A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (39 page)

Melt the butter, add the green pepper, cook slowly for two minutes, and then add the flour. Mix well and add the milk slowly. Cook until creamy. Add the celery salt and the salt. When very hot, add the beaten egg-yolk. Mix well, and add the chicken and pimento. Reheat. Serve very hot on hot toast. (Do not cook the sauce any longer than absolutely necessary after the egg-yolk is added.)

Bettina Salad
(Three portions)

3 slices of pineapple
3 halves of pears
6 marshmallows
3 maraschino cherries
6 halves of nut meats
3 T-salad dressing
3 T-whipped cream
3 pieces of lettuce

Wash the lettuce and arrange on salad plates. Lay a slice of pineapple on the lettuce and half a pear, the hollow side up, on the pineapple. Fill the cavity of the pear with salad dressing, and place one tablespoon of whipped cream on top of the salad dressing. Arrange two nut-halves, two marshmallows and one cherry attractively on each portion. Serve very cold.

Hickory Nut Cake

¹
/
₃
C-butter
1½ C-sugar
2 eggs
½ C-chopped hickory nut meats
4 t-baking powder
2 C-flour
¾ C-milk
½ t-vanilla
½ t-lemon extract

Cream the butter, add the sugar and mix well. Add the egg-yolks, the nut meats, and the flour and baking powder sifted together. Then add the milk, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat vigorously for two minutes. Add the whites stiffly beaten. Mix thoroughly and pour into two layer-cake pans prepared with buttered paper. Bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Ice with confectioner's icing.

Bettina's Confectioner's Icing

2 T-cream
½ t-vanilla extract
½ t-lemon extract
1 C-powdered sugar

Mix the cream and extracts. Gradually add the powdered sugar sifted through a strainer. Add enough sugar to form a creamy icing which will easily spread upon the cake. (More than a cup of sugar may be needed.)

"S
HALL I open this jar of grapefruit marmalade?" asked Charlotte, who was helping Bettina to prepare dinner.

"Yes, Charlotte, if you will."

"How nice it is, Bettina! How long do you cook it before you add the sugar?"

"Well, that depends altogether on the fruit. Sometimes the rind is so much tougher than at other times. You cook it until it's very tender, then add the sugar and cook until it jells."

"There's another thing I'd like to ask you, Bettina. How on earth do you cut the fruit in thin slices? Isn't it very difficult to do?"

"Not with a sharp knife. I place the fruit on a hardwood board, and then if my knife is as sharp as it ought to be, it isn't at all difficult to cut it thin."

"Well, perhaps I haven't had a sharp enough knife. Oh, Bettina, what delicious looking cake! Is it fruit cake?"

"It's called date loaf cake. It has nuts in it, too, but no butter. I always bake it in a loaf cake pan prepared with waxed paper. Bob is very fond of it. I think it's very good served with afternoon tea."

"I should think it might be."

"Tonight, though, I am serving just sliced oranges with it."

"That will be a delicious dessert, I think. Listen! Is that Bob and Frank coming in?"

For dinner that night they had:

Roast Beef Browned Potatoes
Gravy
Bettina's Jelly Pickle
Bread Grapefruit Marmalade
Date Loaf Cake Sliced Oranges
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Bettina's Jelly Pickle
(Four portions)

2 t-granulated gelatin
4 T-cold water
¾ C-vinegar from a jar of sweet pickles
2 T-sweet pickles, chopped fine
1 T-olives, chopped fine
1 T-spiced peach, chopped fine
1 T-pickled melon rind

Soak the gelatin in cold water for ten minutes. Heat the vinegar and when very hot pour into the gelatin mixture. Stir until dissolved. When partially congealed so that the fruit will not stay on the top, add the pickles, olives, peaches and rind. Pour into a well-moistened layer mould or four small ones. Set in a cold place one hour. Unmould.

Grapefruit Marmalade
(One and one-half pints)

6 grapefruit
4 lemons
1 orange
1 lb. sugar for each lb. of fruit
6 C-cold water for each lb. of fruit

Wash the grapefruit, lemons and orange carefully. Cut each in quarters. Slice the quarters through the rind and pulp, making thin slices. Weigh the fruit, and for each pound allow six cups of cold water. Allow to stand with the water on the fruit for twenty-four hours. Let all boil gently until the rind is very tender. No particular test can be given for this, as some fruit is much tougher than others. Set aside for four hours. Drain off the liquid. Weigh the fruit mixture, and for each pound allow a pound of sugar. Let cook slowly until the mixture thickens or "jellies" when tried on a dish. Be careful not to get the mixture too thick, as it will thicken somewhat more upon cooling.

Date Loaf Cake
(Twelve pieces)

1 C-flour
2 t-baking powder
½ t-salt
1 C-sugar
2 eggs
1 t-vanilla
1 C-dates, cut fine
½ C-nut meats, cut fine

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar thoroughly. Add the dates, nut meats and vanilla. Mix thoroughly, add the egg-yolks and mix well. Beat the egg-whites until very stiff. Cut and fold these into the mixture. Pour into a loaf cake pan prepared with waxed paper. Bake in a slow oven for fifty minutes.

FEBRUARY.

Cold and snowy February
Does seem slow and trying, very.
Still, a month made gay by Cupid
Never could be wholly stupid.

"T
HIS was a splendid dinner, Bettina," said Ruth, as the two of them were carrying the dishes into the kitchen and Fred and Bob were deep in conversation in the living-room. "Such a delicious dessert! Suet pudding, wasn't it? I couldn't guess all that was in it."

"Just a steamed fig pudding, Ruth. The simplest thing in the world!"

"Simple? But don't you have to use a steamer to make it in, and isn't that awfully complicated? I've always imagined so."

"You don't need to use a steamer at all. I steamed this in my fireless cooker, in a large baking powder can. I filled the buttered can about two-thirds full, and set it in boiling water that came less than half way up the side of the can. Of course, the cover of the can or the mould must be screwed on tight. And the utensil in which it is steamed must be covered. I used one of the utensils that fit in the fireless, of course, and I brought the water to a boil on the stove so that I was sure it was boiling vigorously when I set it in the cooker on the sizzling hot stone. You see it is very simple. In fact, I think steaming anything is very easy, for you don't have to keep watching it as you would if it were baking in the oven, and basting it, or changing the heat."

"We haven't a cooker, you know. Could I make a steamed pudding that same way on the stove?"

"Yes, indeed the very same way. Just set the buttered can filled two-thirds full in a larger covered utensil holding boiling water. Keep the water boiling all the time."

"I shall certainly try it tomorrow, Bettina!"

For dinner that night Bettina served:

Breaded Veal Creamed Potatoes
Browned Sauce
Spinach with Hard Cooked Eggs
Bread Butter
Spiced Peaches
Fig Pudding Foamy Sauce
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Breaded Veal
(Four portions)

1 lb. veal round steak, cut one-half an inch thick
1 T-egg (either the white or the yolk)
1 T-water
²
/
₃
C-cracker crumbs, or dry bread crumbs
2 T-lard
¼ t-salt
1 T-butter
¹
/
₈
t-paprika

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, and cut into four pieces. Mix the egg, water, salt and paprika, and dip each piece of meat into the egg mixture. Roll in the crumbs and pat the crumbs into the meat. Place the lard in the frying-pan, and when hot, add the meat. Brown well on one side, and then turn, allowing the other side to become the same even color. Lower the flame under the meat, and cook thirty minutes, keeping the pan covered. When the meat has cooked twenty-five minutes, add the butter to lend flavor to the lard.

Browned Gravy
(Four portions)

1 T-butter
2 T-flour
½ t-salt
½ C-water
¼ C-milk

Remove the breaded veal from the pan, and place on a hot platter. (Keep in a warm place.) Loosen all the small pieces of crackers and meat (if there are any) from the bottom of the pan. If there is no fat left, add butter. Allow the fat to get hot, and add flour and salt. Mix well with the heated fat, and allow to brown. Stir constantly, and add the water. Mix well, and add one-fourth cup of milk. Allow to cook one minute, stirring constantly. If a thinner sauce is desired, add another one-fourth of a cup of milk. If a thicker sauce is desired, allow to cook for two minutes.

Bettina's Steamed Fig Pudding
(Four portions)

1 C-flour
½ t-soda
½ t-ginger
²
/
₃
t-cinnamon
¼ t-nutmeg
½ C-molasses
½ C-milk
½ C-suet, chopped fine
¹
/
₃
C-chopped figs
¹
/
₃
C-stoned raisins
¹
/
₃
t-lemon extract

Mix the flour, soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and suet. Add the figs, raisins, molasses and milk. Stir well. Add the lemon extract. Fill a well-buttered pudding mould two-thirds full. Steam an hour and a half, with the water boiling. Serve hot with foamy sauce.

Foamy Sauce
(Four portions)

1 egg
½ C-sugar
½ C-hot water
1 T-lemon juice or 1 t-lemon extract

Beat the egg vigorously. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the hot water and stir vigorously. Add the lemon juice. Serve, (This sauce may be reheated if desired.)

"B
OB, the flowers are lovely!" said Bettina, looking again at the brilliant tulips on the dinner table. "They make this a real valentine dinner, although there is nothing festive about it. I had intended to plan something special, but I went to a valentine luncheon at Mary's, and stayed so late——"

"A valentine luncheon? With red hearts everywhere, I suppose?"

"Yes, everything heart-shaped, and in red, too, as far as possible. Mary had twelve guests at one large round table. Of course, there were strings and strings of red hearts of various sizes decorating the table—not a very new idea, of course, but so effective. And everything tasted so good; cream of tomato soup, the best stuffed tenderloin with mushroom sauce (I must find out how that is made), and the best sweet potato croquettes!"