The Fun of Cooking Part 18

"Oh, no, indeed! n.o.body does that way any more. Ask Norah if she has any paraffin left over."

But no, she had used every bit she had to cover her grape jelly; so Brownie had to go to the drug-store and get ten cents' worth. It came in a large cake, so clear and white it looked good enough to eat, but it wasn't, as the little girl found out by tasting. It was just like candles, and only mice like to eat candles. Norah said she would show the girls how to cover jams and jellies and spiced things, and everything you put in jelly-gla.s.ses.

"You take this little saucepan that I keep on purpose for paraffin," she said, "and put the whole cake in it after you cut it in two, and melt it; only be careful and don't let it splash on my clean stove and make it greasy. And while it is melting you can wipe off the jam gla.s.ses with a warm, wet dish-cloth and make them all clean and dry."

While Brownie was was.h.i.+ng off the gla.s.ses Mildred cut some little slips of paper and printed on these the names for the different things they had made; PEACH on some, and SPICED GRAPES on others, and GRAPE JAM or APPLE JELLY on the rest. Then she got the pot of paste from the library; by this time the paraffin was melted and all ready to use. Norah showed them how to pour a little on top of each gla.s.s, right on the jam, and then tip the gla.s.ses a little so it would run up the sides toward the top. In a moment it hardened, and was ready for the tin covers to go on so the mice could not get at it, and then they pasted the labels on, and it was done.

Norah helped carry the trays to the preserve closet and put them away in rows, being very careful not to tip them and slide the paraffin up the sides of the gla.s.ses. Then they stood and looked at them, and, oh, how proud the girls felt!

"I'll make some more to-morrow," said Mildred, "and some more after that, and some more after that, and some more after _that_!"

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 s.h.i.+very 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 a.s.sured 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 a.s.sured 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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 gla.s.ses 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 b.u.t.ter.

1/2 cup of gravy or strong soup.

1 onion, chopped fine.

1/2 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.