The I Hate to Cook Book (25 page)

Whip one-half a cup of cream till it’s stiff. Keep on beating while you add one-quarter of a cup of lemon juice, two tablespoons prepared horse-radish, a dash of salt, and a dash of paprika.

Note:
When you hate to cook, it is a good idea to make a habit of checking the refrigerator
just before you call the people in to eat.
The reason is that since cooking or preparing more than one or two things is alien to your nature and your habits, you’re apt to forget that you did. And when your guests have gone and you find that bowl of Something still inviolate in the icebox, you want to call for the house pistol.

Company Menu No. 5

Lasagne Casserole

Green Salad with Mandarin Oranges

French Bread

Irish Coffee

     LASAGNE CASSEROLE     

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound hamburger, crumbled

2 cloves garlic, crushed

8-ounce can tomato sauce

1 28-ounce can tomatoes

1½ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon oregano

8 ounces lasagne noodles (those are the big 1½-inch-wide ones, or try the no-boil kind to speed up your preparation time)

½ pound sliced mozzarella (or Monterey Jack cheese or mild Swiss)

¾ pound ricotta (or cottage cheese)

½ cup grated Parmesan

Sauté the hamburger and garlic in the oil, then add the next five items and simmer twenty minutes. While it simmers, cook those noodles in boiling salted water about fifteen minutes, and drain them. Now fill a big buttered casserole with alternate layers of the noodles, cheese, tomato-meat sauce, and Parmesan, ending with a layer of sauce and Parmesan. Bake it, uncovered, at 375˚ for twenty minutes.

You can do this even the day before, and just reheat it.

Company Menu No. 6

Sunday Chicken

Raisin Rice (
here
)

Chutney

Fresh Fruit Salad

Salt Sticks (from the bakery)

Irish Coffee

     SUNDAY CHICKEN     

for 5–6

(This is like Saturday Chicken,
here
, except that it’s curried.)

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons curry powder

1 apple, chopped fine

1 onion, chopped fine

can of condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 cup heavy cream

salt, paprika

2½ to 3-pound frying chicken (or any 6 good-sized pieces of chicken)

First, melt the butter in a little saucepan, and sauté in it the curry powder, apple, and onion, until the onion is transparent. Then add to it the soup and the cream. Now salt and paprika that chicken and spread it out, in one layer, in a shallow buttered baking pan. Pour the sauce over it. Bake it, uncovered, at 350˚ for one and a half hours.

Company Menu No. 7

Little Crabmeat Casseroles

Crisp Tomatoes (
here
)

Green Salad with Garlic Croutons (
here
)

Hot Rolls

Irish Coffee

     LITTLE CRABMEAT CASSEROLES     

can of mushrooms

¼ cup butter (½ stick)

¼ cup flour

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons prepared mustard

dash of Worcestershire

salt, pepper

4 unbeaten egg yolks

1 pound fresh crabmeat

crumbs

grated Parmesan

additional half a lemon

First, brown the canned mushrooms in butter and set aside. Next, make a cream sauce out of the butter, flour, and milk by blending the butter with the flour in the top of a double boiler, then add the milk, and cook it, stirring, till it’s smooth and thick. Then, add the lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Gradually stir in the egg yolks, unbeaten, the crabmeat, and the mushrooms. Then pour it into individual casseroles. Put some buttered crumbs on top, and Parmesan on top of that, and bake at 375˚ for fifteen minutes. Just before you serve them, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over each one.

The rolls will heat while the casseroles bake, and you can fry the tomatoes at the same time.

And finally,

Company Menu No. 8

Fresh Fruit Salad (served first)