The Fun of Cooking: A Story for Girls and Boys

CHAPTER XI
A HALLOWE'EN SUPPER

"Hallowe'en next week. Wish we could do something nice," Jack said to Mildred as they put away their books one night at bedtime.

"So do I. I'm tired of school already, and here it is only October! Of course, I don't mean that I'm dreadfully tired of it, you know, only just a little bit tired. I think, if we could have something very nice indeed to do, I could get on till the Christmas vacation – or at least till Thanksgiving without making any great fuss."

Jack laughed. He knew that Mildred, like himself, was always ready to have a good time.

"Let's have a Hallowe'en party," he suggested. "Not a sheet and pillow-case party, either; we've had those till I can't even think of one without wanting to scream."

"And not one where you bob for apples and walk around the house backward. I've done both those till I never want to do them again. I mean some new kind of a party."

But they could not think of anything new that seemed exactly what they wanted; so the next day they went in to see Miss Betty after school and asked her about it.

"Why, a chafing-dish party, of course," she said. "That's exactly the thing to have. You make a lot of indigestible things to eat and then you go to sleep and dream of ghosts and goblins, and hear shivery noises and groans and such things – just what you want, on Hallowe'en! I can think of a lot of awfully good things to have, things warranted to give you nightmares."

Jack said that suited him exactly, but Mildred was not so sure.

"Don't you think we might have two or three different kinds of things," she suggested doubtfully. "Some of them, for the boys, might be pretty bad; and some others for the girls a lot better. I don't want to dream of ghosts!"

Miss Betty was willing to do this, but Jack objected. "Be a sport, Mildred!" he said. "Remember it's Hallowe'en."

"Well, we'll see," she said at last. "Perhaps I'll eat a few dreadful things just to see what will happen. Now what can we have? I can't use a chafing dish at all."

"Jack can," Miss Betty said, laughing. Jack's cooking never ceased to be a joke.

"I? I never cooked in one in my life, except cheese dreams, at the Dwights'," Jack assured her.

"A chafing dish and a frying-pan are just the same sort of thing, and you know you learned all about frying-pans in the summer, so now, of course, you must show what you can do. I'll give you the receipts and tell you just how to make the things, but you must use a chafing-dish; if you won't – then, of course, I won't be able to help with the party at all."

So Jack reluctantly promised to do his part. "Probably I'll spoil things and make a mess," he grumbled.

But Miss Betty refused to let him off. "Of course you can cook in a chafing dish," she assured him. "All men can, especially those who can do camp cooking, and you know you're an expert there, Jack! Now let's see what we can have."

"Do let's have oysters for one thing; they are just in season now," begged Mildred.

"Of course – they are just the thing; suppose we have pigs in blankets, and Jack shall make them, for they are easy and oh, so good! And, Mildred, you shall have a chafing dish, too, and make something else; and we can make things to go with them, so there will be plenty of supper for everybody. How many are you going to have?"

"Oh, we haven't thought about it yet, and we must talk it over with Mother and see what she thinks; but I know she will love the party, because she always does."

And so, sure enough, their mother did love the plan. A chafing-dish supper was such a bright idea, she said, and so like Miss Betty.

They decided to ask only eight guests, four boys and four girls. In case the food did not turn out to be what they hoped, it was better not to have too many to eat it, Jack thought.

Hallowe'en obligingly came on a Saturday, just as though it knew how convenient that day would be for everybody. Mildred and Brownie and Miss Betty and Mother Blair and Norah all helped in getting things ready, laying the table, filling the alcohol lamps of the two chafing-dishes, – one borrowed from Miss Betty, – and preparing the good things for the supper. They decided to have first, the dish of oysters made by Jack at one end of the table, and some eggs to go with them, made by Mildred at the other. With these were to be some potatoes – a new kind Mildred had never heard of – and Brownie thought she could make these and send them in nice and hot; she was going to make cocoa, too, to go with the other hot dishes, and she and Mildred together were going to make sandwiches in the afternoon. And after these, Miss Betty said, there was to be something perfectly wonderful – something so good and so new.

"Oh, what?" they all begged.

Miss Betty's eyes rolled up to the ceiling, and she shook her pretty head. "Wait and see," she said solemnly. "I'll bring in the things this afternoon and we will all make it together." And they had to be content with this promise.

The table was laid just as they had it at breakfast and luncheon and Sunday night supper, with pretty doilies, one for each person and several over for chafing-dishes and piles of plates and sandwiches. In the middle was a big bowl of bright colored autumn leaves mixed with chrysanthemums; and at each place was a dainty card with a picture of a witch riding a broomstick, and the name of the boy or girl who was to sit there. The table looked very pretty when it was all finished, with the glasses and silver and small napkins. Brownie did it almost all alone; she loved to get ready for company.

Then they got out their receipt books and began to put down the different things they were to make for supper. Even Jack, smiling sheepishly, consented to write down the chafing-dish rules. They might come in handy when he went to college, he said.

PIGS IN BLANKETS

20 very large oysters.

20 slices of thin bacon.

A shake or two of pepper.

Wrap each oyster in one slice of bacon after you have cut off the rind, and pin it with a tiny wooden toothpick. Heat the chafing dish very hot by putting the upper pan, the one with the handle, directly over the flame. Lay in four or five oysters and cook them till the bacon crisps and the edges of the oysters curl; then take them up and put into a hot covered dish while you cook more. Have ready some strips of toast and put the oysters on two or three of these on hot plates. Shake a little pepper over them, but no salt, as the bacon will salt them enough. If too much juice comes out in cooking, pour it off and so keep the pan dry.

The oysters were all made up into "pigs" in the afternoon, and put in the refrigerator; they looked so funny when they were done – just like tiny pigs, all asleep. But as Jack thought twenty oysters for ten people were not enough, they made fifty. Then Mildred was given her rule:

SPANISH EGGS

Mix in the chafing dish.

1 tablespoonful of butter.

½ cup of gravy or strong soup.

1 onion, chopped fine.

½ cupful of thick tomato (canned).

1 green pepper, without the seeds, chopped fine.

Cook this fifteen minutes, stirring so it will not burn; then put into it:

6 eggs, beaten a little without separating.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

If, in cooking the vegetables, they get dry, put in a little more butter and tomato.

Miss Betty said if Mildred would stir this often she did not need to use the hot-water pan of the chafing-dish. "It takes so much longer to cook with it that I never use it if I can help it," she explained. "And now for the potatoes, Brownie."

SCALLOPED POTATOES

Wash and peel six large potatoes, and slice them thin. Butter a baking dish and put in a layer; sprinkle with salt and just a little pepper and dot with very little bits of butter. When the dish is full pour over it a cupful of milk and sift fine crumbs over the top, and add some more bits of butter. Bake for three quarters of an hour.

Like the oysters this dish was made ready in the afternoon, all but putting on the milk and crumbs.

"You don't need a receipt for cocoa, do you?" Miss Betty stopped to ask.

"No, indeed; we can make that with our eyes shut," laughed Mildred.

"Then we will go on to the sandwiches. Here are two kinds which are very good with oysters, and perhaps they may possibly give you ghost-dreams; I hope they will!"

TOMATO AND CHEESE SANDWICHES

Scald and peel some tomatoes and put them on ice till firm; then slice very thin indeed, and take out all the soft part and seeds; sprinkle with a little salt. Slice some white bread thin and butter it; lay a slice of tomato on a slice of bread and on top put a very thin slice of cheese – just a scraping of it; add the other slice of bread, press together and cut into attractive shape.

"I just happened to see the remains of that cold boiled ham you evidently had left over from yesterday, sitting in the refrigerator and looking lonely, so I planned these, which are much better than the common kind:"

DEVILED HAM SANDWICHES

Put some cold cooked ham through the meat chopper till smooth; add a very little dry mustard, a tiny pinch of black pepper and a very tiny one of red pepper. To a small cupful of the meat add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and press into a cup; when cold spread this on buttered bread.

"My, those sound good," murmured Jack to himself, "and they sound like Hallowe'en, too."

"So they do," laughed Mother Blair, beginning to slice the bread and spread it. "Let's make them now and put them on ice, all rolled up in a wet napkin."

She and Brownie went to work, but Mildred said she was not quite ready yet. "I want another chafing-dish rule," she said. "Two are not enough, and they are all we have for our books."

"Well, just one or two more, and then I must fly," said Miss Betty; "you see I have to get the things for my own special receipt for the party. Here is a good one:"

PANNED OYSTERS, CREAMED

Take four oysters for each person. Make some slices of toast, butter them and cut them into rounds just the size to fit into the bottom of little brown baking dishes, or any small individual dishes which can go to the table. Put the oysters on these with a shake of salt and pepper for each and a bit of butter the size of the tip of your little finger. Put the dishes into the oven for ten minutes, or till the oysters curl at the edges; then take them out and put two teaspoonfuls of hot, thick, sweet cream on each, and a bit of parsley; stand each dish on a plate and send to the table.

"I know you will like that; now here is another:"

CREAMED EGGS

Take one egg for each person; put the lower pan over the flame and fill with hot water from the tea-kettle; put in the eggs and boil for ten minutes with the cover of the pan on. Take them out, peel them and wrap them in a napkin to keep them hot. Set away the lower pan, and in the upper one put:

1 tablespoonful of butter; melt this and add

1 tablespoonful of flour and rub together until smooth. Add

½ pint of cream or very rich milk, and stir till thick; add

½ teaspoonful of salt.

1 pinch of cayenne.

½ teaspoonful paprika.

Drop the eggs in and turn them over once or twice till they are very hot; serve each one on a round of buttered toast on a hot plate.

"Now that is positively all I can stop to give you now; I must begin on my own dish," said Miss Betty, putting on her hat. "But I'll be back again in just two minutes."

When she came she was carrying a huge pineapple, the largest the children had ever seen, and in a bag three large oranges and three bananas. "Now," she exclaimed as she put them on the kitchen table, "you shall see me make something very nice." This was the way she made it:

STUFFED PINEAPPLE

Get a large pineapple and cut off the brush at the top, but leave a little slice of the fruit on it, so it will stand. Scoop out the inside of the pineapple (and when you find a bit of the hard core do not put it with the rest but throw it away); cut the pieces all up into small dice. Cut the oranges in halves and take out the pulp with a spoon and mix with the pineapple; cut up the bananas and add these too. Then sweeten with powdered sugar. Set this away in a cold place. In serving it, fill the pineapple and put the brush on again and stand the fruit on a round dish with some heavy, stiff green leaves around it. The one who is served first is passed the plate; she takes off the brush and lays it by the side of the pineapple, and with a ladle dips out some of the inside on her dessert plate.

It took quite a time to prepare this, but they all liked to do it, and enjoyed the surprise it was going to be when it was first passed. Mother Blair said she did so hope she might take off the pineapple's cover, and when they came to think of it, as she was always served first, of course she would!

Well, the Hallowe'en supper was a perfect success. Jack, though nervous, proved that his camping lessons were not wasted, and Mildred's chafing-dish was as easy to manage as could be. But the next day when they all talked it over, not one of the family and not one of the guests had had a single ghost-dream after all!

CHAPTER XII
WHEN MOTHER BLAIR WAS SICK

One day Mother Blair woke up with a very sore throat, and the doctor said, when he had looked at it, that she must stay in bed for a day or two, and that Brownie had better go visiting.

"But where can I go, school and all?" the little girl asked Mildred very soberly after the doctor had gone. "If I lose my goggerfy lessons now I won't be the top of the class, and I thought I was sure to be; and when I'm the very top of all, you know Father gives me a dollar."

"Perhaps Miss Betty would like to have you visit her," Mildred said; "wouldn't that be fun? You could come in every single day and see how things are going with us, and we could wave at you out of the window – Mother could, I mean, – and it would be just lovely. I'll run over and ask her if you may come."

Miss Betty said she would be perfectly delighted to have a visit from Brownie, and Mother Blair said in a very croaky voice that it was a bright idea. So that very morning Brownie packed a bag and Jack carried it over for her, and she went visiting.

Mildred found she could be excused from school for a day or two, so she became nurse; and Norah said she guessed she could run the house alone after all the years she'd been learning how; so everything was just as smooth as could be.

When her mother's room was made all tidy and she had settled down to take a nap, Mildred ran across to Miss Betty's house to ask her what to give her mother to eat.

"The doctor said soft things, because her poor throat is so sore. What do you think I'd better give her for lunch, Miss Betty?"

"Invalids have to have nourishing things, Mildred, strong soups and eggs and cereals with cream, and custards. Suppose you plan to have a cream soup for to-day and start a meat soup for to-morrow; it takes two days to make that kind, you know. And – let me see – with cream soup you might have an egg, I think, and perhaps junket; that is the very softest thing in the world. Then by night perhaps she can have cream toast; that is perfectly delicious; if my throat feels sore toward night, Mildred, will you please make enough for two? I just love it."

Mildred laughed and promised that she would.

"And soft boiled custard in a pretty glass cup; and tea, I suppose. By to-morrow she will be so much better that I think she can have ever so many other things. Shall I write out the receipts for you now? Here is a good one for the soup."

CREAM SOUP

(This makes one cupful.)

2/3 cup milk.

½ tablespoonful butter.

½ tablespoonful flour.

¼ teaspoonful salt.

1 shake pepper.

1 tiny slice of onion.

¼ cup of any hot cooked vegetable; measure after thoroughly mashing it

Scald the milk with the onion in it; then take out the onion and slowly mix the milk and vegetable. Melt the butter, rub the flour into it and stir till it is smooth; then pour gradually on the hot milk; add the seasoning, bring it to the point where it almost boils, strain it and put it into a hot cup.

"This is one of the rules you have to learn by heart, Mildred. It is very easy, you see, almost like a very thin white sauce with vegetable in it. You can use mashed potato, or peas, or corn or celery or carrots, or whatever you happen to have in the house to make it with, and if you multiply it four times you will have enough for a dinner soup."

"Multiply two-thirds by four – " Mildred began.

"Never mind now, my dear! It makes my head go round to hear you. Copy this instead:"

CHICKEN BROTH

3½ pounds of chicken.

3 pints cold water.

2 tablespoonfuls rice.

1½ teaspoonfuls salt.

1 shake of pepper.

Have the chicken cleaned and cut up at the market. Take off the skin and fat and wipe each piece with a wet cloth. Put it into a kettle with the cold water and let it slowly get hot until it almost boils. (You can tell by looking at the edge of the kettle; when tiny bubbles begin to form it is nearly boiling.) Then skim it carefully; let it cook slowly till the meat is very tender; try it with a fork. Add the salt and pepper when it is about half done. Strain it, and set it away to grow perfectly cold; then there will be a layer of fat on top; take this off, add the rice and put it back on the stove and gently cook it till the rice is done. Or, if you have any cooked rice, add a tablespoonful to the soup while it is very hot. Serve in a heated cup.

"Then Mildred, you see you will have all the chicken meat left; you can take out a bit of the best white meat and put it away for creamed chicken for your mother's lunch the next day, and have the rest on toast for the family dinner. Norah can make a little cream gravy to take the place of the broth you have poured off, and it will be ever so nice."

"So it will; Father just loves that kind of chicken. Now the junket, Miss Betty."

JUNKET CUSTARD

¾ cup milk.

1 tablespoonful sugar.

¼ junket tablet (buy at the grocery in a little package).

1 teaspoonful cold water.

¼ teaspoonful vanilla.

Small pinch of salt.

Heat the milk till it is just as warm as the tip of your finger; add the sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir the junket tablet in the cold water till it melts, and add this. Pour it all very quickly into small molds or glasses and set in a cold place at once. When ready to serve, turn out of the mold, or serve in the glass with a little sugar and cream. If you wish to make this in a hurry, use half a tablet of the junket instead of a quarter.

"You can change the flavoring of this, Mildred, when you get tired of vanilla. Try almond sometimes; or, melt half a chocolate square and mix with the hot milk; or put in the vanilla and serve scraped maple sugar with it, with thick cream; they are all good. Now for the egg; can you poach that, do you think?"

"I suppose I can, really, Miss Betty, because I've seen Norah poach eggs about a hundred times; but I think I'd like a rule for my book."

"Good idea. Here is one, then:"

POACHED EGGS

Put the frying pan on the fire half full of hot water; add half a teaspoonful of salt. Butter the inside of a tin muffin ring and put this in the pan. Break a fresh egg carefully into a saucer and slip it into the ring; the water should cover the egg. Put a cover on the pan and set it on the back of the stove and let it stand till the white of the egg is like firm jelly.

While it is cooking make a slice of nice toast; cut it into a circle, butter it and lay it on a hot plate. When the egg is done take a cake turner, butter its edge and slip it under the muffin ring and egg together and hold it over the pan till the water drips away; then take off the ring, slip the egg carefully on the round of toast, add just a sprinkle of salt and one of pepper, and a bit of parsley. Cover the plate till you serve it, to keep it hot.

"Now, Mildred, I think you had better run home and get out the things for your tray, and I'll come over just before lunch and help you lay it prettily, if you want me to. See if you can find a pretty, thin cup for the soup, and a plate that looks well with it, and something perfectly dear for the junket. And a little napkin, not a large one. I'll bring a flower; you know you always have to have a flower for a sick-tray."

"You do?" Mildred's eyes were round. "What for, Miss Betty? You don't eat a flower!" she giggled.

"No, but you can't eat so well without it, if you are sick. Just wait till you are, and you'll see."

So Mildred went home and got out all the things she could think of for her mother's lunch and laid them on one end of the kitchen table. Then she tip-toed into the sick room, gave her mother her medicine and a cool drink of water, and turned her pillow over. After that she went out to begin the lunch.

She found Norah had plenty of junket tablets, so first of all she followed the rule for that. It was very easy indeed, and in just a moment she poured half the junket into a little glass for her mother, and the other half into an egg cup-mold for Jack's lunch. She put both of these right on ice so they would be firm, and used half the tablet instead of a quarter as her rule suggested, to be perfectly certain the junket would be firm enough by noon.

"You must be sure not to let them stand one minute, Miss Mildred," said Norah as she watched her. "If you do, they'll never set at all."

"Why not, Norah? Couldn't I just set the dish on the table for two minutes before I put it away?"

Norah assured her that it was quite impossible. "Junket isn't like gelatine; it won't wait," she said. So Mildred hurried just as fast as she could.

Next she made the soup; she found a cup of spinach in the refrigerator, and used that exactly as the receipt said, and the soup was a lovely pale green color. She put this where it would keep hot, and then boiled the water to poach the egg.

Before this bubbled Miss Betty came in with a pink geranium in her hand, and two green leaves. These she put in a very slender clear glass vase she found in the sitting-room, just large enough for them. Then she began to help Mildred with the tray.

"First you cover it with a clean napkin or tray cloth; that's a nice napkin, Norah, thank you. Then you put on a glass of cold water, only half full so it will not spill. Then the plate for the soup cup; and the soup spoon at the side, with the fork for the egg, and the little folded napkin and a cunning little salt and pepper. Next you get the egg and toast ready, put them on a hot plate —hot, Mildred, not just a little warm, – and cover it up with a hot cereal dish turned over it, unless you happen to have a covered china dish that comes on purpose. Stand this at the back of the tray. Get the little junket ready, too, and put the glass on a small plate; but you need not put this on the tray. Let your mother eat the hot things first, and take off the dishes and put the dessert on the tray all by itself. You can get it while she is eating, you know. Then, last of all, you put on the vase of flowers. There – doesn't that look sweet?"

Mildred said it certainly did; then she began to poach the egg, and Miss Betty went into Mother Blair's room and put an extra pillow behind her shoulders and a scarf over her and opened the blinds. She drew a little table close beside the bed and laid a fresh white cover over it, and when the door opened and Mildred came in carefully carrying the white tray with the good things to eat on it and the pretty geraniums, her mother was delighted.

"Oh, how good it looks," she exclaimed. "Mildred, did you really make that soup? And poach that beautiful egg? And actually make that junket? Well, I never did see anything so perfectly lovely. I'm proud to have such a daughter!" Then she ate everything, and declared her throat was almost well already.

In spite of that, however, the doctor made Mrs. Blair stay in bed several days, so that Mildred learned to make quite a number of new dishes for sick people. For one breakfast she gave her cereal with cream and bits of dates; for one luncheon she had the chicken broth, and for one supper cream toast and baked custard; she had goldenrod eggs, too, when her mother's throat was better, and baked apple. All of these things she wrote down in her book so she would not forget how to make any of them.

CEREAL WITH DATES

1 heaping tablespoonful oatmeal.

1 cup of water.

¼ teaspoonful of salt.

Mix, put in a double boiler and cook for one hour. Five minutes before taking this off the fire stir in

4 dates, washed and cut into small pieces.

Serve with cream.

CREAM TOAST

2 slices of nice brown, dry toast.

¾ cup of cream.

½ teaspoonful butter.

½ teaspoonful flour.

¼ teaspoonful salt.

Rub the melted butter and flour; heat the cream till it scalds, or almost boils; mix together and pour slowly over one slice of the toast in a deep dish; then put on the second slice and pour the rest of the cream over that. Serve very hot.

GOLDENROD EGGS

½ tablespoonful butter.

¾ tablespoonful flour.

¼ teaspoonful salt.

½ cup hot milk.

Rub the butter and flour, and add the milk and salt. Have ready

1 hard boiled egg. (Boil ten minutes.)

1 slice of toast.

Cut the egg in half, take off the white part and chop it; stir this into the white sauce. Cut the crust off the toast and pour over; then quickly rub the egg yolk through the sieve and sprinkle over all. Keep the sauce and toast hot in the oven until you put on the yolk; serve very hot in a covered dish.

BAKED APPLE

Peel and core a large sour apple. Put in a deep-earthen dish, fill the center with sugar, and just cover the bottom of the dish with water. Bake in a hot oven till soft, basting every five minutes with the syrup in the bottom of the dish. (That is, with a spoon pour the juice over the apple.) Serve hot or cold, with cream.

Mildred could already make baked custard, so she did not need a new rule for that. But soft-boiled custard she had to learn.

SOFT CUSTARD

1 cup of rich milk.

2 eggs.

1 tablespoonful sugar.

½ teaspoonful vanilla.

Put the milk on the fire to heat; beat the yolks of the eggs, add the sugar and beat again; stir this into the hot milk, add the salt and stir till the whole grows thick like cream. Then take it off at once; be careful not to let it boil at all or it will be spoiled. Let it get very cold; put it in a glass, beat half of the white of one egg and add this just before serving. Or, whip one spoonful of thick cream and put this on top of the custard.

After Mildred had learned to make all these good things, she used to search her cook book for receipts for other things, and as her mother got better she made something new every day. By the time Mother Blair was perfectly well and strong again, she felt she had grown to be a real sick-cook. And the best thing of all was that the doctor said the reason her mother got well so fast was that she had had such nourishing and delicious things to eat!