A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (24 page)

Cream the butter, add the sugar and egg-yolks; mix thoroughly. Add the orange rind. Add the baking powder, salt and flour sifted together and then the orange juice and milk. Mix, and beat one minute. Add the egg-whites beaten stiffly, and the lemon extract. Bake in two square cake tins fitted with waxed paper for twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

Orange Filling for the Cake
(Sixteen portions)

½ C-sugar
3 T-flour
¹
/
₈
t-salt
1 egg yolk
Grated rind of ½ an orange
¼ C-water
¼ C-orange juice
½ t-lemon juice

Mix the flour, sugar and salt well; add slowly the egg-yolk and the grated rind, the orange juice and water. Cook slowly over hot water for ten minutes, or until thick enough to spread. Add the lemon juice or lemon extract. Spread on one layer of cake. Place the other layer carefully on the top and spread Quick Cake Icing over the top and sides of the cake.

[203]
[204]

OCTOBER.

Oh, hazy month of glowing trees,—
And colors rich to charm our eyes!
Yet—not less fair than all of these
Are Mother's fragrant pumpkin pies!

"D
ID you want me for something, Mary?" asked Alice at the door. "Mother said you had telephoned."

"Come in! Come in!" cried ten girls at once, while Bettina whispered to Ruth: "Thank goodness, she's come! The muffins are all but done!"

"What in the world!" said Alice.

"A party for you!"

"And I'm wearing my old suit!"

"We caught you this time, but never mind. Come in, and take off your things."

As soon as Alice reappeared in the living room, a small table was drawn up before the open fire. Two girls appeared, wearing gingham aprons and carrying overflowing market baskets.

"This is a kitchen shower for you, Alice," Ruth explained somewhat ceremoniously. "But if you are willing, we will use the utensils in serving the luncheon and afterwards present them to you. May we unpack the baskets?"

"Do," said Alice, laughing.

From the larger basket, Ruth removed twelve white enamelled plates of different sizes (suitable for holding supplies in the refrigerator), and twelve cross-barred tea towels. The
latter she passed around to be used as napkins, and Mary distributed the plates. On the small serving table before the fire, a white muslin table cover was placed. As she unfolded it, Ruth read from the attached card:

"If breakfast you should chance to eat
Upon the kitchen table—
I'll make it dainty, fair and neat
So far as I am able."

When the steel forks and spoons of various sizes were taken out and passed around, two glass measuring cups were found to hold loaf sugar wrapped in frilled paper. Upon one of these Ruth read:

"Please eat us all, but let your sweet
Sweet hours be duly treasured,
For we belie the worldly eye—
True sweetness can't be measured."

A glass rolling-pin filled with stick candy came next, and its sentiments read, and meanwhile the girls had begun to read aloud the advice pinned upon the tea-towels, such as:

"No matter what his whims and wishes—
Just tell him he must wipe the dishes!"

and

"But if he breaks a cup or plate,
Just throw the pieces at him straight."

"What vindictive dish-towels!" said Alice. "They're not a bit sentimental!"

When the contents had been removed and all the verses read, the large basket was presented to Alice, who read from its handle:

"To market, to market, to buy your supplies!
You'll go there in person, if careful and wise."

"I will, Mr. Basket, with you over my arm!" answered Alice.

Meanwhile the girls had carried in the salad in an earthenware mixing-bowl, the muffins heaped high in a small basket with a dainty dustcloth over them, the coffee in a large enamelled pitcher, and the "molasses puffs" wrapped in frilled paper in a basket suitable for holding supplies. "Bettina's apples" were arranged in two flat enamelled pans. All the food was served informally from the small table, and the merriment grew as the luncheon progressed.

"I wish that all the meals Harry and I have together might be as jolly as this one! I'm sure I should be glad to eat always from kitchen dishes, if that is what makes the fun," said Alice.

At the kitchen shower, the luncheon was as follows:

Bettina's Potato Salad Bettina's Spiced Beets
Twin Mountain Muffins Currant Jelly
Molasses Puffs Bettina's Apples
Coffee Stick Candy

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Bettina's Potato Salad
(Twelve portions)

3 C-cold boiled potatoes, diced
1 C-diced celery
½ C-diced hard-cooked egg
¼ C-diced sweet pickles
3 T-diced pimento
2 t-salt
1 T-chopped onion
1 C-salad dressing
12 lettuce leaves

Mix all the ingredients in the order named. Serve the salad very cold on crisp lettuce leaves.

Bettina's Spiced Beets
(Twelve portions)

5 large, cooked beets, sliced
½ C-vinegar
1 T-"C" sugar
6 cloves
1 t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-pepper

Heat the vinegar, add the cloves, sugar, salt and pepper.
Pour over the beets, cut in one-third inch slices. Allow to stand one hour before serving.

Molasses Puffs
(Twelve portions)

¾ C-molasses
¾ C-sugar
½ C-hot water
¹
/
₃
C-butter and lard (melted)
1 egg, well beaten
2 t-ginger
1 t-cinnamon
2 t-soda
3 C-flour

Mix the molasses and sugar. Add the hot water and fat. Beat well, add the egg and mix thoroughly. Sift the ginger, cinnamon, flour and soda together, and add to the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. Fill well-buttered muffin pans three-fourths full. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes. Ice with "C" sugar icing.

Icing

2 egg-whites beaten stiffly
2 C-"C" sugar
½ C-water
½ t-vanilla

Cook the sugar and water together until it "clicks" when a little is dropped into cold water. Pour the syrup slowly over the stiffly beaten egg whites. Beat vigorously until cool and creamy. Add the vanilla and spread on the cakes. If the icing gets hard before it is cool, add two tablespoons of water and continue beating. The secret of good icing is steady, constant beating.

Bettina's Apples
(Twelve portions)

12 apples
3 C-"C" sugar
2 C-water
¼ t-cinnamon
½ t-vanilla
18 marshmallows
1 T-butter

Wash, peel and core the apples. Place in a broad flat pan in which the sugar and water have been thoroughly mixed. Cook the apples, turning often until tender, remove from the syrup and place in a serving dish. Fill the center with one-half a marshmallow. Add the cinnamon and butter to the syrup and cook five minutes or until it thickens. Pour over and around the apples. Decorate with a marshmallow cut into fourths. Serve warm.

"W
HY, Bob, I thought you'd be miles away by this time!" cried Bettina, as Bob came into the house at the usual time one evening.

"They called off our trip on account of the weather. And I supposed you'd be at your mother's!"

"It was raining so that I decided to build a cozy little fire in the fireplace and stay at home."

"Well, I'm glad you're here! I was expecting to come home to a cold, dark house, and this is much more cheerful."

"And I expected not to see you till midnight, so I'm well suited too! But, Bobby, you mustn't complain if I give you a 'pick-up meal.' I expected to eat only a lunch myself."

"I don't care what you give me, just so it's hot. My walk through the rain has given me an appetite. I'll help you get supper and wash the dishes, Bettina, and then afterward we'll pop corn and toast marshmallows by the fire. What do you say?"

"Fine, Bob! I cooked some celery today—just a little—and I think I'll fix 'celery au gratin' for you. The cooky-jar is full of rocks——"

"A full cooky-jar! Bettina, that ought to be the symbol of our happy home. May it always be full!"

"You're altogether too oratorical for a staid married man, Bob. Well, as I was saying, here is apple sauce, and I'll soon have some emergency biscuit stirred up. Then with scrambled eggs——"

"Hurry, Bettina! My appetite grows with every dish you mention!"

They had a meal of:

Scrambled Eggs Celery au Gratin
Emergency Biscuit Fresh Apple Sauce
Rocks Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Scrambled Eggs
(Two portions)

3 eggs
5 T-milk
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
1 T-butter

Beat the eggs slightly; add milk, salt and paprika. Melt the butter in a frying pan or omelet pan. When hot, add the egg mixture, and cook slowly, scraping from bottom and sides of the pan when mixture first sets. Cook until creamy, or longer if preferred. If desired, the egg may be constantly "scrambled" with a fork while cooking. Turn into a hot dish and serve at once.

Celery au Gratin
(Two portions)

1 C-cooked diced celery
1 T-butter
1 T-flour
½ C-milk and celery stock
3 T-grated cheese
¹
/
₈
t-paprika
¼ t-salt

Cook the celery in a small amount of water at a low temperature, as too fast boiling makes it tough. Simmer until tender.

Melt the butter, add the flour and blend well. Add the milk and stock, pepper and salt. Add the cheese. Allow to cook until it is the consistency of a thin vegetable white sauce. Add the celery. Place in a hot oven for fifteen minutes.

(Bettina uses a part of the water in which the celery is simmered to make up the cup of combined milk and celery stock. The remainder of the celery stock she saves for soup.)

Rocks
(Two dozen)

1½ C-brown sugar
²
/
₃
C-butter
2 eggs
1 t-cinnamon
¼ t-ground cloves
¼ t-salt
2½ C-flour
1 t-soda
1½ C-chopped nut meats and raisins
1 t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add the sugar, and cream the mixture. Add the eggs, well beaten, and the remaining dry ingredients (except nuts and raisins) sifted together. Mix well. Add the nut meats and chopped raisins, and vanilla. The mixture should be very stiff. Drop from a spoon onto flat buttered pans or preferably onto a buttered baking sheet. Bake about twelve minutes in a moderate oven.

(Bettina keeps rocks in a stone jar, and finds that they keep well, and are really better when a day old.)