XXIX Bettina Puts Up Fruit

1 t-onion salt or onion juice 1/8 t-pepper

Grind the meat twice and add the seasoning. Shape into cakes two and a half inches in diameter and one inch thick, handling as little as possible. Place on a hot pan and cook under the broiler twelve minutes, turning when brown. Dot with butter and serve hot. Lemon Butter for the Steak (Four portions) 2 T-butter ½ t-salt ½ T-lemon juice ½ T-minced parsley ¼ t-paprika

Mix in order given and spread on hot meat of any kind, broiled steak, chops or fish.

Baked Potatoes (Four portions)

Select potatoes of a uniform size. Wash thoroughly with a vegetable brush. Run the point of the knife around the outside of the potato. Bake in a moderate oven forty to sixty minutes.

Escalloped Cabbage (Four portions) 2 C-cooked cabbage 1 C-white sauce 1/8 t-paprika ¼ C-bread crumbs 1 T-butter

Remove the outer leaves of a two and a half pound head of cabbage. Cut in half (using but half for dinner). Wash thoroughly and cut in shreds or chop moderately fine. Put in a large kettle of rapidly boiling water. Boil for twenty minutes. Drain well, add one-half a teaspoon salt. Make the white sauce, add the cabbage and paprika, mix well. Place in a buttered baking dish. Cover with buttered crumbs and place in a moderate oven until browned. Prune Soufflé (Four portions) ¼ lb. prunes 6 T-sugar 1 T-lemon juice or ½ t-lemon extract 2 egg whites

Wash the prunes thoroughly, cover with water, and allow to soak three hours. Cook slowly in the same water until soft. Remove the stones from the prunes, and save the pulp and juice. Add sugar, cook until very thick (about three minutes). Stir constantly. Cool, add the lemon juice. Cut and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Fill a well-buttered open tin mould half full of the mixture. Place the pan in another pan filled with boiling water. Cook in a slow oven until well raised, firm, and light brown in color (about twenty-five minutes). Serve with the following custard sauce:

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Custard Sauce (Four portions) 2 egg yolks 4 T-sugar 1 T-flour 1/8 t-salt 1½ C-milk ½ t-lemon extract

Beat egg yolks until light, in the upper part of a double boiler. Add sugar, flour and salt. Mix well and slowly add the milk. Cook over the lower part of the boiler until thick enough to coat a silver spoon. Beat well, add the extract, and cool.

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CHAPTER XL

A TELEGRAM FROM UNCLE ERIC

"W

box?" HAT shall I do with this butter, Bettina?" inquired Bob, who was helping to clear off the table after dinner one evening. "Put it in the ice-

"The butter from the table?" asked Bettina. "No, Bob, I keep that left-over butter in a covered dish in the cupboard. You see, there are so many times when I need butter for cake making or cooking, and prefer not to have it very hard. Then I use that cupboard butter. There's the doorbell, Bob. Now who do you suppose that can be?" "A telegram from Uncle Eric," said Bob, when he returned from the door. "Well, isn't that the limit! He's coming tonight!" "Tonight!" echoed Bettina. "Yes, on business. You see, there are so many people in town for the state fair and there are several that he must see. He's a queer old fellow—Uncle Eric is—and he has some queer notions. Doesn't like hotels, or anything but home cooking. He doesn't want anything elaborate, but he's pretty fussy about what he does want. I'm sorry for you, Bettina, but I guess we'll have to make him welcome. He's been pretty good to me, in his funny way, and so I suppose he feels he can descend on us without warning." "But, Bob—tonight! Why, I'm not ready! I haven't groceries in the house, or anything! And I was planning to give you a cooked cereal for breakfast tomorrow." "It's too bad, Betty," said Bob sympathetically, "but it seems as if we'll just have to manage some way. Uncle Eric has been good to me, you see. He's an old fogy of a bachelor, but he has a warm heart way down underneath his crusty exterior. And ——"

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"Don't you worry, Bob," said Bettina heartily. "We will manage. As a rule, I think it's pretty poor taste for anyone to come without warning or an invitation, but maybe Uncle Eric is an exception to all the rules. Tell me about him; do you have time? When does the train get in? Do you have to meet it?" "I guess I'd better hurry right off now." "But, Bob, tell me! What must I have for breakfast?" "Anything but a cereal, Betty! Uncle Eric draws the line at cereals. He has an awful time with his cooks, too. They never suit him." "Goodness, Bob!" said Betty, in despair. "And I have almost nothing in my cupboard. It's as bare as Mother Hubbard's!" "Good-bye, dear! I'm off! I know you'll think of some thing."

Bettina smiled hopelessly at the masculine viewpoint, and as soon as Bob had gone she sat down to think, a dish towel in one hand and a spoon in the other. "Be a sport, Bettina," she murmured to herself. "If Uncle Eric doesn't like his breakfasts, it's his own fault for coming. Get a pencil and paper and plan several cereal-less breakfasts, so that while he is here you will never be at a loss."

Thus fortified by her common sense and what is less common, her sense of humor, Bettina soon evolved the following breakfast menus for Uncle Eric: (1) Cantaloupe French Toast Maple Syrup Broiled Bacon Coffee

(2) Fresh Pears Creamed Beef on Toast Coffee

(3) Cantaloupe Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes Syrup Coffee

(4) Baked Apples Broiled Ham Graham Muffins Coffee

(5) Fresh Plums Codfish Balls Twin Mountain Muffins

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Coffee

(6) Cantaloupe Waffles Syrup Coffee

(7) Watermelon Corn Oysters Syrup Toast Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) French Toast (Three portions) 6 slices stale bread 2 eggs ¼ t-salt T-sugar 2/3 C-milk

Beat the eggs slightly, add salt, milk and sugar. Place in a shallow dish. Soak bread in the mixture until soft. Cook on a hot, well-greased griddle, browning on one side and then turning and browning on the other. Serve hot with maple syrup. Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes (Four portions) 2 C-flour 3 t-baking powder 1 C-milk 1 t-salt 1 egg, well-beaten

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, add the milk to the well-beaten egg, and pour the liquid slowly into the dry ingredients. Beat thoroughly for one minute. Put a spoonful on a hot, well-greased griddle. When done on one side, turn, and brown on the other. Never turn more than once. Broiled Bacon (Three portions) 6 slices of bacon

Place bacon slices, which have had the rind removed, on a hot tin pan and set directly under a flame for three minutes. Turn and broil the other side. Corn Oysters (Three portions) 1/3 C-corn 1/3 C-bread crumbs 1 well-beaten egg ¼ t-salt

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