Part 9 (1/2)

”That is so queer,” laughed her mother, ”because cooks call it just that--the a b c of cooking! It is the rule you use more often than any other.”

WHITE SAUCE

1 rounded tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.

1 rounded tablespoonful of flour.

1 cup of milk.

1/2 teaspoonful of salt.

2 shakes of pepper.

Melt the b.u.t.ter; when it bubbles, put in the flour, stirring it well; when this is smooth, slowly add the milk, salt, and pepper; stir and cook till very smooth; you can make it like thin cream by cooking only one minute, or like thick cream by cooking it two minutes.

”Sometimes you want it thicker than others,” said her mother, ”so I just put that in to explain. To-day make it like thin cream. Now, Mildred, you can put it all together while Jack brings in the cold boiled potatoes and Brownie cuts them up.”

CREAMED POTATOES

Cut eight large boiled potatoes into bits the size of the end of your thumb. Put them in a saucepan and cover them with milk; stand them on the back of the stove where they will cook slowly; watch them so they will not burn. In another saucepan make white sauce as before. When the potatoes have drunk up all the milk and are rather dry, drop them in the sauce; do not stir them; sprinkle with pepper.

”Now for the m.u.f.fins, for it is after five o'clock. Brownie, you find the m.u.f.fin pans and make them very hot. Do you know how to grease them?”

”Yes, indeed!” said Brownie, proudly. ”This is the way.” She got a clean bit of paper, warmed the pans, and dropped a bit of b.u.t.ter in each, and then with the paper rubbed it all around.

m.u.f.fINS

2 cups of flour.

1 cup of milk.

1 rounded tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.

2 eggs, beaten separately.

1 teaspoonful of baking-powder.

1/2 teaspoonful of salt.

1 teaspoonful of sugar.

Beat the egg yolks first; then add the milk; melt the b.u.t.ter and put that in, then the flour, well mixed with the baking-powder, then the salt and sugar. Last, add the stiff whites of the eggs.

Fill the pans half full.

”Some things, like cake, cannot bear to have the oven door opened while they are baking,” said Mother Blair; ”but salmon does not mind if you open quickly; so, Mildred, put these in as fast as you can; they will take about twenty minutes to bake. I do believe that is all we have to make except the tea, and that takes only a moment when everything else is ready. I will give you the receipt for it now, and after everybody is here and you have said 'How do you do?' to them, you can slip out and make this, and while it stands you can put the other things on the table. But perhaps you had better make some coffee too; the men may like it.”

TEA

Fill the kettle with fresh, cold water and let it boil up hard.

Scald out an earthen tea-kettle, and put in two rounded teaspoonfuls of tea for six people, or more, if you want it quite strong. Pour on six cups of boiling water and let the pot stand where it is warm for just two minutes. Scald out the pot you are going to send to the table, and strain the tea into that. Have a jug of hot water ready to send in with it.

COFFEE

1 rounded tablespoonful of ground coffee for each person; and 1 extra tablespoonful.