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Show GARNISHING PLAIN FOODS BY .MRS. McCUNE. BHERE aro plenty of inexpensive plain fpods which would prove welcome to cen tho ep'curo if daintily dished. It is t pity bo fow housowhes think it worth tho trouble to make their courses, look attractive. at-tractive. Cold meat, for instance, should never be sent to tho table without with-out a garnishing of parsley. If a roast haB already been much cut into do not servo it in this condition, but slice the lemainder of tho meat, arrange ar-range it neatly on a platter and surround sur-round It with sprigs of parsley. Boiled fish is often very ugiy. Sco that it is well drained, placed in a clean folded napkin, or, to save labor, a paper dolly and garnished with parsley pars-ley and sliced lemon. A nickel's worth of parsley, if carefully kept, will last a long time. Most cooks throw it into a basin of water and half of it becomes slimy and useless beforo It is needed. Cut the stalks all the same length and place tho parsley in a shallow pan of water and it will keep for days. Incidentally, In-cidentally, if ou save tho otalks which wore cut off, wash them and add them to soup stock It will greatly improve im-prove tho flavor. A lemon, kept in a covered dish, will provide garnish for two or thrco dishes as well as juice and some grated grat-ed peel for llavoring Fresh parsley should not bo used for all hot dishes. In somo cases fried parsley Is preferable. It seems scarcely scarce-ly necessary to say so, but all wooden skewers and string should be removed before bringing a dish to tho table. Often Oft-en cooks, who should know bettor, bring on boiled fish, still tied with string, or roast beef with tho skewers still In. Often fricasseed chicken or mutton looks unattractive because tho cook has not made enough gravy to cover It or has not drained tho meat freo of moleture. Be sure that plenty of cauco is mado and that tho meat is quite dry. Then place it in the middle of the dish and cover it entirely with sauce. Never send up a dish with the edges splashed with gravy. Keep a clean cloth near at hand when dishing up and wlpo off each thing carefully. Arrange the contents of every dish precisely. Imaglno the effects of a dish of braised cutlets emptied out on to a dish far too largo for tho quantl- ty with bits of vegetables and sauco heaped on top, and now imagine those same cutlets placed in a neat row down the center of a dish with cut piles of carrot and turnip arranged around and tho brown sauce poured over the meat Conjure up a mental vision of six mutton cutlets, rather 111-trlmmcd, 111-trlmmcd, with long, melancholy looking look-ing bones lying fiat on a dish, whilo a heap of spinach sits In a solitary fashion in a vegetable dish. Now cast your mental cjo on a green fireproof cutlet dish, a mound of spinach piled in tho center, against which lean six woll-trimmed short-boned briskly-grilled briskly-grilled cutlets. It certainly takes a little longer to trim a cutlet neatly than to lcavo it untidy, Just as it takes moro tlmo to think out a dainty arrangement of vegetable and meat than to flop it on any way. But, although time and labor la-bor saving arc what we aro all aiming for, there aro certain things for the accomplishment ac-complishment of which wo must not begrudgo cither time or labor. |
