The Fun of Cooking Part 20

1 tiny slice of onion.

1/4 cup of any hot cooked vegetable; measure after thoroughly mas.h.i.+ng it

Scald the milk with the onion in it; then take out the onion and slowly mix the milk and vegetable. Melt the b.u.t.ter, 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

3-1/2 pounds of chicken.

3 pints cold water.

2 tablespoonfuls rice.

1-1/2 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

3/4 cup milk.

1 tablespoonful sugar.

1/4 junket tablet (buy at the grocery in a little package).

1 teaspoonful cold water.

1/4 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 gla.s.ses and set in a cold place at once. When ready to serve, turn out of the mold, or serve in the gla.s.s 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 sc.r.a.ped 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. b.u.t.ter the inside of a tin m.u.f.fin 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, b.u.t.ter it and lay it on a hot plate. When the egg is done take a cake turner, b.u.t.ter its edge and slip it under the m.u.f.fin 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 gla.s.s 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 a.s.sured 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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.

1/4 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.

3/4 cup of cream.

1/2 teaspoonful b.u.t.ter.

1/2 teaspoonful flour.

1/4 teaspoonful salt.

Rub the melted b.u.t.ter 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.