A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes (44 page)

Soft Gingerbread
(Twelve pieces)

1 C-molasses
2 T-sugar
¹
/
₃
C-butter and lard
¼ C-warm water
1 t-soda
2 t-ginger
1 t-cinnamon
1 t-salt
2 C-flour

Cream the butter and lard, add the sugar, molasses and warm water; mix well. Mix and sift the soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt and flour and add to the first mixture. Beat one minute and pour into a well-buttered pan. Bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes. Serve hot or cold.

"I
NDEED I will keep Kathleen for you," said Bettina to Mrs. Fulton. "I'll enjoy it. We'll have to invent some new plays and have such a jolly time that she won't miss her mother at all."

"You're sure you don't mind?" asked Mrs. Fulton, anxiously. "If mother were only stronger, I would leave her there——"

"Go right on, Mrs. Fulton, and don't worry one bit! Kathleen and I are going to have the time of our lives! Let's see—it's nearly three. Shall I feed her anything?"

"Well, she had an early lunch, and has just wakened from her nap. Perhaps she is a little hungry. Are you?"

"Bed'n delly," replied Kathleen with emphasis.

"Oh, I know something that's better for little girls than bread and jelly!" said Bettina, lifting the roly-poly little mite onto the kitchen table. "I'll make her some good cream toast! May I, Mrs. Fulton?"

"Indeed, you may, if you will," said Mrs. Fulton. "I'm afraid she won't always eat it, though. Well, I'll have to go, I suppose, if I get to sister Annie's train on time. Then we'll do a little shopping down town, and I'll be back for Kathleen at six o'clock sharp."

"Just whenever it's convenient for you, Mrs. Fulton. Good-bye!"

"Doodby," echoed Kathleen, apparently without the least regret.

When Kathleen was established with her cream toast at the
kitchen table, Bettina said, "Now, when you're all through eating, you and Aunt Bettina will make a beautiful graham cracker cake for Uncle Bob. But first we'll clean some white gloves! Shall we?"

Kathleen nodded solemnly, her mouth full of "dood tream toast."

"Well, watch me then, honey-lamb. See, I'll put these dirty old gloves in this nice Mason jar of clean gasoline, and let 'em soak awhile. Then once in a while I'll shake 'em up like this. Then by and by I'll rinse 'em in nice new gasoline, and they'll be just as white as new. Did you know that, Kathleen?"

"'Es," said Kathleen, staring wisely.

"Oh, you little owl! You knew more than Aunt Bettina then—at least than I knew till yesterday, for I always thought it necessary to rub white gloves to get them clean. See? This way I'll drop them down in the gasoline, and won't need to soil my hands at all! I'll get them out with a clean little stick or a long fork. There! Now, are we all ready to make the cake?"

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Cream Toast
(Two portions)

½ T-butter
½ T-flour
½ C-milk
¹
/
₈
t-salt
2 pieces of toast

Melt the butter, add the flour, mix well, add the milk slowly. Add the salt and boil two minutes. Dip the toasted bread into the white sauce, and when soft, remove to the serving dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the toast and serve hot. One teaspoon of sugar may be added to the sauce.

Graham Cracker Cake
(Twelve pieces)

¹
/
₃
C-butter
²
/
₃
C-sugar
2 egg-yolks
1 C-milk
3 t-baking powder
2 egg-whites, beaten
½ t-ground cinnamon
½ t-vanilla
²
/
₃
lb. graham crackers rolled fine

Cream the butter, add the sugar and heat. Add all the dry ingredients mixed together alternately with the milk. Beat two minutes. Add the vanilla and the egg-whites, stiffly beaten. Bake in square tin pans for twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

White Icing

¼ C-sugar
¼ C-water
Sifted powdered sugar
½ t-vanilla

Boil the sugar and the water five minutes without stirring. Remove from the fire. Add the flavoring, and sufficient sifted powdered sugar to spread evenly on the cake.

"S
TIR this chicken a la king a moment for me, will you, Ruth?" said Bettina. "I'll warm the plates in the oven."

"What is that brown paper for?"

"To put under the dishes I'm warming. It breaks the heat and prevents cracking. There, that cream sauce has cooked enough now. I'll take it and beat it for a minute. See? There, now it's ready for the egg and the chicken mixture."

"Shall I stir it now? Don't you put it back over the fire?"

"Just for a minute. You see, if any custard or egg sauce is allowed to cook more than a minute after the egg has been added, it will curdle."

"Oh, is it done now? Let me toast the bread for it, will you, Bettina? I like to make cunning little light brown triangles."

"I hope I have made enough of this chicken a la king."

"For eight people? I'm sure that you have, Bettina. Even for people with as good appetites as Fred and I have! Are you ready to serve it now?"

That Sunday evening Bettina served:

Chicken a la King Toast
Cakes with Bettina Icing
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Chicken a la King
(Eight portions)

1½ C-cold boiled chicken, cut in
²
/
₃
-inch cubes
½ t-salt
¹
/
₃
C-button mushrooms, cut in fourths
4 T-pimento, cut in half-inch lengths
2 T-green pepper, cut fine
5 T-butter or chicken fat
6 T-flour
1½ t-salt
½ t-paprika
2 C-milk
2 egg-yolks
8 pieces of toast

Boil the green pepper slowly for five minutes. Drain off the water. Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika, mix thoroughly, and add the milk, stirring constantly. Cook three minutes or until quite thick. Remove from the fire, beat one minute, reheat, add the egg-yolk, mix thoroughly, and add the chicken mixture. Heat again. Serve immediately by pouring over slices of toast.

To prepare the chicken mixture, thoroughly mix the chicken, half a teaspoon of salt, the mushrooms, the cooked green pepper and the pimento.

Small Cakes
(Fourteen cakes)

1¼ C-sugar
¹
/
₃
C-butter
2 C-flour
4 t-baking powder
¹
/
₈
t-salt
²
/
₃
C-milk
1 t-vanilla
½ t-lemon extract
2 egg-whites

Cream the butter, add the sugar slowly and continue creaming. Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt and add these and the milk, vanilla and lemon extracts to the butter and sugar. Mix well and beat two minutes. Beat the egg-whites till very stiff and fold these very carefully into the cake mixture. When thoroughly mixed, fill the cake pans (which have been prepared with waxed paper) two-thirds of an inch deep with the mixture.

Bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven, allow to stand five minutes, then slip a knife around the edges and remove
the cake carefully from the pan. Turn over, remove the paper and allow the cake to cool. Ice on the bottom side. When ready for serving, cut in two-inch squares.

Bettina Icing

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

Beat the egg-white add part of the sugar. Add the cream, vanilla and lemon extracts. Keep beating. Add the rest of the sugar gradually. (A little more sugar may be needed.) Beat the icing till very fluffy and until it will spread without running off the cake. Spread each layer.

B
ETTINA was entertaining "the crowd" at a shamrock luncheon, and each guest, to show her enthusiasm for the charms of "ould Ireland," was wearing somewhere upon her gown, a bit of green.

A green basket filled with white carnations and green foliage stood in the center of the table. White glass candlesticks with green shades also carried out the color scheme, while white crocheted favor baskets, filled with dainty green candies, were at each plate. The table was set for six.

The name cards were white shamrocks outlined with green ink and edged with gilt, and the name on each was written in green.

Bettina used green ferns for decoration in every possible place where they might add to the attractiveness of the table, under the glass dishes and around the baskets containing rolls, cakes and croutons.

"You might be Irish yourself, Bettina," said Mary, "you have such a feeling for green! And isn't the table lovely, girls!"

For luncheon Bettina served:

Grapefruit Cocktail
Cream of Celery Soup Shamrock Croutons
Bettina Meat Timbales Brown Sauce
Asparagus on Toast
Mashed Sweet Potato Croquettes
Shamrock Rolls Mint Jelly
Pepper Salad Sandwiches
Bombe Glace Shamrock Cakes
Coffee
Shamrock Candies

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)

Grapefruit Cocktail
(Six portions)

2 grapefruit
¹
/
₃
C-sugar
6 green cherries
Smilax or fern leaves

Peel the grapefruit, remove the white part and the tough membrane, leaving the fruit. Cut with the scissors into one-inch cubes. Place in a bowl, add the sugar and allow to stand in a cold place for one hour. Arrange the servings in six sherbet glasses. Place one green cherry on the top of each and garnish the plate with smilax or a fern leaf. Stand the sherbet glasses on a paper doily on a small serving plate. Arrange a bit of the green leaf under the sherbet glass (on top of the doily) so that the green color will be visible through the glass.

Cream of Celery Soup
(Six portions)

²
/
₃
C-celery, cut fine
1½ C-water
4 T-butter
6 T-flour
2½ C-milk
2 t-salt
¼ t-paprika
1 t-chopped parsley
2 T-whipped cream

Wash the celery thoroughly, and cut into small pieces. Add the small leaves and the water. Simmer for thirty-five minutes. Strain through a coarse strainer, rubbing all of the pulp through. Melt the butter, add the flour, salt and paprika. Add the milk and cook two minutes, stirring to prevent scorching. Add the celery stock and the pulp. Cook one minute. Fill bouillon cups three-fourths full, add two pinches of parsley and one teaspoon of cream to each serving.

Shamrock Croutons
(Six portions)

6 slices bread
2 T-butter
¼ t-salt

Cut the slices of bread half an inch thick and cut pieces out of each with a shamrock cooky cutter. Toast on each side until a delicate brown. Butter and sprinkle with salt, serve warm with soup.

"M
ARY gave a waffle party today," announced Bettina at the dinner table.

"A waffle party in the afternoon?" said Bob. "That was queer! Usually at afternoon parties you women serve tiny little cups of tea and dainty olive sandwiches, almost too small to be visible; don't you? Waffles are more sensible, I think, but it seems a shame that we men had to miss such a party."

"Well, I'm afraid I'll have to acknowledge that we had a very good time without you," laughed Bettina, wickedly. "It has been cold today, you know, and Mary's kitchen was so warm and bright and cozy! We all went out there and took turns baking the waffles. We consumed a large number of them, and had a very jolly informal kind of time. We housekeepers compared notes and gave each other advice and really learned a great many things."

"Such as——"

"Well, Alice tells me that when she makes a devil's food cake she removes all of the melted chocolate from the pan by adding a little flour which mixes in thoroughly and saves any waste of chocolate. Surely that is worth knowing."

"It certainly is, though I'll admit that I don't quite understand your language."

"Well, cheer up, Bob! There are times when I confess that I don't quite understand the automobile explanations you so often give me of late!"

Their dinner that evening consisted of:

Pork Chops Mashed Potatoes
Creamed Carrots Bettina Salad
Orange Dessert
Coffee

BETTINA'S RECIPES

(All measurements are level)