OCR Text |
Show HOUSEHOLD HINTS. The Simple Dinner There has been a return this season to marked simplicity simplic-ity of menu and in a way, of serving dinner or luncheon. Last year's extravagances ex-travagances were so great, in the innumerable innu-merable courses, and in the costliness of favors, that a reaction was bound to set in, and has come with force at present. pres-ent. The most elegant meal nowadays, nowa-days, often consists of but oysters, soup, fish, roast, salad and dessert with coffee. As to expensive dinner favors, fa-vors, sometimes of exquisite jewelry or bits of silverware, these are so decidedly de-cidedly out of vogue that even more than a single flower is too much to lay at the plate of each guest. Yet let the would-be hostess beware of being deceived, de-ceived, in hearing all ' this, that she should think it a simple matter to give a dinner. She will find that,' although the meal is shorter than of old, it is quite as carefully cooked and served. She will learn that there are constant changes from season to season in mat- ters of table etiquette; that to steer a dinner successfully through all the quicksands of possible mistakes and awkwardness requires the cleverest of heads and the best of information of that complete subject. Never were there more rapid changes in these small but important matters Jhan of late, and one must have all one's wits about one if desirous to be a successful entertainer. enter-tainer. A Seasonable Novelty When one gets green plates, shaped and colored like lettuce leaves in the shops they are not remarkably attractive. But when they are piled with red radishes, strawberries strawber-ries or sliced tomatoes the effect is almost al-most as pretty as if the fresh fruit or vegetable were being served in true Arcadian style, on a leaf. The plates are very inexpensive and come in sets for the tahle and sidhnard- New England Shortcake Sift a quart of flour with three heaping teaspoon-fuls teaspoon-fuls of baking powder and a teaspoon-ful teaspoon-ful of salt in a bowl; then add three well rounded tablespoonfuls of butter to the flour and mix ''it well through with a knife or with your hands; then pour in enough rich milk, stirring it well through, to makes a light dough. Flour the pastry board, roll the dough out quickly about half an inch thick; put it into jelly tin3 and trim it so that it comes even with the edge; bake it in a quick oven till it is a golden brown. After it is done and before it gets cold, with a thin-bladed, sharp knife, split each cake in halves and spread them well with butter;, put one-half on a i large, round platter. Pick over and free from sand and dust, three boxes of perfectly ripe strawberries, put two baskets of them in a bowl and sweeten them with plenty of sugar and half crush them with a potato masher; j spread the layer of shortcake on the ! platters well with the crushed strawberries straw-berries and their juice; then put another an-other layer, buttered side up, and spread it with the berries, and repeat the process until all four layers are on; then take the whole strawberries from the third basket and range them in compact circles on the too and round the platter. Sprinkle the whole with powdered sugar and serve cold with plenty of cream. Old-fashioned Rice Custard To make old-fashioned rice custard a dessert which is" very tempting in warm weather weath-er use one cud of boiled rice, one beaten egg, one-half cup of sugar, one pint of milk, a little nutmeg and a few raisins. Mix well, bake one-half hour in a porcelain pudding dish, set into a pan of water, which should be used in baking any, kind of custard, as the water prevents the pudding from boiling. boil-ing. Serce the custard cold. A Breakfast Dish. A breakfast dish of apples said to be very appetizing is prepared in this way: Fine, soft, tart apples should be selected, peeled,, cored, sliced, and set to soak for at least three hours in susar moistened with brandy and lemon juice. . Drained from this, they should be frfed a clear brown In butter,, then sprinkled with powdered sugar and - cinnamon and served. They are still better, however, at this season or at any time in their natural state. Wiped, piled, tastefully In an attractive dish, whenoe they are transferred' trans-ferred' to the individual plate, peered, quartered and eaten with a pinch of salt, before or after the meal,-as the appetite ap-petite indicates, the apple is the king of fruits in flavor and wholesomeness. Broiled Tomatoes There are several ways of boiling tomatoes, and each one is good. They make an excellent breakfast break-fast dish a3 a substitute for meat during dur-ing the hot weather. The tomato should "first be peeled and then cut into slices at least three-quarters of an - inch i .thick; small tomatoes are cut into halves. Put some olive oil'into a soup 'plate, and put each piece of tomato into the oil, covering all the parts before be-fore laying the pieces upon a fine wire broiler and cooking over a cWtir fire. Arrange on a hot platter and season with salt and pepper and chopped par-.sley. par-.sley. How to Serve Spinach If spinach is served as a course by itself a garnish of croutons or quarters of hard boiled eggs, or both, is in place. A very pleasant pleas-ant combination is that of spinach and sorrel,- especially in Faring, when the j young leaves of the latter are not as acidy as the later growth. Sorrel by itself is a delightfully refreshing vegetable veg-etable for those who like the acidity of it. You treat it like spinach, but to bind it add the yolk of egg beaten up in a little cream at the last moment. Baked Mushrooms The most delicate way to bake mushrooms is under glass. Cut slices of. bread into round pieces with a large-sized cutter, toast them and butter lightly. Place the pieces of toast in a baking pan, and upon each piece nut a mushroom. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and bits of butter. but-ter. Heat small tumblers by filling them with water and bringing it to the boiling point, and turn a glass over each mushroom. Place the pan in the 'the oven and bake. Serve the mush- j rooms with the glass stil lover them. |