Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 26

_Mayonnaise._--

1 egg yolk 2 tablespoons lemon juice or 2 tablespoons vinegar 1/2 teaspoon mustard 2/3 teaspoon salt Dash of cayenne pepper 2/3 cup of oil (olive oil, cotton seed oil or other edible oil).

Have the ingredients chilled, Place the mixing bowl in crushed ice. Mix the egg yolk, mustard, salt and cayenne pepper. Add a few drops of vinegar or lemon juice, then a teaspoon of oil, drop by drop, until all the ingredients are used. Constant beating is necessary throughout.

_Fruit and Vegetable Salads._--Good combinations for salad are (1) potato and beet, (2) carrot and green peas, (3) tomato and celery, (4) asparagus and pimento. Combinations of fruit and vegetables are, (1) apple and celery, (2) orange and green pepper. Combinations of different kinds of fruit and nuts or cheese are especially good. Examples are, (1) pineapple and orange, (2) white cherries stuffed with nuts, (3) banana rolled in chopped nuts or (4) half pears (cooked or raw) with a ball of cream cheese and chopped nuts in the cavity made by the removal of the core.

Magazines which devote a page to cooking usually have in their summer numbers pictures of salads from which suggestions in regard to arrangement may be taken.

_Baking Powder Biscuit._--

2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons shortening 3/4 to 1 cup milk or milk and water.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt, twice. Put in the shortening, then add the milk gradually, mixing with a knife. The dough should be as soft as can be handled without sticking. Turn onto a lightly floured board, roll lightly 3/4 inch thick and cut with a floured cutter. Bake in a hot oven 12 or 15 minutes.

_Tea._--People who like tea have very decided ideas about how strong is should be and how long it should be steeped. The following gives tea of moderate strength.

Scald the teapot and put in 4 teaspoonfuls of tea leaves. Pour over them four cups of boiling water, cover and steep 3 minutes. Strain into a teapot and serve at once.

_Cocoa._--The children of the family should never have tea. On a cold night cocoa is a very pleasant variant from the usual gla.s.s of milk.

Mix 4 tablespoons of cocoa with 3 tablespoons of sugar and a little salt. Add 1 cup of boiling water and cook until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Add a quart of milk and heat to boiling. This may be done more safely in a double boiler. Just before serving beat with an egg beater.

General Suggestions

If the Girl Scout who is preparing for her examination will look back over the menus which have been suggested, she will notice that milk is emphasized. It is absolutely essential that the children in the family shall have milk. If the family do not like milk to drink, it should be remembered that every bit which is used in cooking serves the same purpose as if it were taken from a gla.s.s, but little children do not ordinarily get enough milk unless they drink some. Fruit should be served at least once a day and better twice, and some vegetable other than potato should be not only served but eaten by the family. Children who are not taught to like vegetables when they are little sometimes never learn to like them, and it is really important to eat vegetables, not only because they contain important substances for growth, but because it is only good manners to learn to like all the ordinary foods which are served. Anyone who has cooked knows how discouraging it is to feel that some member of the family does not like the food. There is a temptation in the city where fruit, vegetables and milk are high, to use too much meat and but little of these foods. It has been suggested recently that in forming an idea as to whether the money is being spent to the most advantage, the money spent for fruit and vegetables, for milk and cheese, and for meat and fish should be compared. In a well-balanced diet these amounts should be nearly equal. An increasing number of people are becoming lacto-vegetarians, which means that they eat no meat or fish, but balance their absence by using more milk, eggs and cheese.

Before starting to prepare a meal the Scout should not only have her menu in mind, but should have an idea how long it will take to prepare each dish so that everything will be ready to serve at the same time with all the hot dishes very hot and all the cold dishes very cold. If all the dishes of the meal require about the same length of time in their preparation the ones should be started first which can be most easily kept in good condition.

Enjoyment of a meal depends quite as much on neat and comfortable service as it does upon good food. The table cloth, napkins, dishes and silver should be clean and the dishes should be arranged so that there is as little danger as possible of accident. This is the reason, for example, for the rule that a spoon should never be left in a coffee or tea cup. This arrangement is usually more comfortable if nothing is placed on the table which is not going to be actually used at the meal, except that a few flowers or a little dish of ferns in the center of the table is very much liked by most people, if there is room for it. It often happens that the family see more of each other at meal times than at any other time in the day and everyone should try to make meal time a pleasant, restful, good-humored time.

HOUSEHOLD WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

The careful housewife soon becomes skilled in weighing and measuring the various goods she buys and uses. At the store she is on guard against short measures, and if she does not market in person, she has machines at home to test what is delivered. The following table is given for frequent reference use by the Girl Scout while earning her badges in Homecraft. She will also find it useful in learning to judge weights and distances for her First Cla.s.s test.

TABLE OF HOUSEHOLD WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

(_Reprinted by permission of publisher from "Housewifery," by L. Ray Balderston, M. A._ J. B. Lippincott, 1919)

_Linear Measure:_

12 inches = l foot 3 feet = 1 yard 5-1/2 yards = 1 rod 320 rods = 1 mile 1760 yards = 1 mile 5280 feet = 1 mile

_Square Measure:_

144 square inches = 1 square foot 9 square feet = 1 square yard 30-1/4 square yards = 1 square rod 160 square rods = 1 acre 1 square mile = 1 section 36 square miles = 1 towns.h.i.+p

_Avoirdupois Weight:_

27.3 grains = 1 dram 16 drams = 1 ounce (oz.) 16 ounces = 1 pound (lb.) 100 pounds = 1 cwt. (hundredweight) 2,000 pounds = 1 ton

_Liquid Measure:_

4 gills = 1 pint 2 pints = 1 quart 4 quarts = 1 gallon 31-1/2 gallons = 1 bbl.

_Dry Measure:_

2 pints = 1 quart 8 quarts = 1 peck 4 pecks = 1 bushel 105 dry quarts = 1 bbl. (fruit, vegetables, etc.)

_Miscellaneous Household Measures:_

4 saltspoonfuls = 1 teaspoonful 3 teaspoonfuls = 1 tablespoonful 16 tablespoonfuls = 1 cupful 2 gills = 1 cupful 2 cupfuls = 1 pint 1 cupful = 8 fluid ounces 32 tablespoonfuls = 1 lb. b.u.t.ter 2 cups of b.u.t.ter = 1 lb.

1 lb. b.u.t.ter = 40 b.u.t.ter b.a.l.l.s 4 cups flour = 1 lb.

2 cups sugar = 1 lb.

5 cups coffee = 1 lb.

1 lb. coffee = 40 cups of liquid coffee 1-7/8 cups rice = 1 lb.

2-2/3 cups oatmeal = 1 lb.

2-2/3 cups cornmeal = 1 lb.

1 cup of liquid to 3 cups of flour = a dough 1 cup of liquid to 2 cups of flour = a thick batter 1 cup of liquid to 1 cup of flour = a thin batter 1 teaspoonful soda to 1 pint sour milk 1 teaspoonful soda to one cup of mola.s.ses 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar plus 1/2 teaspoonful soda = 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder

2. THE CHILD NURSE

There always are and always will be children to be taken care of. There is no way in which a girl can help her country better than by fitting herself to undertake the care of children. A Girl Scout thinks for herself, and knowing the Health Laws, she knows the important things to consider in caring for children:

1. The care necessary for the child's bones.

2. When it should exercise its muscles.

3. Its rest.

4. The air, sun and food and water which it needs.

5. How to keep it clean.

_Bones_--Great care must be taken in handling a baby. Its bones are soft and easily injured, and for this reason a baby should not be handled more than necessary. When very young its entire spine should be supported, and no undue pressure made upon the chest, as often happens if the baby is grasped under the arms. In lifting a young baby from its bed, the right hand should grasp the clothing below the feet, and the left hand should be slipped beneath the infant's body to its head. It is then raised upon the left arm. An older child should be lifted by placing the hands under the child's arms, and never by the wrists. If children are jerked or lifted by the arms, serious injury may be done to the bones. The bones, when a child is growing, are partly composed of soft tissue which is easily destroyed, and further growth is prevented.

Many children are brought to the hospitals with injuries done to their arms from being jerked across the street. Do not let a child walk too soon, especially a heavy child. Bow legs and knock knees come from standing and walking when the bones are soft.

_Exercise_--At least twice a day an infant should be allowed for fifteen or twenty minutes the free use of its limbs by permitting it to lie upon a bed in a warm room, with all clothing except the s.h.i.+rt and diaper removed. In cold weather leave on the stockings. Later, when in short clothes, the baby may be put upon a thick blanket or quilt, laid upon the floor, and be allowed to tumble at will.

_Rest_--Healthy children never sleep too much. A new born baby should sleep nine-tenths of the day. A child should have a nap during the day until four years old, and, if possible, until seven or eight years old.

It should go to bed before six. It should have a crib or bed to itself, placed where it will have fresh air, but protected from draughts, and its eyes protected from direct rays of light.

_Air and Sun_--A little child is in its room so much it is very important that fresh air and sunlight should be brought to it there.

Rooms may be well aired twice or three times a day, removing the baby to another room while the windows are open. The child may be placed in its crib or carriage before on open window, dressed as if for the street.

After children are three months old they may be taken out, but the sunny part of the day should be chosen, between 10 a. m. and 3 p. m. in cold weather. At night the windows should be partly opened, but care should be taken that the infant does not become chilled. Be careful that sheet and blankets do not get over a baby's head. The clothes may be pinned to the side of the bed.

_Food and Water_--Even little babies should be given water twice a day.

The water should be boiled, cooled and kept covered. It is hardly possible for children or older persons to drink too much water. During hot weather a child needs more water than during cold weather.