Lettuce forms the foundation of most salads.
=Cream of Lettuce Soup.=--Separate four heads of lettuce, wash
thoroughly, and place in boiling salted water. Boil, and cover for ten
minutes. Drain, and throw into a dish of cold water; allow them to
remain for a few minutes, then drain. Chop finely, then rub through
a sieve. Have ready one quart of hot milk. Rub one tablespoonful of
butter and flour to a paste; add to the hot milk, and stir until it
is thickened; mix a half spoonful of this with the lettuce pulp; stir
until well blended, then add to the soup. Season to taste with salt and
pepper. Let it simmer for about five minutes, and serve with toast cut
in dice.
=An Italian Dish.=--Cut off the roots, and wash clean, five or six
lettuce heads. Put them into boiling salted water for five minutes.
Take out, and fill the inside with meat of walnuts. Tie the tops
together and put them in a saucepan. Add one quarter pint of Marsala
wine, and some good vegetable broth; salt and pepper to taste. Cover
the dish with buttered paper, and cook in the oven for fifteen minutes.
Place the lettuces on a hot dish, having untied them, pour the sauce
over and serve hot.
MAIZE or INDIAN CORN (_Zea Mays. Gramineæ_).
Though this may be sown in the open in May, it is better practice to
raise it in pots in the hotbed, sowing in April. The plants should be
gradually hardened off and put out about the end of May or beginning of
June in rows thirty inches apart. The plants eighteen inches in the row.