ENTERTAINING (mohne^enclfBciumi iiion JJCq^ Class Book Copyright^" COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. EASY ENTERTAINING , ' ' _^-'. .- >*-. ^^^^^^^ - ^ Po ^a EASY ENTERTAINING BY CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON Author of " A Little Cook Book," " Saturday Mornings," "Living on a Little," etc. PUBLISHERS DANA ESTES COMPANY BOSTON m ^.\ -^t,-^ Copyright, igii By Dana Estes & Company All rights reserved Electrotyped and Printed by THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A. CI.A20.39G3 Thanks are due the editor of Harper's Bazar for permission to reproduce in this book material which appeared in that magazine under another name. Caroline French Benton. Qlnnt^ttta PAGE Setting the Table ii Spring Luncheons . . . . . . .15 A Spring Luncheon Costing Three Dollars . . .21 Easter Time 29 Easter Menus 37 Easter Luncheons and Breakfasts . . . . .44 Entertaining on May Day ...... 52 Luncheons for May Days ...... 60 Spring Menus for Four Weeks ..... 67 Mid-summer Luncheon ...... 72 The Cold Dinner 79 Simmier Dirmers ....... 86 Little Dinners for Three Dollars 93 A Bride's Dinner ........ loi Veranda Luncheons . . . . . . .108 Picnic Limcheons. No. i . . . . . " . iii Picnic Luncheons. No. 2 . . . . . .119 Summer Menus for Four Weeks . . . . .126 Two September Functions 131 An Autumn Dinner and Luncheon .... 137 A Coimtry Dinner and Supper for October . . . 144 Hallowe'en Suppers 151 The Thanksgiving Dinner. No. i . . . . 157 The Thanksgiving Dinner. No. 2 . . . .167 V vi CONTENTS PAGE Men's Dinners ........ 178 Autumn Menus for Four "Weeks ..... 185 Afternoon Tea 190 Buffet Luncheons and Suppers ..... 197 Mid-winter Luncheons 204 The Christmas Dinner. No. i . . . . . 212 The Christmas Dinner. No. 2 223 Midnight Suppers ....... 234 Valentine Luncheons 240 Winter Menus for Four Weeks ..... 247 Slt0t 0f 3(lluBtratt0nB PAGB An Attractive Dinner Table .... Frontispiece i^ May Day Party Cake 52 .- Sponge- Cake Basket for Berries 75 Miniature Trees for Dinner Favors . . . .102 A Grape- Juice Punch with Effective Surroundings . . 135 *- The Correct Lixncheon Table 206 »^ Sa0g lEtttfrtamtttg SETTING THE TABLE NO one to-day thinks of laying a dinner cloth for even the simplest family meal without first putting on the pad of wool or felt which saves the polish of the wood below and gives body to the linen above; but before the housekeeper in- vests in a new pad she should look at the expensive but most excellent asbestos table-covers which pro- tect the table from even the hottest dish, as no pad ever does with complete success. The cost of this new covering is not so much, after all, if one considers that she will never have to have her table repolished if she uses it. But whatever goes under it the cloth must have a word. The shops are fuU of beautiful linens, the prettiest having small patterns, clover leaves and blossoms, pansies, fleurs-de-lis, and the dainty old snowdrops predominating. There are round cloths for the circular tables, and these hang much better than do the square or oblong shapes when put on a round table. There are lovely cloths 11 12 EASY ENTERTAINING to be had with drawn -work or lace centres, but these are not practical, as they can be used for only the most formal of dinners. The plain, heavy damask which grows glossier with age is always best to pur- chase. For luncheon there are attractive doilies, and these are seen on almost every table. There are pretty and inexpensive sets of plain linen,buttonholed around the edge, either with or without a monogram; there are more expensive sets which have an open-work border, fringe, and embroidery, and lace sets which are less durable than either of these. In buying any of them there should be a centre-piece, large doilies for the plates and dishes, and small ones for the tumblers and little dishes, with felt mats to go under- neath. If doilies are not used at luncheon, then a small cloth takes their place, one with a band of insertion when there is company; and both for the every -day table and for the formal luncheon the napkins should be rather small. They may be very beautiful, with drawn -work and embroidery, or they may be plain damask, with or without a monogram, or they may be merely a small -sized napkin of the ordinary sort, if the family is alone. To lay the table for a dinner- party, first arrange your flowers, candles, small dishes for bonbons, almonds, olives, and the like. Candles EASY ENTERTAINING 13 are used as the fancy dictates. They may be in single sticks, grouped around the flowers in the centre, or they may be candelabra, one on either side of the flowers. The Uttle dishes are to be put on irregularly toward the central decorations. The cover for each person must have as much space as is possible; about twenty inches from the last fork or knife on one side to the edge of the napkin on the other will be none too much. In the middle lay a large, handsome plate; this is to be lifted and replaced by the hot ones as they come on in turn, being put down as the soiled ones are removed, but the small plate for the canapes, and that for the oysters or clams, and the soup plate may be laid directly upon it. On the right of the plate, nearest to it, comes the roast knife, then that for the game; two knives are all that are laid at the cover generally. Then comes the soup spoon, and, last, the small fork for oysters. On the left is first the large fork, then the second size, then the salad fork, and the napkin is beyond, provided there is room; if not, it should be folded lightly in a triangu- lar shape and laid on the plate; this napkin holds the dinner roll. All the knives and forks needed beyond those at the cover may be laid down as the meal goes on, except the dessert fork and spoon, which may Ue across the top of the place plate. The glasses are to stand across the top also, the tumbler at the right and 14 EASY ENTERTAINING the wine -glasses,if these are used, toward the left in the order in which they are needed. Some housekeepers place the oyster fork at an angle across the ends of the knives and soup spoon, which is a Uttle odd. This is a question that has no definite rule which is of cast- iron severity. All vegetables except asparagus are served on the meat plate, so no small dishes are re- quired at the covers on a well-set table in these days. Bread-and-butter plates are not used at dinner. In laying the luncheon table follow the same plan as before. Have a service plate, and arrange the silver just as at dinner, except that there may be one more fork and one more knife. There may also be a bread- and-butter plate. Dinner and luncheon cards lie on the napkin. For a formal meal the dinner cards are extremely plain; if there is any decoration it consists of the hostess's mon- ogram in small gold letters at the top. Luncheon cards, on the contrary, may be as fanciful as one pleases. It is noticeable that dinner tables are far simpler than they have been for many years; there is less display of silver, cut glass, decorated china, and the like. Good taste demands a certain restraint in the use of these things, and this, after all, makes a table attractive, especially as the hostess bestows more thought than ever on having it artistic and dainty rather than splendid. SPRING LUNCHEONS TO find something new and lovely in the way of table decoration often seems a task, especially to a hostess who entertains frequently, and has seen many sorts of flowers in as many groupings. Yet surely in May the question need not be a trouble, for here is everything to choose from. One of the newest and most effective things is simple enough for any one to arrange. Take a Japanese fern -ball which is fresh and green and suspend it over the luncheon table by an invisible wire; then make a large bed of moss under it, on a platter, with an edge of ferns like those above, and fill both with long-stemmed daisies, each one fastened to a toothpick to hold it in place. The moss will need to have a few sprays of ferns like those of the border put between the flow- ers to fill out the spaces, but not so many as to crowd the daisies; the beauty of the whole lies in having the effect dainty, not crowded. With this arrange- ment have guest cards of wide-open daisies cut from white cardboard and tinted on the edges and in the centre, with the name of each guest added, across the middle, in gold letters. Or sketch the faces of pretty 15 16 EASY ENTERTAINING young girls and put a halo of daisy petals around each one. Have some of the dishes of the menu in yellow and white, but not so many as to make this color scheme noticeable. If you wish a contrast to all this white and green you might mix a few pink roses or some yellow jonquils with the daisies, but they are more delicate by themselves. Another pretty table may be made by having a centrepiece of violets made low and flat, edged with ferns, and then making wreaths of lilies -of -the -valley by winding them around a stiff wire bent in a circular shape and fastened; to these long ribbons may be attached, and a plain card with the guest's name may be half concealed beneath, and then the wreaths will serve the double purpose of cards and souvenirs. The finger-bowls may have a few violets in the water, and if a white ice -cream closes the meal a tiny bunch of violets may lie with it on each plate. MENU Iced pineapple in glasses. Cream of asparagus soup. Salmon croquettes with sauce tartare; potato balls. Veal cutlet in strips, olive sauce. French pease; potatoes. Cucumber jelly; mayonnaise. Sandwiches. Bouche'es of jelly and ice-cream. Cakes. Coffee. Bonbons. The first course, pineapple, is made by shredding the fruit and thoroughly chilling it by burying it in EASY ENTERTAINING 17 SL freezer in ice and salt for an hour before luncheon; then it is put in sherbet -glasses, a spoonful of cordial which has been well sweetened poured over, and last of all a little shredded ice is laid in each glass. The croquettes may be made from canned or fresh fish; this is picked over, the skin, bones, and fat re- moved, and then it is mashed with seasoning and a very stiff and rich white sauce; it must be spread on a platter for two hours to harden, after which the croquettes may be moulded easily. They should be breaded and then fried in deep fat. The sauce tar tare is a mayonnaise to which chopped pickle and a tiny bit of onion have been added. For the meat course, cut veal cutlet into strips four inches long and three wide and fry them in butter; chop a cupful of stoned olives or pimolas and stir into the frying-pan when the meat is done, and make a brown gravy as usual; pour all over the cutlet. The cucumber jelly must be prepared the day before the luncheon. Take six cucumbers, peel, cut" up, and stew gently till nearly dry; then measure and season, setting with the amount of gelatine needed. The next day break up the solid mass into pieces, and send to the table on lettuce hearts with mayonnaise, or fill cucumber shells with the jelly and serve, pass- ing the mayonnaise. The sweet suggested is extremely pretty. Get the 18 EASY ENTERTAINING prepared fruit jelly which comes in packages, to begin with; if the flowers on the table are all white, buy the strawberry jelly, but if they are violet, get that which is clear, lemon preferably, and color it with violet coloring. Melt and set it to harden in ordinary jelly -glasses. When it is hard turn these moulds out on the plates you mean to serve the course on, and with a warm teaspoon dip out their centres, leav- ing a thick transparent shell; fill this with ice-cream, some white variety of course, but add a few candied cherries on top if the jelly is red, or a few candied violets if that color is used. Offer some light cake with these bouchees, — either angel's-food, or sunshine cake, or strips of either iced. If this is to be a rather elaborate luncheon the menu might be varied to include a sherbet after the meat course, and chicken or squab may take the place of veal, though the last is very nice if carefully cooked, and a welcome change from the other things one sees so often. A second menu might be: Clams on the half-shell. Tomato bouillon. Shad-roe croquettes with cream sauce; cucumbers. Fried sweetbreads with asparagus tips; French pease; new potatoes. Mint sherbet. Orange salad; mayonnaise; wafers. Vanilla ice-cream with almonds. Cakes. Coffee. EASY ENTERTAINING 19 The mint sherbet suggested for this luncheon is a lemonade in which enough mint has been cooked to flavor it; after cooling and freezing this it is put in sherbet -cups with a sprig of mint which has been dipped in powdered sugar stuck upright in each cup. The ice is a rich vanilla, sliced, and on each slice is put a spoonful of whipped cream which has been stirred stiff with chopped almonds. One more menu may be given: Chilled strawberries. Bouillon. Brook trout (or smelts with sauce tartare) ; cucumbers. Chicken in rice border. Cherry salad. Sandwiches. Maple mousse. Cakes. Coffee. The chicken is stewed in large pieces and then the bones are removed. The gravy is thickened with an egg, and to season it a little sherry is stirred in. The second joints and large pieces of the breast are piled up in a pyramid in a border of cooked rice, and the gravy is poured over the whole. The rice makes potato unnecessary with the course. The salad is made by stoning California cherries, — the dark ones, — and putting them in French dressing for half an hour; then they are laid on lettuce hearts and the dressing poured over the whole; this is one of the very best of spring salads. The sandwiches passed 20 EASY ENTERTAINING with it are made by slicing day -old Boston brown bread lengthwise of the loaf and putting two slices in alternate layers with two slices of white bread, with cream cheese between; the loaf made in this way is then cut across, giving the exact appearance to the sandwiches of chocolate layer cake. The mousse is made by cooking a cup of maple syrup with the stiffly beaten yolks of eleven eggs until they will coat the spoon; then it is beaten, when somewhat cool, into a pint of whipped cream and packed away in a mould for five hours. A SPRING LUNCHEON COSTING THREE DOLLARS CAN a hostess really have a spring luncheon for six guests for three dollars? Of course she can, and an attractive and substantial meal at that, provided she will content herself with the dishes in market at the moment; and surely in the months when vegetables and fruits are plenty and fruit not beyond one's purse, any one would indeed be hard to please who found catering difficult at the price. Take this little luncheon to begin with: Cream of beet soup. Fish filets with horseradish sauce. Creamed chicken a la Washington; pease. Lettuce, egg, and cheese salad; wafers. Pineapple sherbet. Coffee. In marketing, buy for the soup a quart of milk and a small bunch of beets; simmer the latter in a half pint of water till they are a pulp; season, press through a sieve, add the milk, thicken slightly, and put into hot cups. If the new beets cost over five cents a bunch get old ones, and use about three, chopped. 21 22 EASY ENTERTAINING The fish can be any kind which is cheapest and best in your particular market; a whitefish, a large floun- der, a weakfish, or a slice of halibut will do nicely; cut it up evenly, dip each piece in fine and well -seasoned crumbs, then in half -beaten egg yolk, then in crumbs, and dry well; after an hour put two at a time into a wire basket and fry; drain on paper. For the sauce, which is the best part of the dish, whip a half pint of thick cream and mix Hghtly with a heaping table - spoonful of horseradish. Lay the six pieces of fish on a hot platter, and put the cream into a cold glass bowl in the middle. The creamed chicken is new and yet old, for it is made by a genuine Colonial recipe, and is really de- licious: cut up a small cooked chicken into even bits; if you have more than you will need reject part of the dark meat, and use more white; make a cup of rich white sauce and season well; put the chicken into this and heat it; then add the beaten yolks of two eggs and stir till smooth, and last put in two hard-boiled eggs chopped to the same size as the chicken, and add a couple of tablespoonfuls of sherry. Serve this hot, either as it is or in individual dishes, and have a dish of pease to pass with it; use small -sized canned Ameri- can pease, but drain them and reheat with more sea- soning. The salad is just the one for this time of year when EASY ENTERTAINING 23 eggs are cheap; boil three hard and cut them across, and take the yolk out carefully; cut also a tiny slice from the bottom so they will stand; put a leaf or two of lettuce on each plate; get a five -cent cream cheese and crumble it fine; put this first on the lettuce, then on it put the egg yolk, minced fine; stand the little white egg cup on top, and fill this with a stiff mayon- naise; pass thin crackers with it. One head of let- tuce will be enough for this salad. For the dessert, get a pineapple for fifteen cents; they are quite as cheap as this in the spring in town; if you do not find any, get a small tin of the grated pineapple. Press through the sieve, add the juice of a lemon, two cups of v/ater boiled with one cup of sugar, and a tablespoonful of gelatine dissolved in water; stir this last into the hot syrup. Mix all to- gether, cool and freeze; serve in glasses. Nowadays tea is served for luncheon with the main course quite as often as coffee last of all; this substitu- tion can be made if one prefers. As to the cost of this meal, this is a liberal estimate, with allowance for seasoning and such small items: Soup — milk, 9 cents; beets, 6 cents. Fish — (i8 cents a pound), pound and a half, 27 cents; cream, half a bottle (or a quarter of a pint), 6 cents; horse- radish, 5 cents. Chicken — small fowl costing 75 cents; eggs, white sauce, sherry, 12 cents. Pease — 24 EASY ENTERTAINING one can, 15 cents. Lettuce — one head, 8 cents; eggs, cream cheese, mayonnaise, 25 cents. Pineapple, lemon, sugar, gelatine, 25 cents; ice and salt, 15 cents. Coffee, 10 cents. Bread and butter, crackers, 12 cents. — Total, $2.50. This leaves enough for half a pound of Jordan alm- onds, to be salted at home, and thirty cents for some spring flowers; or if a pot of primroses is bought at ten cents, there can also be half-a-pound of pink and white peppermints. Another luncheon might have a substantial course of chops for one thing, and something new in the way of a salad. Strawberries. Cream of cress soup; crackers. Frenched chops; new potatoes, creamed; pease. Alexandra salad with French dressing. Ginger mousse. Coffee. Strawberries in the spring ought not to cost over twenty cents a box; if they do, this first course may be cut out altogether, or some California cherries may be served in their place. If the berries are used, serve about seven good -sized ones to each person, laying them on a paper doily on a small plate in a circle, hulls on, and put a little heap of powdered sugar in the middle. Have a finger bowl above each cover. For the soup get a five -cent bunch of watercress; EASY ENTERTAINING 25 wash it well and chop it; simmer in a pint of water with a slice of onion; when it is soft and pulpy and the water half gone, put it through the sieve and proceed exactly as for the cream of beet soup. For the next course get nice little chops and have them trimmed; broil them and put a white paper frill on each; have new potatoes, creamed, and pease as before; if you choose you may add a glass of home- made jelly to the menu. The salad is particularly nice, and as there is no fish course in the luncheon it is a good time to have it, for it is not especially light. Get from the grocer a small round head of lettuce for each person; what are called " seconds ' ' — that is, heads of Boston lettuce from which the outer leaves have been re- moved; these cost only five cents each in winter time, and will probably be still less in spring, though, for safety's sake, it is well to allow the outer price. Wash these heads, and with a small sharp knife cut a round place in the top of each, and then cut down and around till the centre is removed, leaving a cup; into this put a few halved white grapes with the seeds taken out, and with them put red California cherries, stoned, or a little grapefruit pulp, and cover just be- fore serving with French dressing; lay each little salad on a dark green lettuce leaf when you serve it. 26 EASY ENTERTAINING For the mousse, boil a cup of sugar to a thread with a cup of water; pour slowly over the stiff whites of three eggs and beat till cold; fold in a half pint of cream, whipped stiff; put into a pail, and bury in ice and salt four hours; serve in glasses, and put a little preserved ginger on each; a pot of this costs fifteen cents, and only part will be needed. This luncheon also allows a little for flowers and candy and almonds. For flowers, if one can get a quantity of violets from the woods, they may be tied in bunches and put into a large bowl or basket in the centre; this is a simple and lovely spring centre- piece. Strawberries, one box, 20 cents. Soup — water- cress, one bunch, 5 cents; milk, one quart, 9 cents. Chops — six, 40 cents; potatoes, one quart, 10 cents; pease, one can, 15 cents. Salad — six small heads lettuce, 30 cents; grapes, cherries, or one grapefruit, and French dressing, 30 cents. Mousse — half pint of cream, 22 cents; sugar, eggs, ginger, 25 cents. Coffee, 10 cents. Bread, butter, crackers, 12 cents. — Total $2.28. The seventy cents remaining goes, as before, for almonds, oUves, candies, and all the flowers which one chooses to buy. This luncheon might be altered a little, and a fish course introduced in this way: EASY ENTERTAINING 27 Cream of watercress soup. Creamed crab meat on corn fritters. Chops; pease and potatoes; tea. Escarole salad with pepper rings. Ginger mousse; cake strips. At most fish markets one can buy fresh crab meat; elsewhere it can be had in cans, and is very good in- deed; cream a cup of the meat, making the sauce with very rich milk or thin cream, and stir in the yolks of two eggs to thicken it. Take part of a can of corn, drain and chop it; or better, get grated corn; add to this the usual batter for fritters; beat one egg yolk, add a little salt and pepper, put in one cup of the corn and half a cup of flour mixed with half a teaspoon - ful of baking-powder; then put in the beaten white of the egg, and last thin with milk to the consistency of griddle -cake batter; pour a little at a time on a hot griddle, and fry brown, turning once; cover each with a spoonful of the creamed crab meat, and serve one to each person. This is a very nice luncheon dish for spring. For the salad, wash the escarole and divide it, leaving four or more leaves together in a little bunch; sometimes you can cut down through the whole better than you can divide it otherwise; on each little bunch slip two rings of green peppers, or one of pepper and one of onion; cover with French dressing. / 28 EASY ENTERTAINING To serve with the mousse, make a little batter of any sort of cake and thin it so it will pour easily over a buttered tin; put this into the oven and bake it quickly before it has time to dry out; draw out the pan, cut it into even strips, and brush each one over with white of egg and scatter chopped nuts on top; brown slightly in the oven. This luncheon will not exceed the price of three dollars, either. Soup as before, 14 cents. Half a pound of crab meat, or half a small tin, 20 cents; cream, eggs, com, and flour, etc., 25 cents. Chops, pease, and potatoes as before, 65 cents. Escarole, peppers, French dressing, 30 cents. Mousse, as before, 47 cents. Cake strips, 15 cents. Coffee, 10 cents. Bread and butter, crackers, 12 cents. — Total, $2.38. EASTER TIME ANEW impetus is given to entertaining when Lent leaves us and spring comes in once more. The very fulness of the markets with their fresh vegetables and fruits suggests the idea of a little dinner or luncheon by way of expression of the gladness one cannot but feel. The two delicious things peculiar to April are brook trout and shad roe. Both of these are perfect in almost any way they are served, but there is a new method with each of them. The trout may be split open, laid in a roasting-pan, and lightly buttered; then they are to be quickly cooked under a cover for about fifteen minutes in a hot oven, or till the flesh shows that it is really done, but not browned. ' A cup of hot water mixed with a tablespoonful of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a saltspoonful of Cay- enne is to be kept hot and the fish basted three times as they cook. When done they are to be folded to- gether again, the gravy well drained from them, and set to cool. A half box of gelatine is to be dissolved in a cup of cold water and a pint of clear veal or 29 30 EASY ENTERTAINING chicken stock, not too strong, heated. When it boils it is to be poured over the gelatine and seasoned, then stirred till clear and strained again through flannel. If the stock does not seem transparent when first put on, break up an egg shell and mix it with the unbeaten white, and stir it in and let it boil up for a moment; this clarifies it. Pour this over the fish after it becomes cool, and set it on ice. When firm turn out on a platter and garnish with watercress and lemon. It is best to use a very shallow pan in setting the aspic so the fish may be barely covered. Shad -roe croquettes are always better than the same roe as it naturally comes. To make them take a cup of thin cream and mix with a tablespoonful of flour and two of butter. Simmer the roes from two fish for fifteen minutes, remove the skin and mash carefully, so the eggs may not break. Take the sauce from the fire, beat in the yolks of two eggs, salt, Cay- enne, and a little lemon juice, and put back until it thickens; then add the roe and stir well; set away to grow perfectly cold; then mould into croquettes and dip each into fine crumbs, egg and crumbs again, and fry in deep fat. Sauce tartare may be passed with these, or they may be served alone, or cucumbers with French dressing may accompany them. If meat is desired for an Easter meal, a crown roast of lamb is a good selection, since it is a spring EASY ENTERTAINING 31 dish. Instead of using the usual pease in the centre, try the newer plan of having small French fried po- tatoes, either white ones or sweet. If poultry is pre- ferred to meat, get two young guinea -hens, cut them up and pan them in the oven, basting them well, and keeping them covered until the last ten minutes. Put a little pan gravy, unthickened, over the pieces in serving, and have currant jelly to pass with them. Or cut up tender chicken, dip the breast and second joints only into batter and fry brown, and serve with a rich cream sauce. It is best to remove the bones from the dark meat; if this is done and the drum- sticks are tender and not too small, they may be used also. Mushrooms are delicious in the early spring. A most delightful way of preparing them is this: Get very large ones and peel them. Arrange them on rounds of soft toast, stem side up, in a baking -dish, and season them by sprinkling with a very little salt and white pepper. Simmer two sweetbreads till ten- der, take out all the membrane, and cut in small pieces. Make just enough white sauce to moisten them — two tables poonfuls will be enough. Cook the mushrooms fifteen minutes in a very hot oven and keep the dish covered tightly. Then take them out, pile the sweetbreads in them, a pyramid in each, and return to the oven for five minutes more. Lift 32 EASY ENTERTAINING each piece of toast carefully with a pancake -turner, and lay it on a hot plate; serve immediately. Another spring dish is a combination of crab meat and mushrooms. To prepare it take a large cup of crab meat, tinned or fresh, and an equal amount of fresh mushrooms, peeled and cut into bits. Put a slice of onion, chopped very fine, into a saucepan, and cook with a tablespoonful of butter; just before it begins to brown add a tablespoonful of flour, and then a cup of cream, put in slowly as it is stirred. When smooth and thick add the mashed yolks of four hard-boiled eggs, salt, paprika, and lemon juice to taste, and then the crabs and mushrooms. When all is blended well and the mixture rather thick, fill the crab shells with it, cover the tops with fine crumbs and bits of butter, and just brown in a very hot oven. Serve with lemon quarters. As asparagus is decidedly a dish for Easter-time, it may be used in a very attractive salad. Boil one bunch, season and chill, while two large carrots are also boiled and seasoned. Cut these latter into rings after scraping them, and put three or four stalks of asparagus into each ring. Serve very cold, with French dressing poured over, or pass mayonnaise. If the day is warm, it is a good plan to prepare a large dish of scraped ice, and lay the salad on this. Another novel salad which uses the eggs so appro- EASY ENTERTAINING 33 priate for Easter is called a crown salad. To make it, melt a tables poonful of gelatine in cold water, and into this dip quarters of hard-boiled eggs; arrange them on a flat dish while wet, standing each one up near the next, but not touching it, in a circle. Let this stand some hours. Get a can of tiny French string beans, drain them and cover with French dress- ing, and when it is time for the meal arrange them in the egg circle, and serve very cold. At an Italian grocery one can buy in flat tins a delicious mixture something like caviare, called anti- pasta. This makes a most appetizing salad arranged in the halves of hard-boiled eggs and served with lettuce, dressed with oil and vinegar. A pretty sweet for a spring luncheon is called a violet pudding. To make it, take the juice of a lemon, a tablespoonful of sugar, half a cup of water, and a level tablespoonful of gelatine. Dissolve the gelatine in cold water. Put the sugar in the half cup of water, add the lemon juice, and stir till the sugar dissolves. Add the gelatine and stir; strain this twice through a flannel bag. Take a fancy mould and decorate the bottom with large, fresh violets, and slowly add the lemon jelly. For the rest of the pudding soak half a package of gelatine in half a cup of water for an hour. To a pint of pineapple pulp and juice add a cup of sugar and simmer till the sugar dissolves; add 34 EASY ENTERTAINING the gelatine and mix well. Take from the fire and cool, and then put it into a bowl set in a pan of ice, and stir till it begins to set. Beat a pint of cream very stiff, and when the pineapple thickens fold this in. Pour gently on the lemon jelly, and when firm turn out on a round platter and arrange a wreath of fresh violets and their leaves around it. When Easter comes the first strawberries usually appear in market. A very novel dish called aristo- crats may be made with one boxful of these. One tablespoonful of butter is melted and stirred with one of powdered sugar and two of flour; then the stiff whites of four eggs are mixed in and teaspoonfuls of the paste are put on a baking sheet without touching, smoothed out evenly, and cut into squares with a knife; four are enough to make at a time. When they begin to brown, the sheet is to be drawn to the edge of the oven, and two corners are folded together so as to form a sort of cornucopia, and then removed to cool, and four more made. When all are done and cold, whipped cream is put in each, and on it straw- berries are laid, as though rolling out. This is a really unusually attractive dessert, and one easily prepared. One of the choicest dishes for this season is called pistache souffle. Get half a pound of pistache nuts, scald them and chop fine, and then pound to a smooth paste. Beat the yolks of three eggs very EASY ENTERTAINING 35 light, add an ounce of confectioner's sugar and the nuts, with the grated rind of a lemon. Beat all till it grows pale and thick, and then fold in the stiff whites. Have ready some buttered paper souffte^ cases, put in the mixture, sprinkle well with confec- tioner's sugar, and bake in a moderate oven till they puff and brown. These cannot stand a moment, and even in carrying them to the table they should be covered. They can be put in ten minutes before they are needed, or as the course preceding is being eaten, and they will be ready. One of the delicious new ices which are served in glasses after a rather substantial meal is a coffee parfait with crystallized mint. The parfait is easily made by this rule: Cook a cup of sugar and a cup of water till it spins a thread, and then slowly beat it into the whites of three eggs, stiffly beaten. When it cools put in a cup of very strong coffee, still beat- ing, and last, when the mixture is perfectly cold, fold in a pint of cream, whipped till firm. Put the whole into a pail, with greased paper over it and then a tight cover, and bury five hours in ice and salt. In serving, fill the glasses lightly, and over each put a spoonful of crystallized mint leaves, broken up in good-sized pieces. This latter may be bought at the confeo- tioner's, or made at home by rolling fresh mint leaves in a very thick sugar-and-water syrup, and drying 36 EASY ENTERTAINING them on buttered plates in the oven with the door open, sprinkling them with granulated sugar from time to time. A delicious little nut wafer is this: Beat two eggs light, add five level tables poonfuls of flour, a pinch of baking-powder, one of salt, half a pound of brown sugar and a cup of broken EngHsh walnut meats. EASTER MENUS SPRINGTIME has no symbol more lovely and suggestive than the butterfly, emerging from its dark chrysalis into the sunshine, but we seldom even remember the beautiful thing when we enter- tain, though nothing could be more graceful and charming for an Easter dinner or luncheon. For a dinner centrepiece select a large flat basket similar in shape to your table, round, oval, or oblong, and fill it with well-blown roses. Over these arrange a little swarm of butterflies on invisible wires, each one fastened to a rose so that it will not be stiff, but will move in any breath of air. These butterflies may be bought in large sheets, beautifully embossed and colored, at a stationer's, or they may be cut from cardboard and painted with water-colors. Have candles which match the color of the roses, with white or pale-colored shades decorated with the butterflies. For guest-cards choose plain ones, either oblong or in narrow, long shape, with a butterfly on each. For your final course at dinner have ices moulded in the form of butterflies, made of two colors, white and 37 38 EASY ENTERTAINING pink, green, or chocolate, and lay each one on aspara- gus fern or on a large natural rose. This spring menu is planned for a small dinner: Canape's of anchovies and cheese. Clear soup, printaniere. Radishes, salted nuts, olives. Shad roe with dressed cucumbers. Crown roast of lamb filled with new carrots and turnips, creamed; Bermuda potatoes. Asparagus salad. Ices in butterfly forms; small cakes. Toasted wafers, cheese, and coffee. For the canapes take circles of toast and divide into quarters by putting riced egg, white in one and yolk in the opposite, and in the other two a relish made by mixing half a cup of grated cheese, a tablespoonful of creamed butter, half a teaspoonful of paprika, and a teaspoonful of anchovy paste. Over all sprinkle a French dressing made with a good deal of pepper, and put half a pimola in the centre of each circle, point down. The soup is a strong, clear beef bouillon with tiny green French beans and pease and a few shapes of carrot in it. The shad roe is to be fried as usual, and then arranged on a long platter with a very little cream dressing poured over, to prevent the roe from being too dry. With this cucumbers are passed sliced, and arranged in a long line to look as though the real EASY ENTERTAINING 39 cucumber had not been cut, and then covered with French dressing. It is better to pour off this dressing before passing, so that the cucumbers may be taken on the plate with the roe, not put on small plates at the side. No meat is so attractive for a spring dinner as a fine crown roast of lamb. In cooking it be sure and have the upright bones well covered with buttered paper so they will not burn, and in serving put a white frill on each. The centre is often filled with forcemeat balls, or with pease, but for a change try using small new carrots cut into cubes, with turnips prepared in the same way, and creamed quite stiffly; you can add a few pease to the mixture if you wish. Have both mint sauce and brown gravy passed with this roast. At this point a sherbet may be introduced, followed by slices of game or chicken with dressed lettuce, and the asparagus salad omitted. But for a small dinner it is better to have the salad after the roast, and noth- ing is more refreshing than asparagus laid on a bed of scraped ice, with a French dressing, the usual ac- companiment of any dinner salad. With asparagus, however, an exception is often made, and chilled mayonnaise is allowable, served in a small bowl set in a larger one, with ice between the two. After this comes the pretty course of butterfly 40 EASY ENTERTAINING ices, each one with a rose, and small cakes, and then the cheese toasted wafers, and coffee. Tulips come in April and suggest a charming Dutch setting for a luncheon. After laying your table with everything pretty in the way of doilies, have a long green box put in the centre, following the out- lines of the table, round, oblong, or square, and in it plant yellow tulips till it is full. Then around it on the table place Delft figures in blue and white china, each with a basket, and fill these last with yellow bonbons. If you use candles, have them pale yellow with shades to match, with blue and white Dutch figures, or landscapes with windmills painted on them. Have blue and white china, or white with a yellow border, and have one of the courses served in little Delft china shoes. Either the little figures or the shoes make charming mementoes of the day. Do not try to carry out the Dutch idea in the menu, as every-day dishes are more appetizing. Fruit cocktails. Cream of clam soup with whipped cream; hot wafers. Radishes, salted nuts, olives. Creamed lobster in Dutch shoes. Sweetbread souffle' with creamed asparagus tips. Roast squab on toast; potato cradles; hot rolls; currant jelly. Fresh tomatoes with cheese slices and mayonnaise. Ice-cream in shape of yellow tulips, or rice glace'. Macaroons princesse. Coffee. Bonbons. EASY ENTERTAINING 41 To prepare the fruit cocktails shred some pineapple, add grapefruit pulp and seeded white grapes, cover with hot sugar-and-water syrup, and let it stand till cold; then flavor with sherry or a little rum, and put into the double glasses which have scraped ice be- tween the two, or else into tall glasses which have been chilled by filling with ice for an hour before using. The lobster should be fresh, and cut in rather large bits before creaming; shrimps are good prepared in the same way if lobster cannot be had. The souffle is especially delicate prepared by this recipe: Simmer a pair of sweetbreads, and chop fine; there should be two cupfuls; take a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, add a cup of cream and one of sweet- bread stock; put in half a cup of soft white bread crumbs and cook two minutes; then put in the sweet- breads, the yolks of three eggs, beaten, salt, Cayenne, and a little chopped parsley, with two drops of onion juice. Let it boil up, take from the fire and cool; add the beaten whites of the eggs and pour into a buttered dish or mould, and bake in a moderate oven thirty- five minutes; serve with tomato or mushroom sauce. Creamed asparagus tips are especially nice with this dish. Be sure and select large and plump squab, and fill them with a well-seasoned crumb stuffing; roast with a slice of bacon over the breast of each. To 42 EASY ENTERTAINING accompany these take good-sized potatoes, peel, and cut a thick sHce from each; scoop out the inside and rub with salt; drop into deep fat and cook brown. While these are draining in the oven on brown paper cut the rest of the potatoes up into straws, dropping into ice-water as you do so, and then, after wiping, cook these in deep fat and fill the cradles, heaping well; serve very hot. For the salad try this, which is new and good: Peel and cut into thick slices some firm tomatoes; put one slice on a plate and cover with a very thin piece of American cheese, and spread with mayonnaise; put on a second slice of tomato and add a heaping spoonful of mayonnaise; press half a stoned olive or pimola into this, and serve on white lettuce with water-crackers. Try and get from the caterer some pretty yellow tulips in ice-cream for your last course; or, make this excellent rice glace: Dissolve a quarter of a box of gelatine in cold water, and add half a cup of boiling water; mix well with two cups of boiled rice, hot, and stir till cold; add a cup of cream well whipped, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and a little vanilla. Chop three tablespoonfuls of preserved ginger and three figs, cover with sherry, and when it is well absorbed add all to the rice. Put all into a covered mould and bury in ice and salt for two hours. Turn it out and decorate the form with EASY ENTERTAINING 43 candied or maraschino cherries and green angelica, and surround with whipped cream. The macaroons to eat with the dessert are to be made the day they are needed, if possible. Take two and a half cups of rolled oats, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, half a teaspoonful of salt, three even tablespoonfuls of butter, one cup of sugar, three eggs beaten separately, and a little vanilla. Cream the butter and sugar, add the yolks of the eggs, then the oatmeal and baking-powder, the vanilla, and last the whites of the eggs. Drop in very small teaspoonfuls on buttered tins three or four inches apart, and bake in a slow oven till brown. Remove from the tins while warm. In place of these macaroons there are some small cakes easily made at home also. Bake any nice cake batter in small, rather deep round tins, and while warm cut a circle in the top of each and take out the inside; fill with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored, put on top, and cover with boiled frosting, with chocolate or vanilla in it. EASTER LUNCHEONS AND BREAKFASTS WHEN Easter-time comes once again the spring sunshine and flowers and the reaction from winter always suggest that most charming sort of entertaining, the Uttle luncheon. Something beautiful is offered to the hostess who desires a novelty for her table — nothing less than a basket of pussy- willow twigs, filled with spring flowers, the most suggestive of all possible centrepieces. To make this a foundation is necessary, either a plain basket of attractive shape or one of unpainted wire; over either of these the pussy-willow twigs are laid in regular order and fastened with invisible wire, and others are laid so as to cover the handle. Then trailing arbutus is lightly heaped in the basket, or it is filled with hepaticas and their leaves; or with wild violets or trilliums or other spring flowers from the woods. Of course no hothouse flowers could ap- propriately go with the pussies, but even city people nowadays can get arbutus on any corner. As to the table, it should be simple, in keeping with 44 EASY ENTERTAINING 45 the centrepiece. It may be laid with doiUes or with a hemstitched luncheon square put on crosswise, or it may have the ordinary cloth, with a pretty white lace centrepiece. At each cover should be a plate to hold the smaller ones of the first course, with a bread-and-butter plate, a glass, and sufficient silver — not overmuch. Candles will not be necessary unless the day should happen to be dark; in that case they may be very pale pink, with shades to match, to correspond with the arbutus or hepaticas. If violets are used the candles may be white, with violet shades. If there are place-cards they may be small and per- fectly plain, with a little knot of flowers, like those on the table, attached with long, very narrow rib- bons. As to a menu, this, too, should have a touch of spring about it. The first course may be grapefruit, or, if one is tired of that, the luncheon may begin with the soup. Grapefruit. Cream of tomato soup; wafers. Olives; salted nuts; radishes. Creamed scallops in little baking-dishes. Broiled sweetbreads; potato balls, creamed; hot rolls. Pea salad on lettuce; cream cheese; wafers. Coffee ice-cream in glasses. Coffee. The grapefruit may be removed from the shells in good-sized pieces and piled in tall glasses, with just 46 EASY ENTERTAINING a maraschino cherry on each. This seems a change for a light luncheon instead of serving it as usual in the skins. The soup is served in cups; it may have a teaspoon- ful of whipped cream on top, or be served without this. Scallops are very good creamed, though one sel- dom sees them prepared in this way; they need to be scalded in enough water to cover them, then dropped into a little white sauce, about a cupful to a pint of scallops, and just brought to the boiling-point and served at once. In place of this dish, if one cannot get scallops, may be lobster Newburg; or any plain white fish may be cooked, picked up, and creamed, with plenty of seasoning. Sweetbreads are just in season now, and very nice; two pairs, if good-sized, will serve ten people; put them into cold water for an hour, changing the water twice; then put them on the fire in cold water, and very slowly simmer them for twenty minutes, and drop them at once into cold water to blanch them. Take out all the pipes and membrane, and divide each into three or four pieces, cutting across; put these on a platter and set a weight on them to press them out flat; before luncheon brush each over with melted butter, sprinkle with salt and fine bread crumbs, and broil over a hot fire for a moment, only EASY ENTERTAINING 47 enough to brown them, as they are already cooked. Arrange them on a platter, add lemon quarters and parsley, and pass, following with a sauce-boat of rich white sauce. Tea is often served at luncheon with this main course, passing the cups, with sugar and cream. When this is done no coffee is offered at the close of the meal, though it is often served later in the drawing- room. The salad is an odd and pretty one; to make it, get very large lemons and scoop out the inside, filUng them with French pease mixed with stiff mayonnaise. Arrange the lemons on white lettuce leaves, putting each in a sort of cup made by the curl of the lettuce; pass cream cheese and wafers with the salad, or make cream cheese balls and put them on the platter, put- ting the lemons around the edge. For the dessert scald a quart of thin cream with a cup of sugar; add a half-cup of very strong black coffee, and strain; when cold, freeze this until smooth and add a cup of powdered macaroon crumbs; take out the dasher, scrape down the sides, and repack until needed. Then heap the cream in tall glasses, and top each with a spoonful of whipped cream; the glasses are cone-shaped and quite deep. Pass sponge- cake or angel-food with the course, and follow with some dainty bonbons if the coffee is omitted. 48 EASY ENTERTAINING Another little Easter luncheon might have for a cen- trepiece a large, shallow basket filled with planted he- paticas, bedded in moss, with hepatica leaves conceal- ing the edge. Or if one cannot get wild flowers a beautiful table may be laid with yellow jonquils massed in the centre, and with a most attractive first course arranged on the table to add further to the fresh yellow and green; then, if candles are needed, yellow ones may be chosen. Grapefruit with creme-de-menthe cherries. Cream of clam soup; hot wafers. Chicken and rice, in baking-dishes. French chops; fresh mushrooms; creamed new potatoes; hot rolls; tea. Easter egg salad; cream cheese; wafers; olives. Marshmallow trifle; sponge-cake. Cut the grapefruit into halves, and loosen the pulp at the edges; cut out the core, and fill the centre with powdered sugar; all around the edge of the fruit put green creme-de-menthe cherries cut into halves, and lay a jonquil, with its leaves, on each small plate, laid in a larger plate. For the soup, have cream of clams, strained, with a little whipped cream on each cup; or make a nice cream of corn by simmering half a can with a quart of rich milk, thickening it a little and straining into hot cups. Follow this with something new in place of EASY ENTERTAINING 49 the usual fish course. Make two cups of nice creamed chicken, cutting it up smaller than usual; cook as much rice, and while it is hot season it well, and line little baking-dishes with it, and heap the centre with the chicken; over all put a spoonful of rice and thick white sauce, and cover it with a layer of grated cheese; put the dishes into a hot oven until the cheese is browned and melted, and serve hot. The mushrooms served with the chops are the fresh ones, so delicious at this season; they may be peeled, dipped into melted butter, and broiled, or they may be cut into large pieces and lightly fried in butter and served on rounds of toast. The Easter salad following this is simple but nice. To make it take at least two eggs for each guest and boil them hard; remove the yolks whole, and arrange them in a nest made of celery straws covered with the chopped white of the eggs; cut the celery into pieces four inches long, and divide in straight, thin pieces, and lay on a bed of white lettuce leaves. If the celery should not be found in market the nest may be made of the lettuce alone, the eggs piled in the centre. Pass mayonnaise, with crackers and cream cheese, with the dish. For the dessert, marshmallow trifle is easily made. Cut up half a pound of marshmallows and mix lightly with a cup of cream flavored with sherry and whipped 50 EASY ENTERTAINING stiff; pile in glasses, and add a cherry or a fresh or preserved strawberry to each. Breakfasts, especially club breakfasts, are always in evidence at spring-time; but, after all, they differ so slightly from luncheons as to be practically identi- cal, except in the hour of service, the breakfast com- ing at twelve o'clock. Of course, if one wishes to give something very cor- rect the breakfast closes with waffles and maple syrup instead of an ice; or coffee, crackers, and cheese follow the salad. But usually the ordinary routine of a luncheon is observed. This menu is seasonable: Grapefruit. Boxxillon; hot wafers. Radishes; salted nuts; olives. Smelts, with sauce tartare; potato balls; rolls. Broiled squab; lettuce with French dressing. Coffee; Brie cheese; toasted hard crackers. Such a breakfast as this is suitable for a club; no vegetables are served, and the sweet is omitted. In place of the squab, chicken could be substituted, as in the following: Grapefruit. Lobster Newburg in cases. Broiled chicken; French pease; new potatoes; rolls. Lettuce and tomato salad, with French dressing. Almond ice-cream; fancy cakes. Coffee. EASY ENTERTAINING 51 At a very large breakfast the meal may be still simpler: first bouillon, then chicken or squab, with pease or lettuce; then ice-cream, and coffee last of all. ENTERTAINING ON MAY DAY MAY day always suggests the setting up of the May pole and the charming festivities as- sociated with the pretty custom. This is probably why the hostess of a dinner or luncheon, or of a children s party, loves to have on her table some reminder of the tradition, usually in a little May pole of her own. It is appropriate for any sort of a meal, even to the dinner-party, which at this time of year is always informal and simple. To make it the carpenter must be called in to fashion a pole three feet high, an inch or more in diameter, its base fastened in so heavy a round of wood that there will be no danger of its toppling over. Then, when it is ready, it is wound from the base to the top with ribbons in alternate colors, pink and white, or pink and rose, preferably, and when the top is reached a bow is tied; under this, tacked to the top of the pole, are ribbons an inch wide or less, one for each guest. These are drawn lightly down so that they will slightly dip as they descend, and one is 52 From " Harper's Bazar." Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brother May Day Party Cake. EASY ENTERTAINING 53 fastened in front of each cover, pinned to the cloth. Just before the guests arrive the wooden base of the pole is concealed by a flat mass of pink flowers; pink and white English daisies are loveliest of all for this particular day, and they can be stuck in sand in shal- low dishes to support the stems and give the effect of planting; a Httle green will conceal the dishes. From the top of the pole a few light vines may fall on the ribbons half the way down their length, and where each ribbon is pinned a knot of the daisies with a bit of vine may be fastened. Apple blossoms may be used if daisies cannot be found, or mountain-laurel, but not hothouse flowers, unless others cannot be secured. Under the ribbons on the table are to be the little dishes of salted nuts, candies, olives, and small iced cakes; candles, used only at dinner in spring, may stand quite outside on the edge of the table; these match the flowers, pink, with pink or rose shades. The menu for a dinner in May ought not to be long or heavy. This is a practical one: Clear soup. Radishes, olives, salted nuts. Soft-shell crabs on toast. Leg-roast of lamb, mint jelly; new potatoes; French pease. Lettuce and tomato salad, French dressing; wafers. Strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. Coffee. 54 EASY ENTERTAINING Crabs on toast make a delicious dish for dinner, but any hostess who does not find them in her inland market can easily substitute some small fish, such as perch, merely spUtting it, broiUng it nicely, and serv- ing it on watercress. The mint jelly, used now more than the mint sauce, is made by preparing a plain lemon jelly, and before the gelatine is added a bunch of bruised mint is sin> mered for three minutes in it; then it is strained and gelatine and a little green fruit coloring added, and it is put into a mould. The shortcake is one especially planned for a din- ner; it is a deUcate sponge-cake baked in a circle mould; the centre is filled with large sweetened ber- ries, and whipped cream is put all around the edge. Or the circle may be filled with strawberry ice-cream; a plain vanilla cream is first made, then a quart of berries are crushed, sweetened, and heated, and while warm put through a sieve, and when the cream is half frozen they are stirred in. It is a good plan to put fresh berries all around the cake even when the ice-cream is used. A second little dinner may have an additional course; or, the third course may be served after the soup, and the fish course omitted: EASY ENTERTAINING 55 Clear tomato soup. Radishes, salted nuts, olives. Brook trout on watercress. Chicken in rice mould, mushroom sauce. Roast lamb; French fried potatoes; asparagus. Lettuce with Roquefort cheese; wafers and French dressing. Strawberry ice-cream in glasses; cake. Coffee. Brook trout are always delicious and are to be had in May in nearly every market in the country; they need to be lightly broiled or fried and served on watercress. The next course is one even an inexperi- enced hostess may venture to try, since it always comes out well and is very good; boil enough rice to have two cupfuls; season it, and while hot press it on the sides and bottom of a well-buttered mould. Cut up two cups of cold chicken and mix with half a cup of white sauce; season this also and fill the centre of the mould, and bake in a pan of water forty minutes, covered tightly. Meanwhile make a large cup of rich white sauce, using cream instead of milk, and mix with a cup of finely chopped mushrobms, fresh or canned, simmered until they are cooked, if fresh, or well heated if canned. Turn out the mould and pour the sauce around it. For the salad mince some Roquefort cheese and sprinkle over the lettuce after putting on the French dressing. A Uttle luncheon in May may also have the May 56 EASY ENTERTAINING pole on the table. Or a large mound of apple blossoms may be the centrepiece, with others without stems scattered over the cloth. This menu, too, should be light. Cream of tomato soup in cups. Shrimps and pease in paper cases. Chicken loaf with olives; creamed new potatoes; hot rolls; tea. Strawberry salad; cream cheese and wafers. Pistache ice-cream in glasses; cake. The fish course in this luncheon is a new one; to make it clean a can of shrimps and put them into ic&- water for an hour; wipe dry and pick them up in small bits; drain a can of French pease, mix with the shrimps, season well, and heat in a cup of white sauce; serve in paper cases or small baking-dishes very hot. To make the chicken loaf stew a three-pound chicken till tender; remove the bones and put the meat through the chopper, with two thin slices of salt pork. Add half a cup of bread crumbs, a beaten egg, half a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, a saltspoonful of black pepper, and a teaspoonful of salt; mix well and bake three hours in a mould, keeping it covered for the last one; baste frequently with a little of the stock the meat was cooked in. Take the rest of it, strain, and add a cup of cream with a very little thickening, and mix in a cup of stoned olives; pour around the loaf when turned out, and serve hot, sliced. EASY ENTERTAINING 57 For the salad stem large fine berries and arrange them in lettuce leaves, white ones, cup-shaped; just before serving pour over them a French dressing made with lemon juice and oil, and pass cream cheese and wafers. For the dessert make a rich white ice-cream and flavor with pistache; color a pale green with fruit paste, and serve in tall glasses with a little whipped cream topping each one. Sponge-cake or angel's- food is nice with this cream, or lady-fingers rolled in soft-boiled icing and then rolled in chopped alm- onds. Coffee may be served after leaving the table. Another luncheon given when buttercups grow thickly may have a brilliant table if a very large basket or pan is placed in the centre and filled with the blooming little plants, the edge of the dish con- cealed with small ferns. The menu might begin with berries on their stems. Strawberries. Bouillon with whipped cream. Chicken breasts; creamed potatoes; currant jelly; hot rolls. Cheese and nut balls, French dressing; wafers. Macaroon ice-cream; angel's-food. Coffee Pan the chicken breasts and cover with a sauce made by adding the beaten yolks of two eggs to a cupful of rich white sauce, simmering a moment to cook the eggs. 58 EASY ENTERTAINING The salad requires a cup of cream cheese and a cup of finely chopped English walnuts, mixed, sea- soned with a very little salt and Cayenne; these are rolled into balls as large as a butternut and laid on lettuce with French dressing. The ice-cream is a plain vanilla, with a cup of pow- dered macaroon crumbs stirred in when it is half frozen. For a children's May-day party make a very large cake by this simple rule: half a cup of butter, a cup and a half of sugar, whites of four eggs, half a cup of water, two cups of flour, two level teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, juice and grated rind of a lemon; beat all five minutes and bake three-quarters of an hour. Ice this prettily, and when it is cold put a long, thick, wooden knitting-needle in the centre, pushing it well in, and wind it with narrow ribbons in two colors; have ready some little jointed dolls dressed in crepe-paper, and put a small-headed hat- pin down the back of each under the hair; push these pins down into the edge of the cake. Then raise the inner arm of each doll and tie a ribbon to it from the top of the little pole. This cake will make a lovely centrepiece for the party table, for the effect of the gay little dolls dancing among the ribbons will charm the children. At the end give a doll to each child. For the supper creamed chicken in little paper cases EASY ENTERTAINING 59 is a good first course served witli sandwiches and small cups of cocoa, and, if the children are small enough to appreciate them, animal crackers. Or there might be creamed chicken, with creamed chopped potatoes in the cases. The ice-cream may be a plain white vanilla sliced; or there may be meringue shells filled with the ice- cream. Best of all, in the eyes of the children, are the crackers holding mottoes and paper caps; after these latter are put on there may be a delightful dance about a large May pole. LUNCHEONS FOR MAY DAYS WHEN the fruit-trees bloom in the spring we always think of Japan, where cherry-blos- som time is a prolonged national fete. Why not borrow a suggestion from the land of artists for a May luncheon? Invitations may be sent out written on rice paper decorated with little fans and umbrellas, or sketches of Japanese girls in kimonas. The hostess may wear a pretty kimona herself on the luncheon day, if she chooses, with hair arranged in a knot on top of her head and fastened with long pins, or she may merely use the Japanese idea in the decorations of her house and lunch-table. In parlors and dining-room, in addition to jars of fruit blossoms on top of sideboards and glass-cabinets and bookcases, there should also be long vines of wistaria hanging down in graceful dra- pings, for wistaria belongs especially to Japan. Both the ordinary purple and the white varieties are used, but the former is the more effective. EASY ENTERTAINING 61 The round tables should be laid as usual with pretty doilies, but there is opportunity also for using some handsome piece of Japanese embroidery for a centre- piece. G«t a good-sized Japanese umbrella decorated in pale grays and purples, and stand it open in the middle of the table, supporting it with crossed pieces of green-painted wood such as are used for Christmas trees, and conceal these with vines. Cover the umbrella top lightly with wistaria, trailing blossoms and leaves, and let them hang rather over the edge, and you will have a most beautiful and unusual table. Of course Japanese china should be used as far as possible for the meal, and place-plates are really essential to give the table real harmony of setting at the first. Place-cards, too, should be chosen with an eye to Japanese decoration, and the pretty bonbon-dishes of glass, tall, with twisted stems, may be filled with California cherries with their leaves, tied in little bunches in contrasting colors. The low silver dishes may have candied cherries in them, with preserved ginger and little green crystallized plums and pieces of pineapple, and still other small dishes may hold the delicious Japanese nuts which look and taste like raisins. It is better to omit en- tirely the usual candies and chocolates. This lunch- eon has hints of Japan in it: 62 EASY ENTERTAINING California cherries. Cream of green-pea soup with croutons. Radishes, salted nuts, olives. Filet of flounder with sauce tartare, and fried cucumbers. Broiled mushrooms on toast, with Japanese umbrellas. Slices of young duckling; creamed new potatoes; crab-apple jelly. Cherry salad; cream cheese and wafers. Individual cherry ices with cherry blossoms; small cakes. Coffee; crystallized fruits; Japanese nuts. Arrange finger-bowls on the place-plates before the guests come to the table, and at the last moment drop into them some of the tiny Japanese flowers which open as they become wet. Pass the cherries in the tall dishes, but be quite sure there are enough to permit the dishes, still prettily filled, to remain on the table all through the meal by way of adornment. Follow with a delicate cream of pea soup, either with croutons or with whipped cream. Have the flounders made into filets at the fish-market if pos- sible; if not, merely cut them into strips, remove the skin and bones, and bend into turban shape before dipping into crumbs and frying in deep fat. Serve a generous amount of stiff sauce tartare with these, and cucumbers, cut into three-inch pieces as large around as one's finger, rolled in flour and fried. Mushrooms are in season in May and nothing could be more delicious for an entree. After peeling them EASY ENTERTAINING 63 rub the smooth side well with butter, and after ta- king out the stem put a bit of butter, Cayenne, and salt into the cavity. Broil the smooth side first and then turn and cook the other. Serve on circles of toast dipped in melted butter and lemon juice, and stand a little Japanese umbrella in each one. At this time of the year young ducklings make a very nice luncheon course; try taking the breasts and second joints and cooking them in the oven for half an hour in a covered pan, sprinkling with chopped onion, salt, and Cayenne, chopped parsley, and melted butter. Baste frequently, and uncover at the last to brown. Lay the pieces on squares of fried hominy with a little of the strained gravy poured over; or have crescents of hominy on the plate with the duckling. Creamed new potatoes in paper cases may be served with this. For the salad, get a quart of the dark-red Cali- fornia cherries and stone them. Fill the cavities with bits of English walnuts and lay on white lettuce hearts, covering all with a French dressing in which the cherry juice has been mixed. Sprinkle all lightly with finely chopped parsley. This is a most de- licious salad, especially with cream cheese and wafers. For a final course have a pretty pink ice or ice- 64 EASY ENTERTAINING cream, and after freezing press small individual moulds full and turn out on a platter; surround with a wreath of cherry blossoms and on each form put a tiny Japanese figure, such as costs but a few cents, yet is moulded and painted most artistically. The effect of the little cross-legged figures among the flowers is most quaint and charming. With these ices you can have pretty little cakes iced in white or pink, each with a candied cherry pressed in the top, to offer with the ices. Serve the coffee in Japanese cups, and pass the crystallized fruits and nuts with it. The city hostess who cannot get natural cherry blos^ soms or wistaria for this luncheon will find beautiful and artistic imitations in the Japanese shops which will do almost as well. Another May luncheon may well utilize the pansies which are everywhere both in city and in country in May. A low mound of them growing, with their leaves, always is lovely, either in purple, or in yellow, or in the two colors mixed. Or, if one wishes to have a strawberry luncheon while the fruit is still a deli- cious novelty of the spring, one may have a centre- piece embroidered in strawberries and use a slender silver vase of red carnations upon it, and have the other linen and lace on the table all in white, the strawberry idea reappearing at intervals in the meal. EASY ENTERTAINING 65 Strawberry cocktail. Almond soup with whipped cream and hot wafers. Radishes, salted nuts, olives. Crab meat, Newburg, served in green peppers. French chops with asparagus; pease and new potatoes. Tomato and mushroom salad; cream cheese and wafers. Strawberry ice or jelly with cream and whole fruit. Cakes. Coffee; frosted strawberries. For the cocktail, mash a quart of berries, add the juice of one lemon and one orange, two cups of sugar, and six cups of water. Leave for two hours, then stir till all the sugar is dissolved, and strain through a jelly-bag. Put on ice till very cold and serve in tall glasses, well chilled, with three strawberries sliced in each glass. If the day is very warm a little shaved ice may be added. The soup, which is very delicate and delicious, is simply made: Take a cup of blanched and chopped almonds, add a quart of thin cream, and let them simmer five minutes. Thicken a very little, add salt and a little white pepper, and strain; pour over this a cup of whipped cream and beat all till foamy; serve very hot, in heated cups, with hot wafers. Prepare for the crab meat the usual Newburg mixture: a cup of cream, the beaten yolks of three eggs, salt, and Cayenne; cook till it thickens, add two tables poonfuls of sherry, put in the crab meat, and heat thoroughly; serve in little baking-dishes, or in paper cases, or in green peppers. 66 EASY ENTERTAINING For the salad, peel and chill tomatoes and put on ice. Take six large mushrooms, peel and break in good-sized pieces, and saute them in a very little butter for three minutes, adding two drops of onion juice and a sprinkling of celery salt and paprika; then cool, and later chill thoroughly. Scoop out the in- side of the tomatoes, mix the mushrooms with may- onnaise, fill, and put a heaping spoonful of may- onnaise on each. SPRING MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS Sunday BKEAKPAST Creamed codfish in baked potatoes poi)-overs; coffee. Waffles. DINNER Tomato bisque. Roast beef; browned potatoes; new carrots in cream. Spanish cream with preserved fruit. Coffee. SUPPER Cold sliced roast beef; potato salad with mayonnaise; rolls; coffee. Pears and whipped cream ; chocolate cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Frizzled dried beef; fried potatoes rolls; coffee LUNCHEON Parsley omelette; Saratoga chips; cocoa. Chocolate cake (from Sunday). DINNER Beef broth (from Sunday) with barley. Lamb stew; macaroni and toma- toes (from Sunday); diced turnips. Rice supreme. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Boiled eggs; corn bread; coffee. Wheat griddle-cakes and syrup. LUNCHEON Lamb croquettes with border of pease; tea. Lettuce and mayonnaise; DINNER (company) Cream of clam soup. Fresh salmon, sliced; egg sauce; potato balls. Roast of veal; mushrooms; new potatoes; spinach. Lettuce and grapefruit salad. Pistache ice-cream; cakes. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Spanish omelette; toast; coffee. luncheon Cream toast with grated cheese, browned; diced fried potatoes; tea. Cake (from Tuesday). DINNER Veal (from Tuesday) reheated; chopped mushrooms in gravy; pease; potatoes. Watercress or lettuce with French dressing. French apricot tart. Cofiee. Thursday BREAKFAST Bacon and eggs; potato cakes; toast strips. Coffee-cake. LUNCHEON Vegetable cutlets with brown sauce; hot rolls; cocoa. Sliced oranges. DINNER Clear soup (from veal bones). Veal chops, tomato sauce; string- beans; potatoes. Rhubarb and nut jelly with cream. Cofiee. 67 EASY ENTERTAINING Friday BREAKFAST Cereal. Finnan-haddie, creamed ; hot baking- powder biscuita ; coffee. LUNCHEON Eggs in ramekins; rice croquettes; tea. String-bean salad (from Thursday) with mayonnaise. DINNER Slices of halibut, fried ; creamed new carrots; potatoes. Lettuce or chicory with French dressing. Almond blanc-mange. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Broiled bacon in baked potatoes; toast; cofTee. Orange marmalade LUNCHEON Fish pudding (from Friday); hot rolls; tea. Cream puffs. DINNER Baked veal loaf with brown gravy; spinach; potatoes. Lettuce salad. Cabinet pudding. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Fruit. Chicken-liver omelette; muffins; coffee. Chicken pie; baked corn pudding; potatoes. Asparagus salad. Frozen lemon sherbet; cake. Coffee. SUPPER Creamed chicken and green peppers; hot biscuits; coffee. Hard-boiled eggs and'mayonnaise on lettuce; olives; wafers. Preserves and cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Broiled salt mackerel with cream sauce; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold sliced veal loaf (from Saturday) ; hot Boston brown bread; tea. Preserves and cake. DINNER Chicken soup with rice. Hamburg steak a la Porterhouse with diced vegetables; rice croquettes. Peach fritters, foamy sauce. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Eggs baked in rolls; cream toast; hashed brown potatoes; coffee. LUNCHEON Hamburg steak (from Monday) hashed with peppers; biscuits; tea. Cake (from Sunday) in finger lengths, covered with jam. DINNER Cream of spinach soup. Pot roast; string-beans; potatoes. Rhubarb pie. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Bacon; creamed potatoes; muffins; coffee; coffee-cake. LUNCHEON (company) Cream of clam soup with whipped cream. Soft-shell crabs, tartare sauce, in green peppers. Broiled sweetbreads; French peaae; now potatoes. Pineapple salad. Burnt almond ice-cream; cakes. Coffee. DINNER Cream of clam soup (from luncheon) Sliced pot roa.st (from Tuesday) io casserole with tomatoes; maca- roni. Fruit and cake. Coffee. EASY ENTERTAINING 69 Thursday BREAKFAST Eggs scrambled with tomatoes (from Wednesday); toast; coffee. Waffles. LUNCHEON Creamed sweetbreads (from Wednes- day) on toast; diced potatoes in cream; tea. Stewed rhubarb and cookies. DINNER Veal cutlet with egg; mashed pota- toes; new cabbage, creamed. Lettuce and French dressing; cream cheese and wafers. Lemon meringue pie. Cofifee. Sunday BREAKFAST Fruit. Kidneys and bacon with brown sauce; pop-overs; coffee. DINNER Rice and tomato soup. Roast leg of lamb; spinach; creamed whole potatoes; currant jelly. Asparagus salad. Vanilla mousse. Coffee. SUPPER Scallops, creamed in chafing-dish; Parker House rolls; sandwiches; coffee. Fresh pineapple and sponge-cake. Friday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Broiled panfish; potato omelette; muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Baked cheese pudding; olives; tea. Watercress and French dressing, with egg quarters. Fruit. DINNER Broiled shad; potatoes; spinach. Lettuce or string-beans and French dressing. Crackers and cheese and coffee. Monday BREAKFAST Eappered herrings; corn bread; coffee. Griddle-cakes and maple syrup. LUNCHEON Rice croquettes with cheese sauce; rolls (from Sunday) ; tea. Sponge-cake (from Sunday) and whipped cream. DINNER Lamb reheated in gravy, mint jelly; potatoes; string-beans. Cocoanut custard, baked. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Boiled rice and sliced bananas and cream; Parsley omelette; French-fried po- tatoes; hot rolls; coffee. LUNCHEON Shad roe (from Friday) with bacon; toast; tea. Coffee eclairs. DINNER Cream of beet soup. Mutton steaks; creamed cabbage; fried halved potatoes. Chocolate jelly. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Fruit. Omelette with fine herbs; French- fried potatoes; whole-wheat muf- fins; coffee. LUNCHEON Clam cutlets; biscuits; tea. Lettuce and maj'onnaise, with cheese crackers. DINNER Roast filet of veal; spinach; whole- boiled potatoes with butter sauce. Lettuce and French dressin?. Custard souffl6. Coffee. 70 EASY ENTERTAINING Wednesday BREAKFAST Broiled strips of ham; hashed creamed potatoes; toast; coffee. Orange marmalade. LUNCHEON Veal croquettes (from Tuesday), with creamed pease; tea. Fresh spice-cakes and fruit. DINNER Tomato soup. Broiled steak; asparagus; potatoes; spiced pears. Coffee charlotte. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Hominy and cream. Shad roe (from Friday) and bacon; pop-overs; coffee. LUNCHEON Creamed asparagus on toast; po- tato puff; tea. Fresh pineapple and cookies. DINNER Cream of spinach soup. Lamb stew; hominj- croquettes (from breakfast) ; new beets. Deep rhubarb tart. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Cereal with cream. Eggs scrambled with tomato (from Wednesday soup); hominy muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Cakes of minced beef (from Wednes- day); lattice potatoes; tea. Rhubarb and marshmallow jelly with cream. DINNER Cream of asparagus soup (from Wednesday night). Chops; pease; potatoes; spiced prunes. Home-made charlotte russe. Coffee. BREAKFAST California cherries. Poached eggs on toast rounds with cream sauce; muffins; coffee. DINNER Shoulder of lamb, mint sauce; new potatoes; spinach. Lettuce and pineapple salad. Strawberries smothered in whipped cream; sponge-cake. Coffee. SUPPER Cold sliced lamb with potato and olive salad; coffee; sandwiches. Pineapple and sponge-cake (from dinner). Friday BREAKFAST Fruit. Broiled smelts with parsley butter; cream toast; coffee. Fresh coffee-cake. LUNCHEON souffle ; toasted English muffins; tea. California cherries. DINNER Planked shad with border of mashed potatoes; string-beans. Lettuce salad. Vanilla ice-cream and lady-fingers. Coffee. Monday BREAKFAST Broiled dried beef; creamed hashed potatoes; toast; coffee. Wheat cakes. LUNCHEON Lamb and green peppers, hashed; tea. Spinach (from Sunday) in salad. Sponge-cake. DINNER Vegetable soup (from lamb bones). Breaded veal cutlet; new cabbage, creamed; potatoes. Cottage pudding with preser\'ed Coffee! EASY ENTERTAINING 71 Tuesday BREAKFAST Oatmeal and steamed figs with cream. Breakfast bacon ; corn bread; coffee. LUNCHEON Veal (from Monday) and rice cro- quettes; Saratoga potatoes; tea. Cream-cheese balls on lettuce. Stewed rhubarb. DINNER Beef loaf with tomato sauce; string- beans; potatoes. Asparagus salad. Caramel custards. Cofiee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Fruit. Boiled eggs; rice muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold sliced beef loaf (from Tuesday) ; baked potatoes; pickles. Cocoa and drop-cakes. DINNER Chicken fried in batter; potatoes; canned corn fritters. Lettuce and hard-boiled egg salad. Pineapple in lemon jelly with cream. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Codfish croquettes; corn coffee. Fresh coffee-cake. LUNCHEON Hashed chicken (from Wednesday) in cream sauce, in small dishes. Spinach salad with cream-cheese balls. Cookies. DINNER Chicken and rice soup (from chicken bones). Balls of Hamburg steak, brown sauce; creamed new carrots; po- tatoes. Lemon sherbet; cake. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Cereal with cream. Creamed clams on toast; pop-overs; coffee. LUNCHEON Boston brown bread and baked beans; tea. Lettuce and mayonnaise; wafers. Gingerbread. DINNER Cream of lettuce soup. Sliced halibut with egg sauce; creamed beets; potatoes. Cold pop-overs (from breakfast) filled with whipped cream and chopped nuts. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Fruit. Deviled kidneys; hashed brown potatoes; toasted brown bread (from Friday) ; coffee. LUNCHEON Baked fish pudding (from Friday); tea. Asparagus and mayonnaise; wafers. Cherries. Pea soup. pot-pie with dumplings; string-beans; spiced fruit. Chocolate jelly. Coffee. MID-SUMMER LUNCHEONS THE decorations of the dining-room and table for a summer luncheon should be suggestive of coolness. For this reason ferns are espe- cially appropriate, either alone or in combination with a flower. It is a pretty fashion to fill the fire- places and window boxes with great bunches of ferns, as well as the corners of the halls and dining- room. As to the table, if the day is very hot have a shallow pan of water in the centre, the largest possible, following the outline of the table, whether oblong, square, or round, and cover the surface with pond- lilies, with their own leaves all around the edge, quite concealing the pan. Do not crowd the flowers, for they will be spoiled if massed; barely cover the Ferns must not be used with lilies, but they may be the one decoration of the table; bunches of maid- enhair fern are beautiful all by themselves; or single flowers — sweet-peas or carnations — may be added, but not too many. Or, if one has a dining-room fur- 72 EASY ENTERTAINING 73 nished in Delft colors or in Colonial yellow, blue bachelor's-buttons and grasses, arranged in a num- ber of tall clear glass vases, are lovely. The dishes in this case must be blue and white, or gold and white, or plain white china. Instead of the ever-present salted almonds, try using pignolas for the luncheon- table; have the bonbons white, or white and green, and do not over- crowd the small dishes. Space gives a suggestion of coolness, even here. Melons. Cream bouillon with hot wafers. Cold lobster with sauce tartare. Spanish chicken; little potatoes, fried whole. Pineapple salad with mayonnaise. Coupe orientale. Small cakes. Coffee. Unless pond-lilies are on the table, lay three maiden- hair ferns on each plate, curling them up bowl-shape, and lay half an iced cantaloupe within. Make the bouillon as usual, but do not season with lemon juice; use only salt, Cayenne and wine. Take half as much whipped cream as you have bouillon, and mix. Serve hot, with hot wafers. Remove the lobster from the shell in large pieces and serve on very cold plates with a spoonful of sauce tartare on each. Or dip each piece of lobster in mayonnaise into which you have put a tablespoonful 74 EASY ENTERTAINING of dissolved gelatine, and coat them; serve without the tartare, but with a slice of lemon dipped in chopped parsley by the lobster. The Spanish chicken is a pleasant change from the ordinary way of preparing the familiar bird. For ten people stew two chickens and cut into even dice. Boil down the chicken stock till you have two cup- fuls; strain, thicken, and brown. Cook six tiny onions and put them in with a cup of cooked pease, the livers of the chickens, chopped, and three sweet red peppers, cut up. Put in the chicken and turn it over, without breaking the dice, till well heated. Pile on a hot platter in pyramid shape, and put triangles of toast all around the edge, with parsley between. Serve with this very small round potatoes, scraped and cooked whole by plunging in deep fat. For the salad have a small white heart of lettuce for each person and arrange with rather large bits of pineapple. Use either French dressing or mayon- naise with them. For the dessert, have a quart of raspberry ice and a quart of rich vanilla cream made without eggs, and a quart of small, sweet red raspberries. Put a spoonful of berries in each tall, shallow glass, and sprinkle with powdered sugar and a little sweet wine. Lay a spoonful of the ice and one of the cream on these, side by side, not one on top of the other, and k Prom " Harper's Bazar." Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brothers. Sponge-cake Baskets for Berries, EASY ENTERTAINING 75 put a few raspberries in a pile on top of all, with sugar and wine. Serve immediately. All through this luncheon pass lemonade colored with raspberry juice; have slender glasses at each plate and keep them half full of scraped ice, and use a tall glass pitcher for the lemonade. Another summer luncheon may have the table decorated with nasturtiums; not many of the ordi- nary orange ones, but the darker shades which are so rich and velvety. With these flowers use the pretty salad suggested below, which is decorated with nas- turtiums, and if you have guest-cards have the same flower painted on them. MENU Salpicon of fruits. Cream of com soup; hot wafers. Crabs St. Laurent. Chops with fresh mushrooms; cauliflower au gratin; potato croquettes. Egg and chicken salad with nasturtiums. Pistache parfait, or pistache blanc-mange. Coffee. A salpicon of fruits is quite a different thing, and a much better one, than the mixture of fruits simply cut up and sweetened which one usually sees. To prepare it, shred pineapple, banana, grape-fruit pulp or orange, and mix. Take a cup of sugar and boil with a tablespoonful of water till it threads; add a 76 EASY ENTERTAINING large tablespoonful of lemon juice, and while still warm pour over the fruit and turn once. Stand away to get cold, and after an hour or more serve in glasses with two or three maraschino cherries and their juice. For the soup, simply prepare the usual cream of fresh corn, but put whipped cream on each cup in serving. Crab meat may now be had in tins, very nice and fresh, with the crab shells accompanying, so that inland hostesses may have crabs St. Laurent as well as those nearer the seashore. Take one teaspoonful of butter and one of flour; melt the but- ter, rub in the flour, add a half-cup of stock and as much cream; cook till smooth; season with salt, Cayenne, and a little nutmeg, and add the crab meat; then put in two tables poonfuls of Parmesan cheese, grated, and one tablespoonful of lemon juice. Cook all one minute, fill the shells, cover with crumbs, sprinkle with cheese and paprika, and brown in the oven. For the meat course, get fine large lamb chops, cut thick, and remove the bone; a good plan is to have two cut together, and after the bone is removed press between plates till they are of the right size. Make them into circles and fasten with small wooden toothpicks. Peel and broil large buttered mush- rooms and cover each chop with one, stem end down. EASY ENTERTAINING 77 Put a dash of lemon juice and chopped parsley over all, and serve on a very hot platter. The cauliflower must be boiled, picked into bits, and laid in a buttered baking-dish. Cover with white sauce, then with salt, paprika, and grated Parmesan cheese, and another layer of cauliflower; the last layer must be cheese. Bake in a hot oven till brown. Small potato croquettes may also accompany this course. For the pretty salad make a cup of stiff mayon- naise first, and put in a small bowl in the centre of a round platter. Boil nine eggs hard and remove the yolks; mash these and add an equal quantity of potted chicken, such as may be bought in small tins, or cooked chicken chopped and mashed, with seasoning. Mix well, and put in enough mayon- naise to enable you to mould into small balls. Cut the whites of the eggs into rings. Around a finger- bowl fuU of cracked ice stand white lettuce hearts, with a flat row of nasturtium leaves all around the edge of the dish. On these leaves lay the rings of egg white, in overlapping circle, and pile up the egg and chicken balls among the lettuce. Sprinkle quickly with French dressing, and then lay on dark nasturtium flowers. The contrast of colors is lovely. The next course is pistache parfait — something quite new. Make the usual French vanilla ice-cream, 78 EASY ENTERTAINING but color it green with vegetable color and flavor with pistache. Put this into tall champagne-glasses, and pour a teaspoonful of maraschino over it; then on top put a large spoonful of whipped cream. The peculiarity is the combination of flavors. If you wish a simple dessert which will yet be very pretty, make a blanc-mange as usual, and color green and flavor with pistache. Set in small moulds to harden, and turn out on a long platter. Decorate with strips of angeUca and candied cherries. THE COLD DINNER THE cold dinner is fashionable. Once it was synonymous with discomfort; now it stands for all that is most appetizing and delicious for a hot summer's meal. There is scarcely a meat which is not better cold than hot; fish is infinitely more tooth- some when thoroughly chilled, while salads and ices are only the fitting thing to complete the biU of fare. As to soup, this offers a difference of opinion, but the woman who doubts may dispense altogether with this dish and substitute something she approves with more enthusiasm; still, a cold soup of just the right consistency and flavor is something too good to de- cUne. If possible, serve the cold dinner on a veranda shaded from the street or lawn by climbing vines, or rows of potted plants set on the railing; but if the conditions of the house render these adjuncts impos- sible, then use the dining-room, but see that it is as cool as possible. If the day is extremely hot, put some wash-tubs with blocks of ice, or better, ice and salt, about the room, and close the doors after the 79 80 EASY ENTERTAINING table is ready. This will lower the temperature im- mediately. Of course all the food may be prepared in advance of the dinner hour, so that no heat from the kitchen will affect the dining-room as on an ordi- nary occasion — one of the many advantages of having a cold meal, by the way. As to decorations, use delicate green ferns, or if you feel that you must have flowers, choose small white ones to mingle with the green. Large pieces of ice piled irregularly on a platter covered with ab- sorbent cotton, with small growing ferns taken from the earth and shaken free of soil tucked in the crevices and about the edge of the platter, give a delightfully cool effect. The lights should be white candles with white shades. The china is better all white or white and gold rather than anything of the decorated va- riety. Use glass dishes for the bonbons — have these white also — and for the nuts. Do not put any olives on the table at all, but pass them. Lay the covers farther apart than usual, and do not have many knives and forks displayed, but bring them on as they are needed. All these trivial details help to give the impression of coolness to the table. The first menu suggested begins with a fruit soup, such as one sees in Europe, and one of the few which are really good. A course of fruit may be substituted for it if one prefers: EASY ENTERTAINING 81 Cherry soup; brown-bread sandwiches. Brook trout with mayonnaise; cucumbers. Asparagus. Cold boned chicken; currant jelly; tomatoes. Cheese and pimento salad; wafers. Ice-cream in melons. Iced coffee. The recipe for the soup is this: stone and mash one pint of cherries, reserving a few whole, two or three, for each plate; add a pint of water, the juice and grated rind of one lemon, cinnamon and sugar to taste, and four tablespoonfuls of claret; simmer half an hour. This soup is also made with large CaU- fornia plums and is equally good, and one peeled plum, halved, is put in each plate. If one wishes soup, but something more conventional, substitute for this the bouillon given in another menu. All fish which is to be used cold must be gently boiled, never broiled nor fried, with the exception of soft-shell crabs. The brook trout are to be served whole, on a napkin, but they should be cut through in conve- nient pieces before they are passed; a bed of water- cress is best to use with these small fish; the mayon- naise is to be passed in a small bowl set in one that is larger, the space between filled with scraped ice. For the substantial course have two or more chick- ens boned, stuffed, and roasted, or if this seems too 82 EASY ENTERTAINING difficult, simply roast them and cut from the bones. The salad is new and pretty; break up two square cream cheeses and mix with two dozen olives and six pimentos, both chopped rather fine, or, instead, with two dozen pimolas, which are olives stuffed with pimentos; press this into a pan and put on ice, and when you wish to use it cut in strips and serve on lettuce with French dressing. The contrast- ing colors of the green olives, the scarlet pimentos, and the white cheese give a most attractive effect. For the sweet, take small spicy nutmeg melons, cut in halves, and remove the seeds; fill each half with a rich vanilla ice-cream, and serve on individual plates with small cakes. The coffee at a cold dinner should be the one hot article on the menu, if the weather at all permits; if only that which is iced wLU do, then have it really cold, with a little finely pow- dered ice in each glass and a spoonful of whipped cream on top; have this passed on the veranda or lawn or in the drawing-room — not at the table. For another dinner omit the soup: Clams on the half-shell; brown bread and butter. Cold boiled salmon, sauce tartare; cucumbers. Chicken chartreuse. Tongue in aspic; tomatoes with French dressing. Pineapple salad; cheese wafers. Frozen watermelon. Bar-le-Duc; coffee. EASY ENTERTAINING 83 Small steaks of salmon are the best to get for this fish course, unless, indeed, you can have a whole fish; the small cutlets are easy to manage on the platter, as they keep their shape well. The tongue is to be boiled, peeled, and wiped dry; then make a strong stock, either with meat and bones or else with beef extract, seasoned with lemon juice and a little onion, and set this with gelatine. Strain over the tongue in a deep pan and put on ice over- night; garnish with sliced lemon, and slice with a very sharp knife as it is passed, unless you have sUced it before it is packed in the pan, which is really the better way, though it is difficult to keep it in place while the jelly is soft; it must be put in just before it is ready to set. For the salad, pick up a pineapple in large bits, put on lettuce, and dress with a very stiff mayonnaise which has been thinned to the proper consistency with whipped cream. Prepare the frozen melon- by cutting large rounded spoonfuls from a ripe, sweet watermelon; remove the seeds, put in the freezer, cover with powdered sugar and sherry, and let it remain packed for at least five hours. The coffee at this dinner is to be hot, served with Bar-le-Duc preserves and thin crackers. Omit these if you decide on iced coffee. One more menu may be easily arranged, for there 84 EASY ENTERTAINING are delicious cold dishes in plenty to choose from; indeed, a cold dinner is easier to plan than a hot one. Iced cantaloupe or clams. Jellied bouillon; brown bread and butter. Cold duck; currant jelly; cauliflower with French dressing. Tomato and lettuce salad. Fancy ices; small cakes. Coffee; Brie cheese and wafers. To make the bouillon proceed as for aspic jelly; that is, either make a strong stock which will jelly of itself when cold and carefully clarify and strain it, or else take beef extract, add plenty of seasoning, lemon juice, and a little wine, and after straining set this with gelatine; in either case do not have it too stiff; just to set it is all that is desirable. To serve it, break into small bits and put in bouillon-cups and have it very cold. Tiny sandwiches of thin Boston brown bread should accompany it. Duck and cauliflower are always an excellent com- bination, but do not have the vegetable seem like a salad; use only enough French dressing to flavor it and pass it with the same plates as for the duck. Another meat course which is deUcious and rather a novelty may be substituted for this one with a Uttle trouble: Take slices of lamb, dip in mint sauce, and drain well; make an aspic as before and pour an inch into a mould; then put in a layer of pease, then the EASY ENTERTAINING 85 slices of lamb, then more pease, and fill up the mould with the jelly. The cauliflower will be nice with this also. If the duck is omitted, alter the salad course and have slices of chicken breast on lettuce with stiff mayonnaise, in place of the tomatoes. Other cold dishes which may be used according to taste are salad of cold duck, watercress, and mayon- naise; pond-lily salad, which is made by cutting the whites of hard-boiled eggs lengthwise and la3dng these slices in radiating petals from a centre of the egg-yolk mixed with mayonnaise dressing; nasturtium salad; and salad of cherries with lettuce and French dressing. A pretty idea is to serve the sauce tartare in half- lemons scooped out to make cups. These are passed on the same dish with the fish and make a very good garnish for the platter. A delightful cold relish to begin a summer dinner is a canape of caviare, tomato, and mayonnaise. The foundation is a slice of not too fresh bread cut out with a round cutter. On this is spread a generous layer of caviare, and this in turn is surmounted by a thin slice of tomato spread with stiff mayonnaise. The tomato, which can stand almost any amount of salt, deliciously balances the salty flavor of the caviare. For cold desserts there are numberless sherbets, ices, crushed fruit, and iced puddings. SUMMER DINNERS A DINNER -TABLE in summer may have a central decoration of snowballs. Arrange a large, loose mound of the smaller flowers in the middle of the table with an edge of their own leaves, and slightly veil the whole with a few sprays of asparagus fern. The candles may be white with soft white shades, each with a spray of artificial snowball and leaf attached, and the place-cards may carry out the same idea by having a little water-color flower painted on a plain card. The tall glass com- potes may hold white bonbons and little iced cakes. There is a beautiful white, opalescent glass which costs but little, and is most attractive for a white table in the warm weather. If one does not care for a snowball decoration, vases of this glass may be filled with white roses; the candle-shades maybe of white rose petals, with cards to match, and the opalescent finger-bowls may hold each a petal or two. Still another lovely decoration may be arranged by putting a large cut-glass vase on a round Shefl&eld EASY ENTERTAINING 87 tray on feet, filling the vase with roses, pink or white, with four or six smaller bunches of roses about the table. The candles should match the color of the flowers, and the shades be made of silk rose petals. In hot weather one may fancy omitting the usual course of soup at dinner, having first, if the meal is sufficiently formal to warrant it, a canape, then a course of fruit, then the fish. Canape of anchovies and pimento. Strawberries. Planked lobster with cucumbers, sauce tartare. Peppers stuffed with asparagus. Broiled chops of spring lamb, with new pease and potatoes. Lettuce and tomato salad, with hot cheese fritters; wafers. Vanilla cream snowballs, with sauteme sauce; fancy cakes. Coffee. To prepare the anchovy canapes, have made some small circular pieces of toast and spread each one first with butter, then with anchovy paste. Sprinkle with lemon juice, and lay on each piece two strips of pimento, at right angles. Arrange all the rounds on a small, flat dish, and surround with lemon quarters and quarters of hard-boiled egg, alternating. The strawberries are to be served as usual; very large ones laid around the edge of a small plate on a paper doily, the green hulls toward the centre, where is sugar. These plates are to be laid on the place- plates. EASY ENTERTAINING The lobster is to be a fine large one, strictly fresh, which must be killed, spHt open lengthwise, and fast- ened to a board especially made for planking fish; this board will be found at any house-furnishing shop. It may be tacked where that is necessary to keep it in place. Melted butter is to be put on it as it cooks, and when it is done it should be sprinkled with salt. This dish may be served either hot or cold, but it must always appear on the plank, though it may be cut in convenient pieces while retaining its shape. If the company is a large one three lobsters or more will be necessary. The blackened board may be sHghtly covered by a border of white lettuce hearts and egg quarters, or the cucumbers may edge it, with lettuce. As, for convenience, the board is usually laid on a platter, lettuce may be so put around as to half conceal it. The sauce is passed in a bowl. The entree is quite a new dish and a very nice one. Cut off the stem end from green peppers, remove the inside, and put them into a kettle of hot water and gently simmer them for five minutes; drain them carefully, turning the opening down; prepare a mixture made of one cup of grated bread crumbs, one tablespoonful of melted butter, half a tea- spoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of mushroom cat- sup, half a pint of cold boiled asparagus cut in small, even pieces, a tablespoonful of olive-oil, and a EASY ENTERTAINING 89 teaspoonful of lemon juice. Mix thoroughly; fill the peppers; put them into a shallow baking-dish, and cook for half an hour in a moderate oven, basting frequently with brown stock or hot water mixed with a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet and as much melted butter. Arrange aroimd a mould of hot boiled rice, and garnish with large pitted oUves, made hot in what is left of the stock. Mint jelly may be served with the chops and the vegetables. The jelly is made by bruising a bunch of mint and adding it to an ordinary lemon jelly, straining out the mint before setting it in the mould. A Uttle green coloring will be needed to make it look as it should. The salad may be thin sUces of tomatoes laid on lettuce with French dressing, and these deUcious little brown cheese balls may be passed with wafers: Grate dairy cheese until you have a cup and a half; mix with this a tablespoonful of bottled Parmesan cheese, a tablespoonful of flour, a quarter of a tablespoonful of salt, and a sprinkling of Cayenne. Fold into this ^he stiff whites of three eggs, make it into small balls, |ind roll each one in fine bread crumbs. Fry quickly in a wire basket in deep fat, and serve very hot, on k folded napkin, or laid on the salad-plates, if they are prepared before sending to the table. Have nice thin crackers to eat with the salad. 90 EASY ENTERTAINING For the ice-cream, scald a pint of thin cream with a cup of sugar, and when cold beat well, and add a pint of whipped cream. Freeze as hard as possible, and let it stand at least two hours to ripen, without the dasher. When needed, take two tablespoonfuls and mould the cream into balls as it is taken out, and roll each of these in grated cocoanut. These may be arranged on a platter with whipped cream, or may have a delicious sauterne sauce, hot or cold. To make this dissolve a cup of sugar with a tablespoonful of water, and let it boil for two minutes; cool, and add a pint of sauterne, mixing thoroughly, and pass with the snowballs. For a summer dinner perhaps this sauce is better well chilled rather than hot. Small cakes, iced in white, accompany the cream, and the coffee is served in the drawing-room. Another dinner suitable for summer may have a soup, which may be used heated or iced, as the weather indicates. Iced red currants. Jellied bouillon, with buttered strips of brown bread. Large smelts, broiled, sauce tartare. Cucumbers farcis. Large squab, stuflfed; fresh mushrooms on toast; new pease; small new potatoes. Tomatoes filled with sweetbreads and mayonnaise. Strawberry ice-cream in angels' food with fresh berries; cakes. CoflEee. EASY ENTERTAINING 91 For the fruit course select fine large currants with small seeds; crush them with a silver fork, sweeten with sugar-and-water syrup, and put them into a small pail; bury in ice and salt for two hours, and then beat up well and serve in tall glasses. For the soup, make a strong bouillon the day before it is needed, and after straining thoroughly set it away; the next day, if it is not firm enough to break into bits, melt it and add a Uttle gelatine, with salt, Cayenne, and sherry to taste. Serve in large, flaring cups which have been chilled, and pass buttered strips of Boston brown bread with it. If it is desirable to have this a hot course, serve the bouillon with a thin slice of lemon in each plate, or omit the lemon and pour it over a cup of whipped cream just before serving. Ail hot soups at dinner are served in the usual soup- plates, but an iced soup in a large bouillon bowl or cup. For the fish get the largest-sized smelts and split them lengthwise; rub each with French dressing, and broil on a buttered gridiron so quickly that they will not be dry; put watercress and lemon quarters around them and serve them very hot. To prepare the entree, peel large cucumbers, spUt them, and scoop out the seeds. Chop very fine a cup of cold roast veal or chicken, mix with a cup of fine, soft white bread crumbs and half a cup of white 92 EASY ENTERTAINING sauce; season very highly with salt and Cayenne, and stuff the cucumbers, filling each half evenly. Lay the two pieces together and wrap in a long strip of cheese- cloth and simmer g'3ntly, in water enough to cover them, for twenty minutes. Unwrap them and ar- range them on a flat dish, and put a spoonful of rich white sauce made with cream over each one. The butchers now call the pigeons meant for roast- ing " Jumbo squab," and it is well to ask for them by that name. Prepare a stuffing by browning a slice of onion in two tables poonfuls of butter, and after removing the onion, put in two cups of soft, white bread crumbs and brown, seasoning with salt and pepper. Roast the birds, with constant basting, and serve with fresh mushrooms, broiled, on toast, and new pease, fried potatoes, and currant jelly. The salad may utilize the fresh tomatoes, now at their best. A delicious combination is to mix dice of cooked sweetbreads with mayonnaise and fill scooped-out tomatoes, passing cream cheese and wafers with them. LITTLE DINNERS FOR THREE DOLLARS IN the early summer it is perfectly possible to have quite an elaborate little dimier party for six for the small sum of three dollars, and this includes not only the soup, fish, and meat, but also the Uttle accessories, the salted nuts, rolls, and after- dinner coffee. Flowers are so plenty in the early summer that for a few cents one can have a beautiful table. A large flat dish filled with sand, edged with green leaves and filled with yellow pansies, makes a charming centrepiece, and with soft yellow candle shades over the lights there is nothing more needed by way of decoration. As to menu, this is one quite in season: Strawberries in sherry, 15 cents; cream of tomato soup, 15 cents; fish cutlets and sliced cucumbers, 28 cents; lamb, mint jelly, browned potatoes, pease (lamb and jelly, $1.20; vegetables, 25 cents), $1.45; lettuce and escarole with cheese, French dressing, 20 cents; pineapple and banana ice-cream, 35 cents; coffee (also dinner rolls and almonds), 25 cents. — ■ Total, $2.83. 94 EASY ENTERTAINING The first course of berries is prepared by getting one box or quart for about eight cents; hull them and lay them in a little sherry; sprinkle well with sugar, and put them on ice; at dinner time drain them and put them in glasses; stand a glass on a small plate for each person, and put this plate on the larger serv- ice plate at the cover. This first course may be on the table when the guests sit down; a small fork is to lie on the plate by the side of the glass, and a couple of strawberry leaves may be put under the foot of the glass, if they are obtainable. The sherry is the kind used for cooking, and a small half cup or quarter of a pint will be plenty; this will cost twenty- five cents a pint, or less. For the soup get a quart of milk and three good- sized tomatoes; cut the latter up and stew them with seasoning; add a pinch of soda, then the hot milk, and strain; thicken slightly, and strain again. In place of tomato, corn may be used, or fresh Lima beans, at the same price. For the fish course get a pound and a half of any cheap white fish, such as cod or haddock, paying not over twelve cents a pound for it; boil this till tender in highly seasoned water, drain it, and pick it up; add enough white sauce to make it soft; about half a cup to a pint of fish; season well, and let it get cold; then shape into cutlets, dip each into crumbs, yolk EASY ENTERTAINING 05 of egg, and crumbs again, and let them dry well; fry two at a time in deep fat in a wire basket. Have ready some little white paper frills and wooden tooth- picks; fasten one frill on each bit of wood, and stick into the small end of the cutlet. SUce thin three cucumbers, for which you have paid ten cents, and put a row of these on one side of the dish. It is a good plan to dip them in French dressing and drain them first; otherwise pass a bowl of the dressing. For the meat course get from the butcher a small leg of old lamb; be sure and not get the very costly spring lamb; a five-pound leg will be more than enough, at twenty- two cents a pound; or get a fore quarter instead, which will be still cheaper. Roast this in a covered pan to keep it moist and tender, and baste it often; uncover only long enough to brown it at the last. With this have small new potatoes, scraped, and then fried whole in hot fat till they are crisp and brown; drain these on paper. Have pease, also, served dry. For the jelly make a small quan- tity of ordinary lemon jelly, omitting half the amount of sugar, and into it while warm put a bunch of crushed mint leaves; strain, and set into a small mould. K the color is not good, put in a little artificial green, or a few drops of spinach juice. The jelly will cost about ten cents and the vegetables together a possible twenty-five. 96 EASY ENTERTAINING The salad is very simple, but good with this partic- ular dinner; take small lettuce leaves and mix them with some of escarole or other salad green; add just a few tiny strips of cooked beet, only enough to give a little color, and put French dressing over them; then last put on a spoonful of grated cheese. The ice-cream at the end is particularly good. Make a full pint of plain ice-cream first, and put it into the freezer; omit the flavoring. Stir till nearly set, and then put in a small cupful of minced fresh pineapple and one of banana pulp, and turn till set; when needed, dip this up into small glasses and pour a very little maraschino over each one. The milk and cream will cost seven cents, the fruit about eight- een, the flavoring and sugar a few cents more, leaving a little margin for ice and salt. Of course a very tiny pineapple and two bananas will be plenty to use. For the salted almonds which are to be served with this dinner, get a quarter of a pound of the shelled ones and salt them at home; have no butter, but get six dinner rolls for five cents, and lay one in each napkin; the coffee will not cost over ten cents, and there is still a trifling sum over when all is paid for, which may be used for olives, or flowers, or pepper- mints. For a second dinner at three dollars there is another EASY ENTERTAINING 97 menu which is quite as good as the first one; and instead of using yellow pansies the hostess may have snowballs of a small size, lightly veiled in delicate green; or summer roses are lovely. Strawberries, 8 cents; cream of lettuce soup, lo cents; fish in cucumbers, 25 cents; roast of veal stuffed, puree of cauliflower, potatoes (veal, $1.15; vegetables, 20 cents), $1.35; asparagus salad, wafers, 40 cents; rice impera trice, 25 cents; coffee (also included rolls and almonds), 25 cents. — Total, $2.68. Instead of serving the strawberries as before have them plain, hulls on, laid on small plates with a pile of sugar in the middle of a circle of the berries. As only a few are needed for each person, one box will be enough, at eight cents. For the soup take part of a green head of lettuce or any outer leaves of one and stew them in a very little water with a sUce of onion, salt, and pepper; when the whole is a pulp add a scant quart of milk, strain, thicken slightly, and strain again, and keep very hot. The fish course is a very nice one. Get a pound of any sort of white fish as before, for about twelve cents, and cook it; drain, pick it up, and cream it stifily. Get three large cucumbers and cut them in two lengthwise and remove the centres; drop these into hot water, and leave them till they are thor-. 98 EASY ENTERTAINING oughly heated, and then wipe them dry inside and out; put the fish into them, and serve them on small plates, with a little watercress or parsley under each. The cucumber will flavor the fish just enough to make it very good; twenty-five cents will more than pay for this course. For the meat get a nice roast of veal, which is young and tender in summer. Stuff and roast it, and serve with it the same sort of potatoes as in the first dinner. For the second vegetable have boiled cauliflower put through a puree sieve, and well sea- soned. This is always nice with veal. As asparagus is too often expensive, a liberal al- lowance should be left for the salad, though in early summer it should not be over thirty cents a bunch at the most expensive market. Cook this, sprinkle with salt and a tiny bit of Cayenne, and lay it on ice tUl very cold; put it on a chilled dish and cover with French dressing. Have the plates used with this course kept on ice till they are needed, that the salad may be cold. For the dessert try this nice recipe: Wash well a small half cup of rice and boil it with a little salt until it is very soft; it may need half an hour; drain it and let it stand in the oven with the door open till it is rather dry. Then cool it, and to it add half a pint of cream whipped stiff and four tables poonfuls of EASY ENTERTAINING 99 powdered sugar; flavor with cordial or sherry. Put it into a mould as soon as possible to prevent the cream from thinning, and bury the dish in ice and salt for four hours. Turn out on a cold platter and add a little whipped cream, or put some large strawberries around it. Serve on chilled plates. As the margin left from this dinner is so large, an extra amount of almonds can be purchased, or more money can be spent on flowers than before. Still a third dinner, which utilizes the crabs now in market and has a course of chicken, may be pre- pared for three dollars: Iced fruits in glasses, 15 cents; clear soup, 15 cents; soft-shell crabs, 50 cents; roast chicken, potatoes and pease (chicken, 90 cents; vegetables, 20 cents), $1.10; tomato and lettuce salad, 15 cents; souffle pudding, 15 cents (or ice cream in log houses) ; coffee, etc., 25 cents. — Total, $2.45. For the salad have sliced tomatoes on .lettuce. For dessert, here is a delicious souffle : Cream a heap- ing teaspoonful of butter with one of flour and two of powdered sugar; add half a cup of milk and simmer to a smooth paste; cool, add the yolks of three eggs well beaten with a teaspoonful of sherry; fold in the stiff whites of four eggs beaten with a pinch of salt. Bake in a buttered dish in a pan of water for twenty- five minutes; for sauce, cream half a cup of butter 100 EASY ENTERTAINING and half a cup of sugar; melt over hot water and thm with sherry and a Uttle boiling water. This should be served as soon as it comes out of the oven or it will be heavy. A BRIDE'S DINNER THE dinner party which is often given by a bride just before her wedding-day may con- fine the number of its guests to the bride- maids alone, if there are six or more, or it may extend its ntunber to include the bridegroom, the best man, and the ushers. In the first case the dinner is a dis- tinctly light meal, especially in its fish and meat courses, but in the latter it must be a much more elaborate and formal affair. Roses have been used so long for anything con- nected with weddings that some other flower will appear as a relief on the table, especially as in all probability roses will figure on the wedding-day itself. In June we have one of the loveliest and most effect- ively decorative flowers of all the year, which will make a beautiful and novel table ornament, — the fleur-de-lis. Get those which come in delicate shades of yellow and lavender; use the two colors and have long stems. They look well arranged in a large mound in the centre of the table, standing in a bed of moss 101 102 EASY ENTERTAINING on a concealed platter, with an edge of their own leaves, or they are equally effective when arranged in tall, slender vases, one in the centre of the table and the others scattered about. Use candles with them which carry out the two colors, yellow ones w^ith laven- der shades, preferably. The dinner cards may be elab- orate ones, with sketches of the same flower in water- colors, or they may be the ordinary conventional fleur-de-Us cut from colored cardboard, yellow or lavender, with an edge painted in a deeper tint. The bonbons may also be in the same colors, and the china should be white or white and gold. Nothing on the table so far suggests that it is a wedding dinner, so there may be souvenirs of pretty satin boxes of heart shape, painted with the date of the dinner above and that of the wedding below. White or lavender boxes with a deeper tint in the lettering are best. The ices may be heart-shaped also, and of one of the two colors used on the table. If fleurs-de-lis are not to be had at the florist's, and the bride has not access to a country garden, the decorations may be arranged in another fashion that is equally pretty for a bridemaids' dinner. Take small baskets — those which have a small base and flare quickly, with very slender handles — and fill them with moss, fastening it well. Fill with long- From " Harper's Bazar." Copyright, 1905, by Harper & Brothers. Miniature Trees for Dinner Favors. EASY ENTERTAINING 103 stemmed pink carnations, or roses, and plenty of asparagus fern, so as to conceal completely the out- line of the basket. Tie long pink ribbons to each handle, and then pile the baskets in the centre of the table, laying four down first, bases in, and arranging the rest on top so as to give the effect of a large, low mound of flowers and ferns. The ribbons should be so turned toward the guests that at the close of the meal each can lift and remove her basket from the pile and carry it away as a souvenir. If this plan is followed when the dinner is given to the entire bridal party, each bridemaid may give a flower from her basket to the man who takes her to dinner, as of course the men should have nothing so inappropri- ate as baskets. Rose-color candles and shades are to be used with these flowers, and candied rose leaves should be in the Uttle silver dishes. This first menu is intended for a dinner to bride- maids alone, so it is a simpler affair than the ones which follow: MENU Clam cocktail in small tomatoes. Almond soup. Soft-shell crabs; dressed cucumbers. Broiled squab; French pease; potato souffle. Pear salad. Heart-shaped ices; cakes. Cofiee: bonbons. 104 EASY ENTERTAINING For the first course take small round tomatoes and scoop out the pulp; fill with this cocktail mixture which, Uke the tomatoes themselves, has been kept on ice for an hour: one tablespoonful of horseradish, one of vinegar, one of Worcestershire sauce, one of tomato catsup, two of lemon juice, one-half teaspoon- ful of Tabasco sauce, and as much salt; mix well with a pint of small clams, and in serving put five of these, with enough juice to cover them, into each tomato. The soup is a rich but delicate puree, made by cooking a cupful of chopped almonds with a quart of thin cream, thickening a very little, straining, and then pouring over a cupful of thick whipped cream, and serving while foamy. Croutons are good with this course, or hot wafers. In dressing the cucumbers try making a mayonnaise with whipped cream instead of oil, and use a good deal of lemon juice at the last; it makes a pleasant change from the usual French dressing. The salad is odd, and extremely dainty. Take a can of pears which have been put up whole, stems on, and not too sweet, and drain off all the juice. Lay them in a deep dish and pour French dressing over them, turning them in it occasionally; let this dish stand on ice two hours before dinner. Break up with a fork two Philadelphia cream cheeses and turn a part of the dressing over EASY ENTERTAINING 105 them as you pour it off the pears, after arranging the cheese on a round platter. Then stand the pears on this, stems up, and serve with crackers. The heart-shaped ices may not be easy for all host- esses to find, but a simple dessert may replace them which is called chartreuse of strawberries. To pre- pare it select the very largest berries obtainable and roll them in stiff cream until each one is masked; then fill a border mould with a white ice-cream and turn it out on a circular dish, and fill the centre with a pile of the fruit. Small cakes accompany this course. The first course at a formal dinner is usually, though not always, canapes of caviare, anchovies, or sardines; they are easy to prepare and most appetizing, and it is rather a pity to omit them. Take small rounds of bread without crust, cut some in crescent shape with a biscuit -cutter, and toast them or saute lightly in butter, and spread each with caviare; serve these with pieces of lemon, one of each, on a small plate. Or take the rounds of toast and lay strips of anchovy across at right angles, putting grated egg in between, the white in one section and the yolk in the next one. Sardine paste may be used on crescents in place of caviare, or rounds may be arranged with the paste and egg and chopped olives. The complete menu should be: 106 EASY ENTERTAINING Canape's. Clams on the half-shell. Clear soup. Baked fish with shrimps; dressed cucumbers. Crown roast of lamb, mint sauce; pease; new beans. Ginger sherbet. Breast of chicken; dressed lettuce. Fancy ices; cakes. Coffee. The fish may be any kind that is in season — white- fish, shad, or trout; the shr mps are the large ones, fastened to the back of the fish with Uttle silver skewers, more by way of decoration than anything else, though they are nice with the fish. A brown gravy, highly seasoned, should be served with this. The roast of lamb may be filled with riced potatoes, or with force-meat; if the lamb is small, the latter is better, and in that case the potatoes may be passed in a separate dish. The sherbet is a lemon ice flavored with the syrup from a pot of preserved ginger, as much as is required, and bits of the ginger are stirred in when the ice is half frozen. One more menu may be suggested, beginning with fruit instead of clams, and omitting the canapes: Strawberries. Cream of chicken soup; hot wafers. Soft-sheU crabs. Broiled spring chickens; new vegetables. Tomato salad; cheese straws. French ice-cream, maple sauce; cakes. Coffee. EASY ENTERTAINING 107 The strawberries are to be served with hulls and stems on. A finger bowl should be at each cover. Unless the crabs are sure to be perfectly fresh, as is not always possible inland, it is better to sub- stitute for them a course of any white fish made into timbales with a cream sauce. The cream is a rich French vanilla, sUced and passed with a sauce made by breaking up English walnuts in hot maple syrup. VERANDA LUNCHEONS HAPPY is the woman who possesses a veranda! She has at once an ideal living-room, adorned, doubtless, with gay chintz pillows, window- boxes, and decorative awnings, and a dining-room where she may entertain with a certain atmosphere of novelty which even the most attractive dining- room in-doors must lack. To be sure, there is the objection that the kitchen is at a distance, and extra trouble must be taken to have the food served hot; but that is a diflSiculty easily overcome. A summer luncheon should consist largely of fruit and cold dishes, and the few hot ones should be brought in under covers and passed instead of being served on separate plates. The flowers for a June day should certainly be roses. It is better to mass several shades, or to have two contrasting colors, than to have all alike. The tiny rose called the Rambler gives a beautiful effect if its two varieties of red and white are mixed and its long vinelike spravs are allowed to stray over the 108 I EASY ENTERTAINING 109 table. Large pink roses are also lovely mixed with dark red ones in tall glasses scattered over the table. MENU Whole pineapple, filled with fruit. Cream of lettuce soup. Pan fish, with tomato and oUve sauce. Broiled spring chicken; pease in cases; creamed potatoes. California-cherry salad; olives; cheese-straws. Fresh strawberry tartlettes. Iced-tea pimch; bonbons. Pineapples are at their best in June, and are es- pecially delicious served as a first course. The bushy end is cut from the fruit, the inside removed, and the core rejected. The rest is picked up in rather small bits, mixed with bits of orange and banana, sugar, and a little sherry, and returned to the shell, and the whole put on ice for several hours. Just before serv- ing, a spoonful of powdered ice is put on top. The pineapple is passed with the top lying on the dish by its side, and each guest helps herself with a long- handled spoon. The soup is simply made by cooking shredded lettuce in rich milk until it has a pretty green color, then seasoning, thickening, and pouring over whipped cream, which makes it foamy. For the next course, small fish are selected and fried, and then covered with a thick sauce made by cooking tomato, stoned olives and seasoning to a pulp, but not straining them. 110 EASY ENTERTAINING With the broiled spring chicken, which is the best possible meat for a summer luncheon, have fresh pease, in little cups made either of batter or of puff paste, and small new potatoes with a rich cream over them. The summer salad is most delicious made of fruit. Large dark California cherries are selected, stoned, and laid in French dressing for half an hour. They are then laid on lettuce which has been sprinkled with the same dressing, and finely chopped parsley is scattered over the whole. Strawberry tartlets are very good, and make a pleasant change from the usual shortcake. Little shells are made by pressing into small patty-pans a thin layer of boiled rice with which an egg and salt are mixed when cooked. These layers should be baked until a crisp brown. The shells thus formed are filled with large strawberries, the top is covered with a stiff meringue, and the whole is put into a quick oven for a moment and afterward cooled. It should be served cold. The iced- tea punch is merely tea made by pouring boiling lemonade over dry tea leaves and letting it stand, when it should be strained and iced. Orange juice and banana added to the lemonade improve its flavor. PICNIC LUNCHEONS. NO. 1 TO enjoy thoroughly a summer one should un- derstand the picnic. Too many who might know all about it never really find out its delights. They sit on their porches, or drive, or canoe, and once between June and October with strenuous efforts they have a picnic, a long day in the woods, with a solid meal of bread and butter, cold meat, crumbly cake, and warm lemonade, and they remem- ber the occasion as a duty performed; necessary, but not altogether pleasant. Now a picnic should be a usual thing with those who are in the country, or who may reach it with little effort. The sunset is never so beautiful as from the hill-top to which one has climbed, the canoeing trip never so charming as when the boat is drawn up on the shore and the camp-fire is lit, and to really enjoy these it is necessary to be leisurely, to know that one has not to hurry home, but that the next meal is at hand. And how good even plain bread and butter tastes eaten out-of-doors only the habitual picnicker 111 112 EASY ENTERTAINING knows; the one who, knowing it, does not stop with it, but goes on to better things. There is an expensive but truly desirable article to be had at house-furnishing shops which the picnic- lover should own, — the hamper fitted with plates, knives, forks, and spoons, cups and glasses, all fast- ened in so tightly that they cannot slip, and so com- pactly that there is room for the luncheon as well. Once bought, these hampers last forever, for the plates and cups are of white enamel, and the first cost is only an investment. Half the trouble of a picnic lies in packing the breakables so that they shall not rattle and chip, and the food which is put in among the plates and cups always emerges much the worse for its experience. However, the woman who cannot buy one of these ready-made affairs may take a Japanese-straw telescope bag and have the harness-maker fit it with straps, and not be so very far behind her sister with the hamper. In preparing the luncheon, lay out first what will be needed to spread the informal table. Count out plates — wooden ones, unless you have the enamel; stout tumblers; cups without handles, to avoid breaking; knives, forks, and spoons of no especial value; paper napkins; a small table-cloth; and shakers for the salt and pepper. Take the cold coffee and lemonade in glass fruit-jars with tight tops, EASY ENTERTAINING 113 and get earthenware jars for the salad, with heavy oiled paper to tie over them. Have pasteboard boxes for sandwiches, and others for cold meat and cake; put only one sort of food in each receptacle. Be sure and take a good-sized piece of ice in a covered tin pail if you are to have a noon meal; if the picnic is toward evening, then instead of any cold drink have hot tea, by all means. Take a kettle and boil it over a fire, for this is half the pleasure of the occasion; if you are going to some place where you are not sure of wood, take a small bottle of alcohol and still have the tea; a heavy earthenware teapot is a wise thing rather than something frail. Do not forget the loaf sugar, a bottle of cream, and some lemons; put these last, with the dry tea, in a box by themselves. Begin preparing the luncheon by making the salad, as this can stand better than anything else. A fish salad is a good choice for a picnic, and shrimps make an excellent one. Lay them in ice-water for an hour, then remove the small black string from each one and dry; take hard-boiled eggs, half the quantity of the shrimps, and cut in rather large pieces; make a stiff mayonnaise without mustard, and mix all to- gether. Salmon, freed from skin and bones and drained, may be used in the place of the shrimps. Lob- ster is also to be prepared with the eggs and mayon- naise in exactly the same way, but a little dry mus- 114 EASY ENTERTAINING tard should be added. Chicken salad is always sure to be appreciated; make it, if you prefer, with the chicken which comes in tins, adding the meat last to the eggs and dressing, as there is danger of its becoming mussy. Do not use celery in summer; it is too green to be good. If you wish a salad made without fish or fowl, take the hard-boiled eggs and mix with cut-up olives and mayonnaise. Or take yellow wax-beans cooked whole, well dried and salted, and add a spoonful of mayonnaise from a salad-jar on each plate. As to cold meat, try pressed chicken in a loaf. Make it by simmering a fowl till the meat drops from the bones; arrange this in a mould with seasoning, cook the broth down till it is just enough to fill the mould, and pour over it; this will set firm and may be sliced at the picnic table. Veal loaf is also excellent; and there is fried chicken which has been jointed and skinned, also cold tongue, cold lamb, and ham. Slice these last very thin and take off the fat before packing them in their boxes. If the day is cool and you fancy one hot dish, and are not to have chicken in any other form, make a dish of creamed chicken at home, pack it in a jar and take it with you, with an earthen casserole which no amount of heat or flame of the picnic fire will injure. Deviled eggs go well with cold meat when they have not been used in salad; plain hard-boiled eggs EASY ENTERTAINING 115 are very indifferent eating, and these will repay the little trouble it takes to prepare them. Cut them in two, remove the yolk and mash it with salt, pepper, and a Uttle dry mustard; wet with a very little vine- gar, and replace, pressing the two halves together; roU each egg separately in paraffine paper. If there were no olives in your salad, take a bottle of these, but pour off the brine and rinse them, put- ting them dry in the bottle, and corking again. Little cucumber pickles are also nice to take, but they must be wiped dry one by one and carried in a box by them- selves, or they will scent the whole luncheon until everything tastes of vinegar and nothing else, — enough to spoU the finest and most carefully prepared meal. Pimolas, Uttle mangoes, chowchow, and all the different relishes taste better than usual in the open air, but one or two kinds are enough to take. Never be induced to take jelly in any form, for it is simply messy on a picnic plate. The sandwiches for a picnic should be made with something not too dry. Lettuce spread with French dressing or mayonnaise will come out perfectly moist and fresh. Home-made potted meat is good to use, unless cold meat is taken. Chopped hard-boiled eggs wet with mayonnaise make a delicious filling, but should not be taken if salad is the main dish of the meal. Boned sardines wet with lemon juice, finely 116 EASY ENTERTAINING chopped cucumbers with French dressing, thin bread and butter, brown or white, spread with caviare, cream cheese mixed with whipped cream, chopped watercress, and simple bread and butter spread with mayonnaise or tartar sauce are all delightfully appetizing. The best plan is to have at least two kinds of sandwiches, some with fish or meat, and others with something green or piquant. Sweet sandwiches always seem out of place at a picnic, but if you wish a few, make them with orange marmalade or raspberry jam, using only a little for fear the bread may become wet with the juice. As to cake, never, never take layer cake to a picnic. Who does not recall the sticky mass of chocolate which emerges from even the best of packing, or the crimiby, sliding layers of cocoanut sprinkling every one with bits of stickiness? Only cakes which are firm are fit to be taken on such expeditions. Bake some small round ones of a sponge mixture, or try a loaf of fruit cake baked in a bread-tin and carried imcut. Or make a soft gingerbread, and just before you put it in the oven cover the top with blanched almonds split in halves; these will sink in half-way, but not to the bottom, and the few which remain on top will only add to the appearance of the loaf; the combination is really novel and good. Then there are crisp, fresh sugar cookies and gingersnaps, and besides these here is something new and most deli- EASY ENTERTAINING 117 cious, a sort of sublimated nut wafer: Mix five level tablespoonfuls of sifted flour with a pinch of baking- powder and a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and sift again; add half a pound of light brown sugar, a cup of English walnut meats broken into bits, but not chopped, and two eggs beaten together. Spread thin over well-buttered tins and bake in a moderate oven till pale brown; when perfectly cold cut in strips, and then remove these from the pans. A freezer of ice-cream is always a refreshing last course at a picnic, incongruous as it really is with that informal meal. Peach surprise is good. Peel, cut up, and mash the peaches to a pulp, and sweeten them well. Then to a quart of these take the whites of five eggs and turn them in without beating. Freeze solid, remove the dasher, pack the fruit down smoothly and cover the freezer with ice and salt, and last with a heavy blanket, so that there is no danger of the ice melting in transportation. A good cream is made by melting a large cup of sugar to a S3rrup, without water, and then adding half a cup of boiling water, to prevent the caramel from solidifying or burning; add to this, when it cools, a quart of thin cream, and freeze as it is. Or, add the yolks of three eggs, well beaten, and cook to the scalding-point, flavoring it with a tiny bit of vanilla bean. Strain this carefully before you freeze it. 118 EASY ENTERTAINING Ice-cream can be carried more easily and served to better advantage if, after it is solidly frozen, it is taken from the freezer and packed in an ordinary tin mould with a cover, such as may be had at any tinsmith's. Frapped fruits may well take the place of ice- cream at a picnic, and with less trouble in prepara- tion. To make a freezerful, pack it as usual with ice and salt, but do not put in the dasher. Cut up a few oranges, some white grapes, a banana or two, and shred a pineapple; sweeten and put in two or more tablespoonfuls of sherry, and close the freezer; when you open it stir well before serving. Frozen water- melon is one of the most delicious of the chilled fruits, and in the late summer it is at its best. Choose a very large and well-ripened melon and take out the pulp in large, rounded spoonfuls. Put these in the freezer, and to every layer of the fruit add a half cup of pow- dered sugar wet with sherry. When the freezer is full, close it, and pack well with ice; this must stand at least five hours before it is ready to use, but it well repays the time it takes. A pretty dish of stuffed dates makes a pleasant close to a picnic meal. Wash and wipe them, and open each one at the side; put in half an English walnut and press the date together. Roll separately in granulated sugar. PICNIC LUNCHEONS. NO. 2 OUT-OF-DOOR meals, every one admits, would be altogether charming if only one could have hot dishes served with cold. The ingenious woman may take a chafing-dish along when she goes a-picnicking, and, finding a quiet spot, set it up surrounded with a home-made five-sided screen of heavy pasteboard, and stir up delectable dishes in comfort. With the chafiing-dish take a firmly woven market- basket, lined with asbestos, and then with zinc. The cover, in two parts, also lined, fits tightly, with a strap to keep it in place. In one comer of the basket is a zinc compartment for ice, milk, or butter; this slips in and out, and so is kept clean without .trouble. Such a basket can be bought for five dollars, or less for a small size, or a substitute could be made without the asbestos lining by some clever tinsmith. With it all food keeps fresh indefinitely, since it is a portable refrigerator. One other convenience is a coffee-machine. This can be taken apart and put into small space for con- 119 120 EASY ENTERTAINING veyance, and when needed the parts shp into place, the alcohol is put into the lamp, a screen surrounds the whole, and delicious coffee is ready when the table is spread. A regular set of dishes for picnics is most useful. The white-enamelled plates and platters which can- not break, a set of cups, some heavy tumblers, plated knives and forks, and some large and small spoons can be kept together, ready for use at a moment's notice. Besides these things it is well to accumulate a store of emptied stone marmalade jars holding half a pint each, or a set of emptied tin baking-powder cans, each one labelled. Smaller jars, such as beef extract comes in, are useful also. Stores of coffee, tea, salt, pickles, olives, butter, seasonings, and the like can be put in quickly and the covers fitted on. Glass jars with strongly fastened covers are also a wise investment, as the dishes made ready for the chafing-dish are perfectly carried in them. A quan- tity of paper napkins and a tea-cloth, with a supply of parafline paper, will complete the outfit. It is a good plan to prepare a number of possible menus suitable for picnic meals, and have them where they can be found at once, since it is always difficult to plan quickly in an emergency. There may be a variety of dishes mentioned in each, so that one or more may be rejected if they cannot be readily man- EASY ENTERTAINING 121 aged. These are especially prepared for using a chafing-dish for one course : Hot creamed eggs and cheese; lettuce sandwiches; oUves; coffee; little tea cakes; orange marma- lade. Veal loaf; hot scrambled eggs with tomato; cream- cheese sandwiches ; pickles; fresh gingerbr^d ; coffee. Deviled sardines with bacon; Swiss-cheese sand- wiches; pimentoes; spice cake; coffee. Lobster, creamed or Newburg; watercress sand- wiches; stuffed eggs; oUves; thin crackers and cheese. Cold sliced tongue; creamed canned chicken; cu- cumber sandwiches; coffee and lady fingers. Creamed hard-boiled eggs; chicken salad; lettuce sandwiches; olives; cakes and coffee. Eggs scrambled with chopped green peppers; shrimp salad; olive sandwiches; sponge-cake and coffee. Eggs Creamed with Cheese. — Prepare at home a cup of white sauce by melting a tablespoonful of butter, and adding, when it bubbles, two level table- spoonfuls of flour; when smooth, add a cup of rich milk and stir till creamy; season with salt and Cay- enne. Then add the whites of six hard-boiled eggs chopped evenly, and when cool put into a can. Mix the yolks until smooth with a tablespoonful of olive 122 EASY ENTERTAINING oil, a teaspoonful of dry mustard, salt, and Cayenne, and put into a small covered jar. When the chafing- dish is ready, without the water-pan, put in a table- spoonful of butter, and in it brown six slices of bread, or heat toast made at home. Arrange this on the enamelled platter, and keep it hot by standing it be- neath the chafing-dish while you heat the eggs and white sauce. Cover the toast with grated or bottled Parmesan cheese and put the eggs over, and last the yolks, which need not be hot, though they may be put into the dish for an instant. Deviled Sardines with Bacon. — Drain a box of large sardines and put them into an empty wafer-tin. Take salt, dry mustard, and Cayenne, or mix them in the proportion of a teaspoonful of mustard to a saltspoon of salt and half of one of Cayenne, and put into one little jar. Have ready also half a pound of very thinly sliced bacon. When the chafing-dish is ready and very hot put in the bacon and crisp, and put it on the platter while you heat the sardines in the fat and cover them with the seasoning. Have ready some strips of toast made at home, and quickly turn one into the fat; lay this one on the platter, add a sardine, and prepare a second, and so on. Surround the fish with the bacon. Eggs with Tomato. — Cut up four tomatoes and stew with a teaspoonful of onion, salt, and pepper. EASY ENTERTAINING 123 When cool put into a covered jar. Scramble six eggs in the chafing-dish, and when half set add the to- mato; season, and serve from the dish. Creamed Chicken. — Make at home a cup or more of rich white sauce, well seasoned, and when cold put it into a jar. When ready for luncheon, open a can of chicken, cut it into even pieces, and heat thor- oughly in the sauce. To make this into chicken New- burg, make the sauce by heating a cup of cream with the yolks of three eggs, seasoning it, and putting in a tablespoonful of sherry. Cold turkey, or roast chicken, or lobster, canned or fresh, or crab meat may be used in exactly the same way. Chicken Salad. — Cut cold chicken into even pieces as large as the end of your finger; add half as much celery, if you can get it crisp and white; if not, omit it altogether. Boil hard four eggs and cut these up, with a cup of stoned olives. Make a cup of thick mayonnaise, and put this and the salad into separate jars. Pour over the chicken three tables poonfuls of olive oil mixed with a small spoonful of vinegar, salt, and Cayenne. When ready to use mix with the may- onnaise and serve at once. Shrimp Salad. — Clean the shrimps carefully by opening them down the back and removing the black string; then put into ice-water for an hour, wipe dry, 124 EASY ENTERTAINING and put into the can. Make the mayonnaise as before and mix when needed. Meat sandwiches should have the filling prepared, if possible, the day before. The chicken, tongue, veal, or even mutton or beef, is to be put twice through the meat-chopper, mixed with enough melted butter to make it rather soft, then seasoned with salt, Cayenne, and a little dry mustard and pressed into a deep pan. The next day it is very thinly sliced and put between buttered slices of bread. Other sandwiches may be made of any fresh vegetable used in salad — lettuce, escarole, celery, watercress, or sliced cucumber — all slightly sprinkled with French dressing. Very thin sUces of tomato, drained of all seeds and juice, may be used with salt and lemon juice. Other sand- wiches may be made by mixing cream cheese with a little salt and sweet cream to form a paste, and adding chopped green peppers, or pimentoes, or nuts, or olives, or a mixture of any two of these. Sweet sand- wiches may have chopped raisins and nuts; or dates and nuts; or figs wet with a very little cream after they are chopped; or prunes softened in the same way and mixed with nuts. Orange marmalade makes a nice sandwich, and so does red-raspberry jam. If cold coffee is preferred to hot, this may be pre- pared at home with cream and sugar, and ice may be taken to serve with it if the day is very warm. Lemon EASY ENTERTAINING 126 juice and sugar may be taken in a bottle, and water and ice put in at the last moment. Ginger-ale can go in bottles and be mixed with lemonade or served alone. Tea can easily be prepared by taking an iron teakettle, and boiling the water over a gypsy fire, with a crane made of three stout green branches. A delicious gingerbread which is most appetizing for a picnic may be made on the morning of the day it is needed by this simple rule: A cup of molasses, a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of boiling water, two and a half cups of flour, a teaspoonful each of ginger, cloves, cinna- mon, and soda, and half a saltspoon of salt. Put the melted butter into a bowl, and add molasses and spices; dissolve the soda in a little boiling water, and put it in next and then beat in the flour. Bake in a shallow tin lined with buttered paper for half an hour, or, if the oven is not very hot, a little longer. SUMMER MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS Sunday BREAKFAST Strawberries. Eggs poached in cream; pop-overs; coffee. DINNER Leg of young lamb; pease; new potatoes. String-bean salad with cream-cheese balls. Pineapple sherbet; cake. Coffee. LUNCHEON Fried perch with sauce tartare; rolls; tea. Individual strawberry short-cakes. DINNER Clear soup (from lamb bones'). Veal cutlet, breaded; scalloped po- tatoes; fried eggplant. Cold rice pudding with orange marmalade. Coffee. Creamed crab meat in small dishes; hot biscuit; coffee. Asparagus and mayonnaise. Strawberries and cake. Monday BREAKFAST California cherries. Broiled smoked whitefish; creamed potatoes; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Stuffed green peppers; creamed string-beans; tea. Lettuce salad with wafers. Cake (from Sunday). DINNER Cream of asparagus soup (from ends, Sunday). Sliced lamb, reheated, with tomato sauce; potatoes; spinach. Cherry pie. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Boiled rice and cream. Spanish omelette; hashed potatoes, browned; corn muffins; coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Strawberries. Broiled bacon in baked potato shells; whole-wheat muflSns; coffee. LUNCHEON Veal croquettes (from Tuesday) with cream sauce; biscuits; tea. Red and white currants; drop-cakes. DINNER Cream of spinach soup. Beef loaf with olive sauce; potato souffle ; pease. Lettuce and green-pepper salad. Fresh pineapple and cake. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Cherries. Creamed hard-boiled eggs and pep- pers on toast; Boston brown bread; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold sliced beef loaf; deviled eggs; tea. Strawberries. 126 EASY ENTERTAINING 127 DINNER Pea soup. Chicken pot-pie; string-beans; po- tatoes. Deep rhubarb tart. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Red and white currants Codfish croquettes; pop-overs; cofiee. Luncheon Tomato toast; diced potatoes; tea. Lettuce and string-bean salad (from Thursday) with mayonnaise. Rhubarb tartlets (from Thursday). DINNER Planked halibut; creamed new car- rots; potatoes. Asparagus salad. Strawberry cream cake. Coffee. Cold sliced veal; salad of green pep- pers with cheese balls; rolls; cofiee. Pineapple and cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cold moulded cereal and red rasp- berries and cream. Broiled sardines on toast; hashed creamed potatoes; coffee. LUNCHEON Minced veal and pease; buttered toast; tea. Cahfornia cherries on lettuce with French dressing; wafers. Cake (from Sunday). DINNER Tomato soup (veal bones). Hamburg steak balls with fried bananas; potatoes; eggplant. Strawberry short-cake. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Cherries. Creamed halibut in small dishes; toasted Boston brown bread; coffee. LUNCHEON Creamed chicken on toast (from Thursday); tea. Chocolate and small cakes. DINNER Cream of barley soup. Club steak with mushrooms; po- tatoes; pease. Pineapple fritters. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Strawberries. Poached eggs on fried tomatoes; wheat mufEns; coffee. DINNER Cream of corn soup. Roast of veal; cauliflower; potatoes. Lettuce and sliced tomato salad. Frozen strawberries and cake. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Fruit. Parsley omelette; buttered toast strips. Orange marmalade. LUNCHEON Stuffed baked tomatoes; French- fried potatoes; tea. Cherry tartlets. DINNER Cream of lettuce soup. Braised fresh tongue with minced vegetables; baked potatoes. Lettuce salad. Cold almond blanc-mange in glasses. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Strawberries. Finnan-haddie with hashed peppers, corn bread; coffee. LUNCHEON Broiled ham strips; creamed pota- F toes; tea; biscuits. Pineapple and small cakes. 128 EASY ENTERTAINING DINNER Sliced tongue, reheated, with tomato sauce; spinach; potatoes. Asparagus salad. Deep cherry tart. Coffee. Thursday BRE.\KFAST Cold cereal, berries and cream. Codfish surprise; blueberry muffir coffee. LUNCHEON Ham moulds, filled with eggs; baking-rwwder biscuits; olives. Lettuce and tomato salad. Fresh gingerbread; iced tea. DINNER Bean soup (from tongue stock). Chops; pease; baked new potatoes; string-beans. Lettuce salad. Strawberry surprise cakes. Coffee. DINNER Cream of tomato soup. Strips of beef, stewed with vegetables, in casserole; baked potatoes. Cherry salad on lettuce. Currant tart. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Cold farina, moulded, with red rasp- berries and cream. Scrambled eggs; fairy muflSns; coffee. DINNER Cold baked ham; browned potatoes; string-beans. Lettuce and tomato salad. Strawberry ice-cream; cake. CoSee. SUPPER Cold sliced ham; hard-boiled egga and mayonnaise; rolls. Berries and cake; iced coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Fruit. Fried mushrooms on toast; corn muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Clam fritters; hashed creamed po- tatoes; biscuits; tea. Currant sherbet; cakes. DINNER Baked stuffed fish; asparagus; po- tatoes. Pineapple salad on lettuce. Strawberry jelly and whipped cream. Coffee. Monday BREAKFAST Melons. Fried eggplant with cream sauce; biscuits; coffee. LUNCHEON Tomatoes stuffed with pease, baked; potatoes; tea. Lettuce and mayonnaise (from Sunday). DINNER Green-pea soup (from ham bone). Veal chops, breaded; spinach; po- tatoes. Cold baked custard with whipped cream; cake. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Strawberries. Broiled dried beef; toa.st strips, but- tered; orange marmalade; coffee. LUNCHEON Fish 80ufl36 (from Friday); baked potatoes; pickles. Iced chocolate and cake. Tuesday BREAKFAST Fruit. Parsley omelette; hashed browned potatoes; Parker House rolls; coffee. LUNCHEON Baked eggplant and cheese; rolls; t«a. Berries and cream. EASY ENTERTAINING 129 DINNER Planked steak surrounded with pease and carrots; potatoes. Lettuce and cucumber salad. Red raspberry short-cake. Cofiee. Wednesday BBEAKFAST Melons. Fried tomatoes on toast; poached eggs; muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Croquettes (from steak ends) with tomato sauce; biscuits. Lettuce and cauliflower with may- onnaise. Iced coffee. DINNER (company) Iced melons. Chilled bouillon with strips of brown bread, buttered. Roast chicken, jellied; sliced to- matoes with French dressing. Pineapple with cream mayonnaise on lettuce. Frozen pudding. Coffee. BREAKFAST Red raspberries and cream. Chicken-liver omelette (from Wednes- day) ; buttered toast; coffee. luncheon Chicken in aspic (from Wednesday) ; sandwiches. Lettuce salad. Berries and cream; cakes; iced chocolate. dinner Chicken soup (from bones). Mutton chops; pease; potatoes; corn. Raspberry charlotte. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Cold moulded cereal and berries. Com fritters; whole-wheat muflans; coffee. luncheon Salmon with sauce tartare; biscuits. Green-pepper and cucumber salad. Iced tea and fruit. DINNER Clear tomato soup. Broiled bluefish; stuffed baked cucumbers; potatoes. Lettuce and pepper salad. Gooseberry tart. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Melons. Green-pea omelette; hashed cream potatoes; corn muffins; coffee. luncheon Fish salad with mayonnaise. Individual raspberry short-cakes. Iced tea. Cream of spinach soup. Veal loaf; fried tomatoes; potatoes. Home-made charlotte russe. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Berries and cream. Clam fritters; pop-overs; coffee. dinner Broiled chickens; pease; creamed whole potatoes. Tomato salad. Pineapple ice-cream; cake. Coffee. SUPPER Lobster salad; sandwiches; olives. Iced tea; berries and cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cold cereal and berries. Scrambled eggs and broiled bacon, corn muffins; cofTee. LUNCHEON Creamed chicken and green peppers in potato border. Lettuce and hard-boiled-egg salad. Iced chocolate. 130 EASY ENTERTAINING Veal loaf (from Saturday), sliced and heated in tomato sauce; corn pudding; potatoes. Lettuce salad. Gooseberry meringue pie. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Blackberries. Creamed codfish in baked potatoes; buttered toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Corn oysters; baking-powder bis- cuits; tea. Red raspberries and cream; little cakes. Cream of corn soup. Stewed lamb; pease; potatoes. Tomato salad. Frozen custard and lady-fingers. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Melons. Eggs baked in tomatoes; sally-lunn; coffee. LUNCHEON (company) Iced fruit in glasses. Fried crabs with sauce tartare. Sweetbread croquettes and pease; potato balls, browned. Cucumber-jelly salad. Raspberry ices in gla.sses; cakes. Iced fruit lemonade. DINNER Little Neck clams. Broiled Hamburg steak; creamed carrots; potatoes. Lettuce and pepper salad. Berries masked in whipped cream. Coffee. Thursday breakfast Berries. Broiled finnan-haddie; hashed po- tatoes; corn muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold baked beans with mayonnaise. Fruit and cake; iced coffee. DINNER Cream of Lima-bean sonp. Veal chops; stuffed baked tomatoes; potatoes. Red raspberry short-cake. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Melons. Eggs baked in cream in individual dishes; blueberry muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Spanish omelette; biscuits: olives. Iced chocolate. DINNER Stuffed and baked whitefish; stewed cucumbers; potatoes. Lettuce and cauliflower salad. Cold cabinet pudding with cream. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Fruit. Eggs baked in green peppers; po- tatoes au gratin; sweet muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Creamed whitefi.sh (from Friday); fried tomatoes; tea. Berries and gingerbread. DINNER Braised roast of calf's liver; creamed new cabbage; potatoes. Tomato salad; blueberry tart. Coffee. TWO SEPTEMBER FUNCTIONS A TABLE decoration which can hardly be ex- ceeded in beauty may be arranged in the early days of fall with pale green and purple grapes, with their silvery leaves and tendrils. For either a luncheon or a dinner an elaborate and lovely effect may be secured with little trouble. In the centre place a mirror, round or oval, as is the table, and on it put a basket of graceful shape with a handle painted with the silver paint found at artists'- material shops. All around the edges of the basket and mirror put small, delicate grape leaves, letting the under side show as much as possible, and from the mirror to each cover lay a line of vine.- Fill the basket with a few large clusters of green and purple grapes, and put small clusters in and out among the leaves on the table. Next get candle-shades covered with artificial grapes of so pale a green that the light will readily show through; they are found in depart- ment stores, or one can make them with grapes pur- chased of a milliner, using a plain green tissue-paper foundation over wire; with these have green candles, 131 132 EASY ENTERTAINING and you will be delighted with the result. K possible have pretty guest cards, deUcately painted in water- colors, of bunches of grapes with their leaves, and your table will be complete. Fill the small silver bon- bon-dishes with pale green candies, and have salted pistache nuts with pecans in little glass or silver dishes. Be careful to use china which will harmonize with all this pale silvery greenness and its contrasting purple, or it will spoil everything; white china with a narrow gilt edge, or white and green, will be the best. Do not place too much emphasis on the idea of the grapes in your dinner menu, for it is better to have that rather conventional, but begin a Itmcheon with grapes a la neige, and close with a bunch of pistache grapes for an ice. Both are pretty and will be a decided addition to the table. A LUNCHEON MENU Grapes a la neige. Cream of Lima beans with whipped cream, in cups; hot wafers. Radishes, olives, salted pecans. Sweetbreads in bacon, bread sauce; com fritters. Red peppers filled with caiilifiower; tartines of bread and butter with cream cheese. Pistache grapes, with natural leaves; cakes. Coffee. The grapes for the first course should be of the Malaga variety, but a white California grape is almost as good. Wash and dry the large bunches and cut EASY ENTERTAINING 133 them into small clusters, one for each guest. Whip the white of an egg tiU half stiff and dip each bunch first in this and then in maraschino, and sprinkle thoroughly with sugar, using a flour-shaker. Have a deep bowl ready in a deeper pan of ice, and lay the bunches in and set them away for two hours. Or pack the freezer and put them in this, with waxed paper between the layers. It is not really necessary to use the maraschino in preparing the grapes, for the egg will hold the sugar, but many find the flavor greatly improved by its use. The soup is made by cooking Lima beans with a tiny shred of onion, adding rich milk or thin cream, pressing all through a fine sieve, and thickening it just a little. Serve in hot cups with a spoonful of whipped cream on top. For the main coturse prepare sweetbreads by wash- ing, blanching, and then trimming into rather long and narrow pieces. Put a thin slice of bacon around each piece and fasten at the back with a tiny Japanese toothpick. Fry these to a nice brown and lay each on a strip of toast dipped in the pan gravy; lay a slice of lemon by each one on the plate. Make a bread sauce by this rule and pass with the sweet- breads. Simmer for half an hour in a double boiler two cups of milk with salt and paprika to taste, a slice of onion, two cloves, and a sprig of parsley; 134 EASY ENTERTAINING strain, and add a small cup of soft, fine bread crumbs and simmer another half-hour. Fry brown a table- spoonful of crumbs and, after taking up the sauce, cover it with these. Corn fritters moulded in small even shapes like hickory-nuts and fried in deep fat are very nice with this course, or you may have French pease served in paper cases, one on each plate. Next comes a very attractive dish, and one es- pecially easy to prepare at this time of year. Select large, fine scarlet peppers and remove the seeds. Boil a cauliflower the day before your luncheon and break up into flowerets. Cut a cooked carrot into tiny dice and mix with the cauliflower, and fill the peppers. Put either a spoonful of rather thin mayonnaise on the filling, or French dressing, but do not mix, or the salad will be mussy. Last of aU, dot the top of the peppers with the carrot, and put on very white lettuce. The effect of the scarlet peppers, the pale yellow lettuce, the white filling, and the carrots, which tone with all the rest, makes one of the prettiest salads of the year. The final course is pistache ice-cream moulded in the form of a bunch of grapes, each bunch laid on a few natural leaves. Served with this may be squares of sunshine-cake iced with soft boiled frosting. A tall glass pitcher of claret cup, or grape juice S .2 si EASY ENTERTAINING 135 made to simulate it, may be a pleasant accompani- ment of the luncheon. In making the latter dilute a pint of bottled grape juice with as much strong, sweetened lemonade, leaving in some small slices of lemon. Put a bunch of mint dipped in powdered sugar in the mouth of the pitcher. For a September dinner-party one may have clams, oysters, or small spicy melons for a first course, as the weather suggests. If warm, use the melons, putting each on several sprays of the same grape leaves used in the table decoration. If cold, begin with shell-fish. Clams, with celery farci and brown bread and butter. Radishes, olives, salted nuts. Chicken royale. Salmon mousse with cream sauce. Artichokes, or cauliflower with cheese. Filet of beef with fresh mushrooms; French pease and potato baUs. Lettuce. Vienna ice-cream in fancy mould; cakes. Coffee; Brie cheese and toasted wafers. This is a new preparation for celery farci: Fill the small white stalks with a mixture of cream cheese and finely chopped green peppers, and flavor with salt. For the soup, take a strong chicken stock and add small squares of unsweetened custard. The salmon mousse is easily prepared and is always delicious. Make a white sauce as usual, with a cup of tmilk 136 EASY ENTERTAINING thickened with a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter, seasoned with a few drops of onion juice, salt, and Cayenne to taste, and a sprig of parsley. When cooked smooth, strain and add a cup of cooked salmon which has been pounded to a paste. When this boils, take from the fire and add the well-beaten yolks of three eggs and beat till cold; then add the stiff whites, folding them in carefully, and fill three-quar- ters full small tin timbale-moulds and bake twenty minutes in a pan of hot water. Turn out on a platter and pour around the little moulds a white sauce made as before, but with pounded shrimp mixed in it. AN AUTUMN DINNER AND LUNCHEON IN October the autumn entertaining is of a de- lightfully informal character, reflecting the life of the summer rather than anticipating that of the winter. This lends the charm of simplicity to both the table and the menu; neither is over-elabo- rate. For a little dinner-party the hostess may use a most effective centrepiece. The ordinary linen and lace for the middle of the table is omitted, and its place is taken by one of the large, handsome round trays of Sheffield plate, on which stands either a silver bowl or loving-cup, or else a piece of cut glass of similar shape, in which the flowers are put, to reflect in the brilliant silver below. All around this, not too close together, are small silver dishes alternating with others of similar size of the cut glass, and these are filled with bonbons, tiny cakes, nuts, jellies, and crystallized fruits. The addition of prettily shaded candles matching the color of the flowers makes a really beautiful and unusual table. The purple and lavender garden asters are lovely 137 138 EASY ENTERTAINING for October dinners, as are also the rose-colored ones mixed with white. Besides these there are the new fringed dahUas which look like chrysanthemums in all the richest shades of crimson; either flower will be quite suitable for a dinner-party. As to the menu, there is the choice of oysters, clams, and fruit for a first course this month, but as the small spicy cantaloupes are in perfection now, it is well to use them, reserving the other things for the winter. These may be on the table, a half for each person, each lying on an individual plate on a spray of maidenhair fern: Cantaloupes. Celery, radishes, salted nuts. Puree of fowl. Mould of halibut with shrimps, white sauce; cucumbers. Mushrooms with double cream. Breast of duck with orange slices and cturant jelly; stuffed eggplant; French pease; sweet-potato souffle'. Lettuce with cream cheese and pimolas; wafers. Chestnut mousse; small cakes. CofiEee. The soup is made by stewing either the giblets, necks, wings, and drumsticks of the ducks, removed before they are roasted, or by taking the dark meat of chicken and cooking till tender; it is then mixed with a portion of hot bouillon and nibbed through a fine sieve and added to the rest of the bouillon till EASY ENTERTAINING 139 it is the consistency of cream; it is served very hot, rather highly seasoned, with croutons. For the fish course, simmer two sUces of halibut with two bay-leaves, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and a slice of onion. When tender, remove all the bones and skin and flake the fish. Make a pint of rich white sauce and divide it, adding half a cupful to the fish; press this into a fish-shaped mould and stand m a dish of hot water on the stove till needed. Clean a can of shrimps and simmer in half a cup of melted butter mixed with half as much lemon juice and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Turn out the fish on a platter, surround with the shrimps, and pass the rest of the white sauce in a boat. Serve dressed cucumbers also. Mushrooms are at their best in the dish given, re- taining all their flavor. Take the largest you can get, remove the stems and peel them. Toast rounds of fresh, soft bread and arrange them in a baMng-dish and spread with the thickest sweet cream, sprinkling with salt and Cayenne; lay one mushroom on each round, fill the centre with the cream, salt and pepper, cover the dish closely, and bake thirty-five minutes in a hot oven. Take out the rounds and lay one on each hot plate in serving. After this have large, thick slices of hot roasted duck breast, with thick peeled slices of orange, each 140 EASY ENTERTAINING one with a spoonful of currant jelly on it. The dish is most attractive. The stuffed eggplant is made by cutting it lengthwise, removing the centre, pressing it till dry, crumbling it and mixing with an equal measure of soft bread crumbs; season well, add a lump of butter as large as an English walnut to each half, and bake half an hour, basting with butter and water. Serve the two shells on a platter. For the salad, take two Philadelphia cream cheeses and mash with two tables poonfuls of cream, and mix well with two dozen finely chopped pimolas. Press in a mould, and when cold sUce, la5dng the slices on lettuce hearts and pouring French dressing over all. For the mousse, prepare the day before a pint of chestnut puree, by cooking, blanching, and mashing the nuts till you have a cupful. You can also make half a pint of marrons, by cooking other blanched chestnuts in thick syrup and drying them on waxed paper in the oven. The next day heat the puree, stir into it a small cup of sugar, and set it to cool. Add a cup of cut-up marrons, and a little vanilla, and lightly mix with a pint of stiffly whipped cream. Put in a closely covered mould and pack in ice and salt five hours. Turn out on a platter and surround with whipped cream, decorating the top with large mar- rons and strips of green angehca. For an autumn luncheon the same pretty silver EASY ENTERTAINING 141 tray and the purple asters may be used on the table as for the dinner. Or quantities of white asters may be chosen, with asparagus fern. Candles will scarcely be necessary if the day is a bright one; if they are used they must, of course, match the color of the flowers. Begin the luncheon also with cantaloupes. Have the melons on the table, as before: Cantaloupes. Celery puree with whipped cream; hot wafers. Small oysters on bacon and toast. Broiled quail; French pease; French fried potatoes; cwmant jelly. Chicken salad in celery aspic; cheese wafers. Peach ice-cream in melon mould with whipped cream; angel's- food. Coffee. The celery soup is one of the daintiest of all purees, and especially suitable for a luncheon. For the oysters, choose very small ones, and allow eight to a person. Make strips of toast and keep hot in the oven; cook quickly in a very hot frying-pan some strips of delicate, thin bacon without rind, and when brown lay one on each strip of toast; put the oysters in the frying-pan with the bacon fat which remains in it and cook till plump; put them on skewers and lay one on each strip of toast; put slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley all around the dish. Have quail, broiled, or stuffed and roasted; or, 142 EASY ENTERTAINING have squab in its place. Next may come this pretty salad: The day before your luncheon make a nice chicken salad and mix a cup of mayonnaise with it in which you have put a tablespoonful of dissolved gela- tine. Set in a bread-pan on ice to harden. Take three stalks of celery, cut them up, add a slice of onion, salt, Cayenne, a little lemon juice, and a pint and a half of water. Simmer till tender, then strain, add a very little green coloring and a tablespoonful of dis- solved gelatine, and strain through a flannel bag. Pour an inch of this jelly in another bread-pan, a size larger than the first, and when perfectly firm, take out the mould of salad and place it on the jelly. Keep the rest of the jelly warm so it will not set, but now cool it and pour it all around the salad; set this on ice till needed. The next day turn it out on a platter, arrange English walnut halves all around the edge, surround the whole with lettuce hearts and halved hard-boiled eggs, and pass a bowl of mayonnaise with it. If this salad seems too elaborate for you, try this one, which is delicious: Wash white grapes and cut each one open on the side so that you can remove its seeds. Into this little place press half a pecan nut, close the edges as far as possible, and arrange on white lettuce hearts, with French dressing over. For the final course make a freezer of rich peach ice-cream, EASY ENTERTAINING 143 put in a melon-shaped mould, and turn it out on a bed of whipped cream. Or, have this peach surprise: Into one quart of cut-up and smoothly mashed peaches put a cup of water, a pound of pulverized sugar, and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Put into the freezer and turn it till smooth. Serve this in tall glasses, not in a mould, and have also a large cake of angel's-food to serve with it. A COUNTRY DINNER AND SUPPER FOR OCTOBER NO more delightful way to end the summer can be found than a drive on a brilliant moonlit October evening to a country house or club for a genuine country dinner. Imagine yourself one of a coaching-party or as dashing along in an automo- bile under the brilliant trees, or even driving sedately after the old-fashioned horse. In any case the dinner at the end is sure to be served with sauce piquante for every course. A pretty centrepiece for an informal country dinner — and unless it is informal it will not be a success — is a toy automobile made of wicker, its edges outlined in small asters or daisies. With this there may be bunches of the same flowers, or a wreath just above the covers, and here goldenrod and purple asters will be found effective. Of course greenhouse flowers are out of the question, and the autumn leaves which may suggest themselves never look well under arti- ficial light; any brilliant garden flower will do, how- ever, if wild flowers are difficult to procure. EASY ENTERTAINING 145 Small shaded lamps will be pretty on the table, prettier, perhaps, than candles, provided they are quite small and the shades cover the light. Otherwise use candles which have rather plain shades. The table may be as elaborate as one pleases, but the surround- ings should be taken into consideration so that the result will not be incongruous. Oysters on the half-shell with cocktail in peppers. Celery, radishes, salted nuts. Com chowder. Deviled crabs; dressed cucumbers; finger-rolls. Maryland chicken with cream sauce; mashed potato in shells; baked eggplant. Celery and pimento salad in cabbage head. Halved peaches on sponge-cake with whipped cream. Coffee. The oysters may be omitted if this is too long a menu, but they make an excellent opening for the meal. Before they are arranged on an ice bed make the usual cocktail mixture with one tablespoonful of horseradish, one of vinegar, one of Worcestershire sauce, one of tomato catsup, and two of lemon juice, with one-half a teaspoonful of Tabasco and as much salt. Mix and put this on ice till chilled; half fill very small green or red pepper shells with it and stand one on each plate. Put half a lemon on, also, that those who prefer may use it instead of the cock- taU. 146 EASY ENTERTAINING The next course will be found just the thing for a country dinner, though it is too heavy for the ordinary meal. This recipe may be relied on: Corn Chowder. — One quart of fresh corn pulp, scraped from the cob, one quart very small Lima beans, one-quarter pound salt pork, one cup cream, one cup milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, six milk crackers, one sUced onion, salt and pepper. Put the pork in the frying-pan after cutting into bits; brown it, and add the onion. Put the beans over in water enough to cover them and simmer till tender; put two cups of boiling water on the onion and pork, and when the beans are tender strain this over them and add the corn; simmer till this too is tender; then add the cream, scalded, and the sea- soning, with the butter. Soak the spHt crackers in the cold milk and put them in the tureen and pour the boiling soup over. Potatoes, cut into dice, may be substituted for the beans if one prefers. Crab meat, deUciously fre,sh, may be purchased at any large grocery in tins, with the cleaned crab shells accom- panying. Or salmon with a hot mayonnaise or cold tartare sauce makes a good fish course. After this comes delicious Maryland chicken. Get large spring chickens and pan them in the oven till tender. Then make a rich batter and dip each piece in and drop into a deep kettle of hot fat till brown. Of course only the EASY ENTERTAINING 147 breasts, second joints, and boned drumsticks are to be used. Serve this with a rich cream sauce, with mashed potato browned in the oven, and pass baked eggplant. To prepare this latter, halve the vegetable lengthwise and salt, turning each piece down under a weight for an hour. Then remove all the pulp from the shell, crumb it up and mix with half as much soft bread crumbs; put a bit of onion in the frying-pan with a large tablespoonful of butter, and mix all together, and cook till tender and slightly brown. Refill the eggplant shells and heap well, and put in the oven till a light crust is formed. Serve on a platter with a spoon, each guest to dip a portion from the shell. For the salad get a small tin of pimentos and cut into small pieces and mix with a celery salad, made either with celery alone or with half the quantity of hard-boiled egg, in either case stirred stiff with mayon- naise. Put the pimentos in last, reserving a small half- cupful to sprinkle over all. If you choose you may fill a cabbage head from which all the centre has been removed, with the mixture, passing it on a round platter on a bed of lettuce leaves; like the corn chowder, this seems especially appropriate for a country dinner, but an ordinary salad-bowl is always in order. Cheese crackers are nice with this course. For a final sweet, take rounds of stale sponge-cake, 148 EASY ENTERTAINING dip each in sherry or maraschino, and lay on each the half of a large, pared peach. Fill the centre with whipped cream and add bits of candied or mara- schino cherries, or angelica. Or, if you prefer an ice, have peach surprise served in small rustic cases, suitable for this country dinner. The rule for making this is very simple: Into one quart of pared and chopped peaches stir a cup of water, a pound of sugar, and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Put in the freezer and beat till smooth and stiff. Pass sponge- cake with it. For a country supper in October there are all sorts of odd fancies for decoration, not only for the table, but for the room in which it is eaten. If you can, get small ears of red and white pop-corn, tie bunches of them together with the husks, and hang them regularly from the ceiUng. Have hollowed-out pumpkins set about, filled with nuts; light the room with large jack-o'-lanterns on the mantel-shelf and in the corners, and fasten stalks of rustling com up and down the balustrade of the stairs, with jack-o'- lanterns at the top and bottom. For the table have a centrepiece of oak branches covered with acorns, and get little papier-mache pumpkins at the confectioner's and cut out the top and bottom, paint a face on each and leave a slit at the eyes and mouth for the light to shine through, and you will find you have most EASY ENTERTAINING 149 effective candle shades. For the supper itself have things hot and spicy, with enough plainer dishes to afford a contrast. Canapes of devUed sardines. Peppers filled with creamed oysters; Saratoga potatoes; celery; olives. Cold turkey with chestnut boulettes. Coffee in large cups. Salted nuts. Lobster salad served in shells; minced-ham sandwiches. Peaches Mephisto; fruit cake. For the canapes, mash the sardines, add a half-tea- spoonfid of dry mustard, a salt-spoonful of Cayenne, and salt to taste; wet this with lemon juice till the consistency of thick cream, spread on thin buttered bread cut into strips, and serve hot. The chestnut boulettes are made by this rule: One cup cooked, peeled, and mashed chestnut pulp, two egg yolks slightly beaten, two tables poonfuls cream, one table- spoonful sugar, one teaspoonful sherry, a little salt, and, last, the whites of the eggs stiffly beaten, put in after the mixture is cool. Mould into small balls, egg and crumb and fry in deep fat. The final course for this supper is peaches Mephisto. Drain a quart can of those which have been put up at home with the pits in, and put in a silver baking- dish without the porcelain lining, or in any baking- dish which is in another and ornamental one. Pour around the fruit the syrup from a good-sized bottle 150 EASY ENTERTAINING of maraschino cherries and set in a hot oven till well heated. Sprinkle well with granulated sugar on re- moving them, and pour a glass of brandy over all. Set on fire quickly and put on the table. HALLOWE'EN SUPPERS HALLOWE'EN is one of the most delightful opportunities for informal entertaining, for there is a certain infectious gayety in the air which insures success to any hospitable enterprise. A supper party in some form is the best thing to plan for, one preceding the amusements of the eve- ning in the shape of that dehghtful meal a " high tea," or one served later on, possibly at midnight, the hour of witchery. First of all, the decorations of the dining-room and the table must be considered, and these should never follow conventional lines. Gas-light and even lamp- light must be tabooed, and a more dim and spectral illumination sought. If there is a high mantel in the room as well as a sideboard, stand large jack-o'-lanterns cut from pumpkins on them, one on each end; these will give a good effect, but they will not light the room sufficiently, so draw a number of wires from one picture-moulding to the other, and suspend a quantity of yellow Japanese lanterns from them, grouping 152 EASY ENTERTAINING them in the corners and over the table. Then if still more light seems necessary, put yellow-shaded candles on the table, but beware of getting it too briUiant. Use large vases of yellow chrysanthemums about the room, and have a centrepiece of them on the table. A characteristic one may be made by cutting the top off a large pumpkin, and using it, hollowed out, as a bowL If one cannot obtain chrysanthemums to fill it, golden-rod will do as well. The cards on the table may be of burnt leather, decorated with a sketch of a witch in some conven- tional attitude; these are easily prepared at home with a paint-brush and some dark brown color, if one does not understand pyrography. For a high tea, which, by- the- way, should be served at seven o'clock, lay the table as for luncheon, with either doilies or a rather elaborate cloth. In- deed the meal resembles luncheon in many ways, beginning as it does with a cup of bouillon or a cream of some vegetable, then a hot dish or two, with tea or coffee, and a salad; but there the resemblance ends, for the high tea must end with waffles, if it is to be worthy of its name. To insure the dreams of goblins and the frightful glimpses of futurity which one's Hallowe'en slumbers should not fail to bring, it is well to have one's menu decidedly indigestible. Various combinations of lobster and cheese are there- EASY ENTERTAINING 153 fore especially recommended; such a supper as this should produce the desired effects: Bouillon. Lobster Newburg. Cheese soxiffle. Roast quail with celery salad; hot rolls; coffee. Waffles and honey. The souffle may be baked in small dishes; it is easily prepared and sure to be good if it is served at once when taken from the oven. If this seems too elaborate a menu, this one is simpler: Oyster bisque. Fish cutlets with sauce tartare; cucumbers. Broiled chicken with pease; rolls and coffee. Lobster salad. "Waffles and maple syrup. These cutlets or croquettes may be made of canned salmon or of any fish in market, such as halibut or cod. The waffles may be replaced by sliced or frozen peaches, if they are thought more desirable. If instead of a tea at seven o'clock a midnight supper seems more in keeping with the occasion, a somewhat similar menu may be offered, but the room and table should be prepared with quite as much care with the same lanterns and flowers. The round table from which the refreshments are to be served to those sitting about the room may have the salad, sandwiches 154 EASY ENTERTAINING and cake upon it, and the hot dishes may be brought in from the kitchen. A cup of bouillon or cream soup may come fixst, or the course can be omitted, and the next, of creamed oysters, may begin the meal; these may be prettily served in small paper cups decorated with yellow flower petals lying on a spray of green leaves. Serve rolled sandwiches with this course, with or without a filling of lettuce and mayonnaise. After this have a salad of chicken or lobster with cheese-straws, and last serve an ice in some shape, such as a small orange- colored pumpkin, or an ear of corn in white with pistache leaves. Or, if the ice is to be home-made, try a delicious one: Fill sherbet-glasses half full of sHced oranges, pineapple, and banana, with powdered sugar and sherry, and put a delicate lemon ice over the fruit, quite concealing it, and smooth the top with the blade of a knife until it is level. The coffee comes with this course, and cake as well. A rich fruit cake is certain to provoke dreams sufficiently exciting to satisfy the most exacting, but it is wise to have something plainer for the timid. A yellow cake, such as the excellent one called " sunshine," which is an angel's food with the yolks of eight eggs in addition to the eleven whites, is sure to be liked. After all, the chafing-dish is the thing for a small Hallowe'en company. The table may be laid as EASY ENTERTAINING 155 before, the honored utensil at one end, balanced by a coffee service opposite. A bowl of salad may be on one side, and plates of sandwiches, dishes of olives, a platter of cold chicken or turkey, and small dishes of salted nuts will fill up the rest. A Welsh rarebit is decidedly the best thing to make, but be sure to have everything ready on the tray before you begin. Curried oysters, too, are nice, or, if you wish something not so hackneyed as either of these, have pigs in blankets. The " pig " is a large oyster, folded in a very thin sUce of bacon pinned with a tiny wooden toothpick. The bacon browns quickly in the hot pan, and the extra amount of juice from the oysters may be turned out from time to time. Some strips of hot toast should be ready, and the oysters are to be laid on these, one on each, with a slice of lemon. The bacon seasons the dish to some extent, but it is well to salt and pepper the oysters before wrapping them up. One of the best things to cook in the chafing- dish, if you are seeking something simple, is fried oysters, as these may be prepared in the afternoon — as the pigs in blankets should be also — and quickly cooked when the proper time arrives. A supper of cold turkey or tongue, with lettuce sandwiches, a dish of fried oysters, and a lobster or celery salad with coffee, is not too much trouble for even the least experienced housekeeper to prepare, and it is 156 EASY ENTERTAINING certainly suitable for a cool October night, when appetites are keen. When the chafing-dish is not otherwise needed on this evening, it is a good plan to use it for roasting chestnuts. Either the large Italian nuts or our smaller ones may be used, and all that is necessary is to cut a slit in each nut, and cover them in the hot pan until they are crisp. They make a most ap- propriate finish for any Hallowe'en meal. THE THANKSGIVING DINNER. NO. i THOSE who can find chestnut burrs in the woods near their homes have at hand something really lovely by way of decoration for the table on Thanksgiving day. Get as many as you can attached to their stems, and add to these as many more which have fallen to the ground stemless. Be- gin by putting those with stems into a bowl, and eke out the number with long twigs with burrs, open or closed, fastened to them with invisible wires, so that there seems no difference in the two kinds. When the bowl is full, put bright yellow leaves in among the brown burrs to reUeve the color. Then make a circle on the cloth of more leaves with burrs mixed in. Where chestnuts cannot be found, any other nut burrs are just as artistic, and when combined with bright leaves make the most appropriate centrepiece for the day. For lighting the table have candle shades which harmonize with the nut and leaf colors. A clever woman who can make her own shades can easily paint some a pale, clear brown, and edge them with little painted leaves of different tones. 157 158 EASY ENTERTAINING As to the menu, that should be rather simple. A good plan is to arrange something plain first and then add to it if the number of guests is sufficient to make it seem necessary to have more courses. That is, arrange to begin with soup, and when the whole of the dinner is written out and planned add to this a course of grapefruit if it seems too brief, and so on. Cream of oyster soup. Fish cutlets, shrimp sauce. Roast ducks; pease and onions; caramel sweet-potatoes. Celery Toulousane, with mayonnaise. Mince pie; cheese. Pineapple ice in glasses; cakes. Coffee. For the soup get a quart of small oysters and sim- mer them in their own juice till their edges curl; strain, and set the oysters aside; measure the juice, and add to a cupful a quart of rich milk; thicken very slightly, using only a teaspoonful of flour rubbed with a dessertspoonful of butter; strain, and serve. The oysters can be used for supper Thanksgiving night in a scallop or creamed. For the fish course get some slices of a white fish, flounder, halibut, or cod, and cut them into chop- shaped pieces; dip each in fine crumbs, then in half- beaten egg yolk, then in crumbs, and set aside for two hours; fry two at a time in a wire basket, and drain on paper in the oven; stick a bit of parsley in the end of each and lay on a napkin on a platter with EASY ENTERTAINING 159 lemon slices and parsley. It is not really necessary to have a sauce with these chops, but for those who wish it have one made of shrimps: Clean them, drop into ice-water for an hour, wipe dry, and chop a cupful; make a cup of rich white sauce, and mix the shrimps in, seasoning well. Pass this in a boat after the fish. For stuffing the ducks here is something very good indeed: Stew half a pound of prunes till they are just soft enough to remove the stones; cut each one into four pieces; add to them a cup of English wal- nut meats broken into bits, a cup of soft white bread crumbs, salt, a Httle Cayenne, a heaping tablespoon- ful of soft butter, and one thin sUce of onion minced very fine; put all into a hot frying-pan and stir till the crumbs crisp and brown, adding a little more butter if necessary; wipe out the inside of the ducks, fill them two-thirds full, and roast them with the breasts down; serve with giblet gravy and slices of seedless oranges; do not peel these, but put a small spoonful of stiff currant jelly on each one. Pease and onions are supposed to accompany ducks, but usually not in one dish; however, here is some- thing new: Drain a can of pease and reheat with salt, pepper, and a tablespoonful of cream. Boil some small onions, and, with a sharp knife, cut each one in two; season well, put the pease on a hot dish, and lay the onions in among them, the cut side down, and 160 EASY ENTERTAINING serve. Another way of preparing this dish is to get the smallest-sized onions, boil them, and peel till they are no larger than the end of one's thumb, and then mix them with pease. The sweet- potatoes are to be boiled and sliced; then each piece is dipped first in melted butter and then in granulated sugar, and put into a hot oven till a coating of brown caramel is formed; sometimes brown sugar is used instead of white. Celery also should go with ducks, and a new salad is ready just in time for this dinner. Get some nice stalks the day before Thanksgiving and cut them into long but even pieces, trimming the broad ends down a little. Cook these carefully on the back of the fire until they are transparent; drain, and salt them; let them stand on ice over-night. The next day arrange them on a bed of lettuce leaves in layers, with a thin spreading of mayonnaise between each two, concealing this by putting on the outside layer with none on top, since that below will sufficiently flavor it. Over all scatter freely some chopped pimen- toes, such as come in little cans for a small price. Mince pie is one of the staple dishes for Thanks- giving day. One excellent rule for the meat, which, of course, must be made at least two weeks in advance, is this: Mince fine two cups of boiled beef and six apples; add a quart and a half of sweet cider, a cup EASY ENTERTAINING 161 of currant jelly, the grated rind and juice of two lemons and two oranges, two cups of sugar, one table- spoonful, each, of salt and cinnamon, one teaspoonful each of cloves and allspice, one-half teaspoonful of nutmeg and pepper, two pounds of seeded raisins, one pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of shredded citron, a pound of chopped suet, and a cup of shredded candied orange peel. Flavor with the rich juice of spiced or pickled peaches to taste, or add vinegar boiled down to a syrup with sugar. This rule makes much richer and more spicy pies than any other, and will be found delicious. After so heavy a meal a light course of sherbet served in glasses will be found refreshing; this can easily be made of canned pineapple; merely chop fine a cup of pulp, make a quart of lemon ce as usual, and when it is half frozen put in the fruit and freeze stiff. Serve small cakes or sweet wafers only with this course, and finish with black coffee. A dinner in which the national bird figures as the piece de resistance may have some quite different dishes: Grapefruit. Clear soup with tapioca. Roast turkey stuffed with chestnuts; sweet-potato puff; creamed spinach; cranberry jelly. Orange and grapefruit salad, French dressing. Frozen pudding. Crackers and cheese and coffee. 162 EASY ENTERTAINING Take the pulp out of the grapefruit and put it into small glasses, adding a few seeded white grapes; serve this very cold indeed. A good plan is to pack the fruit pulp, after sweetening it well, in a small covered pail, and set this in a dish of cracked ice for an hour or more, putting it into the glasses at the last moment before it is served. Stand each glass on a small plate, and put this on a larger one at each cover before the guests sit down; then remove the small plate and glass at the same time after the course. The soup is a clear strong stock made at least one day before Thanksgiving; it should have a basis of beef bones and vegetables, and when clarified and ready should be brown; if it is not, add a little kitchen bouquet; half an hour before serving this heat it, and add a tablespoonful of pearl tapioca which has been soaked four or five hours; season well. The turkey stuffing is made of boiled and skinned chestnuts, cooked very soft and mixed with bread crumbs without mashing; season with salt and pepper and chopped parsley, browning in the frying-pan with a tablespoonful of onion; do not add herbs of any kind, since they detract from the flavor of the bird; roast with the breast down. Have ready cranberry jelly to pass with it; make it in plenty of time, and strain it, setting it in a mould. Boil spinach, drain, chop very fine, season to taste EASY ENTERTAINING 163 and beat to a soft mass with a gill of thick cream. Lay small triangles of toast about the edge of the dish. The potatoes should be freshly boiled; peel them, and mash, adding cream or rich milk; season with salt and pepper and, when they are foamy, the beaten yolks of two eggs; pile lightly in a dish in pyramid shape, and set in the oven to brown slightly. For the salad, cut some even lengths of celery, scrape them, and, by cutting down each four-inch piece, make narrow slivers; lay these on a little let- tuce and set cup-shaped leaves around the edge; make some sections of large seedless oranges and others of grapefruit, peeling off all the transparent skin from each one, and cutting it with the scissors. Into the first cup put two sections of orange; into the next, two of grapefruit, and so on all around the dish; set on the ice till very cold, and, just before serving, cover with French dressing. Instead of mince pie for this dinner make a -frozen pudding somewhat resembling it. Scald a quart of rich milk with a heaping cup of sugar; add two squares of chocolate and cook till smooth, adding a dozen whole cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Cool, flavor with vanilla, and strain. Chop a cup of stoned raisins; add to them any fruit you have which is not too moist — such as candied cherries, or a tables poon- ful of candied orange peel minced very fine; freeze 164 EASY ENTERTAINING the cream, and when half done fold in the fruit, and freeze stiff; let this stand to ripen for at least two hours. Meanwhile sweeten, flavor, and whip a cup of thick cream, and when stiff bury this in ice and salt also; turn out the pudding on a cold dish, and put spoonfuls of the cream all around it as though it were pudding sauce. Instead of this pudding there may be one, perhaps, more simply made, using figs generously. Get a pound of nice figs; chop them, and wet with a quarter of a cup of cream; let them stand and slowly absorb this; scald a quart of thin cream with a cup of sugar, flavor, and cool; add a cup of whipped cream, and freeze soft; then stir in the figs, and freeze stiff. Serve in a mould by packing the cream when stiff and letting it stand two hours in ice and salt. A little dinner for two who have much to be thank- ful for may be easily prepared and still be quite elaborate enough: Oysters on the half-shell. Cream of celery soup. Roast chicken; baked sweet-potatoes; pease; currant jelly. Cream cheese and nut salad. Fig cream. Coflfee. Instead of the oysters there may be one grapefruit, the pulp mixed with grapes or the pulp of an orange, if that is preferred. The salad is made by chopping EASY ENTERTAINING 165 half a cup of English walnuts and mixing them with a five-cent cream cheese; season with salt and Cayenne, and roll into balls as large as a butternut; lay one in a cup of lettuce for each, and add French dressing. For the cream, sweeten, flavor, and whip one cup- ful or even less; chop six figs; put the cream into a little covered pail, and set in ice and salt till it is stiff, which will take at least two hours; open it, fold in the figs, cover again, and let it stand an hour more; serve in glasses. When dinner is served during the day, as it is apt to be on Thanksgiving, there is usually a demand for a late supper. For this utilize as far as possible the remains of the roast from dinner, supplementing it with a course of salad. Or there may be a first hot course. In the first menu for dinner the oysters were omitted from the soup; those would be excellent first. Cream them, put them in small dishes, add sifted bread crumbs and bits of butter, and brown. in the oven. Serve with these slices of duck, bread-and- butter sandwiches, and coffee in large cups. For a second course have one of the two celery salads suggested for dinner, whichever was not used then. Or have grapefruit on lettuce with French dressing. Or have peeled seedless oranges cut in thick slices, and lay one for each person on white lettuce and put half an English walnut on top, and 166 EASY ENTERTAINING add French dressing. Instead of having sandwiches with the first course you could have buttered rolls then if you prefer, and have olive sandwiches served with this salad. A third course is really not necessary, but if it is desired, have something very hght and simple. Halves of meringue shells filled with whipped cream and cherries are attractive; or the cream could be whipped, sweetened, and frozen by packing it in ice and salt for four hours, and the shells filled with that. With the turkey sUces first at supper, there might be large French chestnuts in cream as the hot dish; stew them till the shells will come off; then stew them again till they are tender; drop into ice-water, and remove the brown shells; or leave these on and merely cook them till tender, and cream them; sea- son highly, and serve very hot, one spoonful by each portion of turkey. There might be cranberry jelly, also, with this, and biscuits or rolls, and coffee; and then the salad. Or, for a change, the turkey slices might be served with latticed potatoes, rolls, and coffee, and the chest- nuts cooked, peeled, chilled, and served on lettuce with mayonnaise in a very delicious salad. The final course could be whole preserved peaches and cake. THE THANKSGIVING DINNER. NO. 2 AFTER the use for long years of a pumpkin centrepiece on the table on Thanksgiving day many a hostess will heave a sigh of rehef to have something suggested which is quite as char- acteristic in color as the pumpkin, and far more artistic. This is a great, beautiful bunch of yellow chrysanthemums set off and relieved by large sprays of dead, brown oak leaves. The combination is really lovely, and most suitable to autumn, and to a pretty dinner-table. If the first course is grapefruit, this can be arranged before the family and guests sit down, and the yellow will still further emphasize that of the flowers. The brown can be made more con- spicuous by using marrons glaces in tall compotes or in small flat dishes, or chocolate bonbons can be put here and there. Candles may have yellow chrysan- themum shades, also, with fluffy edges; small paper flowers can be bought and sewed firmly on plain foundations, or they can be purchased ready for use. This is a menu easily prepared and of distinct Thanks- giving flavor: 167 168 EASY ENTERTAINING Grapefruit. Radishes, salted nuts, olives. Cream of oyster soup. Individual chicken pies. Roast turkey, cranberry sauce, in moulds; mashed sweet- potatoes; cauliflower au gratin. Celery mayonnaise, with lettuce hearts. Pumpkin ices. Crackers and cheese. Coffee. If one is so lucky as to have the tall, beautiful glasses made especially for grapefruit, the pulp of the fruit is removed in spoonfuls and put into the small inside cups, and the cracked ice fills the space between them and the outer edge of the glass. A little sugar is added to the fruit, and a taste of rum, or one or two maraschino cherries. Without the glasses the fruit is well chilled and put in spoonfuls into the emptied shells, and these are served on small plates with orange-spoons by each one, and the same flavoring and sweetening used as before. The soup is one of the staple dishes for the day, but made in a rather different manner from the old-fashioned sort. The oysters are first washed and dried, and with a pair of scissors the hard muscular end is quite cut off without breaking into the soft half; the milk is put on the fire with these hard bits and the oyster juice, and allowed to grow very hot, but never to boil; then it is slightly thickened with a tablespoonful, each, of melted butter and flour and strained care- EASY ENTERTAINING 169 fully, and seasoned with salt and pepper. After this, the round, soft ends of the oysters are put in, the milk heated again to the boihng-point, and the soup at once taken up and served. A delicious flavor is giwn by the addition of just a dash of sherry. In place of fish a pretty course may come next, in the shape of little individual chicken pies, baked in round tins and with their edges fluted; a bit of parsley stands up in each one. Instead of this course there may be fish, if that is preferred, some- thing like creamed halibut or scallops, served in small dishes. The turkey can have a bread stuffing mixed with a pint of oysters; to make it, crumble soft bread quite fine and add salt and pepper and one slice of onion, minced. Put a large tablespoonful of butter into a hot pan and when it browns put in the crumbs and toss and stir them till they are crisp and brown also. Then add the drained oysters and let them barely plump, as they will cook again in the turkey. Stuff the bird and roast it upside down in a deep pan, basting it frequently, so that the juices will run down into the breast and make that delicious. In place of the oysters, boiled and peeled chestnuts can be used in the stuffing by chopping them coarsely and adding them to the crumbs in the pan, browning the two together. 170 EASY ENTERTAINING Boil the sweet-potatoes, mash and season them, and add a small half-cup of cream or rich milk; put them through the press and heap Hghtly in a hot covered dish. For the cranberry sauce, wash the berries and put them over to cook in barely enough water to float them; simmer till aU are one mass of pulp, then measure an equal amount of sugar and boil hard for one minute; remove from the fire, put through a press, and pour into one mould or into individual moulds. The cauliflower may be boiled a day in advance of the dinner; then an hour before it may be picked up into flowerets and put into a baking-dish with thick white sauce between its layers. Make this with a large tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, with half a cup of milk only, so that it shall be quite stiff. Put fine sifted crumbs all over the top, and bits of butter, and bake brown. The salad is very nice, and one quite new. To make it, get some nice celery and cut it up into inch lengths and split these till they are in bits like knitting-needles. Wipe them dry and put them on ice to grow crisp. Beat the yolk of an egg very stiff and drop in olive- oil till you have a cup of mayonnaise, thinning with lemon juice when it grows too thick to beat; season with salt and Cayenne. Dissolve a tablespoonful of EASY ENTERTAINING 171 gelatine in a little cold water and put it over the steam of the teakettle till it is smooth and thin; cool this, beat into the mayonnaise, and add the celery; put all into a smooth, round mould, Uke a pail, and put it away overnight. The next day turn it out on a flat dish and surround it with white lettuce leaves. Serve thin crackers with it and oHves. Or, in place of this salad, crush two cream cheeses, mix with salt, Cayenne, and a Httle cream, and add a cup of black olives chopped fine, and half a cup of chopped walnuts; press this into a small mould and serve in Uttle slices on lettuce with French dressing. For a pretty final course appropriate to Thanks- giving day, have a pumpkin ice. Get some of the little glass cups used for serving lemonade, and cut crepe-paper of a vivid shade of orange into strips of about five inches wide and long enough to fit around the top of the glass cup; leave one edge of the paper as it is, and from the rest cut long, slender petals, like those of the pumpkin blossom; cut similar strips of green crepe-paper, but not so wide, and make these also into petals, shorter and wider; put first the orange strip around the glass, and outside it the green one, and around both tie tightly a narrow, green ribbon to hold them in place. These make the prettiest of flower cups to hold the ice course, which is also of pumpkin color. To make this, get some small thin- 172 EASY ENTERTAINING skinned oranges and squeeze them till you have nearly a pint of juice; add to this the juice of two lemons, a small cup of sugar-and-water syrup and two egg whites, slightly beaten, and fill up with a pint of hot water; stir well, strain, and cool; add a trifle of orange fruit coloring if the pumpkin shade is not sufficient; freeze rather firm, remove the dasher and pack it down, and let it stand two hours to ripen. In serving, heap the cups between the flower petals, and send to the table on small plates. Cake can be offered with the ice if desired, and then may come a final course of toasted crackers and Brie cheese, with black coffee. The marrons glaces, which are delicious, but, if you buy them, are extremely costly, can readily be made at home. Get a quart of Italian chestnuts and boil them till the skins are soft; make a cut in the shell of each for the steam to escape, and then peel it off. Make a thick syrup of a cup of sugar and two tablespoonfuls of water and boil till it threads; drop in a few chestnuts and cook till they are somewhat transparent, but do not let them come to pieces; lift them out with a skimmer, and lay them on paraflSn paper to dry. Another Thanksgiving dinner may be of equal length with this one, but be rather unlike it in most of the courses: EASY ENTERTAINING 173 Oysters on the half-shell. Radishes, olives, and salted nuts. Cream of clam soup. Slices of salmon, boiled, with HoUandaise sauce. Roast turkey; browned sweet-potatoes; French pease; sweet pickled peaches. Slices of duck with celery mayoimaise. Fig ice-cream; cake. Toasted crackers. Brie or Camembert cheese; coffee. The oysters are served in a very attractive way; the shells are laid on an ice bed in shallow plates as usual, but the ice is covered with the deep red-brown galyx leaves, to be had at any florist's; the lemon half is put in the middle and the leaves laid in a regular circle, with the oysters on top. For the soup, use either soft or hard shelled clams; chop them, add them to a quart of rich milk, thicken slightly, season with Cayenne, and let the whole simmer for five minutes; then strain and serve with hot crackers. Boil the salmon all in one piece in cheese-cloth and slice with a sharp knife. Arrange the fish in overlap- ping pieces on a long, narrow platter, with a napkin underneath; garnish with lemon and parsley, and pass the sauce in a boat. The duck can be either a wild one or one of our own domestic birds; roast it and slice the breast only, and serve with the same celery mayonnaise sug- gested in the first dinner. The fig ice-cream is particularly nice. Chop half 174 EASY ENTERTAINING SL pound of figs, wet them with half a cup of warm water, and let them stand to soften, mashing them occasionally. Scald a quart of thin cream or rich milk with a scant cup of sugar, and add the figs; put all through the puree press, or leave the figs as they are. Cool and freeze; remove the dasher and pack down the cream well, and let it stand two hours before serving. This can also be made with preserved figs, and is fully as nice, and rather richer. A good addi- tion to the figs is a small cup of shced citron or candied cherries, cut fine; with these, of course, the cream is not to be strained; the fruit is put in when the cream is half frozen. Small families who want a dinner not as long as either of these can have something like this: Grapefruit. Clear soup with croutons. Radishes, celery, olives, salted nuts. Roast turkey or chicken; mashed potatoes; cauliflower; currant jeUy. Orange and nut salad, with crackers. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Nuts and raisins. Coffee. For the salad, get some seedless oranges and slice them in rather thick pieces after peeling. Put these in an overlapping circle on a glass dish, and in the thick middle pile watercress or the best pieces of a head of lettuce. On each slice of orange, in the middle, EASY ENTERTAINING 175 lay half an English walnut; cover all with French dressing just before serving. This salad must be very cold. One of the poorest of all dishes is a pumpkin pie which is not what it ought to be, and one of the best is a perfect pie. The trouble is that in making it the ingredients are not rich enough; thick cream and plenty of eggs are really essential to its composition. This recipe is very nice: Get a small pumpkin and cut it up without peeling it; put it into a covered colander and steam till soft, and then remove the peel; put it into a dish in the oven and leave the door open till it is dry, but be careful not to let it grow brown or bake. Press it through the colander and measure; to two and a half cups of pulp add two cups of cream, or very rich milk, one teaspoonful each of salt, butter, cinnamon, and ginger, a tablespoonful of molasses, sugar to taste, and, after cooling and beating well, two weU-beaten eggs, or the yolks of four. Make a rich pie-crust, and line an extra large and deep tin, and leave an edge on top; pour in the pumpkin, bake slowly forty minutes, or a little more, till there is a good brown crust on top; serve very cold, and all around the edge put large spoonfuls of thick whipped cream — a modern idea, but a great im- provement on the old-fashioned plan. For those who feel that Thanksgiving day is not 176 EASY ENTERTAINING properly kept without a mince pie in addition to a pumpkin, this is a good rule for making up a quantity of the meat: Chop fine three pounds of lean boiled beef and a pound and a half of suet; three quarts of chopped apples; a quart of stoned raisins; two cups of currants; a quarter of a pound of citron, cut thin; a cup of molasses; the juice of two oranges and two lemons, and the grated rind of one of each; two nut- megs; a tablespoonful of salt; three cups of sugar; two cups of cider; a cup of sherry, and brandy to taste. All the dry ingredients are to be put together first, then the liquids added; it must be well mixed and packed in an earthen jar, and it must not be used for at least a week after mixing. When a mince pie is served alone as a final course at dinner, it is a good plan to cover it thickly with powdered sugar and pour brandy over it, and set it on fire as it is sent to the table. Mince pies should always be served slightly warm, not enough to melt the suet in them, but far from cold, when the suet is unpleasantly discernible. A good ice-cream with which to end this dinner, either after the pies or in place of them, is made with Canton ginger. Get a small pot, take out the contents, drain off the juice and chop the ginger. Scald a pint of cream and a pint of milk, add the juice, and, if necessary, sugar enough to make it sweet, and then EASY ENTERTAINING 177 pour it slowly over the beaten whites of four eggs; put it on the stove in a double boiler and cook till smooth and thick; cool it, and freeze; when stiff, take out the dasher and put in the chopped ginger; stir well, pack down tightly, and set away the freezer for two hours before serving. MEN'S DINNERS SOMETIMES a man plans a dinner party for his men friends without the assistance of his wife or his sisters and gives it at his club; but there are other occasions when he likes to gather a company about his own home board. Both he and his family regard the giving of the dinner as quite a serious matter, much more difficult than the ordinary dinner party to both men and women. But, after all, men's dinners are much like others except that they have fewer light and sweet dishes and more substantial ones. If one remembers to have a hand- some table and a good, solid, and yet delicious meal, it will be sure to be satisfactory. Lay the table as usual, but have it rather more dignified than is customary. Do not have a quantity of small dishes, nor many vases of flowers, nor very ornate china or glass. Have the floral centrepiece one large bunch of American Beauties or well-blown pink roses; use two low candelabra to light the table, with pink or white shades; have severely plain place-cards, 178 EASY ENTERTAINING m and handsome but rather plain china, and not too much silver. Begin the meal with a relish and end it with a strong cheese with hard biscuit, or follow the English custom and offer celery and cheese with the bis- cuit. If the men prefer to have their cigars in the smoking-room, the coffee must be served there also. If the dinner is given for some special purpose, such as to announce the approaching marriage of the host, some reference may be made to this, either by having something in the decorations of the table which will emphasize the fact, or else some special dish can be made to call attention to it. Possibly the ice-cream may be surrounded by white bride roses, or, if it is given for one who is about to go on a journey, the caterer's art may be called in to offer a steamboat cleverly arranged in ices and cream; Or, if the guests are fond of automobiling or golf or racing or cards, these things may be suggested in the sherbet-cases, which come in a thousand shapes suitable for just such occasions. One of the prettiest fancies, especially for a dinner announcing an en- gagement or approaching marriage, is a dainty little satin slipper with a gilded heel, holding an inner case for the ice. Here is a good menu: 180 EASY ENTERTAINING Canape's of brown bread and caviare. Oysters with mignonette sauce. Neapolitan consomme'. Filets of fish with cucumber sauce. Saddle of mutton with currant jelly; glazed turnips; Bermuda potatoes. Basket of fruits with ice-cream. Hard biscuit, toasted. Brie cheese. Coffee. Use Boston brown bread for the canapes, and spread thinly with caviare after cutting out in cres- cents. Serve these on small plates set in the service plates before the oyster course. The mignonette sauce to be offered with the oysters is one commonly seen at men's clubs. To make it, take one pint of vinegar, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, as much black pepper, a dash each of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce, one bunch each of minced shallots and chives. Mix well; serve cold. For the soup make a strong clear consomme and add to it a tablespoonful of chopped macaroni well boiled, as much cold boiled ham cut into small bits, and three tablespoonfuls of fried mushrooms, also cut small. Serve hot crackers with this. For the filets, take any good fish, such as whitefish or halibut, and cut into strips two inches wide by four long; dip in crumbs and egg and fry in a basket in deep fat; season well with salt and a dash of lemon juice and serve on hot fish-plates, with a half lemon-shell EASY ENTERTAINING 181 on each plate filled with cucumber sauce. To prepare this, chop enough cucumber to half fill a cup, add a half-teaspoonful each of salt, minced parsley, and minced onion, and a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar. Or, if you prefer, make a stifE sauce tartare and put it in the lemon baskets. The saddle of mutton is a very fine but heavy piece of meat. It is the back of the sheep, and is to be served in a whole roast, carved on the table, unless, indeed, there are so many guests as to make this too long a process. Why this is the custom with this particular roast it would be difficult to say, unless it is because nothing shows to greater advantage the experienced carver than his handling of this cut. Turnips are the invariable accompaniment of this dish, and glazed they are very good. Cut six into balls and boil them tiQ tender; drain, place in a baking-dish, and pour over them a cup of clear stock seasoned with half a teaspoonful each of salt and pepper, a little Cayenne and nutmeg; bake half an hour, basting frequently, and then take from the dish, thicken the gravy in the pan with a tablespoon- ful of butter and one of flour, and when smooth and very hot pour over the turnips and serve at once. The dessert is a handsome basket of candied fruits, made on a foundation, and glazed by being brushed 182 EASY ENTERTAINING over with strong syrup after it is done. It may be prepared at home over a wire basket, or purchased from the caterers. In the latter case it will be put to- gether without foundation, and may be served with the cream which fills it. However, that is not es- sential, and really the stickiness of the fruit makes it difficult to cut apart in serving, so that the home- made affair, which is equally pretty and very little trouble to make, does quite as well. The oranges are simply quartered, and fastened with tiny wire or thread to the heavy wires, or to a pasteboard founda- tion. The cream for the filUng may be a very rich one full of candied fruits and nuts. Another dinner might be: Oysters. Consomme printaniere. Baked fish with cheese. Roast venison or turkey, currant jelly; stufifed Bermuda onions; potatoes. Apple and mint salad. French charlotte-russe. Hard biscuit; celery farci; coffee. The soup here is a strong consomme, with tiny stars, circles, and crescents cut with tin cutters from thin slices of carrots, turnips, and any well-colored spring vegetables. The fish should be a fine large one, perhaps a blue- fish or a bass or a whitefish, stuffed and baked in the EASY ENTERTAINING 183 oven and basted frequently with a sauce made by adding to two cups of cream two tablespoonfuls of Parmesan cheese and one of melted butter, with a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and salt to taste. The game should be a fine haunch or a large turkey stuffed with chestnuts or oysters. The onions served with it are a favorite dish with many men. The large, fine and comparatively odorless Bermuda vegetable is to be selected, and peeled; then a stuffing is made exactly as for tomatoes, with plenty of butter, pepper, and salt, and to this is added the centre of the onions, chopped fine. Bake in a covered dish till tender, basting well with mixed water and butter, and brown during the last half-hour. For the salad, pare, core, and slice thin six tart apples crosswise, and lay them in circles on the plates on white leaves of lettuce, the edges of the slices lapping; sprinkle with a large teaspoonful of finely chopped mint and pour French dressing over all. For the dessert try French charlotte-russe. Beat well a small quart of stiff cream and stir into it a tablespoonful each of citron, candied orange peel, candied cherries, blanched and chopped almonds, and two tablespoonfuls of chopped English walnuts, raisins, and marrons, with six marshmallows, also chopped. Season the cream with a little bitter almond, vanilla, and brandy. 184 EASY ENTERTAINING For a final course serve stalks of white celery with Brie cheese pressed down into each one, lengthwise, and toasted water-crackers and coffee. This last at the table or in the smoking-room. AUTUMN MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS Sunday BBEAKFAST Fruit. Scrambled eggs; rolls; coffee. Fairy waffles and honey. DINNER Fore quarter of lamb, stuffed; cur- rant jelly; mashed sweet-potatoes; baked tomatoes. Lettuce and cauliflower salad. Peach ice-cream ; cake. Coffee. SUPPER Finnan-haddie Newburg in chafing- dish; sandwiches; olives; coffee. Stewed pears and whipped cream; cake. Monday BREAKFAST Grapes. Broiled dried beef; potato cakes; buttered toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold baked beans and sliced to- matoes, with mayonnaise. Sliced peaches and cream ; cake; tea. DINNER Meat pie (of lamb); stuffed baked eggplant; creamed carrots. Watercress and hard-boiled egg salad. Fig compote; coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Purple and yellow plums. Boiled eggs; fried sweet-potatoes; corn muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Com fritters; baked potatoes; bis- cuits; tea. White-grape and cream-cheese salad. DINNER Cream of pea soup. Veal pot-pie with dumplings; stuffed baked red peppers; mashed potato. Peach fritters, hard sauce. Coffee. BREAKFAST Grapes and pears. Fried pan-fish; French-fried po- tatoes; corn gems; coffee. LUNCHEON Spaghetti and tomato, baked; rolls; tea. Plum tartlets. DINNER Cream of corn soup. Planked steak with diced vegetables; baked sweet-potatoes. Glorified rice pudding. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Sliced peaches and cream. Poached eggs on toast rounds; hot rolls; coffee. Orange marmalade. LUNCHEON Steak croquettes (from Wednesday) with brown sauce; muflfins; tea. Baked apples and cream. DINNER White-bean soup. Strips of veal, breaded; stuffed baked tomatoes; potatoes. Peach dumplings. Coffee. 185 186 EASY ENTERTAINING Friday BREAKFAST Grapes. Fried scallops; hashed potatoes; biscuits; coffee. LUNCHEON Canned salmon with white sauce and capers; rolls; tea. Pears. DINNER Slices of cod, steamed, with oyster sauce; potatoes; eggplant. Lettuce and tomato salad. Cabinet pudding, fruit sauce. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Cereal with cream. Codfish (from Friday) in croquettes; English muffins, toasted; coffee. Orange marmalade. LUNCHEON Rice scalloped with tomatoes; rusk; tea. Lady-fingers with chocolate sauce. DINNER Clear soup with croutons. Beef stew with tomatoes and green peppers, baked cauliflower; potatoes. Cocoanut custard. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Baked pears. Brown hash (of beef stew) ; French- fried potatoes; pop-overs; coffee. DINNER Black-bean soup. Baked ham; creamed corn; sweet- potatoes. Lettuce and tomato salad. Peach Bavarian cream. Coffee. SUPPER Fried oysters; sandwiches; pickles; coffee. Green peppers stuffed with string- bean salad. Preserved pears; cake. Monday BREAKFAST Baked apples and cream. Bacon and mushrooms; fried toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold sliced ham; potato cakes; rolls; tea. Grapes and cake. DINNER Cream of carrot soup. Baked veal loaf with brown sauce; scalloped tomatoes; potatoes. Deep apple tart with cream and cheese. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Grapes and plums. Ham omelette (from Sunday) ; corn bread; coffee. LUNCHEON Sliced veal loaf; sweet-potato puff. Cream cakes. DINNER Hamburg steak k la porterhouse with minced vegetables; baked sweet- potatoes. Lettuce and cucumber salad; cream- cheese balls. Cornstarch pudding with preserved ginger and cream. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Broibd bacon; creamed potatoes; buttered strips of toast; coffee. Orange marmalade. LUNCHEON Hamburg steak, in slices, with tomato sauce; rolls; tea. , Plum jam and cake. DINNER (company) Clams on half-shell. Cream of tomato soup. Scallops on skewers. Panned guinea-fowl; string-beans; caramel sweet-potato; currant jelly. Escarole salad with chopped peppers. Peach ice-cream with fresh peaches; cakes. Coffee. EASY ENTERTAINING 187 Thursday BBEAKPAST Fruit. Eggs on rounds of Boston brown- bread toast; French-fried potatoes; coffee. LUNCHEON Hashed guinea-fowl (from Wednes- day) ; biscuits ; tea. Sliced peaches and cakes. Vegetable soup. Breaded veal cutlet; baked potatoes; creamed onions and cheese, baked. Pineapple fritters. Coffee. Friday BHEAKPAST Pears. Creamed finnan-haddie; toasted muf- fins; coffee. Currant bread. LUNCHEON Salmon souffle with creamed pease; biscuits; tea. Peach tartlets. DINNEB Oyster soup. Sliced halibut, broiled, creamed cucumbers Chocolate bread-pudding. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Grapes. Spanish omelette; hashed browned potatoes; corn gems; coffee. LUNCHEON Fish croquettes (from Friday) with white sauce; string-beans; tea. Lettuce and tomato salad. Cake. Sunday BEEAKFAST Fruit. Broiled mushrooms on toast; muffins; coSee. Toast strips and honey. DINNER Cream of lettuce soup. Chicken pie; sweet-potatoes; spiced peaches; string-beans. Cress salad. Pistachio ice-cream; cakes. Coffee. SUPPER Chicken reheated with oysters in chafing-dish (from dinner); biscuits; coffee. Peach short-cake and whipped cream. Monday BREAKFAST Fruit. Shirred eggs; potato cakes; rolls; coffee . LUNCHEON Potato and olive salad with mayon- naise; sandwiches; olives. Chocolate and whipped cream ; cake. DINNER Cream of celery soup. Breast of lamb, roasted; cauliflower; potatoes. Orange pudding. Tuesday BREAKFAST Baked apples and cream. Liver and bacon on skewers; hashed potatoes; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON (company). Cream of clam soup. Creamed scallops in individual dishes. Fried sweetbreads; creamed sweet- potatoes in cases; pease; tea. Celery and nut salad with mayon- naise. Marron ice-cream ; cakes. DINNER Chops ; baked succotash ; sweet- potatoes. Celery and nut salad. Prune jelly and whipped cream. Coffee. Clear soup with tapioca (from lamb bones). Veal chops; stuffed baked tomatoes; rice croquettes. Baked caramel custards; cakes. Coffee. 188 EASY ENTERTAINING Wednesday BREAKFAST Baked apples and cream. Tomato omelette; hashed potatoes; Graham muflSns; coffee. LUNCHEON Rice croquettes with cheese sauce; pickles; tea. Grapes. DINNER Cream of Lima-bean soup. Veal cutlet, breaded; mashed sweet- potatoes; corn fritters. Deep plum tart. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Clam fritters; buttered toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Veal soufflS; baking-powder biscuits; Stewed apples. Stewed chicken; rice balls; spinach. Lettuce and sliced-tomato salad. Peach pudding. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Creamed eggs; fried sweet-potatoes; fruit muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Fried scallops; baked potatoes; tea. Plums and pears. Onion soup, bluefish; baked tomatoes; potatoes. Pear compote. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Fruit. Fried eggplant; hashed brown po- tatoes; pop-overs; coffee. LUNCHEON Creamed bluefish ; chopped potatoes; tea. Baked pears. DINNER Hamburg steak with minced vege- tables; farina croquettes; spiced apples. Rice and raisin pudding. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Fruit. Parsley omelette; cream toast; coffee. DINNER Roast chicken; caramel sweet- potatoes; baked corn. Lettuce and white-grape salad. Spanish cream. Coffee. SUPPER Creamed chicken and green peppers; sandwiches; coffee. Lettuce and hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise. SUced peaches and cream; cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Bacon and fried apples; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Milk toast with grated cheese; tea. Fruit and cake. DINNER Chicken and rice soup. Lamb pot-pie; string-beans; pota- toes. Apple pie; cheese. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Pears. Com fritters; muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Baked stuffed tomatoes; chipped potatoes; tea. Baked apples and cream. EASY ENTERTAINING 189 DINNEK Cream of lettuce soup. Meat pie (lamb) ; scalloped toma- toes; sweet-potatoes. Grapes and peaches. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Cereal. Baked eggs in cream; fruit muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Macaroni and tomatoes; tea. Grapes. DINNER Vegetable soup. Beef strips, stewed in casserole with tomato; baked potatoes; minced carrots. Chocolate blanc-mange. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Fruit. Codfish surprise; cream toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Fried oysters; sandwiches; pickles. Baked pears and cookies. DINNER Beef soup (stew). Baked liver; rice croquettes; Lima beans. Caramel custards. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Scrambled eggs ; corn muffins. Coffee. LUNCHEON Deviled sardines on toast; chopped brown potatoes; tea. Stuffed cucumber salad; cream cheese and crackers. DINNER Stuffed baked wbitefish; cucumber pur6e; mashed potatoes. Lettuce and tomato salad. Bread and orange marmalade pudding. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Fruit. Smoked salmon, creamed; creamed potatoes; muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON Stuffed baked red peppers; creamed sweet-potatoes; tea. Lady-fingers and whipped cream. DINNER Scalloped whitefish ; baked tomatoes; potatoes. Lettuce salad. Peach shortcake and cream. Coffee. AFTERNOON TEA A TEA may be one of the most delightful and informal affairs in the whole social round, or it may be an unmitigated bore. It all de- pends upon the hostess. If she is a wise woman she will limit her guests to the number her house can accommodate with ease, and have her hours long enough to avoid all coming at the same time; she will have some regard to making her guests acquainted if they have not already met; and she will furnish forth her table so invitingly that those who come perfunctorily will remain to chat over the teacups, and pay her the compliment of forgetting the time of day. On a cold winter's afternoon a bright open fire is one of the things to have, if possible, and near enough to it to look cozy should stand the prettiest of tea tables; not one of the small affairs which will hold only a half-dozen cups, but a good-sized one capable of practical service. In the centre should be a bowl of flowers, and about it two candelabra or several 190 EASY ENTERTAINING 191 individual candlesticks with or without shades. Scattered between will be room for plates of sand- wiches, cakes, bonbons, and salted nuts or crys- tallized fruits, while at one side the tea or coffee urn may stand, or the chocolate-pot, and at the other side may be a large punch-bowl of lemonade or tea punch. Of course the quantity and variety of the refreshments must depend on the size of the gathering. If only a dozen or two are invited, then the simpler things are the better, but if the so-called " tea " is really a function, then something more elaborate is in keeping. If one plans to have tea, chocolate, and lemonade for beverages, she must consider how most easily she can handle them. Tea made with a kettle of boiling water and a tea-ball is all very well for three or four persons, but one cannot serve more without a delay while the water slowly comes to the boiUng-point. The urn is the best thing to use for a number. Have the tea made in the kitchen and carefully strained; then put it in the urn and light the lamp, and it will keep fresh for hours. Have cream, sugar, and sliced lemons on the table, and, if you fancy a novelty, try putting two cloves in each cup and pouring the hot tea upon them, removing them before passing the cup. Coffee and bouillon should be served from an urn, and the cups used for either of these, and for tea as well, should be the 192 EASY ENTERTAINING small flaring teacups, not after-dinner coffee-cups. If you are so fortunate as to own a Russian samovar, and it certainly gives the best tea in the world, do not use cups at all, but tall, slender glasses, passed on small plates, and put a slice of lemon in each Some chocolate-pots are of an odd shape, resembling vases or urns, and the cups which are used with them do not have the straight sides they formerly had, but flare at the top somewhat as the teacups do. Of course when chocolate is offered at a tea, whipped cream is put on it when it is served. When the lemonade is made, shredded oranges, bananas, and pineapple may be used, but it is to be strained before it is put in the bowl, and a few mara- schino or preserved cherries added. A small ladle is used for filling the glass cups which invariably ac- company a punch-bowl. Tea punch is made by using hot tea instead of water for lemonade, adding the fruits as before, but putting it, when ice-cold, into a glass pitcher instead of a bowl, and placing a large bunch of sugared mint in the mouth. Cafe frappe is strong coffee, well sweetened, and with a good deal of cream which is frozen to the consistency of wet snow. It is served from the bowl in glasses. The sandwiches offered at teas are of infinite variety; sometimes they are filled with a salad mix- EASY ENTERTAINING 193 ture, sometimes with a sweet, and often with some sort of nuts with cream or fruit. They are cut in circles or triangles or hearts, or else rolled. To make salad sandwiches, chop and pound chicken or turkey to a paste, and mix with mayonnaise, or spread crisp lettuce leaves with mayonnaise and put between the slices. Olives, chopped very fine, make an excellent salad sandwich, either plain or, like the others, with a dressing. Delicious sandwiches are made by using the very thinnest possible shavings of lemon, and cu- cumbers with French dressing are also appetizing, provided not too much of the rather strongly flavored vegetable is used. Sweet sandwiches are made of orange marmalade, or pear conserve, which is a rich jam with considerable ginger cooked in it. Jelly is sometimes used, but it is not sufficiently stiff to be practical; jam or mar- malade is far better. Peach or apricot is most delicate ; red raspberry is occasionally seen, but the seeds are decidedly objectionable. Besides these two kinds of sandwiches there are many prepared with nuts which are also very nice. Boston brown bread two days old, cut very thin, spread first with a little butter and then with cream cheese mixed with chopped peanuts, is one of the best of sandwiches, but care must be taken not to have the bread damp or soggy. Whole- wheat bread may be prepared with this same filling. 194 EASY ENTERTAINING Raisins and chopped Engl sh walnuts are nice, and so are chopped dates and almonds together. Often whipped cream is used with these nut fillings, to bind them. The cake served at afternoon tea should always be of the lighter sort. It is never wise to offer any sort of layer or fruit cake or anything which is sticky. There are all kinds of wafers and nut strips which are easily prepared at home which are delicious, and certainly far more tempting than the ordinary things bought from the baker. Strips of puff paste may be covered with chopped almonds mixed with the sUghtly beaten white of one egg, and just browned in the oven; lady-fingers may be rolled in boiled frosting and allowed to dry; saltines may be covered with sweet, melted chocolate, with a very little butter mixed in; or little cakes may be made in small baldng- dishes, the smaller the better, and rolled in boiled icing colored and flavored with orange, rose, lemon, or pistache, and these may be ornamented, if desired, with tiny strips of angelica, or bits of candied cherries or nuts cut in lengths. Ice-cream sandwiches are good, but many are afraid to attempt them, as they seem difficult to manage; they are very simple, on the contrary. Get white ice-cream in bricks, as firmly packed as possible, and slice it on a marble slab, — an old-fashioned table or bureau top is just the thing; EASY ENTERTAINING 195 then with a round biscuit-cutter cut out circles from the slices, and put them between macaroons. Or cut the slices in strips of the right size to fit between two sugar wafers. Serve these sandwiches on small plates with forks. The bonbons used at afternoon teas may be all chocolates, or else peppermints or creams, matching the flowers in color, or they may be delicious con- fections in paper cases, such as marrons glaces or strips of orange and lemon, candied, but in any case they should be something dainty, and, if possible, something not seen on every table. If salted nuts are used, try having them pecans instead of almonds, and mix a few green pistache nuts with them; the contrast is pretty, and almonds have been used so long as to be tiresome. Sometimes an afternoon tea is really an elaborate reception; in that case it is almost essential to have a caterer, for the decorations and refreshments, are too troublesome for the ordinary hostess to prepare. There must be flowers and lights in profusion, a table loaded with delicacies, and many waiters to serve. There is usually a first course of bouillon, followed by something in the way of shell-fish, perhaps creamed oysters or lobster, with sandwiches; after that is a salad, chicken, or shrimp, and then ices in forms, fancy cakes, bonbons, and coffee, lemonade, or punch. 196 EASY ENTERTAINING The table has a centrepiece of roses and ferns, candles in silver candelabra, set pieces of spun sugar with fruits and sweets, sometimes arrangements of whipped cream in colored sugar shapes. BUFFET LUNCHEONS AND SUPPERS AT many large receptions, or at weddings, either at noon or in the evening, it is quite usual to have no table spread for the refreshments, but to have things served whenever any one wishes, from a buffet. Of course there may be a time when most of the guests will sit down about the dining-room, but others may stand about the halls and in the other rooms and still be served. It is necessary, in order to have things hot for this prolonged time, to use large chafing-dishes and dishes for hot water, as well as urns for bouillon and coffee, but only one of a kind need be in evidence; the rest may be kept ready in the butler's pantry, or on a side-table. On the buffet proper may be only one or two hot dishes, and perhaps two urns, with plates, napkins, forks, sandwiches, and salads. The ices, cakes, and other things needed may be brought in at the moment they are called for. The soiled dishes and napkins must be carried out from the room as soon as they are used, and not put on the buffet or side- table. 197 198 EASY ENTERTAINING A buffet luncheon, coming at midday, is necessarily more of a meal than is an evening supper, with dinner only a few hours before. Still, the dishes served are alike, the difference being that there is usually one extra course served at a luncheon. At either, the first course is beef or chicken bouillon, served in two- handled cups, or else in flat teacups; with this tiny unbuttered rolls are passed; or small grisini, or bread sticks. The next course may be creamed oysters or creamed lobster or crab meat, or lobster or crabs a la Newburg. Oysters are now usually served in fontage cups, or, as they are often called, Swedish timbale cases; they are easily made and less heavy than pate cases of pastry. Croquettes are always in place at a buffet meal, but for such an occasion they are made much smaller than for ordinary use; perhaps only one- third as large. They may be made of chicken or sweetbreads, or they may be of lobster moulded into chop or cutlet shape. With either chicken or sweetbreads French pease are often served. Timbales are rather more easily made at home than croquettes are, and they are always a good choice for a hot dish. This is a rule for twenty: Take the meat from a four-pound chicken without cooking and chop it; put it twice through the chopper and then mix the unbeaten white of an egg with it. Whip a pint of cream, season it with Cayenne EASY ENTERTAINING 199 and salt and gradually beat in the chicken; last of all fold in the beaten whites of eight eggs. Butter small timbale moulds and put a star of truffle in the bottom of each if you wish; fill half full of the mixture and arrange the moulds in a pan of hot water which comes as far up as the mixture in the moulds. Bake fifteen minutes and turn out, with a small spoonful of cream sauce by each. Often sweetbreads with or without mushrooms mixed with them are served directly after the bouiUon, with perhaps a croquette, and the salad comes next. This makes rather a light meal for luncheon, but is a good plan for supper. For something heavier deviled crabs served in their shells or crab meat a la Newburg is always acceptable. For a cold entree one can have a choice of several things. Chicken mousse served in slices from a large mould is exceedingly deUcate. Take a cup of cold boiled chicken, add a tablespoonful of pate de foie gras and one of sherry; beat the yolks of two eggs, pour over them a cup of hot chicken stock, add the meat, and cook one minute. When cold beat in a cup of whipped cream, a tablespoonful of gelatine dis- solved in cold water, and the beaten whites of three eggs. Mix, put into a buttered mould which has been wet, set on ice, and leave at least six hours. This will serve ten people. 200 EASY ENTERTAINING A nice chicken jelly, sliced evenly and served with mayonnaise, is always an easy dish to prepare for a bufifet meal; it is made by merely simmering down a chicken till it drops from the bones, and then ar- ranging the meat in a mould and pouring the strained and seasoned stock over. It must stand on ice till it is very firm. This is good served with either mayon- naise or sauce tartare. Still another cold dish which is often seen on a buffet is a large, fine salmon, boiled and served whole, decorated with tiny crabs fastened along the back with little silver skewers.. This is cut when needed, and sauce tartare is passed with it Sandwiches always accompany the hot course, and it is best to have more than one variety, though two plates are enough to have at one time on the buffet; these may be replenished when necessary from the refrigerator where the rest must be kept. They may be made of several things. Olives, chopped fine, mixed with a very little mayonnaise and spread on thin bread and butter are very appetizing. A delicate cheese sandwich is sometimes served with lobster, or a tiny thin brown-bread-and-butter sandwich with oysters in any shape. A mixture of cream cheese and pimentoes spread on white bread is very good with any hot dish made of chicken. Of course tongue and ham sandwiches are always the staples, and to have EASY ENTERTAINING 201 them in perfection they should be prepared carefully at home. Put the meat twice through the meat- chopper till it is smooth paste; season it with dry mustard and Cayenne, and add half its bulk in butter. Mix, put on the fire till blended, press into a mould, and when needed spread directly on the unbuttered bread. These sandwiches should be cut in triangles. Others may be made by chopping watercress and spreading it on buttered bread, rolling into long shapes, and putting a sprig of cress into each end of the sandwich. Lettuce spread on bread with either French dressing or mayonnaise is also rolled, and very nice sandwiches to be cut into fancy shapes may be made by spreading bread with chicken salad put through the meat-chopper until it is a paste. Salads for a buffet luncheon or supper are always of a heavy sort, either lobster or shrimp, chicken or sweetbread. A good way to handle them is to make them with a thick mayonnaise, and after mixing them well press them into round or oval dishes and set them on the ice till they are needed. Then they may be turned out into firm mounds on platters and masked with more mayonnaise, and decorated for serving. Chicken salad usually has quarters of hard-boiled egg, lettuce hearts, and stoned olives about it; lobster has the small claws on the top and sides, and sweet- bread has lettuce hearts alone. Sometimes slices of 202 EASY ENTERTAINING a clear aspic jelly with stars or other bits of vegetables set in it are served with the salad, and plain finger- rolls, or bread-and-butter sandwiches are always passed. The green sandwiches are used with the hot courses alone. The sweets served at a luncheon or breakfast of this kind may be either elaborate or simple, as the hostess prefers. Sometimes there are fancy shapes of whipped cream surrounded by rolled gauffres, or delicate wafers, and with these a wine jelly is passed, as alone the cream is insipid. Besides there may be forms made of whipped cream and candied fruits, or other similar combinations. These, however, are designed really to decorate a table with, and are not quite in keeping with a buffet luncheon or supper. Ices are served in forms, unless the occasion is very informal, when a melon mould may be used, or a brick. Or meringue shells filled with ice-cream are in good taste. There are lovely shapes in ices, especially suitable for weddings or large receptions; roses, white and pink, or lilies moulded in white and green, or large flat daisies in white and yellow; these may be served on spun sugar. Or there are large flowers of sugar candy, wonderfully real, each open to hold a spoonful of ice-cream or ice. Fruit forms may be served in candy baskets; a basketful of ice-cream peaches is EASY ENTERTAINING 203 always beautiful, and so is a basket of fruits artistic- ally mixed with fresh foliage. These are better than a variety of small figures or vegetable shapes. Little cakes are to be served with ices, not slices from large cakes. The hostess should be careful to see that none of the squares of jelly-cake covered with colored icing which caterers affect find their way in; there are plenty of others nowadays of far daintier quality to be had for the seeking; many of the fine bakeries as well as confectioneries make a specialty of tiny French and Italian varieties. There are also delicious French bonbons to serve with ices ; marrons, candied almond paste, and crystallized fruits. The last course at a luncheon or supper served from the buffet is always coffee in small cups, either with or without cream. MID -WINTER LUNCHEONS FOR a simple little luncheon-party where every- thing is prepared at home the hostess may have a first course of either soup or fruit, whichever she prefers. In winter, however, grape- fruit is usually plentiful and inexpensive, and two will serve five persons or more, so that it may be planned for at one luncheon, at least. This is a simple but attractive menu: Grapefruit. Cream of celery soup in cups. Salmon croquettes and pease. Creamed chicken in rice border, with cheese; hot rolls; tea or chocolate. White-grape and pecan salad; cream-cheese balls; wafers. Walnut ice-cream in cakes. Scoop out the grapefruit pulp and put it into some sort of glasses, either the tall ones holding cups, which come on purpose, or in plain, flaring glasses shaped like those for champagne, or in glass cups. Sweeten it with a little sugar-and-water syrup poured over the fruit while rather warm, and when it is chilled later on and put into glasses add a very 204 EASY ENTERTAINING 205 little sherry or cordial to flavor it. If you prefer you can use half grapefruit and half orange pulp; the two colors look well together. For the soup get two or three heads of the short celery; split them into four pieces each and save the inside part to pass after the croquettes. Take the outside, the roots, and leaves, and stew them till they are very soft; then rub through a sieve or colander and add to a quart of hot milk; simmer a moment, season well, thicken with a level tablespoon- ful of butter melted and rubbed smooth with as much flour; add to the soup, and when it has all grown smooth like cream, strain and serve in hot cups; a very little whipped cream on top of each is nice. For the croquettes, get a can of salmon, remove all skin, bones, and fat, and drain it well. Mash it, season with salt and a little Cayenne and mix with it; measure, and to two cups of the fish put one small cup of white sauce, made with two tables poonfuls of flour and one of butter and a small cup of hot milk. Beat well and spread out to grow cold and stiff. When you are ready to fry them, cut off pieces of the mixture about two inches long and one wide, and roll each under your hand till it is smooth, and then square the ends; dip each first into sifted crumbs, then into the half-beaten yolk of an egg mixed with a table- spoonful of cold water; then into the crumbs again, 206 EASY ENTERTAINING and when the outer covering is dry put two at a time into the wire basket and fry in deep fat; drain on white paper in the oven, and serve on a napkin laid on a platter, with lemon sUces and parsley. Drain and heat the pease with a little salt and pepper, and pile them around the croquettes. For the main course, cut up any nice cold chicken, either roasted or stewed, or, if more convenient, take the best brand of canned chicken; cream it, using as rich milk as possible, or even thin cream, and fill a border of boiled rice. This can be prepared a day in advance, and merely reheated at luncheon-time. The easiest way to make it is to press it while soft and hot into a tin ring or border mould; if one does not happen to have this very convenient utensil it can be pressed into a round tin pan four inches deep, and when it is firm and cold the centre can be cut out, leaving a ring. When the chicken is in, cover the top with a good layer of grated cheese and return it to the oven to brown. This makes a substantial and yet delicate dish, and potatoes are not needed with it, because of the rice which takes their place. For the salad, get a small white head of lettuce and half a pound or more of Malaga grapes. Cut a little hole with a tiny knife in one side of each grape and take out the seeds; press into their place a bit of pecan-nut, and when all are ready pile them in the m sp a4'*/ f H / EASY ENTERTAINING 207 middle of the lettuce on a round, flat glass dish and pour over them three tablespoonfuls of olive-oil well mixed with one of lemon juice, or a little less of vinegar, with salt and a very little Cayenne. Serve cream cheese with this dish, either rolled in balls or in the square shape in which it comes. For dessert, make a quart of rich vanilla ice-cream, and when it is firm enough to remove the dasher stir in a cup of chopped English walnuts and let it stand till needed, so that it may ripen. Have ready some simple cake, baked in little round tins — these may be prepared the day before, — and scoop out the middle of each one and heap with the cream. This makes a pretty and novel sweet to close the luncheon. Coffee may be passed later, unless tea or chocolate has been served with the main course; if either has been, the coffee will not be needed. A second luncheon may begin with the soup course: Cream of green-pea soup in cups. Fried oysters with sauce tartare. French chops with latticed potatoes; celery au gratin; hot rolls; currant jelly. Grapefruit or orange salad, on lettuce Ginger ice-cream in glasses; little cakes. Coffee. The soup may easily be made by simmering a small can of drained pease in rich milk, with a small bit of onion, then pressing all through a sieve, sea- 208 EASY ENTERTAINING soning well, and very slightly thickening; the pease will really make the soup thick enough for most tastes without adding the usual flour and butter. Serve as the soup course in the previous luncheon, with a little cream on top, and be sure that the cups are reaUy hot. Choose large oysters for frying, and dip each one into sifted crumbs, then into beaten egg, then into crumbs again, and, when dry, fry them in the wire basket. Arrange them on a napkin on a platter in regular rows, slightly overlapping them, and at inter- vals set halved lemons with the inside scooped out and sauce tartare put in; there may be a small half- lemon for each person, or large lemons may be chosen, in which case four half-lemons will hold enough for eight persons. The sauce is merely mayonnaise, with a tablespoonful of finely chopped pickle, onion, parsley, and capers to a cupful. If it is too much trouble to prepare the lemons, put the sauce into a small bowl and pass it after serving the oysters. For the main course, have little French chops, and after broiling them surround them with latticed pota- toes, made with the little tin utensil which comes on purpose and is very easy to use. It is a pleasant change to use sweet instead of white potatoes. Instead of chops you can have panned chicken, if you prefer. The celery is to be stewed, creamed, and put into EASY ENTERTAINING 209 a baking-dish with crumbs and butter on top, and browned in the oven. For the salad, put grapefruit pulp on lettuce and cover with the same French dressing described before. Or, have orange salad: Cut the top and bottom layer off peeled seedless oranges and sHce each in four thick pieces; arrange on lettuce with an English walnut half on each sUce, and serve with either mayonnaise or French dressing. For the dessert, make a plain, rich cream as usual, but flavor strongly with ginger. The day before the luncheon get from the butcher a little bunch of mint leaves, wash and wipe each one dry, and boil a cup of sugar hard, with half a cup of water, for four minutes without stirring. Cool slightly and then dip the leaves into the S3rrup and draw each one over granu- lated sugar, on both sides; lay on oiled paper till dry. When the ginger ice-cream is in the glasses put two candied mint leaves on top of each glass; the combina- tion of flavors is very good. A third luncheon might have a first course of mixed fruits: Fruits in glasses. Clam bouillon with whipped cream; hot wafers. Eggs Newburg. Veal cutlets with chopped mushrooms; creamed potatoes; rolls; tea. Celery salad, cream cheese, wafers. Wine jelly in glasses with cream. 210 EASY ENTERTAINING Put bits of orange, grapefruit, and banana into glasses after sweetening with syrup as before, and serve very cold. Stew the clams in their own juice for two minutes, then chop, strain, and add to rich hot milk; season with pepper only, slightly thicken, and serve with hot wafers. Omit the fish course because of the clams in the soup, and instead have eggs Newburg. Boil hard four or more, and cut them up into bits as large as the end of your finger. Heat a small cup of cream, add the beaten yolks of two eggs, salt, a little Cayenne, and a tablespoonful of sherry, and when it grows smooth and thick put in the eggs and heat; serve at once in individual dishes or in paper cases. Have a sUce or two of cutlet cut thin; cut this out in even circles and press with the potato-masher till they are as large as a slice of an orange; fry these quickly; have ready chopped half a can of mush- rooms or a quarter of a pound of fresh ones, and after seasoning both these and the cutlet cover the meat with them in a smooth, even layer. Serve very hot, with creamed potatoes, and if you wish another vegetable, a spoonful of pease. For a delicious celery salad, cut the celery up into inch pieces and split each one. Rub perfectly dry in a towel and set on ice. Prepare a small cup of English walnut meats and two heaping tables poonfuls of EASY ENTERTAINING 211 chopped olives, with a cup of stiff mayonnaise. Just before serving mix all together well and put into a salad-bowl, and put celery leaves around the edge; do not use lettuce. Be careful not to put the mayon- naise on the celery till the last moment, and have the mayonnaise very thick. For a change from ice-cream, make a well-flavored wine jelly and set it in a pan so that it will be an inch thick. Cut this into cubes and pile them in flat glasses and top each with a very little whipped cream or a candied cherry. Or, omit the first course of fruit in this luncheon and put the orange and grape- fruit into the jelly, with a few cherries cut up fine; then cut the jelly into cubes as before. THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. NO. 1 IF there were no other reason for using holly on the Christmas dinner-table, the long association connected with its use at this winter festival would surely commend it to us; but, besides the sentiment, there is also the fact that if skilfully ar- ranged there is nothing more decorative. The prettiest of dinner- tables may be laid thus: First, put on the white damask cloth, and in the centre lay a silver tray, if you have one; if not, take a round mirror; or dispense with either; around the edge of the s Iver or glass, or oti the cloth, put a wreath of the hoUy, not too heavy, because that would give a dark efifect, and in the middle put a glass or silver bowl with the holly branches bearing the greatest number of berries; wipe off all the leaves with a cloth on which is a very little oil, to make them reflect the lights. Then place candles in single sticks here and there, and use shades of red, or white edged with painted holly; last, put at each cover a good-sized plate holding a smaller one, and on this stand half a grapefruit in its shell, and arrange a small wreath of 212 EASY ENTERTAINING 213 holly on the edge of the larger plate, letting the leaves conceal it and come up around the fruit. Put a cherry or two in the middle of each. The effect of the table is charming and most in keeping with the day. If one owns grapefruit glasses, these may be used instead of the fruit in shells, and the stems may be concealed by holly placed on the plate in a small loose pile. Use holly instead of parsley in decorating the dishes. This menu can be added to to make it more elabo- rate, if any one chooses; a course of game might follow the turkey, with a green salad accompanjning it; however, it must always be remembered that it is better to err on the side of simplicity rather than elaboration. Grapefruit with cherries (surrounded by holly). Cream of celery soup. Lobster patties. Roast tiu-key with oyster dressing; chestnut puree; caramel sweet-potatoes; pease; cranberry jam. Orange salad; cheese balls; wafers. Individual plxxm puddings (surrounded by holly). Coffee. If a little supper is to be served in the evening make the celery soup with the root and tops only to season it, and reserve the best parts to use then. Simmer with a pint of water, a slice of onion, salt, and pepper till all is a pulp; add a pint or more of rich milk. 214 EASY ENTERTAINING thicken slightly, and strain. Add a little whipped cream if you wish. For the patties, instead of buying the shells at the baker's, press rich pie crust into ordinary scalloped tins, and bake; pick up and cream a large cupful of lobster meat and season highly with salt, Cayenne, and a dash of lemon juice, and after heating the shells heap them with the mixture. For the stuffing for the turkey get a quart of small oysters; drain them, saving the juice to use later on; put a heaping cup of soft bread crumbs into a hot frying-pan with a thick slice of onion, a heaping table- spoonful of butter, salt, and pepper; toss, and stir till the crumbs are golden brown; then put in the oysters, and heat till their edges curl; take out the slice of onion, wipe out the turkey, and stuff lightly, leaving room to swell; roast with the breast down in the pan, supporting the bird by cups put in the cor- ners of the pan, if you have no wire supporters made on purpose. For the puree, which goes so well with turkey, get a quart of French chestnuts or use two quarts of home-grown; boil them till the shells will come off; peel and put on again, and cook till tender; press through the puree sieve, season with salt and a little pepper; wet with a very little cream if it seems too dry, and serve piled loosely in a hot dish. EASY ENTERTAINING 215 With chestnuts it is not necessary to have any kind of potato, since the two are rather ahke in con- sistency; however, if any are needed use caramel sweet-potatoes; boil and slice them, dip each piece in butter and then in sugar, and brown. Or, in place of these, have mashed white potatoes; with either pass giblet gravy. For a vegetable canned pease are good, since some- thing rather Ught is desirable; drain them, season well, and heat in a very little cream, but have them served dry, not at all wet. Instead of the usual cranberry sauce there is some- thing richer and much more delicious, which is easily made. Get a quart or more of cranberries, pick them over, and put them to cook in barely enough water to float them; when all the berries have broken, and the water is absorbed so that the whole is a thick mush, measure and add as much sugar, the pulp of three oranges, and a cup of raisins, with the grated peel of one orange; cook this down till it is thick and pour into a mould, or serve as a jam. For the salad have something cool and refreshing; if lettuce is obtainable choose that, and after arranging it in a dish cover first with French dressing and then with chopped almonds; pass with it a little dish of cream-cheese balls and some thin crackers; if lettuce 216 EASY ENTERTAINING cannot be had, have instead some thickly sliced peeled seedless oranges; arrange them on a flat dish in overlapping circles, and pour French dressing over; this must be served very cold; have the crackers and cheese as before. The plum pudding may be made in small tin moulds and steamed; when ready to use take prunes which have been slightly moistened tUl the stones can be slipped out, and, after drying well, soak them in pure alcohol; press one into the top of each little pudding, and light it; it will make a very pretty flame which will last till the prune is entirely con- sumed. Arrange the puddings on a large flat dish, and put plenty of holly all around the edge. This is an excellent rule for the pudding; Mix a pint and a half of soft white bread crumbs with a pint of chopped suet, a pint of mixed stoned raisins and currants, half a pint of chopped figs, all slightly floured; half a cup of thinly sliced citron, a small cup of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of grated nut- meg, five slightly beaten eggs, two tables poonfuls of flour mixed with half a cup of milk. Butter cups or tin moulds, half fill them, and steam three hours, or less if the moulds are small. Use a highly flavored hard sauce with the puddings. If an ice is desired for the close of the dinner, either in place of the plum pudding or following it, EASY ENTERTAINING 217 here is something particularly nice: Make, first, a quart of rich, plain ice-cream; freeze soft, and stir in half a cup of powdered stale macaroons and half a cup of finely chopped hazel-nuts; mix well, scrape down from the sides of the freezer, and let it stand two hours. Meanwhile take a whole cup of hazel- nuts and blanch them by dropping first into hot water and then into cold; slip off the skins, and brown them in the oven by adding to them a half-beaten white of egg; dip out the cream, and pile it lightly in tall glasses, and put several of the browned nuts on top of each glassful. For another dinner which has the Christmas goose as the main dish, the course of fruit might be omitted and the soup come first: Oyster bisque. Creamed scallops in individual dishes. Roast goose; baked stuffed onions; sweet-potato puff; cranberry jeUy. Asparagus or lettuce salad; wafers. Mince pie and cheese. Marshmallow ice-cream. Coffee. For six persons a pint of oysters will be needed; drain them, heat the juice, and skim well, and then add the oysters; heat a quart of very rich milk, season with salt and pepper, and slightly thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with as much 218 EASY ENTERTAINING flour; strain, and keep hot; when the edges of the oysters curl take them up, chop them, and put through the press; add to the hot milk, bring just to the boiling-point, and serve immediately. For the Uttle fish course have creamed or deviled scallops. To cream them, drop them into boiUng water, cover, take off the fire, and let them stand three minutes. Drain well, and add to them barely enough thick white sauce to cover; season, and serve in small dishes. To devil them, after scalding them, drain, season with lemon juice, salt, Cayenne, and chopped parsley to taste; put a little butter in a hot frying- pan, and turn the scallops in this till they are slightly brown; serve in small dishes with a slice of lemon and a sprig of parsley on top of each dish. As a goose is too often tough, it is always best to parboil it the day before it will be needed; for a stuffing take a cup of soft bread crumbs, a cup of chopped apple, and a cup of minced celery; put all in a frjdng-pan with a heaping tablespoonful of butter, salt, pepper, and a teaspoonful of minced onion, and brown; wipe out the goose; fill two- thirds only with the stuffing, and roast with the breast downward; serve with a giblet sauce. For a vegetable have large onions, slightly cooked in water till they are soft; then the centres are re- moved, and a bread-cnmib stuffing put in; brown EASY ENTERTAINING 219 these in the oven, and serve in the same dish. Have sweet-potatoes, boiled, mashed, and beaten up Ught with an egg, and browned in the oven. Instead of having cranberry jam or jelly with goose, have some spiced apples. To make these get large ones which are rather hard; peel and quarter them; make a thick syrup of a pint of cider vinegar and a heaping cup of sugar, boiled down with a tablespoonful of whole spices; put in the apple quarters, and cook till tender, but remove them before they break. Instead of the lettuce, which is always the best choice for dinner, you can have a nice celery salad. Dice it evenly and not too small, cook till transparent, and drain well; put on ice, and just before dinner add a cup of English walnuts and French dressing. Or, instead of either of these, have canned asparagus, drained and covered with French dressing, served ice cold. Do not have cheese with any of these salads if you are to have mince pie, because it must go with that. As to the pie, bake it in a large plate and slip it out on to a larger dish; warm it, put holly around, and just before serving cover quickly with piure alcohol, and set it on fire; all the alcohol will be con- sumed, but the flame is after the Christmas tradition. After this course, or instead of it, there may be a new kind of ice-cream which has a decidedly hoUday 220 EASY ENTERTAINING look. To make this, get a pound of marshmallows; lay half of these candies away; chop the other half, and put them to soak for six hours in a bright red fruit juice; home-made cherry preserves often give this color, or you can buy ten cents' worth of any flavor at the soda-fountain or a drug-store. Make a quart of rich, plain white ice-cream, and freeze it, and when half stiff drain the mallows and fold them in; take the cream from the freezer and pack in a regular mould or a small pail with a tight cover, and bury two hours or more in ice and salt. Turn out on a cold platter and surround with the plain marsh- mallows, standing some also on top; on each one put a candied cherry, and around all put a little whipped cream; decorate profusely with holly. Or, instead of this cream have a caramel fig pudding, frozen. Melt a cup of sugar, and let it brown; put in a pint of thin cream, flavor with vanilla, cool, and freeze. When half-done add a half pound of figs chopped and wet with plain cream, and put the pud- ding into a melon or other mould and let it stand two hours or more in ice and salt. When time to serve it, turn out and put spoonfuls of stiff whipped cream all around. For the little supper in the evening take the celery and oyster juice left from the first dinner; mince the celery, heat it in the juice, and add diced turkey and a EASY ENTERTAINING 221 little cream; season, and serve from the chafing-dish. Have olive sandwiches and coffee with this dish. Or dice the celery and dry it well, and add a pint of oysters cooked in their own juice, drained and chilled; mix with stiff mayonnaise, and serve with cold sliced turkey, with coffee and sandwiches. If goose is the main dinner dish, slice the breast and serve with celery and hard-boiled-egg salad made with mayonnaise; or have the cold goose and plain celery, sandwiches and hot chocolate, the latter with one marshmallow dropped into each cup. A charming little French sweet for Christmas, for either dinner or supper, is a new sort of cake. Make a plain sponge-cake in a thin layer in a biscuit- tin, and while warm cut it out in circles. Cut more of it into little squares, and with the scissors shape these into balls the size of marbles; roll each one in boiled sugar-and-water syrup cooked down to a thread and colored with fruit juice or vegetable paste,' so that they are pink or orange color; flavor the syrup well; while these are warm stick them on the sponge-cake rounds and top each with half a cherry; when cold fill the centres with whipped cream, either plain or frozen. Serve on a flat dish on a large paper doily or on individual plates, giving each one a fork and a spoon. If a simpler sweet is required, take halved pre- 222 EASY ENTERTAINING served peaches and stand each one on a round of stale sponge-cake, the open side of the peach up; heap with whipped cream, plain or frozen, and put a cherry on top. The cream may easily be frozen by being first whipped and sweetened and then merely put into a pail, and put in the snow a few hours, or in a pan of ice and salt; the dish repays the extra trouble of freezing the cream. THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. NO. 2 A DELIGHTFUL little decoration for a Christ- mas table, one suggestive of the quaint old English customs, is a small attractive Yule log. For this, get a piece of white birch wood and have it cut the length you choose; then draw on top of it an opening, perhaps eight inches long and* four across, or larger, if the log is good sized; cut the birch bark from this, and leave the wood beneath untouched. Get a quantity of the pretty artificial holly which looks exactly like the real except that the berries are more abundant and glossy, and tack it on the log; this is easily done by bending the wire stems, of the twigs across and putting in double tacks, and then straightening the holly in place; real holly can be used, but it is much more difficult to fasten on. When the log is finished it will look as though the holly were growing out of an opening, much like a small window- box. The white log is not at all unsuitable for a dainty table, and the idea of this is charming, as well as the appearance of the whole. If more green is needed, lay 224 EASY ENTERTAINING a bed of holly on the table first and stand the log on that. Red candle shades, or those painted with holly will look well on the Christmas table, and there may be small bunches of holly at the covers on the napkins; it may be used on the roast turkey or goose instead of parsley, and also stuck in the pudding. If turkey was used as the main dish at Thanks- giving-time, the traditional goose may be chosen for this dinner. This menu is simply prepared: Grapefruit. Oyster bisque; celery. Salmon mousse with potato balls. Roast goose with spiced apples; creamed baked cauliflower; sweet-potatoes. Chicory and apple salad; cheese balls; wafers. Steamed fig pudding, hard sauce. Ices in glasses; cakes. Coffee. If grapefruit is used for the first course, take it from the shells and put it into the regular glasses if you own them, and serve with a cherry on top of each; or use any glasses you have, or the shells of the fruit; but in any case put a sprig of holly on each plate by the side of the fruit or glass, and have this course on the table at the beginning of the meal. For the soup, try this rule, since most soup of the kind is ruined by cooking the oysters: Scald twenty- EASY ENTERTAINING 225 five medium-sized oysters in their own juice, and as soon as the edges curl take them off the fire, pour off the juice, and strain it. To this add a cup of water; melt a tablespoonful of butter, add as much flour, and rub smooth; add slowly a cup of thin cream and cook till evenly creamy; add salt, paprika, drop in the oysters, add the juice, and heat all for a moment; serve at once. The mousse is made by mixing a large canful of salmon with a cup of white sauce and the stiff whites of three eggs; season well, put into a mould, and steam three-quarters of an hour; turn out and surround with potato balls; add a little chopped parsley to these with melted butter. In place of this dish, crab meat Newburg, or creamed, may be served in httle dishes; or, fresh salmon, sliced, may be lightly fried and served with the potato balls; with this have lemon juice and melted butter, half and half, with a httle chopped parsley, and spread it on the fish just before serving. For the main course select a goose which is not too fat inside, as that would indicate that it was an old one; bend the breast bone, and see that the feet look fresh and young, not scaly and rough. Even then it is safe to steam the bkd for two hours before roasting it. Stuff it with this mixture: two cups of soft bread crumbs, one cup of chopped apple, one small onion 226 EASY ENTERTAINING minced; salt, pepper, and a little sage to taste; put into a hot frying-pan with two heaping tables poonfuls of butter, and stir till it browns and the onion and apple are cooked; do not fill the goose too full, but leave room for the mixture to swell. Roast it upside down, and cover the bird with a thick coating of flour; baste frequently and cook long enough to be sure it is tender; twenty-five minutes to a pound is the rule for an old bird, and twenty for one that is younger. Serve with this bird some spiced apples. To make these, cook down three and a half pounds of sugar with a quart of cider vinegar and a handful of whole cinnamon and cloves, until it is thick; then put in some firm apples, not overripe, and let them barely simmer till they are tender, but do not let them break; remove from the fire, put the apples on a flat dish, stems up, and as they cool pour over them the syrup, boiled down a second time with a cupful more of sugar to offset the apple juice which has come out of the fruit and thinned it; this will coat them. When the goose is ready to serve, surround it with these spiced apples and give one to each person; this is an improvement on the old-fashioned plan of having apple sauce with goose. The sweet-potatoes served with this course may be boiled, mashed, and beaten up lightly with a half- cup of cream, some butter, salt, and pepper, and put EASY ENTERTAINING 227 at once into a hot dish; or, they may be browned in the oven, or made into croquettes. Have brown giblet gravy with these as well as the goose itself. The cauliflower may be boiled the day before the dinner, and broken into bits; the next day it can be put into a deep dish with layers of white sauce and a slight sprinkling of cheese and baked with crumbs on top. The salad is something a trifle different from the ordinary; have some tart apples peeled and sliced very thin the last thing before the dinner; arrange these on chicory or lettuce, pour a cold French dressing all over, and, last, sprinkle with the tiny pearl onions which come in bottles. Very cold cream- cheese balls are nice with this, either plain ones or those made by mixing chopped olives or pimentoes with the cheese. Instead of the regular steamed plum pudding, here is something which is quite as good and not as rich: Christmas Fig Pudding. — Chop fine one pound of figs; add a cup of chopped suet, two cups of bread crumbs, three-quarters of a cup of sugar, two table- spoonfuls of citron, cut small, two well-beaten eggs, one tablespoonful of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of milk, one teaspoonful of soda, and a half-teaspoonful of nutmeg; put into a mould and steam two hours; serve with either a hard or foamy sauce, highly 228 EASY ENTERTAINING flavored; have a sprig of holly in the top of the pudding when it appears on the table, as was sug- gested in the beginning. For those present who do not care for so hearty a dessert, or for all alike, a Uttle ice-cream is refreshing to close the meal. Try making an ordinary white ice-cream and mixing into it a cupful of powdered burnt almonds; they may be put through the meat- chopper, or merely pounded up. Have also a spoonful for the top of each glass. With these have small cakes iced in white, with little holly leaves cut out of citron on top, with bits of red candied cherry for berries. Or, if the fig pudding is omitted, have a course of ice- cream with a large Christmas cake, iced elaborately, with a holly wreath all around the top made in the same way. Another dinner may be quite different from this: Grapefruit or oysters. Clear soup with tapioca; short bread sticks. Crab meat en coquille. Roast turkey; cranberry moulds; mashed potatoes; parsnip cakes. Grape salad. Sponge-cake basket of ice-cream. Coffee. The fish course in this dinner is made by putting crab meat, either the fresh or canned variety, into shells after creaming it; the crab shells may be used. EASY ENTERTAINING 229 or the large scallop shells which can be bought at a hardware-shop; fine crumbs are sifted over, and they are browned in the oven with a Uttle butter on top. Or, the meat may be heated, seasoned, and put plain into the shells and a mayonnaise put on top with a few capers. In place of this course an entree may be served; perhaps Uttle oyster pies baked in small dishes; or any sort of patty may be substituted. The cranberry is to be cooked thick, put through a sieve, and set in Uttle moulds, and these served on a flat glass dish decorated with hoUy; or, one mould may be used, if preferred, with hoUy aU around the edge of the dish. The salad is one to be made where lettuce or other salad green cannot be had. It is made by seeding Malaga grapes, either removing the seeds from one side or cutting each one in half; these are laid on white celery tips or on any green obtainable, and French dressing poured over, one made with lemon juice instead of vinegar; after it is passed a plate of cream cheese put through the ricer is passed to be eaten with this, a spoonful on top of each portion of grapes. The dessert is one especiaUy attractive, new, and just the thing for a Christmas dinner. To make it, bake a loaf of sponge-cake in a good-sized bread- tin, 230 EASY ENTERTAINING or any tin of similar shape, having it evenly full on top when baked, not rounded. Cut off the top slice while the cake is fresh, but not hot, and remove all the crumb; make a rich white ice-cream, and when half frozen stir in a small cup of chopped citron, candied cherries, and pineapple with flavoring. Just before serving fill the cake with this, putting it in smoothly and pressing it into the comers; then take the top layer, which was removed, and cut this into two parts, like the flaps of a market basket, and lay them on top of the cream, adding an extra spoonful imder each cover to hold it half open; get a strip of angelica at the grocery or confectioner's — this is candied sugar-cane, very inexpensive — and lay it in warm water till it is flexible; bend this over the basket and stick the ends firmly down in the cream to keep them in place; on top fasten a bunch of hoUy with plenty of berries, and, if you choose, tie it with a red or green ribbon; or, use invisible wire. In serving, cut the whole down from top to bottom into thick slices. This novel dessert is suggestive of a basketful of Christmas presents and will be found just the thing for this holiday meal. To vary these dinners, in the South a little pig may be substituted for the goose or turkey, or even added to the regular menu or served in place of the fish course, though this makes a dinner which is almost EASY ENTERTAINING 231 too heavy. The pig should be very young, not over four weeks old, and preferably three. Clean well, stuff with bread crumbs mixed with onion, sage, salt, and pepper, one beaten egg, and one or more table- spoonfuls of melted butter and a half-cup of hot water. Stuff lightly and sew the pig up; fasten the front legs forward and the back ones backward and skewer in place; rub all over with butter, salt, pepper, and flour, and put into a pan with a little water in a moderate oven. Baste often, using melted butter, and increase the heat of the oven gradually; bake two and a half hours, and be very careful not to let the skin burn, covering it with paper if necessary. Serve on a bed of parsley, and, if you choose, put a small red apple in the mouth; in carving, cut off the head first, then the hams, then cut down the back; have apple sauce to eat with it. For the small families where pig, turkey, or goose is too large, try having a fine capon. Stuff with oysters or stewed chestnuts in a bread-crumb dressing, and have sweet-potato croquettes with it, and giblet sauce. Another dish much delighted in by epicures is roast duck served with guava jelly and fried samp. Two or more fine ducks may be stuffed with a bread- crumb dressing mixed with chopped apple or celery, prunes or nuts, and roasted upside down, leaving 232 EASY ENTERTAINING them slightly rare; the samp is a very coarse sort of hominy and requires cooking all day in a double boiler in slightly salted water to make it swell and grow soft; this may be done a day or more in advance of the dinner; it is to be pressed down in a tin while warm and allowed to stand till it is a firm mould; then it is sliced, dipped in slightly salted flour, and fried brown in deep fat. The slices may be of ordinary shape, or, better, they may be cut into crescents, with a round biscuit-cutter. The guava jelly may now be purchased at a large grocery, in small or good- sized glasses. Instead of this, slices of oranges may be used, cut with the peel on, and a spoonful of currant jelly may be put on each. A delicious and new frozen plum pudding is made by this recipe, and it may be used instead of any other dessert suggested: Scald one quart of milk, one pint of thick cream, and one pint of sugar; while hot, add four tablespoonfuls of melted, unsweetened chocolate, one tablespoonful of vanilla, and half a teaspoonful of lemon. Dry one pint of mixed maca- roons and graham crackers and roll very fine; add these to the hot mixture and cool. When ice-cold, put all in the freezer and turn till it is like thick mush; then add a pint of candied fruits, sultana raisins, figs, candied cherries, pineapple, and ginger, all cut into bits; pack all into a mould and let it stand to ripen EASY ENTERTAINING 233 for four hours; serve with strongly flavored whipped cream, and decorate with holly. Those who dislike all frozen desserts may have a pretty Christmas finish to the dinner by making a charlotte russe, with cherries. Whip a pint of very thick and well-chilled cream, and as it grows thick fold in powdered sugar to taste, and add drop by drop a tablespoonful of gelatine dissolved first in a quarter of a cup of cold water, then over steam. Add a large cup of chopped candied cherries. Serve with holly around it. Another delicious and light dessert is quite simple to make. Whip a half-pint of rich cream till sti£f, and then add fifteen powdered stale macaroons and any flavoring you prefer. Pile this cream in a cut-glass dish and set it on a silver tray surrounded by a wreath of holly. Scatter candied or preserved cherries over the top, and in the centre put a rich full sprig of holly. It makes a particularly pretty dish and will be enjoyed by everybody. Whole fresh macaroons are some- times used as a border around the edge. For the crumbled macaroons you must have quite stale ones — a week or more old and quite dry. The holly for the Christmas dinner table should be kept in a cool place until needed, as it is usually best to buy it some days in advance to get full branches. MIDNIGHT SUPPERS THE most enjoyable of all meals is that which is served as the clock strikes twelve. There is a delightfully effervescent gayety in the air, and a flavor to the food which is lacking at other times. Even bread and butter or crackers and cheese taste like ambrosia, while daintier food has a flavor surpassing even that mythical delicacy, whatever it may have been. Of course the chafing-dish is most useful in pre- paring a more or less impromptu meal, but the un- initiated may use quite as well the small gas-stove of one or two burners, connected with the gas jet by a rubber tube. With this in readiness and the table spread, one's supper is an assured success. This table, by-the-way, will be especially attractive if the hostess owns one of the pretty and quaint brass candelabra, with the straight row of candle-cups across the top, which may be transformed into several shorter rows at different angles by merely moving it about. Somehow one of these groups of high unshaded 234 EASY ENTERTAINING 235 lights is especially appropriate for the midnight feast. "With it and with some flowers one does not need many dishes on the board. A cover for each person, two plates of sandwiches, a bowl of salad, some olives, crackers, cheese, and crisp celery farci will be quite enough, especially as the hot food is to be passed. One of the best dishes for a supper, which has the advan- tage of being ready in a moment, is the old favorite, lobster Newburg. This needs a pint of lobster cut in dice, thoroughly warmed in half a pint of cream, the yolks of three eggs, salt, pepper, and a dash of sherry. It is readily reheated, and may be followed with a plain French dressed lettuce salad, with crackers, cheese, and cofifee. Or, if a heartier meal is desired, then why not choose as a first course that excellent and rather unusual affair which is called filets of lambs' tongues? These are very rich, and one tongue will serve two persons. They are boiled for two hours with two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, then they are peeled, and the fat around the base is cut away. Each tongue is split lengthwise and flattened, so that it forms something shaped Hke a triangular cutlet; each half tongue is then breaded, and a tomato sauce prepared. At night all that is necessary is to put the tongues in a hot frying-pan and cook them quickly, and after laying them on a platter, pour over them the heated tomato sauce. If the first course consists of 236 EASY ENTERTAINING this dish the second might be a shrimp salad with wafers. The shrimps must be put in ice-water for an hour during the day, and then dried before they are sprinkled with oil, vinegar, and salt. Then a stiff mayonnaise is to be made and set on the ice, and at night the shrimps are to be put in it and well stirred before they are laid on the bed of yellow lettuce hearts in the salad-bowl. After these good things there should be the final course of coffee, water-crackers, and the celery farci. This last is made by mixing Roque- fort cheese with sufficient butter to make a smooth paste, and salt enough to be quite evident; celery is cut in pieces of equal length, and the paste is put in the little trough of each piece. Care must be taken to have the celery as crisp as possible, and the best way to secure this is to have it well washed early in the day, but not wiped at all, merely rolled up in a towel and put on the ice; for some reason this makes it exceedingly good. The cheese may be added after it is wiped dry, just before it is needed. A second supper might begin with that always delicious dish, little pigs in blankets; this, too, may be made ready during the day. The largest oysters to be found are the ones selected, and these are well seasoned and then wrapped one by one in thin slices of bacon which are fastened on the back with tooth- pick skewers. At night these little pigs are put in the EASY ENTERTAINING 237 frying-pan and browned, and then served on strips of toast with lemon. Creamed potatoes, also prepared in advance and reheated, are always nice with oysters and bacon, and are not much trouble. Plain sand- wiches of bread and butter should be offered with this course. Next there may be chicken salad, that dish which every housekeeper thinks she can make to perfection, and which is so seldom good. Here is a famous recipe : Cut cold chicken, either home cooked or tinned, into pieces as large as the end of one's finger and lay in oil, vinegar, and salt, perhaps two tablespoonfuls of it to a pint of chicken. Then cut up celery which has been washed and wiped very dry into pieces the same size, and put this into the same dressing in a separate dish; there should be half as much celery as chicken. Have ready three hard- boiled eggs to a pint of chicken, and cut these up and treat in the same way. Make a stiff mayonnaise, and be sure not to spoil it by putting in mustard, and set on the ice. About three or four hours before using the salad, mix all together, and put in a cupful of chopped olives, and stand on the ice till it is needed, when it must be well stirred again and laid on lettuce hearts. The trouble with chicken salad is that it is too wet; the oil and vinegar must be well strained off, especially from the celery, and the dressing must be almost a jelly. After this salad have the coffee, 238 EASY ENTERTAINING crackers, and cheese, but omit the celery farci from the menu. Another supper might begin with deviled lobsters. Take freshly boiled ones and cut into large bits, and mix well with a paste of a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of curry-powder, a teaspoonful of pre- pared mustard, half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, and a Uttle salt. Put into a hot saucepan three tables poonfuls of butter, and when it bubbles add the lobster; cook two minutes. With this use a plain lettuce salad, and have cheese sandwiches with it, serving the cofifee alone. If these things seem too hearty, begin the meal with creamed oysters and cold chicken or turkey, with bread-and-butter, or rolls. Then have a celery and nut salad with plain cream-cheese sandwiches, and have chocolate instead of coffee to close with. Chicken Newburg makes an excellent first course, and this might be followed with a sweetbread salad made with mayonnaise, and then the celery farci and coffee. Or, sweetbreads and chicken may be creamed together and followed by lobster salad. Bacon and mushrooms are always acceptable, and so is shad roe either cooked in butter or put in with bacon and browned. Eggs make an easy first course, and they may be combined with all sorts of delicious things. Parmesan EASY ENTERTAINING 239 eggs are good. Boil six eggs hard and take off the whites and cut them up into large pieces. Mash the yolks smooth with one tablespoonful of oil, one of mustard, a dash of paprika, salt, and two drops of Tabasco sauce. Mix the whites with a cup of white sauce, and put the yolks through the potato-ricer; lay the whites on hot buttered toast sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and place the yolks on top. A rather heavy salad, either lobster or shrimp, might follow this dish. Soft-shell crabs are unusual at a midnight supper, yet they are quickly and easily cooked, and are cer- tainly delicious, and deviled hard-shell crabs are equally good. Duck, warmed over with chopped olives and currant jelly mixed in the gravy, makes a nice dish, and turkey heated in a rich white sauce to which two beaten eggs and some sherry have been added is easily prepared. One can have almost any- thing which is usually prepared for luncheon or.supper for this midnight meal, and all dishes seem alike de- lightful if they are hot and well seasoned. The main thing is to have them appetizing. It is not necessary or wise to make this supper a thing of many courses or too much elaboration. The air of informality which is its charm is lost in any attempt to serve it ceremoniously or at length. VALENTINE LUNCHEONS UNTIL recent years pink was considered the only color suitable for a valentine celebration. It is rather a novelty still to use another color, yet red is really a relief, and makes a more brilliant as well as a more modern table. For a luncheon for Feb. 14th, try arranging the table with a very large wire heart in the centrepiece, stuck loosely with long-stemmed red carnations mixed with a quantity of delicate asparagus fern, and set all around the edge tiny red candles in low sticks, so that the ferns will almost conceal their support, and you will be delighted with the result. Or, if you have any of the fairy lamps used many years ago, get them out of your cupboard, and put them about irregularly with ferns around them. If you have a pretty fern ball tie it over the table and stick red carnations into it and tie it with a true lovers' knot of red satin ribbon. Of course the small dishes on the table will be of cut glass or of silver, and if they are heart-shaped, so much the better. Have some of the soft red bonbons which come in individual paper cases in at least two EASY ENTERTAINING 241 of the dishes, and a red jelly in another, but beware of the crimson of the crisp little radishes which are so tempting, but which will spoil the color of the flowers. If you use the radishes have them peeled. Place a heart-shaped box of bonbons before each guest, and have your place-cards dainty little valentines. A menu with a constant reminder of the day would be like this: Grapefruit in hearts. Cream of tomato soup; hot wafers. Clam croquettes. Chicken breasts on toast; beets filled with pease; potato croquettes. Cheese salad in hearts. Heart-shaped ices; cakes. Bar-le-Duc sandwiches. Cofifee. Instead of serving the grapefruit as usual take out the pulp with a spoon and put it in paper heart- shaped cases, chilling it well first; put a Uttle sugar and one maraschino cherry on each heart before serving. The soup you may refer to as made out of love apples, if you wish, or one of your guests may be discerning enough to discover it. Follow it with delicious croquettes made from clams. Chop a pint of them fine, scald in their own juice, and drain. Heat a pint of thin cream and thicken with a tablespoonful of butter mixed with one of flour; put in the clams, a pinch of powdered mace, and a little red pepper, but 242 EASY ENTERTAINING no salt. Stir till smooth and then put in the beaten yolk of an egg and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Cook till very thick and put in a shallow pan to harden; mould into cones and roll in egg and bread crumbs, and fry in deep fat. If you choose you can serve small creamed potato balls with these. The chicken breasts are intended especially to mark the day, for each one is to be so cut as to be a perfect heart. Cook in the oven, basting frequently, and serve on heart-shaped pieces of toast dipped in the gravy in the pan. With these offer your guests a very attractive dish, red beets filled with French pease. Boil them till tender, but do not let them lose their shape ; while still warm peel them and hollow out the centres, leaving them like rather deep cups; brush them over inside and out with melted butter, salt, and pepper, and fill with the seasoned pease; keep very hot in the oven till the dish is needed. The salad is made by slicing Philadelphia cream cheese into two or three pieces, and cutting these into hearts with a tin cutter. Lay on lettuce and dot over with little red hearts cut from pimentoes; cover all with French dressing. The ices may be heart-shaped, with silver-paper arrows stuck through, or they may be little Cupids, or valentines, should you have them from the caterer. If you wish to prepare the course at home, bake some delicate cakes in heart-shaped tins, EASY ENTERTAINING 243 cut off the tops, remove the inside crumb, and fill with stiffly frozen ice-cream; put on the tops again, cover with powdered sugar, add a candied cherry or two, and send to the table on individual plates with whipped cream around each one. Last comes the coffee, and with it a change from the usual Bar-le-Duc. Make some very thin sUces of toast and cut out in hearts; make a paste by mixing red jelly with cream cheese, and spread on the toast, putting on a second piece of the toast to make a sand- wich. Trim the edges and send to the table ; if these are small and daintily made they are delicious. It may be a useful suggestion to some hostess to mention that this luncheon may be turned into a guessing contest. Write as many quotations about love as there are guests present, and lay the papers by the plates. Read one in turn with each course, and let all guess the author, the hostess writing down the name of the one who guesses correctly. A prize may be given in keeping with the day, such as a small heart-shaped silver pin-tray. Of course the quotations must not be familiar ones. Another luncheon is given for any day during the season, without reference to St. Valentine, but some of the dishes may be exchanged for those already given. The soup, the croquettes, and the salad all are new. The same red flowers and candles may be 244 EASY ENTERTAINING used, substituting an oval mound for the wire heart. Have the following menu: Chilled oranges in baskets. Cream of watercress soup. Creamed-shrimp croquettes. Mushrooms in patty shells. Fried chicken, or broiled squab; spinach in egg baskets; sweet- potato puff. Banana boats; bread and butter crisps. Cream parfait; small cakes. Coffee; bonbons. Cut large oranges in two, take out the pulp with a spoon; scrape out the shells, chill the pulp, and heap in them again, sweetening and flavoring with a Uttle sherry. The soup is especially nice, and watercress is to be had the year around in cities. To prepare it, begin by picking over, washing, and chopping a large bunch and simmering it in a pint of water for twenty minutes. Then strain, add a pint of rich milk, thicken with the beaten yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of butter rubbed with one of flour; season and serve in hot cups, with or without whipped cream on top. If you cannot get the cress, use a soup made with cream and canned pease, for that is always nice. The croquettes which follow this course are seen in Normandy and Brittany, but never in America, though they are simple and delicious. To make them, lay a large cupful of EASY ENTERTAINING 245 canned or fresh shrimps in ice- water for an hour; then wipe dry, remove the black strings, and chop fine. Scald two cups of milk, and add three table- spoonfuls of cornstarch mixed with a Uttle cold milk, and cook till smooth. Beat light the yolks of three eggs, and mix in with a little salt; stir till consistent and thick. Then pour into a shallow pan and let this stand till cold and firm. Cut into pieces shaped like croquettes, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry quickly in deep, hot fat; drain in the oven with the door open, on brown paper. For the patties use fresh mushrooms if you can. Wash, wipe, and peel them; chop and cook in a rich, well-seasoned cream sauce for two minutes, and fill the heated shells. If you must use canned mush- rooms, drain them, slice, and mix with an equal quantity of asparagus tips, such as come canned for such purposes. Heat as before in a rich sauce. One heavy course will be sufficient, and -you may choose between chicken and squab and a pretty dish of spinach in egg baskets. Take half as many eggs as you are to have guests, boil hard, and cut in halves, removing the yolks. Cook spinach as usual, but put it twice through the meat-chopper to make it smooth; season with a tablespoonful of cream, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and while very hot put into the heated egg-whites. For the potatoes, 246 EASY ENTERTAINING boil, mash, and season nice sweet ones and beat in the yolks of two eggs; make into little cakes and fry brown. For the salad get large ripe red bananas; peel them, and with a small spoon remove enough of the pulp to leave a boat. Fill the space with the pulp of grape- fruit, chill thoroughly, and cover with French dressing; serve on the white hearts of lettuce. Little balls of cream cheese are nice with this salad. The parfait is made by boiling a large cup of sugar with a small half-cup of water till it threads or forms a hard ball in cold water. Beat stiff the whites of three eggs and slowly beat in the syrup. Fold in a pint of cream very stiffly whipped. Flavor, and pack in ice for five hours. WINTER MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS BREAKFAST Baked apples and cream. Codfish croquettes; pop-overs; coffee. DINNER Baked ham; browned sweet-pota- toes; creamed parsnips. Orange salad. Pumpkin pie, with whipped cream. Coffee. SUPPER Sliced ham with eggs in mayonnaise; hot biscuits; coffee. Preserved cherries; cake. Monday BREAKFAST Frizzled dried beef; potato omelette; toast; coffee. Fried corn-meal mush and syrup. LUNCHEON Creamed ham; baked potatoes; pickles. Cocoa and cake. DINNER Bean soup. Pot-roast of beef; minced vege- tables; baked potatoes. Cabinet pudding. Coffee. DINNER Sliced pot-roast, reheated, edged with minced vegetables; mashed potatoes. Watercress and French dressing. Chocolate bread pudding. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Cereal with cream. Creamed smoked salmon; potato cakes; corn mufiBns; coffee. LUNCHEON Minced pot-roast on toast; hashed potatoes; tea. Peanut cookies. DINNER Beef broth with barley. Chicken pot-pie; creamed celery; sweet-potatoes. Baked peach pudding. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Steamed oatmeal and dates; cream. Creamed hard-boiled eggs, baked; Tuesday BREAKFAST Baked bananas. Baked potatoes stuffed with bacon; corn bread; Dffee. LUNCHEON Rice croquettes with cheese sauce; biscuits; tea. Prunes stuffed with nuts. LUNCHEON Hashed chicken and boiled rice (from Wednesday); fairy corn bread. Chocolate and marshmallows. Cream of tomato soup. Pork chops, apple sauce; sweet- potatoes. Cranberry pie. Coffee. 247 248 EASY ENTERTAINING Friday BREAKFAST Creamed codfish in baked potatoes; toast; cofiFee. Griddle cakes and syrup. LUNCHEON Deviled sardines on toast; French- fried potatoes; tea. Cranberry tartlets (from Thursday). DINNER Fried flounders; scalloped tomatoes (from Thursday) ; potatoes. Celery salad. Prune and nut jelly with cream. CofiFee. Saturday BREAKFAST Apples stufTed with bananas, baked. Bacon and fried eggs; coffee; doughnuts. LUNCHEON Picked-up flounder (from Friday) ; tea; hot rolls. Gingerbread and cream cheese. DINNER Cream of onion soup. StuflFed tenderloins; baked potatoes; parsnip cakes. Oranges. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Grapefruit. Creamed salt mackerel; toast; coffee. Coffee cake. DINNER Clear soup with rice. Roast beef; Yorkshire pudding; baked sweet-potatoes; succotash. Vanilla ice-cream and ginger. Coffee. SUPPER Welsh rarebit; sandwiches; olives; coffee. Preserves and orange cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cereal and stewed figs. Frizzled dried beef; creamed po- tatoes; pop-overs; coffee. LUNCHEON Clam chowder. Orange cake and tea. DINNER Roast of beef (from Sunday); baked tomatoes and rice; celery. Cottage pudding, foamy sauce. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Eggs poached in milk; baked po- tatoes; coffee. Fried corn-meal mush in cakes; syrup. LUNCHEON Baked beans; Boston brown bread; tea. Orange marmalade and wafers. DINNER (company) Grapefruit. Cream of pea soup. Roast leg of lamb; turnips filled with pease; browned sweet-potatoes; cur- rant jelly. (Canned) asparagus salad with French dressing. Apricot ice; cakes. Coffee. Wednesday BREAKFAST Baked apples and cream. Bacon; fried sweet-potatoes; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Milk toast; stuffed potatoes; tea. Figs and dates. DINNER Lamb, reheated; macaroni and cheese; pease. Fig, date, and nut jelly. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Sausage cakes; fried apples; toast; coffee. Coffee cake. LUNCHEON Lamb and rice croquettes; macaroni and cheese (reheated) ; tea. Jam and crackers. EASY ENTERTAINING 249 DINNER Strips of veal cutlet, breaded; creamed baked cabbage; potatoes. Orange salad. Pumpkin pie and cheese. CofiEee. Friday BREAKFAST Fried scallops; hashed browned po- tatoes; coffee. Toast and grapefruit marmalade. LUNCHEON Canned salmon with cream sauce; biscuits; tea. Steamed figs. DINNER Broiled whitefish; scalloped toma- toes and rice; IJma beans. Steamed suet and nut pudding, hard sauce. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. iggs; French-fried potatoes; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Creamed whitefish (from Friday); potato cakes. Chocolate and fresh ginger cookies. DINNER Cream of Lima-bean soup (from Friday). Frenched pork tenderloins; apple croquettes; mashed sweet-potatoes. Bread and jam pudding, foamy sauce. Coffee. SUPPER Fried oysters; sandwiches; olives; coffee. Celery mayonnaise. Preserves and cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cereal and cream. Bacon and eggs; muffins; coffee. LUNCHEON (company) Grapefruit. Cream of celery soup. Clam cutlets; potato balls. Chicken soufiaS; French pease; jelly; tea. Orange and nut salad; cakes. Frozen whipped cream. DINNER Clear brown soup. Sliced lamb, reheated in casserole; fried parsnip cakes; sweet-potatoes. Oranges. Coffee. Tuesday BREAKFAST Little sausages; fried apple rings; toast; coffee. Doughnuts. LUNCHEON Stuffed sweet-potatoes; cocoa; bis- cuits. Little cakes; jam. DINNER Cream of white-bean soup. Veal chops; macaroni and cheese; minced turnips. Chocolate blanc-mange. Coffee. Sunday BREAKFAST Creamed finnan-haddie ; toast; coffee. Waffles and scraped maple sugar. DINNER Clear soup. Fore quarter of lamb, stuffed, mint jelly; potatoes; turnips. Mince pie; cheese. Coffee. BREAKFAST Oranges. Bacon; baked potatoes; corn bread; coffee. Doughnuts. LUNCHEON Baked cheese pudding; fresh bis- cuits; tea. Preserves and lady-fingers. 250 EASY ENTERTAINING DINNER Cream of barley soup. Planked beefsteak surrounded with minced carrots and pease; baked potatoes. Pineapple pudding with foamy sauce. Coffee. Chops (from fore quarter of Iamb for Sunday) ; pease ; caramel sweet- potatoes. Chocolate bread pudding. Coffee. Thursday BREAKFAST Oatmeal and dates with cream. Scrambled eggs in rolls; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON (company) Cream of clam soup in cups. Salmon cutlets; pease. Chops; broiled mushrooms; fried French sweet-potatoes; tea. Celery and nut mayonnaise; olives. Orange sherbet in halved orange shells in low glasses; cakes. DINNER Clear soup. Beefsteak; potato cakes; stewed celery, baked. Fig pudding, hard sauce. Coffee. Friday BREAKFAST Salmon in cases of baking-powder biscuits; rolls; coffee. Doughnuts. LUNCHEON Creamed hard-boiled eggs, baked in small dishes; potatoes; tea. Preserved pears; cakes. Cream of celery soup (from Thurs- day). Stuffed baked fish; creamed onions; potatoes. Cocoanut pudding. Coffee. BREAKFAST Boiled eggs; toast; coffee. Waffles and maple syrup. DINNER Clear brown soup. Fore quarter of lamb, stuffed; cran- berry compote; masshed potatoes; cauliflower. Rice supreme. Coffee. SUPPER Deviled sardines in chafing-dish; biscuits; coffee. Potato and olive salad. Preserved peaches and cake. Monday BREAKFAST Cereal and stewed figs; cream. Broiled bloaters; hashed potatoes; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Cold roast pork; cabbage mayon- naise. Cocoa; cake. DINNER Mock turtle soup. Pot-roast of beef; macaroni and cheese; creamed carrots. Chocolate cottage pudding, foamy sauce. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Bacon and kidneys; graham muffins; coffee. Toast and marmalade. LUNCHEON Creamed fish (from Friday); potato puffs. Cocoa and spice-cakes. Tuesday BREAKFAST Eggs baked in toast squares; pop- overs; coffee. Fried rice and syrup. LUNCHEON Macaroni croquettes (from Monday), with cheese sauce; hot biscuits; tea. Stewed figs. EASY ENTERTAINING 251 Cream of carrot soup. Pot-roast (from Monday) in casserole with tomatoes ; rice; string-beans. Slices of cottage pudding (from Mon- day) fried with fruit sauce. Coffee. Cream of chicken soup (from Wednes- day). Chicken loaf; pease; cranberry compote. Spanish cream. Coffee. Wednesday BBEAKFAST Oranges. Baked sausages; apple rings; toast; coffee. LUNCHEON Creamed scallops; rolls; tea. Fried rice and maple sugar. DINNER beans; Fricasseed chicken; Lima sweet-potatoes. Lettuce with cream cheese balls, French dressing. Junket with preserved ginger and whipped cream. Coffee. Thursday BBEAKFAST Cereal and cream. Fish balls and bacon; toasted muf- fins; coffee. LTTNCHEON Creamed corn on toast rounds; cocoa. Figs and cake. Friday BREAKFAST Oranges. Fried smelts; creamed potatoes; pop-overs; coffee. LUNCHEON Plain omelette; baked potatoes: tea. Fresh gingerbread and cream cheese. DINNER Cream of potato soup. cod with oyster sauce; po- tatoes; baked creamed cauliflower. Apple dumplings with hard sauce. Coffee. Saturday BREAKFAST Bacon and eggs; toast; coffee. Orange marmalade. LUNCHEON Cod and oysters, creamed (from Friday) ; tea. Gingerbread, served hot with foamy sauce (from Friday). DINNER Veal stew; baked scalloped tomatoes; baked rice and cheese. Home-made charlotte xusae. Coffee. SEP 1 ^9U One copy del. to Cat. Div. SEP *> ifil