XLV Ruth Makes an Apple Pie

3 hard-cooked eggs, cut fine 1 C-salad dressing

Break the salmon apart carefully with a silver fork, add the diced celery, sweet pickles, salt and hard-cooked eggs. Mix together well, and add the salad dressing. Arrange on lettuce leaves in a salad bowl, garnish with hard-cooked eggs to represent daisies, and pickles cut in strips. Serve very cold. (To represent daisies, cut the whites of each hard-cooked egg in six long petals. Arrange these on the salad. Cut the yolks in half, and place in the center—round side out. Arrange the pickle to represent stem and leaves.) Green Beans, Butter Sauce (Six portions) 2 C-green beans (canned) 1 T-water 1 t-salt ¼ t-paprika 3 T-butter

Remove beans from the can and rinse with cold water. Add water, salt, paprika and butter. Cook over a moderate fire for three minutes. Serve. Cream Puffs (Twelve Puffs) 1 C-boiling water ½ C-butter ¼ t-salt 1 C-flour 3 eggs

Place the water and butter in a sauce pan. Heat to the boiling point, then add the flour, all at once, and stir till smooth. Cook till the paste comes away from the sides of the pan. (A very short time.) Remove from fire, and when cold, add the unbeaten eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each egg is added. (The mixture should be stiff enough to hold its shape without spreading.) Chill the paste by placing in the ice-box and then drop by tablespoonsful on a buttered sheet. Bake thirty-five minutes in a hot oven. When cold, make an opening in the side of each and fill with cream filling. Cream Filling (Twelve portions) 1 C-milk ½ C-sugar ¼ t-salt 4 T-cornstarch 1 T-flour 1 egg 1 t-butter ½ t-vanilla

Mix the sugar, salt, cornstarch and flour. Gradually add the milk and egg. Cook until very thick, in a double boiler. Add the butter and vanilla. Beat one minute. Cool before using.

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CHAPTER LXIII

MOTORING WITH THE DIXONS

"N OT through dinner yet?" exclaimed the Dixons at the door. "May we sit down and wait? It's a beautiful evening, and we've come to get you to take a long drive with us." "Fine," said Bob. "Come out to the dining-room and talk till we're through." "And then I'll help Bettina clear off the table," said Charlotte. "Well, people, it looks like a good dinner, and Sherlock Holmes deduces, moreover, that you had roast lamb yesterday for your Sunday dinner." "You might also deduce that we had baked potatoes, from which these creamed ones are made," laughed Bettina. "Nothing else to guess at, except that part of a cabbage made cold slaw yesterday and escalloped cabbage today. And my dessert, while simple, has no secret past," she added as she removed the first course. "A plain and simple custard, that's all." "Suits me," said Bob, heartily, "especially when it's cold like this." "By the way, Bettina," said Charlotte, "did you ever get rid of those black ants you were telling me about?" "Yes, I've never seen one since." "Well, you know how worried I was about the little red ones that bothered me. Aunt Isabel, in a letter, gave me a remedy that has worked like magic." "Aunt Isabel has her uses, after all," teased Frank. "I should say she has! She knows all about housekeeping, from A to Z! Her remedy sounds queer, but I can vouch for its efficacy, so if anyone ever asks you what to do for red ants, you tell them this, Bettina. I took some covers from baking powder cans, and some Mason jar covers, and some pie tins, and chalked the sides well with common school crayon. Then I set them on the pantry shelves to hold dishes of whatever kinds of food the ants liked. The ants never climbed over those chalked covers and soon they had all disappeared. I don't have to use the chalked tins any more, but if I ever see a red ant in my pantry again, I'll get out the chalk." "Couldn't you make a heavy chalk mark on the shelf paper around the dish of food?" asked Bob. "I tried that, but it didn't do any good. But the other way worked beautifully." "I'm glad to know about it," said Bettina. "Well, Bob, are you ready? It will take only a few minutes to carry out the dishes and pile them up. I'm sorry we've kept you people waiting."

For dinner that night they had:

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Cold Sliced Lamb Creamed Potatoes Chili Sauce Escalloped Cabbage Bread Butter Baked Custard

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Escalloped Cabbage (Two portions) 1 C-cooked cabbage 1 T-butter 1 T-flour ¼ t-salt ½ C-milk 2 T-fresh bread crumbs 1 T-melted butter

Melt the butter, add the flour and salt, and mix well. Slowly pour over the milk and cook until creamy. Add the cabbage. Pour into a buttered baking dish. Add bread crumbs to melted butter, and place the buttered crumbs on the cabbage. Bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes, or until the crumbs are browned. Chili Sauce (One and one-half pints) 12 large, ripe tomatoes 3 green peppers 2 onions 2 T-salt 2 T-sugar 1 T-ground cinnamon 3 C-vinegar

Peel the tomatoes and onions, and chop separately very fine. Chop the pepper also, and add the salt, sugar and cinnamon. Mix all the ingredients together and add the vinegar. Cook one and one-half hours over a moderate fire, stirring sufficiently to prevent sticking. Bottle, and when cool, seal with paraffin. Cup Custard (Three portions) 2 eggs 2 C-milk 4 T-sugar 1/8 t-salt A few gratings of nutmeg ¼ t-vanilla

Beat the eggs slightly, add the sugar and milk slowly. Add salt and flavoring. Stir well. Pour into well-buttered cups. Sprinkle the nutmeg gratings on the top. Set the cups in a pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven until a knife comes out clean upon piercing the custard (about thirty-five minutes). Do not allow the water in the pan to boil. Serve the custard cold, removing from the cups just before ready to serve. The custards may be served in cups.

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