SUPPER AT THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS
When the Junior Blairs came down to breakfast on New Year's morning,
there were three good-sized red-covered books lying on the table, one by
each plate, and on the cover of each, in gold letters, was the name of
Mildred, or Jack, or Brownie. But when they opened them there was
nothing inside--only just white paper leaves.
"What are they for?" asked Mildred, puzzled. "For school, for examples
and compositions?"
"Not a bit of it!" laughed her mother. "They are cook-books, or they
will be when you have filled them full of receipts. When you made such
delicious things for Christmas, I ordered these for you, so you could
write down each rule that you used then, and add others as you learned
other things. You see, there are little letters all down the edges of
the book, and when you want to find gingerbread, for instance, all you
have to do is to turn to G; and when you want--"
"Cake," interrupted Brownie, "you turn to K."
Everybody laughed then, but in a minute Jack said soberly: "If you don't
mind, Mother, I think I'll use mine for school. You see, boys don't
cook."
"It seems to me I've heard that before," said Father Blair, nodding at
him. "But you just tuck that book away in your bureau drawer and keep
it, because I've an idea you may want it yet for a cook-book."
Jack shook his head energetically, but as Norah just then brought in a
fresh plate of popovers, he was too busy to say anything more.
That afternoon, the girls began their books by copying very neatly the
receipts they had already used: Brownies, Christmas Cakes, Icing,
Christmas Elves, Gingerbread Men, Oatmeal Macaroons, Pop-corn Balls, and
Tartlets all went in, each under its own initial. Then they said they
wanted some more receipts right away, because these looked so lonely.
"Very well," said their mother; "but first we will have a talk, because
I have a bright idea."
Now it happened that one of the particularly nice things about the Blair
family was that they owned a little bit of a house not many miles from
town, right in the midst of a pine grove. A farmer lived quite close by,
but the trees hid his house from sight; and the trolley-cars ran just
around the corner, but they could not be seen either; so when the family
went there for a day or two, or a week or two, it was just as though
they were a long, long distance from everybody in the world. They called
this little place the House in the Woods, and Brownie Blair often
pretended it was the one in the fairy book, and that Goldilocks might
come in at any moment to eat a bowl of porridge with the three Blairs,
instead of the three bears.
"You see," Mother Blair went on, "the snow is still so fresh and lovely,
and the sleighing so good, and the full moon is still coming up so very
early, that I thought--"
"Oh, I know!" Jack shouted. "A sleighing party!"
"Yes," said his mother; "to the House in the Woods for supper. Won't
that be fun? And you can cook the supper. Only, if you invite seven boys
and girls to go with you, we must have plenty of things for them to eat;
and of course you will want to cook them all yourselves."
"Of course," Mildred said decidedly. "What shall we have for the
supper?"
"Oh, have cheese dreams!" Jack begged. "The fellows think they're great.
I'll make 'em myself, if you will. I learned how at the Dwights when I
was there last week."
"You did!" teased his mother. "But I thought boys didn't cook!" Jack's
face grew decidedly red.
"Of course boys cook with a chafing-dish," he explained; "so do men,
too. In college, lots of them make Welsh-rabbit and oysters and things
like that for spreads, you know. And you can make the same things in a
frying-pan on the stove just as well. So I'll make the dreams up before
we go, and cook 'em when we get there."
"Very well," said his mother; "but I bargain with you that you are to
put the receipt in your own cook-book." And Jack had to promise.
Then Mildred and her mother planned the rest of the supper. They were to
have oyster stew, because that was what everybody wanted at a sleighing
party; and then the cheese dreams, and potatoes, and cocoa; and Mother
Blair said they would have a dish of scrambled eggs for anybody who did
not like cheese. And, last of all, they would have little hot brown
biscuits and honey; Farmer Dunn always had beautiful honey.
"Now, let us plan things out," said Mildred. "You and Brownie and I,
Mother, can go out to the House in the Woods by trolley, and get the
fires going and the table all ready; and Father and Jack can drive out
with the others just at supper-time, and then we can all go back
together afterward." This seemed the very best way of managing; so early
one Saturday afternoon they reached the little house, and while Mildred
and her mother went in and opened the windows and looked all around to
see if everything was as they left it, Brownie ran off for Farmer Dunn,
who soon brought wood and made up rousing fires in the rooms. By the
time the baskets were unpacked on the kitchen table, he was ready to go
back to his house and get milk and cream and eggs and butter and honey.
As the Blairs always left the house ready to open at a moment's notice,
they had sugar and flour and salt and things like that in the pantry.
Mildred and Brownie laid the table, putting on plates and cups and
glasses, and they rubbed the forks and spoons and made them as bright
as the sunshine. When it was all done, they got a beautiful great bunch
of feathery pine branches for a centerpiece, and then it looked exactly
as though the table knew there was going to be a party.
"It is nearly five o'clock," their mother called to them as they
finished. "It is time we began to get supper. Brownie, here is a receipt
for you; do you think you can manage it all alone?"
"Of course," said Brownie, with great dignity. "Only you might just tell
me how, first."
Mother Blair laughed, and read the receipt over to her, and told her
what to do.
STUFFED BAKED POTATOES
Take six large potatoes, wash and scrub them well, and bake them
for about forty minutes in a hot oven, or till they are done. Take
one potato at a time, hold it in a towel, and cut it in two,
lengthwise. Scoop out the inside with a spoon into a hot bowl.
When all six are ready, add 1/2 teaspoonful of salt and 1
teaspoonful of butter, beating and mashing well till they are
light; then fill the potato shells, heaping them full; arrange in
a shallow pan, and set it in the oven; bake about ten minutes, or
till they are brown.
As soon as Brownie was busy with the potatoes, Mildred said she would
make the cocoa, because that could stand and wait while other things
cooked. Her mother told her to get the double boiler, put some hot
water in the outside, and set it on the stove. Then she gave her this
receipt:
COCOA
6 teaspoonfuls of cocoa.
1-1/2 cups of boiling water.
1-1/2 cups of boiling milk.
1 tablespoonful of powdered sugar.
1 small pinch of salt.
_Always measure spoonfuls just a little rounded._ Put the powdered
cocoa into the double boiler and pour on it the boiling water, a
little at first, stirring it until it melts; add the boiling milk,
and cook two minutes, stirring all the time; add the sugar, stir a
moment longer; add the salt and take from the fire. If not to be
used at once, stand the double boiler on the back of the stove
till wanted.
"But, Mother, we will need a great many more cups of cocoa than this,"
Mildred exclaimed, as she read the rule over. "Those boys will drink at
least two apiece, and the girls may, too; they will all be just
starving!"
"Of course," said Mother Blair. "But what do you go to school for, if
not to learn multiplication? How many times over must you make the
rule?"
Mildred thought two whole minutes, and then said she thought about five
times would do; so she very carefully measured everything five times
over. "I never thought arithmetic was any good before," she said
soberly. "But now I see it is to cook by."
"Yes, I find it useful myself," her mother said, with a smile. "Now,
Mildred, we might make the biscuits. I think those will not be hurt by
standing any more than the cocoa will. But this rule I think you will
have to multiply by three."
BAKING-POWDER BISCUITS
1 pint of sifted flour.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
4 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
3/4 cup of milk.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Put the salt and baking-powder in the flour and rub the butter
into these with a spoon; little by little add the milk, mixing all
the time; lift the dough out on the floured board, dust it over
with flour, and flour the rolling-pin; roll out lightly, just
once, till it is an inch thick. Flour your hands and make it into
little balls as quickly as you can; put a very little flour on the
bottom of a shallow pan, and put the biscuits in it, close
together. Bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes, or till they
are brown.
These were great fun to make, and when the very last panful was done,
Mildred tucked all the little brown biscuits up in a big fresh towel,
and put them in a pan in the warming oven to keep hot till they were
needed. At that very minute, they heard sleigh-bells, and everybody
rushed to throw open the door and let the party in. Such shouting and
laughing and talking you never heard in all your life! All the boys and
girls had been out to the House in the Woods often before, and they were
so glad to come again, they hardly knew what to do.
While they were taking off their wraps, Jack slipped out into the
kitchen and demanded the frying-pan. "See," he said proudly, opening a
box, "here are the cheese dreams, all ready to cook! Aren't they fine?"
"Lovely!" exclaimed his mother, and then added, with a merry twinkle in
her eyes, "you'll be a great cook yet, Jack!"
This was the receipt Jack had used to make them:
CHEESE DREAMS
(Six large sandwiches)
12 slices of bread, cut half an inch thick.
12 thin slices of cheese.
1 pinch of soda, cayenne pepper, and salt for each slice.
Put together like sandwiches, and then cut into rounds. Heat a
frying-pan very hot, melt a teaspoonful of butter in it, and lay
in two or three sandwiches; when one side is brown, turn it over
and cook the other; take from the pan and lay in the oven in a pan
on a paper till all are ready.
[Illustration: Jack Fried the "Cheese Dreams"]
Of course Jack had made more than six sandwiches, for he knew everybody
would want two apiece; so he had a great boxful, and it took him quite a
little time to fry them all; but it was just as well, for Mildred and
her mother had to make the oyster stew, which was to be eaten first.
OYSTER STEW
1 pint of oysters.
1/2 pint of water.
1 quart of rich milk.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
Drain the juice off the oysters and examine each to remove any
pieces of shell that may still adhere to it; add the water to the
oyster juice, and boil one minute; skim this well. Heat the milk
and add to this, and when it steams, drop in the oysters and
simmer just one minute, or till the edges of the oysters begin to
curl; add the salt and take up at once; if you choose, add a cup
of sifted cracker crumbs.
"What is 'simmer?" asked Mildred, as she read the rule over.
"Just letting it boil a tiny little bit," said her mother, "around the
edges of the saucepan, but not all over. And here is the receipt for:"
SCRAMBLED EGGS
1 egg for each person.
2 tablespoonfuls of milk to each egg.
2 shakes of salt.
1 shake of pepper.
Break the eggs in a bowl, beat them twelve times, then add the
milk, salt, and pepper; heat a pan, put in a piece of butter the
size of a hickory-nut, and when it is melted, pour in the eggs;
stir them as they cook, and scrape them off the bottom of the pan;
when they are all thick and creamy, they are done.
"I have taken the rule for the stew three times over for twelve people,
and I don't think it will be a bit too much; but as almost everyone will
want the cheese dreams, suppose we scramble only five eggs.
"You'd better do that right away, for supper is almost ready. Brownie's
potatoes are just done, and she can be filling the glasses with water,
and putting on the butter and bread, and these two big dishes of honey
to eat with the biscuits for the last course."
While Mildred was cooking the eggs, Mother Blair put the oysters on the
table, with the hot soup-plates and a generous supply of crisp
oyster-crackers; the cheese dreams were done and in the oven, and
Mildred covered the eggs and set the dish in the warming oven, and put
the cocoa on the table in a chocolate pot. Then everybody sat down and
began to eat.
After the oyster stew was all gone, they had the hot cheese dreams and
scrambled eggs and the stuffed potatoes and cocoa all at once; and when
those too had vanished, there were the little biscuits and the beautiful
golden clover-honey in the comb, and perhaps that was the very best of
all.
"Never, never, did I eat anything so good as this supper!" Father Blair
said solemnly, as he ate his fourth biscuit. "That oyster stew--those
potatoes--the cheese dreams--"
"What a greedy father!" said Mildred. "And you never said a word about
the cocoa--"
"Nor about the scrambled eggs--" said Brownie, eagerly.
"But I ate them all," said her father. "I ate everything I was given,
and I should like to eat them all again! Next time we come, have twice
as much of everything, won't you?"
But everybody else said that they couldn't have eaten one single crumb
more. And they knew perfectly well that Father Blair couldn't, either.
Then everybody helped wash the dishes and put things away, and Farmer
Dunn came over to put out the fires and shut the doors; and presently it
was all dark in the House in the Woods, and so still that, far, far off,
you could hear the sound of the singing of the boys and girls as they
rode home across the snow.