A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (38 page)

Mix the chicken, veal and bread crumbs. Add the salt, celery salt, parsley, egg and milk. Mix thoroughly. Bake in a well-buttered pan thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Caramel Custard
(Two portions)

1 C-milk
3 egg
4 T-sugar
¹
/
₈
t-salt
¼ t-vanilla

Melt the sugar to a light brown syrup in a sauce pan over a hot fire, add the milk and cook until free from lumps. Beat
the egg, sugar, salt and vanilla, and pour the liquid slowly into the egg mixture. Pour into buttered moulds. Set the moulds in a pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven until the custard is firm (about forty minutes). Do not let the water in the pan reach the boiling point during the process of baking.

"S
EE, Ruth, it's snowing harder—a perfect blizzard. That means that you'll have to stay to dinner."

"I'm only too glad to find an excuse, Bettina, but you must remember that I'll have to get back some time, and I suppose that now is best."

"Well, Bob will take you after dinner. See, I've put on a place for you."

"That's fine, Bettina, and I suppose I may as well stay. I've been anxious to ask you what you were putting in the oven just as I came in."

"A dish of tomatoes, cheese and rice baked together; Bob is fond of it. You know I almost always plan to have two or more oven dishes if I am using the oven at all, and tonight I was making baked veal steak."

"I learned something new yesterday, Bettina, that I have been anxious to tell you. Mother was preparing cabbage for cold slaw (she always chops it, you know), and it suddenly occurred to her that she might easily use the large meat grinder. So she did, and the slaw was delicious. I would have supposed that the juice would be pressed out in the grinding, but it wasn't."

"I must remember that. I suppose that other people may have thought of it, but I never have, and I'm glad to know that it works so well."

"I believe I hear Bob, Bettina. He must be cold, for it is snowing and blowing harder every minute."

"Well, I'm glad I started the fire in the fireplace. There's nothing like an open fire."

For dinner that night Bettina served:

Baked Veal Steak
Baked Tomato, Cheese and Rice
Bread Butter
Tapioca and Date Pudding Cream
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Baked Veal Steak
(Three portions)

1 slice of veal steak (three-fourths of a pound, one-half inch thick)
3 T-flour
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika
2 T-bacon fat
2 T-water

Wipe the veal and cut off any rind. Mix the flour, salt and paprika. Roll the steak thoroughly in this mixture. Place the bacon fat in the frying-pan and when hot add the meat and brown thoroughly on both sides. Place the drippings and the meat in a small baking pan. Add the water, cover, and place in the oven. Cook one hour. More water may be added if necessary.

Baked Tomato, Cheese and Rice
(Three portions)

1 C-cooked rice
¹
/
₃
C-tomatoes
4 T-cheese, cut fine
1 T-pimento
1 t-salt
¼ t-paprika
1 T-flour
½ C-milk
1 T-melted butter
¼ C-cracker or bread crumbs

Mix the rice and flour, and add the tomatoes, cheese, salt and paprika. Add the milk. Pour into a well-buttered baking dish. Melt the butter and add the crumbs. Spread the buttered crumbs on the rice mixture. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes.

Tapioca and Date Pudding
(Three portions)

4 T-tapioca
¼ t-salt
2 T-cold water
1 C-boiling water
2 T-sugar
8 dates, cut fine
1 T-lemon juice
1 egg-yolk
1 egg-white
1 t-vanilla

Soak the tapioca in cold water for ten minutes. Add the salt and boiling water and cook in a double boiler until transparent. (About twenty minutes.) Add the sugar and the dates cut fine, the lemon juice, egg-yolk and vanilla. Remove from the fire and add the stiffly beaten egg-white. Pile the mixture lightly in glass dishes and serve cold.

"I
RAN over this morning," said Alice to Bettina, "to get your candy recipes. That was such delicious Christmas candy that you gave Harry! Wasn't it a great deal of work to make so much at a time? Perhaps I can't manage it, but I'd like to make a box of it for Harry's brother; it will be his birthday in a few days."

"It is very easy to make candy for Christmas boxes," said Bettina. "That is, it is no harder to make a large quantity than to fill one box. Bob helped me one evening, and we made four kinds at once. I had already stuffed some dates and made some candied orange peel, so you see when the candy was made, it was fun to fill the boxes with a variety of things. I always save boxes throughout the year for Christmas candy, and then I fill them all at once. Of course, until this year I didn't have Bob to help me; he enjoys it, you know, and two people can make it so much more quickly than one."

"Next year," said Alice, "I think I shall make Christmas candy—a quantity of it, so that I can put a box of it in every family box that I send. Meanwhile, I'll practise and experiment, and perhaps I can improve on the good old recipes, or think of clever ways of arranging and wrapping. Now will you let me write down some of your best recipes? I'll try them for Harry's brother."

The candies that Bettina made were:

Chocolate Fudge White Fudge
Peanut Brittle Peanut Fondant

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Chocolate Fudge
(One pound)

2 C-sugar
1 C-sugar, "C"
¼ t-cream of tartar
1 T-butter
2 squares or two ounces of chocolate
1 C-milk
1 t-vanilla

Mix the ingredients in order named, and cook until a soft ball is formed when a little of the candy is dropped in a glass of cold water. Remove from the fire and allow to cool. Do not stir while cooling. When cool, beat until creamy, add vanilla and pour into a well-buttered pan. Make white fudge and pour on top. When cool cut into squares.

White Fudge
(one pound)

3 C-sugar
½ C-milk
¹
/
₃
t-cream of tartar
1 T-butter
1 t-vanilla

Mix and cook the same as chocolate fudge.

Bettina's Peanut Fondant
(One and one-half pound)

2 C-"C" sugar
½ C-milk
¼ t-cream of tartar
1 T-butter
²
/
₃
C-roasted, shelled peanuts
¼ t-vanilla

Cook the "C" sugar, milk, cream of tartar and butter until a soft ball is formed in cold water. Remove from the fire and allow it to cool. Beat until thick and creamy and add the nuts and vanilla. Shape into a loaf two inches thick and two inches wide. When cool and hard enough to cut, slice into one-fourth inch slices. Wrap in waxed paper and pack in boxes.

"A
ND so, Bettina," said Ruth, sitting down on the high stool in Bettina's neat little kitchen, "Fred says we will begin the house early in the spring—as early as possible—and be married in May or June."

"What perfectly splendid news!" said Bettina. "I'm just as glad as I can be!"

"We've waited so long," said Ruth, wistfully. "Of course, if it hadn't been for the war—it did interfere so with business, you know—we would have been married last spring."

"I know," said Bettina, sympathetically, "but you'll be all the happier because you have waited."

"I'll want you to help me a great deal with my plans," said Ruth. "I've had time to do lots of sewing, of course, but I haven't thought anything about the wedding except that it will be a quiet one. And I want to ask you so much about house furnishings—curtains, and all that."

"I'd love to help!" cried Bettina with enthusiasm. "There isn't anything that is such fun. Oh, Ruth!"

"Gracious me! What?" cried Ruth, for Bettina had jumped up suddenly.

"Poor Ruth," laughed Bettina, "I didn't mean to frighten you. I forgot my cake, that was all, and I was afraid it had burned. But it hasn't. A minute longer though—you know a chocolate cake does burn so easily. But it's all right. However, you must admit that I did pretty well not to burn it while I was listening to wedding plans!"

That night Bettina served for dinner:

Swiss Steak Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Cauliflower
Bread Butter
Chocolate Nougat Cake
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Swiss Steak
(Three portions)

1 lb. of round steak two-thirds of an inch thick
5 T-flour
1 bay leaf
¼ t-salt
¹
/
₈
t-pepper
½ C-water
1 T-onion
2 cloves
1 T-bacon fat

Wipe the steak with a damp cloth, trim the edges to remove any gristle, and pound the flour into the meat, using a side of a heavy plate for the pounding. This breaks up the tendons of the meat. Place the bacon fat in a frying-pan and when hot, add the meat. Brown thoroughly on each side. Lower the flame. Add the bay leaf, salt, pepper, onion and water. Cover with a lid and allow to cook slowly for one and a half hours. More water may be needed if the gravy boils down. Pour the gravy over the meat when serving. This recipe is good for the fireless.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
(Two portions)

3 good-sized sweet potatoes
2 C-water
½ t-salt
1 T-butter
2 T-milk
¼ t-paprika

Wash the potatoes and remove any bad places. Add the water, and cook gently until tender. Drain, and peel while still hot, by holding the potatoes on the end of a fork. Mash with a spoon or a potato masher, adding the salt, butter, milk and paprika. Beat one minute. Pile lightly in a buttered baking dish, and place in a moderate oven about twenty minutes until a light brown.

Chocolate Nougat Cake

4 T-butter
²
/
₃
C-sugar
2 squares of chocolate
2 T-sugar
2 T-water
1 egg
½ C-milk
1
¹
/
₃
C-flour
2 t-baking powder
½ t-soda
½ t-vanilla

Cook the two tablespoons of sugar, water and chocolate together for one minute, stirring constantly. Cream the butter, add the sugar, the whole egg and the flour, baking powder and soda sifted together. Add the vanilla. Beat two minutes. Pour into two square layer-cake pans prepared with waxed paper. Bake twenty-two minutes in a moderate oven. Chocolate cakes burn easily and they should be carefully watched while baking.

Ice with White Mountain Cream Icing.

"O
H, Bettina, what a perfectly charming table!" exclaimed Alice, while her guest from New York, in whose honor Bettina was giving the little luncheon, declared that she had never seen a prettier sight.

"But it's your very own Christmas gift to me that makes it so," declared Bettina, with flushed cheeks. For Alice's deft fingers had fashioned the rose nut cups (now holding candied orange peel), and the rose buds in the sunset shades in the center of the table. "They are almost more real than real ones! I can scarcely believe that they are made of crêpe paper."

The square luncheon cloth on the round table was of linen, decorated with a cross-stitch design in the same sunset shades, so that the table was all in pink and white. A French basket enameled in ivory color held the rose buds, and another Christmas gift to Bettina was the flat ivory basket filled with light rolls. The luncheon napkins matched the luncheon cloth, as the guests noted, and "The menu matches everything else!" exclaimed Alice.

"I'm glad you like it," said Bettina. "I have eaten chicken a la king often at hotels and restaurants, but until recently it never occurred to me to make it myself. And it isn't difficult to make either."

"You must give me the recipe," said Alice. For luncheon Bettina served:

Chicken a la King Toast
Light Rolls Butter
Bettina Salad Salad Dressing
Cheese Wafers
Strawberry Sherbet Hickory Nut Cake
Coffee
Candied Orange Peel

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Chicken a la King
(Three portions)

²
/
₃
C-cold, cooked chicken, diced
3 T-butter
1 T-green pepper, cut fine
1 T-pimento, cut fine
¹
/
₈
t-celery salt
2 T-flour
1½ C-milk
¼ t-salt
1 egg-yolk, beaten
3 slices of toast