LXXXIII A "Happen-in" Luncheon

1 t-salt ¼ t-paprika 1 C-chopped corned beef

Place the milk, onion and celery over the fire. Allow to get very hot. Remove from the fire and let stand for ten minutes. Remove the celery and onion from the milk. Melt the butter, add the flour. Mix well and slowly add the milk. Cook until the consistency of white sauce. Add the egg, well beaten, the salt, paprika, and beef. Pour into well-buttered individual dishes.

Place in a moderate oven and bake twenty-five minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to stand two minutes. Remove from the moulds and garnish with parsley. Baked Tomatoes and Cheese (Three portions) 1 C-canned tomatoes ½ t-salt ¼ t-paprika ¼ C-fresh bread crumbs 3 T-cheese, cut fine ¼ C-cooked celery 1 T-butter

Mix the tomatoes, salt, paprika, cheese and celery. Add half the bread crumbs. Pour into a well-buttered baking dish. Melt the butter, add the remaining crumbs and place on top of the mixture. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Gluten Bread (Ten slices) 1 C-gluten flour 1½ t-baking powder ¼ t-salt ¼ C-bran 2 T-sugar 1/3 C-milk 1/3 C-water 1 t-melted butter

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, bran and sugar. Add the milk and water. Beat vigorously for one minute and then add the butter. Pour into a well-buttered bread pan and bake forty minutes in a moderate oven.

CHAPTER CXVII

AN AFTERNOON WITH BETTINA

W

HEN Bettina pushed her tea cart into the living-room, Alice and Ruth laid aside the mending at which they had been busy.

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"What delicious toast, Bettina!" said Alice, taking one bite. "Why, it has cinnamon on it! And sugar! I wondered what on earth you were making that smelled so good, and this is something new to me!" "It is cinnamon toast," said Bettina, "and so easy to make. I was busy all morning, and didn't have time to make anything but these date kisses for tea, but cinnamon toast can be made so quickly that I decided to serve it." "I like orange marmalade, too, Bettina," said Alice. "I wish I had made some. I have spiced peaches, and a little jelly, but that is all. Next summer I intend to have a perfect orgy of canning. Then my cupboard will be even better stocked than Bettina's—perhaps! I opened a jar of spiced peaches last evening for dinner, and what do you think! Harry ate every peach in the jar! I had expected them to last several days, too." "I hoped you saved the juice," said Bettina. "I did, but I don't know why. It seemed too good to throw away, somehow." "Have you ever eaten ham cooked in the juice of pickled peaches? It's delicious. Just cover the slice of ham with the juice and cook it in the oven until it is very tender. Then remove it from the juice and serve it." "It sounds fine. I'll do it tomorrow."

That afternoon Bettina served: Cinnamon Toast Tea Orange Marmalade Date Kisses

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level) Cinnamon Toast (Six portions) 6 slices of stale bread 2 T-butter 1/3 C-powdered sugar ½ t-cinnamon

Make a delicate brown toast and butter each slice. Mix the sugar and cinnamon, and place in a shaker. Shake the desired quantities of sugar and cinnamon over the hot buttered toast. Keep in a warm place until ready to serve. Bettina's Date Kisses (One dozen) 1 egg-white 1/8 t-salt ½ C-powdered sugar ¼ t-baking powder ¼ C-chopped dates

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¼ C-chopped nut meats ½ t-lemon extract

Add the salt to the white of an egg, and beat the egg-white very stiff. Then add the sugar, baking powder, nuts, dates and lemon extract. Drop from a teaspoon onto a buttered pan. Bake in a slow oven until delicately browned. (About twenty-five minutes.)

Orange Marmalade (One pint) 3 oranges 2 lemons ½ grapefruit Sugar

Wash thoroughly the rinds of the fruits. Weigh the fruit, and slice it evenly. To each pound of fruit, add one quart of cold water. Let the mixture stand for twentyfour hours. Cook slowly for one hour. Drain. Weigh the cooked fruit, and add an equal weight of sugar. Cook with the sugar for thirty minutes, or until it stiffens slightly when tried on a dish. Pour into sterilized jelly glasses. When cool seal with hot paraffin.

CHAPTER CXVIII

A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY TEA

WHEN the tea guests were ushered into Charlotte's dining-room that afternoon, they were delighted with the table and its red, white and blue decorations. In the center was a large three-cornered hat made of black paper, and heaped with artificial red cherries. The cherry ice was tinted red, and served in sherbet glasses. A large white cake, uncut, was one of the chief decorations, for halves of red cherries were placed together on it to represent a bunch of cherries, while tiny lines of chocolate icing represented the stems.

Bettina poured the tea and placed in each cup a red cherry. The guests helped themselves to trays, napkins, forks and spoons, and each took a portion of Washington salad, served in a small, black, three-cornered hat, lined with waxed paper. Each took also a rolled sandwich, tied with red, white and blue ribbon, and a nut bread sandwich in the shape of a hatchet.

The Washington fondant, rolled in cocoanut and toasted to represent tree trunks, with small gilt hatchets stuck in them, occasioned great delight. "How did you ever think of it?" Ruth asked, and Bettina gave Charlotte the credit, though she in turn disclaimed any originality in the matter. "One thing is lacking," said Bettina. "Charlotte and I should be wearing colonial costumes. We did think of it, but happened to be too busy to make them."

That afternoon Charlotte and Bettina served:

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