SUNDAY NIGHT SUPPER
One Sunday afternoon just as the clock struck three, the Blairs'
telephone rang; and after she had answered it, Mother Blair called
Mildred, who sat reading by the window.
"My dear," she said, "do you remember hearing Father speak of his old
friends the Wentworths, whom he used to know so well years ago? Well,
they have come east, and are in town for a day or two, and they want to
come out and see us this very afternoon. Now I should love to ask them
to stay to supper, but if I do, I shall have to stay with them and visit
and can't help you at all; and Norah is out. Do you suppose you three
children could get the supper and serve it all by yourselves?"
"Why, of course, Mother Blair," said Mildred, reproachfully. "Of
_course_ we can! You don't know how many things your children can do
when they try! Now what shall we have? It ought to be something very
good, because they have never been here before."
"We were going to have canned salmon," said her mother, thoughtfully;
"we might scallop that, and have potatoes with it, and perhaps muffins
or biscuits."
"Oh, have muffins, Mother! I have seen Norah make them lots of times,
and I'm sure I could, too, if you give me the receipt."
"Well, you may try," said her mother, "but I think you had better have
some toast ready, too, in case they do not come out right. And what else
can we have? Preserves, I suppose; but, Mildred, all the nice preserves
are gone, because it is so late in the spring. But we might have little
baked custards."
"Yes, in the cunning little brown baking dishes; those will be lovely!
And I'll make some little cakes to eat with them; Norah said there were
just cookies for supper."
"But do you really think you can do all that? Don't you think the
cookies will do?"
"No, indeed," said Mildred, "not for extra nice company! But little
cakes are no trouble to make. And isn't it fun to have company come when
you don't expect it? It's so much nicer than to specially invite them!"
Mother Blair laughed. "I hope you will always think so," she said. And
Mildred ran away to call Brownie to get her apron and come to the
kitchen.
"We will lay the table first, even though it is so early," said their
mother. "Brownie, bring me the pile of the best doilies in the sideboard
drawer."
"The Wheelers always use a regular big cloth for supper," Brownie said,
as she came over with them to the table.
"Many people do, but I think the table looks prettier at breakfast and
luncheon and supper with the doilies. And then, too, if anybody happens
to spill anything--"
"Jack spilled gravy yesterday, awfully," said Brownie, soberly.
"Well, you see Norah had to wash only one little doily because of that;
if we had had on a table-cloth, all of it would have had to go into the
wash. But if we had no doilies, I should use a lunch cloth that would
just cover the top of the table, and that would be pretty, too. Put one
doily for each person, Brownie, and a large one in the middle for the
fern dish, and little ones for the tumblers. Now for the silver."
Mildred came with knives, forks, and spoons.
"No knives, because there is no meat," said her mother; "but if we were
going to use them, which side would you put them on?"
"Left," said Brownie, guessing.
"Not unless you were left-handed," smiled her mother. "The rule is: put
on the right side what you will use with the right hand, and on the left
what you will use with the left hand. That is, if there are no knives,
all the silver goes on the right, and the fork or spoon you are to use
first goes the farthest away from the plate, the next one next to that,
and so on; if you remember that, you will never be puzzled as to which
fork to use. Now the teaspoons--put those on the right, too; and the
dessert spoon or fork may go at the top, across the plate if you like,
though I prefer it on the dessert plate itself. Put the napkin at the
left, always; and the tumbler goes at the top to the right, and the
bread-and-butter plate and knife at the top too, toward the left. There!
Doesn't that look pretty?"
[Illustration: Arranging a Small Round Tray in Front of her Mother's
Place]
Mildred had been getting out the best cups and saucers and arranging a
small round tray in front of her mother's place with cream and sugar and
the tray bowl, and a place left for the tea-pot; the cups she put at
the right, arranging them in twos--two cups on two saucers.
"Mildred, after you pass the salmon, you may put the dish right in front
of Father; and the potatoes may go on the table too, as Norah isn't
here, though I like best to have them passed from the sideboard. The
muffins may stand at the side of the table, half-way down. Now let us
carry out all the dishes and begin to cook."
So Mildred took a pile of plates to heat, and Brownie carried a dish for
the potatoes, and Mother Blair brought the little custard cups; they
arranged these on the kitchen table where they would not be in the way,
and then Mother Blair told Mildred to see that the fire was all right.
"Always remember to look at that first," she said. "It needs shaking
down a little, and to have more coal on; and pull out the dampers so the
oven will heat."
Mildred hunted for the dampers, but could not find any. "I don't believe
there are any on this stove," she said, just as Jack came in to see what
was going on.
"No dampers! Isn't that just like a girl!" he exclaimed. "See, here they
are, tucked under the edge of the stove. You pull them out--so--and
then you shut the draft at the top, opposite the coal, and open the one
at the bottom, so the air will blow right up through the fire and make
it go like everything. And you have to turn the dampers in the pipe,
too, to let the heat go up the chimney."
"Good!" said his mother. "I didn't know you knew so much about stoves.
Now suppose you shake the fire down and put the coal on--that's a man's
work."
"All right," said Jack; "I don't mind things like that; but boys don't
cook, you know."
His mother put both hands over her ears. "Jack, if I hear you say that
once more, I shall believe you are turning into a parrot! And you are
all wrong, too, and some day I am going to give you some special lessons
myself. But to-day you may just tend the fire and bring us things from
the refrigerator as we need them, to save time. Now, Mildred, we will
begin with the custards, because they must be nice and cold. Brownie,
you bring the spoons and bowls and such things, and, Jack, you get the
milk and eggs."
BAKED CUSTARDS
1 quart of milk.
Yolks of four eggs.
4 teaspoonfuls of sugar.
1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.
1 pinch of salt.
1/2 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg.
Put the sugar in the milk; beat the eggs light, and add those,
with salt and vanilla. Pour into the cups, sprinkle with nutmeg,
and arrange the cups in a shallow pan. Bake half an hour, or till,
when you put the blade of a knife in one, it comes out clean.
It took just a few moments to make these, and then came the next rule:
CURRANT CAKES
1/2 cup of butter.
1 cup of sugar.
1 cup of milk.
1 egg.
2 cups of flour.
2 rounded teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
1/2 cup of currants.
1 teaspoonful of vanilla.
Wash the currants and rub them dry in a towel. Put the flour in a
bowl; take out a large tablespoonful and mix with the currants,
and then mix the baking-powder with the rest of it. Rub the butter
to a cream, add the sugar, then the milk, then the egg, beaten
without separating, then the flour mixed with the baking-powder,
then the flavoring, and, last, the currants. Grease some small
tins, fill them half full, and bake in an oven not too hot.
"You must always mix some flour with raisins or currants to keep them
from sinking to the bottom of the cake; but do not add any to the
rule--just take a little out from what you are going to use in the cake.
Now, Jack, please get me two cans of salmon from the pantry and open
them; and we will need butter and milk from the refrigerator, too. It's
fine to have a 'handy man' around to help us cook! Now, Mildred, double
this rule, because there will be so many at supper."
SCALLOPED SALMON
1 good-sized can of salmon, or one pint of any cooked fish.
1 cup of white sauce.
1 cup of cracker crumbs.
Butter a baking dish, put in a layer of fish, then one of crumbs;
sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and dot the crumbs with
butter; then put on a layer of white sauce. Repeat till the dish
is full, with the crumbs on top; dot with butter and brown well in
the oven; it will take about twenty minutes.
[Illustration: Brownie rolled the crackers]
Brownie rolled the crackers for this, while Mildred made the white sauce
by the rule she said was so easy it was exactly like learning a b c.
"That is so queer," laughed her mother, "because cooks call it just
that--the a b c of cooking! It is the rule you use more often than any
other."
WHITE SAUCE
1 rounded tablespoonful of butter.
1 rounded tablespoonful of flour.
1 cup of milk.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
2 shakes of pepper.
Melt the butter; when it bubbles, put in the flour, stirring it
well; when this is smooth, slowly add the milk, salt, and pepper;
stir and cook till very smooth; you can make it like thin cream by
cooking only one minute, or like thick cream by cooking it two
minutes.
"Sometimes you want it thicker than others," said her mother, "so I just
put that in to explain. To-day make it like thin cream. Now, Mildred,
you can put it all together while Jack brings in the cold boiled
potatoes and Brownie cuts them up."
CREAMED POTATOES
Cut eight large boiled potatoes into bits the size of the end of
your thumb. Put them in a saucepan and cover them with milk; stand
them on the back of the stove where they will cook slowly; watch
them so they will not burn. In another saucepan make white sauce
as before. When the potatoes have drunk up all the milk and are
rather dry, drop them in the sauce; do not stir them; sprinkle
with pepper.
"Now for the muffins, for it is after five o'clock. Brownie, you find
the muffin pans and make them very hot. Do you know how to grease them?"
"Yes, indeed!" said Brownie, proudly. "This is the way." She got a clean
bit of paper, warmed the pans, and dropped a bit of butter in each, and
then with the paper rubbed it all around.
MUFFINS
2 cups of flour.
1 cup of milk.
1 rounded tablespoonful of butter.
2 eggs, beaten separately.
1 teaspoonful of baking-powder.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
1 teaspoonful of sugar.
Beat the egg yolks first; then add the milk; melt the butter and
put that in, then the flour, well mixed with the baking-powder,
then the salt and sugar. Last, add the stiff whites of the eggs.
Fill the pans half full.
"Some things, like cake, cannot bear to have the oven door opened while
they are baking," said Mother Blair; "but salmon does not mind if you
open quickly; so, Mildred, put these in as fast as you can; they will
take about twenty minutes to bake. I do believe that is all we have to
make except the tea, and that takes only a moment when everything else
is ready. I will give you the receipt for it now, and after everybody is
here and you have said 'How do you do?' to them, you can slip out and
make this, and while it stands you can put the other things on the
table. But perhaps you had better make some coffee too; the men may like
it."
TEA
Fill the kettle with fresh, cold water and let it boil up hard.
Scald out an earthen tea-kettle, and put in two rounded
teaspoonfuls of tea for six people, or more, if you want it quite
strong. Pour on six cups of boiling water and let the pot stand
where it is warm for just two minutes. Scald out the pot you are
going to send to the table, and strain the tea into that. Have a
jug of hot water ready to send in with it.
COFFEE
1 rounded tablespoonful of ground coffee for each person; and
1 extra tablespoonful.
1/2 cup of cold water.
1 egg shell, washed and broken, with a little bit of the white.
Mix these in a bowl. Then put in a very clean pot and add
1 cup of boiling water for each person and
1 cup more.
Let it boil up hard just once; stir it, pour in 1 tablespoonful of
cold water; let it stand three minutes, strain and put in a hot
pot.
[Illustration: She looked Carefully in the Oven Through a Tiny Crack]
Just before the door-bell rang, Mildred went to the refrigerator to look
at her custards and found them nice and cold. Then she looked carefully
in the oven through a tiny crack, and found the muffins were done and
the salmon beautifully brown; so she took up the potatoes, and put them
in the covered dish on the back of the stove where they would keep hot,
and asked Brownie to lay the hot plates around the table, one for each
person. Then she went into the parlor and said "How do you do?" to the
guests, and after a moment slipped out again, and put everything on the
sideboard, made the tea, filled the glasses, and put butter on the
bread-and-butter plates. Then Brownie asked everybody to come to supper.
When they had all sat down, Mildred passed the dish of salmon, offering
it on the left side, of course, just as Norah always did; then she put
the dish down before her father and passed the potatoes and muffins in
the same way, while Mother Blair poured the tea and handed it around
without rising from her seat. And then everybody began to eat, and say,
"Oh, how good this salmon is!" and "Did you ever taste such muffins?"
and "Did you really, really make all these good things yourselves,
children? We don't see how you ever did it!" And they ate at two
helpings of everything, and Father Blair ate three. And when it was time
to take the dishes off, there was not a speck of salmon left, nor a
spoonful of potato, nor even a single muffin.
[Illustration: Jack served the custards]
Then Brownie quietly took the crumbs off as she had seen Norah do,
brushing them onto a plate with a folded napkin; and as she was doing
this, Jack slipped out to the refrigerator and got the custards, all as
cold as ice and brown on top, looking as pretty as could be in their
cunning cups; each cup was set on a dessert plate and a spoon laid by
its side, and the fresh cakes were passed with them.
Soon after supper the company went home, and then Mildred said: "I feel
exactly like a toy balloon--so light inside! Wasn't that a good supper?
And didn't they like the things we had! And isn't it fun to have
company! When I am grown up and have a house of my own, I shall have
company every day in the week."
"I shall make a point of coming every other day at least," said Father
Blair. "I'm so proud of my family to-night! Those Wentworths may be
staying at the very best hotel in town, but I know they don't have such
suppers there."
"Don't you wish you could cook, Jack?" inquired his mother, with a
twinkle in her eye. And then everybody laughed, and said: "Dear me, what
good times we Blairs do have together!"