The Fun of Cooking Part 7

1-1/2 cups of flour.

1/4 teaspoonful of soda.

1/4 teaspoonful of salt.

1 tablespoonful of hot water.

1/4 teaspoonful of cloves.

1/4 teaspoonful of cinnamon.

Melt the b.u.t.ter, add the sugar, and rub together. Beat the egg without separating, and put in next. Mix the soda and hot water, put the milk with this; put the salt in the flour; add part of the flour to the sugar and other things, and then part of the milk, and so on; then put in the spices and stir all together. Put the dough on the board, roll it out thin, and with a cutter mark it all over; then lift out the pieces with a cake turner, very carefully, and arrange them in your pans, but do not let them touch. Bake fifteen minutes; take them out of the pans while warm, and spread out on a platter to cool.

"Dear me, that sounds pretty hard!" said Mildred, as she finished.

"Cookies are not quite as easy to make as some other things, but they are so good, so nice for luncheon and suppers and other times, that I think you will be glad to know how to make them. And Father is so fond of cookies!"

"So he is. Well, Mother, I'll try them. And now what comes next?"

"Some cunning, easy little cakes, so easy that next time Brownie can make them herself. They are called:"

MARGUERITES

20 round, thin crackers.

20 marshmallows.

2 tablespoonfuls of chopped nuts.

2 teaspoonfuls of b.u.t.ter.

b.u.t.ter the crackers on one side, just a little; put a marshmallow on each, a tiny bit of b.u.t.ter on it, and a sprinkle of chopped nuts of any kind. Put them in a shallow pan, and bake till they are soft and brown; eat while fresh and warm.

"Oh, lovely! Mother, I must have some of the girls in and have those for myself!"

"So you shall, any day you want to. Now don't you think that is almost enough for the picnic?"

"I think we ought to have something to finish off with--to eat with the cookies and marguerites; don't you think so?"

"Yes, I do; something in the way of fruit. Suppose we give them this--it is much nicer than plain oranges or bananas; write it down, dear."

ORANGE BASKETS

6 large oranges.

2 bananas.

2 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.

Cut the oranges in halves; take out the pulp with a spoon, and put it in a bowl. Sc.r.a.pe out the inside, leaving nice, clean sh.e.l.ls, and then scallop or point the edges with the scissors. Peel the bananas, cut them in long, narrow strips, and these into small bits, and mix lightly with the orange, and add the sugar; heap in the baskets and set away to grow cold.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Making "Orange Baskets"]

"If we happened to have any pineapple or white grapes in the house, I should put some of those in too; but these will be delicious just as they are. Now anything more?"

"Something to drink with the lunch. I think pink lemonade would be nice."

"Perfectly lovely!" laughed Mother Blair. "We will get a can of raspberries out of the fruit closet, and make something for them that will be ever so good. This is the rule:"

PICNIC LEMONADE

8 lemons.

12 gla.s.ses of water.

3 cups of sugar.

1 cup of raspberry juice.

Roll the lemons till they are soft; cut them and squeeze the juice out. Put the sugar in a little pan with a gla.s.s of water, and boil it two minutes; add this to the lemon and raspberry juice, and strain it; add the rest of the water; serve with broken ice in a gla.s.s pitcher.

"Be sure and boil the sugar and water together, Mildred, whenever you make any kind of drink like lemonade; it is so much better than if you put in plain sugar. When it is all done, if it is not quite sweet enough, you can add a little powdered sugar without hurting it."

"Mother, we forgot the surprise! You remember, 'every luncheon must have a surprise,' you said; see, here it is in the book."

"Dear me, so I did! What shall it be, Mildred? I can't seem to think of another thing for that picnic."

"Neither can I."

"Stuffed dates!" exclaimed Mother Blair, presently. "I knew there must be something, and those will be exactly right."

STUFFED DATES

Wash the dates and wipe them dry. Open one side and take out the stone; in its place press in half a pecan or other nut; close the edges, and roll each date in powdered sugar.

"I do hope there will be some of those over for us," said Mildred, as she put her book away. "Those children are going to have a _wonderful_ lunch!"

Brownie could not imagine what her birthday surprise was to be. She could not help guessing, but she never once was "warm." When Sat.u.r.day came, and the boys and girls arrived in their every-day clothes and even kept on their wraps in the parlor, she did not know what to think; and there was actually no lunch for them in the dining-room! She began to look very sober.

But when everybody had come, Mother Blair said: "Won't you go upstairs?"

and Mildred and Jack ushered them up to the attic.

It was such a lovely surprise! The big green carpets were spread down on the bare floor, and all around were set little green trees in pots. The canary was hung up out of sight, and he was singing as hard as he could.

It was not a bit too cold, for the door had been kept open all day and the sun was s.h.i.+ning in at the window.

And just then appeared Mother Blair, and Norah, and Jack, and Mildred, all carrying baskets, which they put down on the floor. Then the picnic began!

There was first the cloth to spread down on the gra.s.s, and paper plates and napkins to be pa.s.sed around. The veal loaf was found, a platter of it tied up in a large napkin, and hot sandwiches between hot plates, tied up in another napkin, and marmalade sandwiches folded in paraffin paper by themselves. Last of all were the orange baskets, each one twisted up in a paper napkin with a funny little frill on top made of the ends of the napkin; and the dates were in little square paper boxes, one box for each child.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Jack and the lemonade]

As they began to eat, Jack came up with a big, big pitcher of beautiful pink lemonade, and little gla.s.ses to drink it out of. Oh, such a picnic as it was! Such a perfectly lovely picnic! Out-of-door picnics were nothing to it And when they had eaten up every crumb and drank up every drop, they played games until the attic grew dark; and then they all went home, and the birthday was over.

CHAPTER V

SUNDAY NIGHT SUPPER

One Sunday afternoon just as the clock struck three, the Blairs'