TWO BON VOYAGE BREAKFASTS.
"I take my leave of you
Shall not be long but I'll be here again."
I.
Use the national colors for decorations for a bon voyage breakfast. This
will remind the guest of honor that "East, West, Hame's Best." Use blue
and white hyacinths and red tulips, carnations or roses and tiny silk
flags can be used for place cards. Carry out the same idea in the ices,
candies, etc. One pretty floral decoration for a bon voyage breakfast is
a ship and the place cards can have a tiny ocean steamer for decoration.
Ask each guest to bring some little gift. Tie these with tissue paper
and baby ribbon, leaving a long end of the ribbon. Make a little bag of
flowered chintz or silk and place the gifts inside. Have cards labeled
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., one for each day of the voyage. Slip
the end of the ribbon through a card and leave the labeled ends of the
ribbons sticking out of the top of the bag. This will give a little
remembrance for each day on shipboard, a very pleasant remembrance too.
A packet of ship letters each labeled a certain day, is another gift
much prized by travelers.
II.
Have three tables, with six guests at a table with La France roses for
decorations, and silver for all the courses laid at each cover.
The guest cards are little circular marine water color sketches, no two
alike. The menu is as follows:
_Grape Fruit with strawberries_
_Salmon Croquettes_
_Fried Mush_
_Jelly_
_Steamed Chicken_
_Hot Rolls_
_Shoestring Potatoes_
_Coffee_
_Vegetable Salad_
_Wafers with Melted Cheese_
_Molded Cherry Jelly with English Walnuts, served with Whipped Cream_
_Sponge Cakes_
The grape fruit is served in halves with one large strawberry in the
center of the fruit. The salmon croquettes are molded in pyramidal form,
a bit of cress laid on the top, and the mush which has been made the
night before is cut in cubes an inch square, dipped in eggs and cracker
dust, then dropped in deep fat, the only way to fry mush a delicate
brown and preserve its softness. A spoonful of current jelly completes a
color scheme.
STEAMED CHICKEN.
Grind with a food chopper the meat of two raw chickens and half a pound
of pickled pork. Add a cup of sifted bread crumbs, half a cup of thick
sweet cream, half a cup of butter, half a can of chopped mushrooms, a
little minced parsley, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with the hands
and put into well greased timbale cups and steam three hours.
SAUCE.
Make a sauce for this by mixing the liquor of the mushrooms, half a cup
of cream, the rest of the mushrooms, chopped; heat and thicken with
half a cup of cracker dust. Serve very hot.
VEGETABLE SALAD.
With the smallest sized potato scoop, cut out a pint of potato balls
about the size of common marbles and boil in salted water until tender.
Let them cool, and add a pint of the largest peas, three stalks of
minced celery, a good sized cucumber cut fine, ten drops of onion juice.
Salt and pepper any good cooked dressing, to which add two large
spoonfuls of thick cream and two of olive oil. Serve on a lettuce leaf,
pour over the dressing, and last of all put on the top of the salad
three little balls of red pickled beet cut with the potato scoop, and
half embedded in the dressing.
Make a gelatine jelly, flavored with juice of two lemons and cherries.
Serve with whipped cream, into which beat finely sifted crumbs of three
macaroons.
WHO TAKES THE CAKE?
"Who takes the cake?" is a most merry-making scheme to assist in
entertaining at a breakfast. The hostess provides upon slips of paper,
what may be termed cake-conundrums. These are neatly written and wound
upon coarse steel knitting needles into little rolls and tied with
baby-ribbon to match the color scheme of the table.
These are brought in just after serving the coffee and passed to the
guests. The hostess announces that each is to guess the name of the cake
suggested on her slip; adding, the one who gives the most correct
answers wins the prize of a delicious cake. This should be exhibited.
The hostess has a list of the answers, and when one misses the "hit,"
she reads it aloud to the merriment of the crowd. For instance, one slip
reads: Name the President's cake. The answer is (Election). The
parenthesis must not appear on the slips. A list recently used, and very
wittily selected, is given for suggestion:
Name the Geologist's cake. (Mountain.)
Name the Advertiser's cake. (Puff.)
Name the Farmer's cake. (Corn.)
Name the Tailor's cake. (Measure.)
Name the Milliner's cake. (Ribbon.)
Name the Devout cake. (Angel Food.)
Name the Jeweler's cake. (Gold.)
Name the Lover's cake. (Kisses.)
Name the Author's cake. (Short cake.)
Name the Pugilist's cake. (Pound.)
Name the Office-seeker's cake. (Washington.)
Name the Idler's cake. (Loaf.)
Many others can be added by the clever hostess.
BREAKFAST AND TEA FOR CHRISTMAS OR THANKSGIVING.
BREAKFAST.
_Oranges and Grapes_
_Farina with Dates and Cream and Sugar_
_Chicken Croquettes_
_Oysters in Potato Balls_
_Rice Muffins with Maple Syrup_
_Coffee_
_Chocolate with Whipped Cream_
TEA.
_Scalloped Oysters_
_Turkey Salad_
_Cheese Balls_
_Bread and Butter Sandwiches_
_Strawberry Trifle_
_Gipsy Jelly with Whipped Cream_
_Lemon Cocoanut Cake_
_Meringues filled with Preserved Walnuts_
_Tea_
_Cocoa with Whipped Cream_
OYSTERS IN POTATO BALLS.
Cook the potatoes the day before. While hot mash them, season nicely
with salt, paprika and a little celery salt. Add a generous lump of
butter, and one or two lightly beaten eggs. Form into little balls with
the hands floured. The next morning scoop out a hollow large enough to
hold two or three nicely seasoned oysters, press over the part removed,
egg and bread-crumb, and fry in a wire basket in deep hot fat. Drain a
minute on unglazed paper, and serve at once.
RICE MUFFINS.
Sift together half a teaspoonful of salt, a heaping teaspoonful of
baking powder, and two cupfuls of flour. Add two well-beaten eggs to one
cupful of sweet milk, and stir into the flour, with one teaspoonful of
melted butter and one cupful of dry boiled rice. Beat thoroughly, and
bake in buttered pans for thirty-five minutes. Serve with maple syrup.
TURKEY SALAD.
Cut the cold turkey meat into dice and mix it with twice the quantity of
diced celery and one cupful of broken walnut meats. Mix all well
together and moisten with a good boiled dressing. Serve in a nest of
bleached lettuce.
CHEESE BALLS.
Roll rich pastry out very thin, cut it into circles with a small
tumbler, put two teaspoonfuls of grated cheese in the center of each,
add a dash of cayenne and a teaspoonful of finely chopped walnut meats,
then draw the edges of the paste together over the cheese, pinching it
well to form a little ball. Bake in a hot oven to a very pale brown.
Before serving reheat in the oven.
STRAWBERRY TRIFLE.
Cut one large stale sponge cake in horizontal slices the whole length of
the loaf. They should be half an inch thick. Beat the whites of four
eggs to a stiff snow, divide it into two portions; into one stir two
level tablespoons of powdered sugar and one-half of a grated cocoanut;
into the other stir the same amount of powdered sugar and one-half pound
of sweet almonds blanched and pounded. Spread the slices of cake with
these mixtures, half with the cocoanut and half with the almond, and
replace them in their original form. The top crust should be cut off
before slicing the cake as it is used for a lid. Hold the sliced cake
firmly together and with a sharp knife cut down deep enough to leave
only an inch at the bottom, and take out the center, leaving walls only
one inch thick. Soak the part removed in a bowl with one cupful of rich
custard flavored with lemon. Rub it to a smooth batter, then whip into
it one cupful of cream which has been whipped to a dry stiff froth. Fill
the cavity of the cake with alternate layers of this mixture and very
rich preserved strawberries. Then put on the lid and ice with a frosting
made with the whites of three eggs, one heaping cupful of powdered sugar
and the juice of one lemon. Spread it smoothly over the sides and top of
the cake, and keep in a very cold place until time to serve. Then place
it on a silver or crystal dish, and put alternate spoonfuls of the
whipped cream mixture and preserved strawberries around the base.
MERINGUES FILLED WITH PRESERVED WALNUTS.
Beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff firm snow, stir into it
three-fourths of a pound of powdered sugar, flavor with a little lemon
or rose water, and continue to beat until very light. Then drop them
from a spoon, a little more than an inch apart, on well buttered paper,
keeping them as nearly egg-shaped as possible. Place the paper on a
half-inch board and bake in a slow oven until well dried out. Remove
from the paper, scrape out the soft part from the underside, and before
serving fill with preserved walnuts and stick each two together. The
preserved walnuts are a very delicious sweet but one rarely met with.