesses as to the place in which I keep my sewing machine!" "Why, I haven't seen it yet. In the kitchen?" "Goodness, no! Well, I'll tell you! This looks like a dressing table, but is merely a shelf with a mirror above it. The shelf has a cretonne cover and 'petticoat' that reaches the floor. And underneath it—behold the sewing machine! Bob made the shelf high enough and wide enough to let the sewing machine slip under it! But, Cousin Matilda, you must be tired of Bettina's economies! Please sit down with mother in the living room and I will get the 'party.'"

And Bettina wheeled her tea cart into the kitchen, returning with luncheon napkins, plates, glasses, a pitcher of iced fruit juice, a plate of little chocolate cakes, and several sprays of wild roses. "What delicious little cakes, Bettina! At least you can't be called economical when you serve such rich and dainty food as this!" "I must plead guilty still, Cousin Matilda. I made these little cakes partly from dry bread crumbs. The fruit juice is mostly from the pineapple which Bob had for dessert last night. I cooked the core with about two cups of water and added it to the lemonade." "Bettina, Bettina! How did you learn these things? Robert is certainly a lucky man, and I'm sure that some day he will be a wealthy one! You must give me the recipes you used!"

And Bettina wrote them down as follows:

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Little Chocolate Cakes (Twelve cakes) 2 eggs ¼ C-butter ½ C-sugar 1 C-dry bread crumbs 3 T-flour 1 t-vanilla 3 squares chocolate

Cream the butter, add sugar, and cream the mixture. Add the beaten eggs and stir well. Add melted chocolate, bread crumbs, flour and flavoring. Spread the mixture very thinly on a buttered pan, and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Shape with a tiny biscuit cutter, and put together in pairs with mountain cream icing between and on top. (Icing recipe already given.)

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Fruit Juice (Eight glasses) 1 C-sugar 2 C-water 1½ C-lemon juice

Boil sugar and water ten minutes without stirring, add lemon juice, and any other fruit juices. Cool and bottle. Keep on ice and dilute with ice water when desired for use. Serve mint leaves with the fruit juice.

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JULY.

The market is full of delights in July:

Fresh vegetables, berries, red cherries for pie! Good housewives and telephones seldom agree,

So market yourself! You can buy as you see!

CHAPTER VII

A NEW-FASHIONED SUNDAY DINNER

pulpit of a friend that Sunday morning. "YOU will go to church with us this morning, Bettina?" asked Bob's cousin Henry, known also as the Rev. Henry Clinkersmith, as he came into Bettina's immaculate kitchen one Sunday. "Yes, indeed, I will go!" Bettina answered him. "Is it nearly ten o'clock? Oh, yes, nine forty-five. I'll go at once and get ready."

Cousin Henry had arrived late Saturday evening. He was filling the

Bettina finished arranging the low bowl of pansies which was to be her table decoration. "For the dinner table," she explained to Cousin Henry. "And Bob," she said as they walked to church (Cousin Henry was ahead with an old friend), "I do believe he was worried about dinner. There wasn't a trace of any preparation to be seen! You know I made the cake and the salad dressing yesterday, and the lettuce was on the ice. The sherbet was on the porch (I bought it, you know), and the lamb and potatoes were in the cooker." "Well, let him worry! How long will it take to get it ready after we get home?" "About fifteen minutes. The table is set, but I'll have to warm the plates and take things up. Then there's the gravy to make, of course." "All I can say is this," said Cousin Henry at dinner, as he passed his plate for a second helping, "since you've explained the mysteries of the fireless cooker, I realize how it would have helped those cold Sunday dinners of the past generation.

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The women could have obeyed the fourth commandment and given their families a good Sunday dinner, too!"

That day they had: Leg of Lamb with Potatoes Lamb Gravy Head Lettuce Thousand Island Dressing Mint Sauce Bread Butter Pineapple Sherbet Bettina's Loaf Cake Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Roast Leg of Lamb with Potatoes (Ten portions) A 4-lb. leg of lamb 6 large potatoes ¼ t-paprika 1 T-salt 2 T-lard

Wash the lamb with a damp cloth. Wipe dry and sprinkle with two teaspoons of salt. Place the lard in a frying-pan. When hot, add the lamb, and brown well on all sides. Place the meat in the fireless utensil. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and paprika. Arrange these about the leg of lamb. Place the disks, heated for baking, over and under the baking pan. Cook three hours in the fireless. Use the drippings for gravy.

Lamb Gravy (Four portions) 4 T-drippings 2/3 C-water 2 T-flour ½ t-salt

Place half of the drippings in a sauce-pan. Add the flour, and allow it to brown. Add slowly the water, salt and the rest of the drippings (two tablespoonsful). Boil one minute.

Mint Sauce (Four portions) ¼ C-mint leaves ½ C-boiling water 2 T-sugar 4 T-vinegar 1/8 t-paprika ¼ t-salt

Chop the mint leaves very fine. Add the boiling water and sugar. Cover closely and let stand one-half hour. Add the vinegar, pepper and salt. Loaf Cake (Bettina's Nut Special) (Twelve pieces)

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1/3 C-butter 1 C-"C" sugar 1 egg 1½ C-flour ½ t-cinnamon 3 t-baking powder ¼ C-nut-meats, cut fine ¼ t-salt 2/3 C-milk 1 t-vanilla ½ t-lemon extract

Cream the butter, add the sugar and the egg. Mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nut-meats, salt, milk, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat two minutes. Pour into a loaf-cake pan prepared with waxed paper. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER VIII

CELEBRATING THE FOURTH

"N OW, boys, run and play while Alice and I set the picnic table!" said Bettina to Bob and Mr. Harrison. "See if the fish are biting! Cultivate your patience as well as your appetites and we'll surprise you soon!" "Bettina, let me help you unpack. Everything looks so dainty and interesting!" said Alice, as Bob and Mr. Harrison strolled off toward the river. "You ought to have allowed me to bring something, although I'll admit that I do enjoy being surprised. You were a dear to bring me with you!" "I?" said Bettina. "Of course I'm glad to have you here—no one is better fun— but I wish you had heard something that Bob told me. He and Harry Harrison were planning to go fishing today, all by themselves, until Harry suggested that Bob might like to bring me along. And then he added as an afterthought, that as three is a crowd, Miss Alice might be induced to come too. (Why is it that 'Miss Alice' or 'Miss Kate' or 'Miss May' always sounds so like a confirmed bachelor?) Bob chuckled when he told me how careless and offhand Harry tried to be!" "Betty, how pretty those pasteboard plates are with the flag-seals pasted on them!" "I saw some ready-made Fourth of July plates, but it was more economical to make my own. And how do you like the red, white and blue paper napkins and lunch cloth? 'Lunch paper,' I ought to say, I suppose. Alice, you arrange the fruit in the center in this basket, with some napkins around it, and with these little flags sticking out of it in every direction. But first, my dear, please tell me why you changed the subject when I was speaking of Mr. Harrison?"

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