[Illustration: Three women looking at gelatin]
Belinda is that lovely lucky creature, the young matron of to-day,
setting up housekeeping, not as a daily task, but as a comradely
affair. Gone are the walls that used to separate the generations.
Belinda is firm friends with her grandmother, and her mother is her
clever contemporary. Together they face the world with a friendly
affectionate dignity, a reasonable freedom and a healthy ease, that
banishes boredom,—lengthens life.
Gone, too, are the cumbrous clumsy methods of housekeeping—basement
kitchens, hods of coal, oil lamps and 24-hour bread.... Vanished with
the high bicycles and Waspwaists of the “Gay Nineties.”
But the spirit of home-making, the desire to build a pleasant place,
and welcome those you love within its walls—remains the same to-day as
it has been forever.
That welcoming hearth-warming spirit of unflustered hospitality!
Beginning with the dolls’ tea-party, and flowering to graceful
perfection in the charming hostess. Belinda knows that no entertainment
can be a success, unless the hostess enjoys it herself.
So with the deft adjustment made possible by modern methods, she
combines Martha-Service with Mary-Serenity, in a manner entirely her
own.
[Illustration: Steps leading up to house]
_When Belinda Bridges_
or plays Mahjong, she arranges her tea-party to the taste of her
guests. If she is a maidless mistress, she excels in those little
intimate parties—“just one or two tables,” where tea is an interlude
rather than an interval.
Bright and early Belinda makes her most successful cake and a
delectable dish of Turkish delight. Sandwiches filled with some clever
paste and rolls of wafer bread and butter are trimmed with their
attendant sprigs of parsley, celery, or radish roses. Covered lightly
with an inverted bowl, and set in the ice-box till the tea hour, they
will be crisp, fresh and dainty at 5 o’clock. The tea table, gay with
Belinda’s most attractive tea cups, is set by the fireside, or the open
window, to suit the season; and tea can be made in a minute.
_For a More Formal Occasion_
Belinda sets her table in the dining room, with a non-playing friend or
two to pour the tea and coffee. Bright with flowers and attractive with
delicious dainties, it has an allure that is never gainsaid. The menu
may be—
_Tea ... at one end of the table with coffee, chocolate or fruit cup
as an alternative at the other end_
_Toasted cheese rolls_
_Sandwiches_
_Hot biscuits_
_Cakes big and little_
_Compote of fruits_
_Cherry Cream Parfait Whip or Lemon Snow Pudding in individual
glasses_
_Candies and salted nuts_
[Illustration: Woman placing gelatin on table]
Such a lovely note of color gleams in these delicate gelatins. The rich
glowing raspberry, just the color of the ripe fruit ... strawberry,
a ruby in sunlight ... the delicate iridescence of the pure lemon.
Moulded fruits gleam through that delicate sparkle. Whipped and piled
high in individual glasses, served in any one of a dozen different
ways, they give a fairy flavor to Belinda’s party.
_Eight for Luncheon_
may mean an afternoon party to follow, or merely a pleasant hour of
friendly intercourse. It taxes Belinda’s talents as a hostess more,
perhaps, than any other entertainment. She is so entirely the builder
of the surroundings, the mainspring of the welcome she provides. It is
her individual occasion!
The luncheon table demands special attention. The doilies and lunch
cloths must be laundered to especial perfection, the silver spotless,
the glass and china shining. The decorations of the table should
harmonize with the dining room. There must be a distinction about it
that can face the daylight.
_Belinda Chooses the Menu_
with equal care. No two-hour lunches with drawn blinds and lighted
candles for the slim smart maids and matrons of to-day! Any of the
following menus can be prepared and served with an ease that leaves the
hostess free to enjoy the occasion with her guests.
_1._ _Royal Fruit Frozen Cup_
_Clear Soup in cups_
_Lamb Chops—Peas—Chip Potatoes_
_Pineapple Salad and Cheese Straws_
_Coffee_
_2._ _Tomato Soup with whipped cream and
paprika Jellied Chicken—Vegetable Salad and
Mayonnaise_
_Finger Sandwiches of Minced Ham_
_Ice Cream and Wafers_
_Coffee_
_3._ _Creamed Fish in shells_
_Fried Chicken—Bacon—Potatoes baked
in their skins with cheese_
_Compote of winter fruits_
_Coffee_
Belinda loves these gelatin desserts, because they always arrive at her
table cool, interesting, tender, gleaming with color and distinguished
in taste, with an endless variety to add to their charm.... Doesn’t
that sound like a description of Favorite Friends? Belinda looks on
them as F.F’s ... and loves them also for their priceless power of
satisfying her taste for sweets, without adding an inch to her figure.
Because—blessed thought—they are not fattening at all!
_The Little Dinners_
that delight the hearts of men and make the perfect setting for a
charming woman ... these are the acid test for the clever hostess.
Belinda has a _flair_ for these intimate occasions. She gives them an
atmosphere.
[Illustration: Two women at table with gelatin]
[Illustration: Two kids at table with gelatin]
Belinda chooses guests that harmonize, with the same care that
she gives to choosing flowers that blend with the gown she wears.
Decorative touches on the dinner table perhaps ... gay little place
cards or favors, a scented leaf or blossom floating in each finger
bowl, tall glasses on twisted stems that give a touch of dignity ...
candle light ... comfort.
Whether Belinda cooks and serves the dinner single handed, or has a
staff of servants, she follows the rule of good breeding that serves
only what can be perfectly cooked and served, without confusion.
The hot things hot—the cold things cold—sounds an obvious rule. But
more meals than can be counted have been wrecked by neglect of it.
Belinda has carefully chosen menus for a little dinner that can be
served to perfection by a single maid, whose mistress helps with the
preparation.
_I_
_Hors d’oeuvres_
_Cream Soup in cups with whipped cream on top_
_Individual moulds of jellied fish with
mayonnaise and cucumbers_
_Broiled filets of beef—peas—_
_French fried potatoes_
_Salad—Green peppers stuffed with cream cheese_
_Crème Orient—Wafers_
_Fruit—Coffee_
_II_
_Clear Tomato Bouillon_
_Ramekins of Lobster or Salmon_
_Crown of Lamb—Potato Croquettes_
_Gravy—Mint Sauce_
_String Beans_
_Compote of Fruits_
_with whipped cream_
_Cheese cream on pastry biscuits_
_Coffee_
completed by a table for cards, and a conversational circle by the open
fire!
Belinda thinks that gelatin, with its countless combinations and
variations, makes the perfect dessert. Delicious, delicate ... an aid
to the digestion rather than a tax upon it. Perfectly prepared, dished,
garnished, before the last minute cookery begins.
_The Children’s Hour_
Gelatin seems to have been invented by some Fairy Godmother who studied
children’s tastes and parents’ dietetic duties. And merged them into
the delicate fruity crystals that bring protein and growth-promoting
elements, to the active little bodies, while actually helping the
digestive process.
How the children love them too, these desserts that look like jewels
... fairy bubbles that melt in the mouth ... delectable as the fresh
fruit from which their flavors are made!
They “make a party” of the simplest meal ... whipped or plain, with
custard or with cream. Raspberry, Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, or Cherry
ripe—their very names carry the fragrance of a sunlit garden.
[Illustration: Three women talking]
_99½% emphasize its “fruity flavor and fragrance”_——
_Here are some comments from enthusiastic users_
_From Pennsylvania_—“Royal Fruit Gelatin has the good fruit taste that
other gelatins lack. I think it is much better for the children.”
_From Connecticut_—“After trying Royal Fruit Gelatin I am
convinced.... Here is a gelatin that has the exact fruit flavor! I
liked the orange particularly well. The children thought I had added
fresh orange juice to it. And it jellied far quicker than any gelatin
I have ever used.”
_New York State women write with enthusiasm_—“It has a pure fruit
flavor that is unsurpassed.”
“I am delighted with Royal Fruit Gelatin. The fruity fragrance is
delicious. The flavor like fresh fruit itself.”
_From Pennsylvania again_—“My family enjoyed the fresh fruit
flavor—more pure than other prepared gelatins.”
_A Maryland woman writes_—“Fresh fruit taste, fruity fragrance—it’s
the best I ever had!”
_From Massachusetts_—“As I always use Royal Baking Powder, I knew that
the Royal Fruit Gelatin would surely be perfect. It is all and more
than I expected it to be.”