A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (10 page)

"Betty dear, you've given me a real glimpse into your business-like methods! Some men seem to think that it doesn't take brains to run a house well, but they don't know. It requires just as much executive ability and common sense as it does to manage a big business."

That night the dinner for two consisted of:

Cold Ham Green Peppers Stuffed with Rice
Light Rolls Peach Butter
Hot Fudge Cake

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Light Rolls

2 T-sugar
¼ t-salt
½ C-scalded milk
½ yeast cake
¾ C-flour
2 T-melted butter
1 egg, well-beaten
2 T-lukewarm water
flour

Add the sugar and salt to the scalded milk and when lukewarm, add the yeast dissolved in the lukewarm water, and three-fourths of a cup of flour. Cover and set in a warm place to rise. Then add the melted butter, the well-beaten egg, and enough flour to knead. Let rise in a warm place. Roll to one-half an inch in thickness and shape with a biscuit cutter. Butter the top of each. Fold over, place in a buttered pan, close together. Let rise again for forty-five minutes and then bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes.

Green Peppers Stuffed with Rice

6 green peppers
1 C-white sauce
½ C-cooked rice
1 T-chopped green pepper
3 onions cooked and cut fine
½ t-paprika

Cut the stem ends from the peppers, and remove all seeds; add one-eighth of a teaspoonful of soda to each pepper, fill with water and allow to stand one-half hour. Mix one cup of white sauce with the rice, onions, chopped pepper and paprika. Fill the pepper cases and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Hot Fudge Cake

¹
/
₃
C-butter
1 C-sugar
2 egg yolks
2 squares (or ounces) of chocolate, melted
½ C-molasses
½ C-sour milk
½ C-hot water
2 C-flour
1 t-cinnamon
1 t-soda
1 t-baking powder
¼ t-salt
1 t-vanilla
2 egg whites

Cream the butter, add the sugar and continue creaming. Add the egg yolks, melted chocolate, molasses, sour milk, hot water, flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Beat two minutes, and add the stiffly beaten egg whites. Fill well-buttered muffin pans one-half full, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes. Serve hot as a dessert, with whipped cream.

"I
'M so happy!" said Mrs. Dixon, as she stopped at Bettina's door one cool morning. "But I'm nervous, too! What if Frank shouldn't like it?"

"Oh, but he will!" Bettina assured her. "He'll think he's the luckiest man in town, and I almost believe that he is! He'll love that dear little white house with the screened porch! Why, the very grass looks as if it longed to spell 'Welcome' like some of the door mats I've seen! And think of the flower boxes! You were very fortunate to rent it for a year, furnished so nicely, and probably when that time is up you'll be ready to build or buy one of your own."

"You are a dear to cheer me up this way, but I'm nervous in spite of you. Perhaps I should have consulted Frank before I promised to take the house."

"But he has been urging you to keep house for so long! And I know he'll be grateful to you for sparing him the worry of hunting one himself. Besides, he'll like being surprised."

"Well, I'll go back to the hotel for luncheon with him, and then I'll phone him later to meet me at the house. I won't tell him a thing; I'll just give him the address. I'll say it's very, very important. That will surprise him and perhaps will frighten him a little. He never does leave his office during business hours, but it will take only a few minutes for him to run out here in the car. Goodness, I'm forgetting what I came for! Do you suppose I am too stupid to try to make those Spanish buns Frank liked so much? We had them at the picnic, you know. I have three hours after luncheon until he comes, and I just long to give him some good coffee and some
Spanish buns that I've made myself! That little kitchen looks as if it would be so nice to work in! I tried coffee a little while ago over at the house, and really—it was fine! It looked just like yours! I was so surprised! To think of my doing such things!"

"Of course you could make Spanish buns; it would be fine if you would. I'll tell you,—why not let me come over for an hour right after luncheon and superintend? Then I'll slip home so that you can be alone when Frank comes. I could tell you some other things about cooking while we're there together,—things you may write down in your new notebook. For example, I've often wondered that so few housekeepers can make good white sauce."

"What in the world is that?"

"It's used in cream soups, and it's the cream part of creamed vegetables and meat and fish, and then there is a thicker white sauce that is used to bind croquettes—that is, hold the ingredients together. There are really four kinds of white sauces and they are very simple to make. I think everyone should know the right way to make them, for they are useful in preparing so many good things."

"I'm glad we'll be near you because I can ask you so many questions."

"And I'm glad that it is summer, because you can have so many things that require little or no cooking, and by fall, I'm sure you will be an accomplished housekeeper."

"Will you come over at two, then, or earlier if you can?"

"Of course I will!"

And as Mrs. Dixon hurried away Bettina felt a sympathetic thrill at the happiness two other people were about to find.

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Spanish Buns
(Twelve Buns)

½ C-butter
1 C-sugar
1 egg-yolk
½ C-milk
1¾ C-flour
3 t-baking powder
1 t-cinnamon
¼ t-powdered cloves
1 egg-white beaten stiffly
1 t-vanilla
½ C-currants

Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg yolk. Mix and sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves; add these and the milk to the first mixture. Beat one minute. Add the vanilla and the stiffly beaten egg white. Bake in well buttered muffin pans twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Ice with confectioner's icing.

Confectioner's Icing
(Twelve portions)

3 T-cream
1 t-vanilla
1 C-powdered sugar

Mix the cream and vanilla, add sugar slowly until the consistency to spread (more sugar may be needed). This is a most satisfactory frosting and is easily and quickly made. It is suitable for hot weather.

White Sauces
(Four portions)

1—Soup

1 T-flour
1 T-butter
1 C-liquid
¼ t-salt

This is the consistency for creamed soups.

2—Vegetable Sauce

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

This white sauce is used for creamed vegetables, creamed fish, etc.- This amount is required for two cups of vegetables.

3—Pattie Sauce

3 T-butter
3 T-flour
1 C-milk
¹
/
₃
t-salt

This sauce is used for oyster or other patties.

4—Croquette Sauce

3 T-butter
4 T-flour
1 C-milk
¹
/
₃
t-salt

This is called a binding white sauce and is used to hold other ingredients together.

Method of Preparing White Sauces

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour and salt, stirring constantly. When well mixed add the liquid, a little at a time. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. This is far better than mixing the flour with a little of the liquid when cold, as so many people do when creaming potatoes or other things. If the white sauce seems too thick for the purpose, thin with a little more liquid before removing from the fire.

T
HE rain had been falling all day in a heavy downpour, and Bettina had ventured out only to gather some red clover blooms for the porch table, which she was now setting for dinner. In spite of the rain, it was not cold, and she liked the contrast of the cheerful little table, with its white cloth and bright silver, and the gray day just outside the screen.

"If Bob would only come home early, how nice it would be!" she thought. "Perhaps that's he at the telephone now."

However, it proved to be Mrs. Dixon. "I phoned to ask you if I should throw away the yolks of two eggs. I've just used the whites."

"Oh, no, Mrs. Dixon! Beat them up well, and add a little cold water to them. Then set them in the ice-box. They will be just as good later as they would be now. You may want them for salad dressing or something else."

"If I ever have the white of the egg left, shall I treat that the same way?"

"No, don't beat that up at all, nor add any water. Just set it in the refrigerator as it is. I'm so glad you called up, Mrs. Dixon. Will you and your husband take dinner with us next Sunday? Perhaps we might all go to church first."

"We'd love to do that! I've just been worrying over Sunday dinner, and you've restored my peace of mind. But won't it be a great deal of work for you?"

"I won't let it be. I don't believe in those heavy, elaborate Sunday dinners that take all the morning to prepare. We'll just come home from church and have it in half an hour. You may help me."

"We'd love to come. I have so much to tell you. I've been very busy, but Frank has helped, and it has been such fun! You don't know how he enjoys the little house! Well, good-bye till tomorrow!"

"Boo!" shouted Bob in her ear, as she hung up the receiver. "I discovered your dark secret this morning! Frank Dixon told me!"

"Well, what did you think of it?"

"The only possible solution in that case. You are their good angel—that is, if she doesn't poison Frank with her cooking, or burn the house down when she's lighting the fire."

"She won't, don't worry! She takes to housekeeping as if she had always done it. Her house is immaculate; she has been cleaning and dusting and polishing from morning to night. I'm almost ashamed of mine!"

"I'm not!" said Bob, decidedly. "I don't see how you can keep it clean at all with a man like me scattering papers and cigar ashes everywhere. And I'm always losing my belongings, and always will, I suppose."

"That's only a sign that we haven't discovered the proper place for them all yet. But we'll work it out in time. Well, are you hungry?"

"Hungry? I should say so! Why, I could almost eat you!"

"Well, Bob, we have a rainy-day dinner tonight that I hope you'll enjoy. Hash! Does that frighten you?"

"Not your hash, Betty."

"Well, everything is ready."

The rainy evening menu consisted of:

Browned Hash Creamed Cauliflower
Date Muffins Butter
Apple Sauce Cake Chocolate

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Browned Hash
(Two portions)

1 C-chopped cold cooked beef
1 C-cold boiled potatoes diced
a few drops of onion juice
²
/
₃
t-salt
¼ t-pepper
1 T-milk
1 T-fat (lard, butter or one-half of each)

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Spread the mixture evenly in a hot frying-pan in which the fat has been placed. Cook without stirring until a crust is formed on the bottom; fold over like an omelet and place on a hot platter.

Creamed Cauliflower
(Two portions)

1 head cauliflower
4 C-water
1 t-salt
1 C-vegetable white sauce

Separate cauliflower into sections, wash well and cook in boiling salted water until tender. (About half an hour.) Drain and cover with vegetable white sauce.

Date Muffins
(Ten muffins)

¼ C-sugar
¼ C-dates cut fine
1 egg
¼ t-salt
¾ C-milk
1¾ C-flour
4 t-baking powder
2 T-butter (melted)

Mix the sugar, dates, baking powder, flour and salt. Add milk in which one egg has been beaten. Beat two minutes. Add butter, melted. Fill well-buttered muffin pans half full of the mixture, and place in the oven. Bake twenty minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Apple Sauce Cake
(Ten portions)

½ C-butter
1 C-sugar
1 egg, beaten light
1¾ C-flour
1 t-soda
1½ t-cinnamon
½ t-powdered cloves
1 C-hot, thick, strained, sweetened apple sauce
1 C-mixed, chopped raisins, nut meats and dates
1 t-vanilla

Cream the butter, add the sugar gradually. Stir well. Add the well-beaten egg. Mix the soda and apple-sauce, and add to the first ingredients. Alternately with the flour and spices, add the vanilla and fruit. Beat for two minutes. Turn into a square pan, and sift granulated sugar over the top. Bake in a moderate oven one-half hour.

"S
OMETHING in refrigerators?" said the clerk politely to Mrs. Dixon and Bettina.