XXXVIII After the Circus

1 C-turnip cubes 1/3 t-salt 1 T-butter 1 T-flour ¼ t-salt ½ C-milk

Peel the turnips. Cut into one-half inch cubes. Soak in cold water ten minutes. Cook in boiling water in an uncovered utensil until transparent no longer. Drain and sprinkle with salt. Melt the butter, add the flour and the one-fourth teaspoon salt, blend well, add the milk gradually and cook until creamy. Add the turnips and serve.

Liver and Bacon (Two portions) 4 slices bacon 2/3 lb. liver 1 t-salt ¼ t-paprika 3 T-flour

Cover slices of calves' liver cut one-half inch thick with boiling water. Allow to stand five minutes. Drain and cut into pieces for serving. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Have a frying pan very hot. Add sliced bacon. When the bacon has cooked on each side, pile up on one side of the pan and add the liver, placing a piece of bacon on top of each portion of liver, thus preventing the bacon from getting too well done, and also seasoning the liver. Brown the liver thoroughly on both sides. (It should be cooked about ten minutes.) Serve hot. Fruit Gems (Nine Gems) 2 C-flour 3 t-baking powder 3 T-sugar ¼ t-salt ¾ C-milk 1 egg 1 T-melted butter 1/3 C-seeded, chopped raisins or currants

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Break the egg into the milk, stir well, pour into the dry ingredients. Beat vigorously one minute. Add the melted butter and raisins or currants. Bake in nine well buttered gem pans for twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Peanut Fudge (Six portions) 1 C-"C" sugar 1 C-granulated sugar ¼ t-cream of tartar 2 squares of chocolate 2/3 C-milk 1 T-butter

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1 t-vanilla ½ C-broken peanuts

Mix the sugar, cream of tartar, chocolate, milk and butter. Cook over a moderate fire until the fudge forms a soft ball when a little is dropped into cold water. Remove from the fire, allow to stand without stirring for twenty minutes. Beat vigorously until creamy. Add the vanilla and peanuts. When very thick remove to a buttered plate. Allow to harden and cut in squares.

CHAPTER LIII

DINNER AT THE DIXONS

"I

S it still as much fun to keep house as it was at first, Charlotte?" asked Bettina as she and Bob sat down to dinner with the Dixons. "Fun?" said Charlotte. "Bettina, look at me! Or better still, look at Frank! And the funny part of it all is that Aunt Isabel thinks our keeping house is a result of her preachments against boarding and hotel living. Why, she quite approves of me now! And I'll just keep quiet and let her feel that she was the one who did it, but all the while in my heart I'll be remembering that it was the sight of your happiness that roused my ambition to make a home myself." "I tell you," said Mr. Dixon, "we can never thank you enough, Bettina. Now shall I play 'Home Sweet Home' on the piano? And will you all join in the chorus?" "Not if you sing, too," said Mrs. Dixon, smiling at her husband's foolishness. "I've learned a great deal from you, since I began, Bettina, and not the smallest lesson is that of having company without dreading it. I don't try to make things elaborate, just dainty and simple food such as we have every day. Why, tonight I didn't make a single change for you and Bob! And I don't believe I should dread even Aunt Isabel's sudden arrival now." "Aunt Isabel is really a good soul, Bettina," said Frank. "Charlotte has never learned how much worse her bark is than her bite, and she takes it to heart when Aunt Isabel speaks her mind. Why, I remember so well the scoldings she used to give me when I was a boy, and the cookies she would manage to treat me with afterward! I used to anticipate those pleasant scoldings!" "If a scolding always comes before food," said Bob, "Charlotte must have given you an extra good one before inviting us to partake of that delicious-looking chocolate pie!"

That evening they had: Cold Sliced Ham Creamed Potatoes Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice Peach Butter

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Chocolate Pie Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice (Six portions) 6 tomatoes ½ C-rice, cooked ½ C-green pepper, chopped 2 T-grated cheese 1 t-chopped onion ¼ t-salt 1 T-butter

Remove a piece one inch in diameter from the stem end of each tomato. Take out the seeds. Fill the shells with the rice, pepper, cheese, onion and salt, well mixed. Place a small dot of butter on top of each. Place in a small pan and bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Chocolate Pie Crust (Six portions) 1 C-flour 1/3 C-lard ¼ t-salt 3 T-ice water

Mix the flour and salt, cut in the lard with a knife, add the liquid slowly, stirring with the knife. More water may be needed. Roll out thin, fit onto a tin pan, prick with holes, and bake in a hot oven until light brown (about seven minutes). Filling (Six portions) 1 C-sugar 5 T-flour 1/8 t-salt 2 C-milk 2 egg yolks 1½ squares melted chocolate ½ t-vanilla

Mix well the sugar, flour and salt. Add gradually the milk and beaten egg yolks. Cook in a double boiler fifteen minutes. Add the melted chocolate. Cook until thick (about ten minutes), and add the vanilla. Fill the baked shell, and cover with meringue. Place in a moderate oven and cook until the meringue is a delicate brown (about five minutes).

Meringue

2 egg whites 4 T-sugar

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