MILDRED'S SCHOOL PARTY
One day early in June, Mildred ran up to her mother's room as soon as
she came home from school. She tossed her hat on the bed, and dropped
her books in an arm-chair. "Oh, Mother!" she exclaimed, out of breath,
"do you suppose I could have twenty girls here some afternoon for a
little bit of a party! I do so want to ask them right away, before exams
begin. They are my twenty most particular friends, and some of them are
going away just as school closes, so, you see, I have to hurry."
"Of course you may have them," said Mother Blair. "But only _twenty_
particular friends, Mildred? What about the rest of the class?"
Mildred laughed. "Well, I mean these are the girls I happen to know best
of all, and I want to have a kind of farewell before summer really
comes. What sort of a party shall we have, Mother? I mean, what shall we
have to eat?"
"I should think strawberry ice-cream would be just the thing, with some
cake to go with it, and something cold to drink; is that about what you
had thought of?"
"Just exactly, Mother. But do you think we can make enough ice-cream
here at home for twenty people? Wouldn't it be better to buy it?"
"Oh, I am sure we can easily make it, and home-made ice-cream is so
good--better, I think, than we could buy. We can borrow Miss Betty's
freezer, which holds two quarts, and as ours holds three, that will be
plenty. We count that a quart will serve about seven,--more cooking
arithmetic, Mildred! If one quart will be enough for seven people, how
many quarts will be needed for twenty?"
"The answer is that five quarts will be just about right," laughed
Mildred. "Perhaps some of them will want two helpings. But, Mother, if
we have the party on Saturday, Norah will be very busy, and who will
make the cream?"
"We will all make it together, and Jack may pack the freezers and turn
them for us. And Norah may make the cake for you on Friday, so that will
be out of the way."
So, early on Saturday morning, Mildred and Brownie began to hull
strawberries for the party and put them away in bowls on the ice. Then
they made the table all ready on the porch, putting a pretty little
cloth on it, and arranging plates and napkins; glasses, for what Brownie
called the "nice-cold drinks," were set out too, and little dishes of
the candy which Father Blair had brought home and called his
contribution to the party; and in the middle of the table they put a
bowl of lovely red roses.
After an early luncheon, everybody went at once to the kitchen. The
berries were put on the large table, and the cream and milk brought from
the refrigerator. The two freezers stood ready in the laundry with a big
pail for the broken ice, a heavy bag, a wooden mallet, and a large bag
of coarse salt.
"Come, Jack," his mother said, as he stood picking out the biggest
berries from the bowl and eating them, "here's some more man's work for
you! We want you to break the ice and pack these freezers for us."
"What do I get for it?" Jack asked, pretending to grumble. "If the girls
are going to eat up all the ice-cream, I guess I won't bother freezing
it."
"No, indeed, they are not going to eat it all up," said Mother Blair. "I
am counting on having ever so much left over for dinner to-night; and
you shall have two helpings."
"Make it three and I'll think about it," said Jack, choosing the very
biggest berry of all.
"Three then," said Mildred, disgustedly, taking the bowl away. "Boys do
eat so much!"
"This cream is going to be so good that you will want three yourself,"
laughed Mother Blair. "Now, Jack, this rule is for you. Some cooks think
that all you have to do in packing a freezer is to put in layers of
broken ice and salt, and then turn the handle; but there is a right way
to do it, and if you follow this, you will find the cream will freeze
ever so much more quickly than if you are careless in packing."
PACKING A FREEZER
2 large bowlfuls of broken ice.
1 bowlful of coarse salt.
Put the ice in a strong bag and pound with a mallet till it is
evenly broken into bits the size of an egg. Put the ice in a pail
till you have a quantity broken, and then measure; add the salt
quickly to the ice and stir it well; then put the empty ice cream
tin in the freezer with the cover on, and fasten on the top and
handle. Pack the ice all around the tin tightly till it is even
with the top. Then stand it away, covered with a piece of carpet
or blanket, in a dark, cool place, for half an hour. There should
be a thick coating of frost all over the inside when the cream is
put in.
While Jack was working in the laundry, Mildred and Brownie were reading
the receipt their mother gave them, and getting out the spoons and sugar
and other things they would need.
"Are the berries washed?" asked Mother Blair. "Yes, I see they are; now,
Brownie, you may put half of them at a time into this big bowl, and
crush them with the wooden potato-masher till they are all juicy. And,
Mildred, here is the rule for making one quart of plain white ice-cream;
all you have to do is to add any kind of fruit or flavoring to this, and
you can change it into whatever you want."
"Just like a fairy's receipt!" said Brownie.
"Exactly!" said their mother. "Now, Mildred, multiply this rule by
five."
PLAIN ICE-CREAM
3 cups of milk.
1 cup of sugar.
1 cup of cream.
Flavoring.
Put the cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan on the fire, and stir
till the sugar is melted and the milk steams, but does not boil.
Take it off and beat with the egg beater till it is cold; add the
flavoring and freeze.
FRUIT ICE-CREAM
1 quart of fruit, or enough to make a cupful of juice.
1 small cup of sugar.
Mash the fruit, rub it through a sieve, add the sugar, and stir
into the cream just before putting it into the freezer.
"You see what an easy rule this is. You can use fresh raspberries or
pineapple or peaches in summer-time, and in winter you can use canned
fruit. If the fruit is sour, of course you must take a little more sugar
than if it is very sweet. And when juice is very sour indeed, like
currant or cherry juice, do not use it for ice-cream. And when you want
to make chocolate ice-cream you put in--"
"Do let me write that down, Mother, please, because I perfectly love
chocolate ice-cream," interrupted Mildred.
CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM
Make the plain ice cream as before; while still on the stove add
3 squares of unsweetened chocolate, grated.
1/4 cup of sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla.
Put the vanilla in last, just before freezing.
It took only a little while to mix the cream and cool it, and then
Brownie had the berries all ready to go in; so Mildred called to Jack to
know if the two freezers were ready. Jack was reading "Treasure Island"
in a corner of the laundry, and it took three calls to rouse him.
"The freezers?" he asked; "the freezers--oh, yes, they are all ready. At
least I suppose they are, they've been standing so long. I've been
having a great time with old _Silver_ in the stockade!"
"Well," said Mildred, doubtfully, "if you've been off on one of your
treasure trips, I don't know whether the freezers will be ready or not."
But when they looked inside, there was the thick frost all over the tin.
"Perfect!" said Mother Blair. "Now you will see how quickly the cream
will freeze. It makes all the difference in the world whether or not it
is ice-cold inside." Then they poured in the cream and shut the freezer
tightly, and Jack began to turn the handles, first of one and then of
the other, with "Treasure Island" open before him on an upturned pail,
though he very soon found that the freezers needed all his attention. He
was devoting himself to his task with grim determination when Mildred
peeped in at the door and stood watching him for a moment before she
asked, mischievously, "And what is old _Silver_ doing now, Jack? I
believe you're really going to deserve those three plates of ice-cream,
after all."
"Come, Mildred!" called her mother, "we will make something perfectly
delicious to drink," and she handed a fresh receipt to the girls.
GRAPE-JUICE LEMONADE
4 lemons.
1 quart of water.
2 large cups of sugar.
1 quart of grape-juice.
1 orange.
Put the water and sugar on the fire and boil them two minutes.
Roll the lemons and squeeze the juice; when the water is cool, add
this and stand it away till you need it. Then add the grape-juice,
and put it in a large bowl with a good-sized piece of ice; slice
the orange very thin and cut into small pieces and add last. Serve
in glass cups.
"That is so easy anybody could make it," said Brownie. "I guess I'll
make some for us all on the next hot night."
"Oh, goody!" said Mildred. "Think how lovely it would taste out on the
porch just before bedtime!"
"Specially if there was a moon," said Brownie.
"Yes, indeed! especially if there was a moon! You won't forget, will
you?"
Brownie promised faithfully she would not.
By the time this was done and ready to put away in the refrigerator to
get very cold, Jack was shouting for somebody to come and see if the
cream was frozen. "It turns awfully hard," he complained, rubbing his
arms.
His mother wiped off the edges of the tin very carefully so no salt
could get in, and then lifted the cover, and, sure enough, the cream was
firm and smooth, and a beautiful pink color. Mildred watched her
carefully and took the second freezer, doing exactly what her mother did
to the first one. They slowly pulled out the dashers, scraping them off
as they did so, and then packed the cream down hard; the covers were put
on again, each with a cork where the dasher-top had been. Meanwhile Jack
had been told to break more ice and mix it exactly as he had before.
When this was ready, the plug at the side of each freezer was pulled out
and the water drained off, and then the cans of cream were buried in the
fresh ice so that neither of them could be seen, a piece of carpet was
laid over each, and it was put back in its dark corner.
"There!" said their mother, when it was all finished. "Ice-cream has to
stand at least two hours after it is packed before it is quite good
enough to eat. Thank you, Jack! You are really learning lots about
cooking, aren't you? And now we will cut the cake and put it on plates
in the refrigerator to keep fresh, and then we will all go and dress for
the party, because it is three o'clock."
[Illustration: The Refreshments were Perfectly Delicious, Everybody
Said]
The refreshments were perfectly delicious, everybody said, and the girls
said the pink ice-cream, and the sponge-cake, and the grape-juice
lemonade were "the best ever." When everybody had gone, Mildred took a
big plateful of ice-cream over to Miss Betty.
"Oh, how good that is!" she said as she ate it. "How _beautifully_ good!
So good to look at, I mean, as well as to taste. Would you like to have
some more strawberry ice-cream receipts to go with it?" Mildred said she
would love to, so Miss Betty began to write:
FROZEN STRAWBERRIES
1 quart of water.
2-1/2 cups of sugar.
2 quarts of berries.
Juice of 1 lemon.
Crush the berries and press through a sieve; there should be two
cups of juice; if not, add a few more berries. Boil the water and
sugar one minute, cool, add the berry juice and that of the lemon,
cool and freeze; serve in glass cups.
"You can see, Mildred," went on Miss Betty, as she finished this, "that
a pretty way to serve this is to put each cup on a small plate and lay a
few fresh strawberry leaves by it."
"Sweet!" said Mildred, and Miss Betty began the second receipt
ICE-CREAM AND STRAWBERRIES
1 quart of plain ice cream.
1 quart of large strawberries.
1/2 cup of powdered sugar.
Cut the berries in slices and lay them on a dish, and sprinkle the
sugar over them. Take some tall glasses, put in a layer of ice
cream, then a layer of berries; let the cream be on top, and put
two or three whole berries on top of all. Or, if you can get
little wild strawberries, use those whole both in the layers and
on top.
"Those are both just perfect," sighed Mildred. "Now haven't you one more
receipt, dear Miss Betty? Three is a lucky number, you know."
Miss Betty thought a moment "Well, here is something I think is just
delicious, and it's so easy that Brownie could make it alone--or even
Jack! There is no turning of the freezer at all, only the ice to be
broken. But it must be made in good season, for it has to stand awhile,
as you will see. And when you turn it out you can put a row of lovely
big strawberries all around it and sprinkle them with sugar."
PARFAIT
1 cup of sugar.
1 pint of cream.
1 cup of water.
Whites of 3 eggs.
1 teaspoonful of vanilla.
Put the sugar and water on the stove and boil gently three minutes
without stirring. Lift a little of the syrup on the spoon and see
if a tiny thread drops from the edge; if it does, it is done; if
not, cook a moment longer. Then let this stand on the edge of the
stove while you beat the whites of the eggs very stiff and slowly
pour the syrup into them, beating all the time. While you are
doing this, have somebody else beat the cream stiff; when the eggs
and syrup are beaten cold, fold the cream into them, add the
flavoring, and put in a mold with a tight cover. Put this in a
pail, cover deeply with ice and salt as before, and let it stand
five hours.
"You see how easy that is," said Miss Betty. "That's all the receipts
to-day. But, Mildred, if you and Jack, and Brownie will all come to
luncheon next Saturday, I'll have something else made out of
strawberries for you."
"Oh, Miss Betty!" cried Mildred, rapturously, "we'll come--indeed we
will!"
"Very well; and tell Jack he can have three helpings of everything!"