A DOLL-AND-LITTLE-GIRL PARTY
Mother Blair had an old school friend coming out to spend the day, and
she had written that she must bring her little five year old daughter
with her. This wasn't a bit convenient for the Blairs, because Miss
Betty was to give a luncheon for the older people, and Mildred had
planned to go to town for the day; and, of course, Jack couldn't be
bothered to help take care of a child. That, surely, wasn't man's work,
he declared.
So Brownie saw that she must entertain the small Helen all by herself,
and she sat down to think what she should do for her.
"Five years old," she said to herself. "That means dolls, I guess. I'm
pretty old for dolls, but of course I _could_ get Araminta down from the
attic, only she's packed up so nicely that I hate to disturb her. I
wonder if five year olds play games? Mother Blair, do you think we could
play in the attic with Helen's doll and Araminta, if I get her out, or
what can we do?"
"Helen has had a bad cough, dear, and I'm afraid her mother would think
that she must stay where there were no draughts. Why don't you have a
little bit of a party for her? We could ask four other children about
her age--"
"Oh, Mother, _I_ know! I'll have a dolls' party, and cook cunning things
in tiny little dishes just big enough for dolls to eat. That would be
perfectly lovely, and I know Mildred would help me make some of them the
day before."
"That would really be ever so much fun," Mother Blair said. "Run and ask
Norah if she has any very little tins and molds that you can use, and
I'll look up some receipts for you. Brownie, that dolls' party is what I
call a really bright idea."
Norah was not at all busy just then so she got a kitchen chair and
hunted on the top shelf in the tin closet and found several things for
Brownie. One was a little tumbler of heavy glass, half the size of a
small jelly glass; it had been used in traveling one summer when the
Blairs were younger. Then there were six muffin tins fastened together
like a pan which were never used because they made muffins so tiny that
Jack said six were only a bite. And beside these she found a little tin
cutter meant to cut vegetables into shapes for soup; this one was a tube
with a star on the end, or rather the outline of one. Norah said that it
would make lovely little cookies, each one the size of a five cent
piece. Brownie was delighted with it.
"But, Norah, we won't want muffins," she said. "I remember when I was
five, I couldn't have even one for breakfast--not till I was about
seven, I guess it was. And Mother says Mrs. Lane is just as partickler
as can be about Helen."
"I know something you can make in 'em," nodded Norah. "Not muffins. You
just wait. You make it out of rice, and rice is awful good for
children."
So Brownie ran into her mother's room to tell her what they had found
and plan the meal with her.
"Suppose you have a really nice luncheon for both the dolls and the
girls," she said. "You can have the low sewing table and set it with
small plates and little napkins and have low chairs around it; the four
children could sit on two sides of the table and Helen at one end and
you at the other, and the company could all hold their children in
their laps and you need not have any doll at all because you are
hostess. How would that do?"
"Perfectly lovely, Mother. And now what shall we have to eat?"
"How would you like a hot first course--perhaps some kind of chicken and
potatoes, with jelly and little cups of cocoa!"
"Oh, yes, Mother; and tiny sandwiches!"
"Yes, indeed; and then some dessert that children like; will that be
enough, do you think?"
"Well, if they are not so very hungry, I think it will be."
Mother Blair laughed. "I think it is all their mothers would want them
to eat for luncheon, anyway. Now what did Norah find for you?"
Brownie told about the little muffin tins, and said Norah said they
could have something made of rice in them; and there was a little star
cooky cutter and a little bit of a tumbler.
Mrs. Blair said they were all exactly what would be needed.
"I rather think Norah meant to use the muffin tins for these, Brownie.
See how easy they are to make, and so good, too."
RICE PATTIES
1 heaping tablespoonful of rice.
2 cups of cold water.
1/2 teaspoonful salt.
1 teaspoonful butter.
1/2 an egg.
1 large cupful of cooked chicken, cut into bits.
1 small cup of thick white sauce. (See your rule.)
Wash the rice and put it over to cook in the double boiler in the
water; add the salt; when it has cooked twenty minutes without
stirring, taste it and see if it is soft, and notice if the water
has boiled away so it is dry; if it is done, take off the cover
and stand the boiler in the oven or on the back of the stove till
each grain of rice is full and there is not a drop of water left.
Then mix with the egg after you have beaten it and divided it, and
put a spoonful into each muffin pan after it has been buttered;
press this on the sides and bottom like a thick pie crust; warm
the butter and put a little on the edges of each and put them in
the oven till brown. Make the white sauce, heat the chicken in it
and fill the patties at the last moment; put a bit of parsley on
top of each one.
"We used to have these patties often for lunch and Norah would put in
creamed fish or left-over vegetables, or eggs. We have not had them for
ever so long, and we must remember and have them again, they are so
good. And Brownie, remind me to have chicken for dinner the night before
the party, so there will be some to warm up the next day."
"Wait one minute, Mother, please. I want to ask Norah if these are what
she had thought of for us."
Strangely enough they were, only she had intended to have the rice
shells filled with scrambled eggs. "But the chicken's better," she said.
"Trust your mother for thinkin' of it."
Brownie ran back again. "I just wanted to be sure she hadn't thought of
anything nicer," she said. "And she hadn't. These are going to be
perfectly lovely."
"Now for the potatoes; what kind do you think you would like?"
"I can make nice ones, chopped and fried," said Brownie proudly.
"I don't believe we had better give those small children anything fried,
dear; I'm pretty sure their mothers would not like that. What would you
think of the potato puff Norah makes out of left-over mashed potato?"
"Just the thing. I wouldn't have to boil the potatoes and peel them and
mash them. Left-overs are always _so_ convenient!"
"Then we must be sure to have mashed potato for dinner the night before
the party, or there won't be any left over," said Mrs. Blair, laughing.
"Now, write down this receipt; only remember I am making it small for
you; for the family you must take two cups or more of potato, and one
egg."
POTATO PUFF
1 cup of mashed potato.
1/4 teaspoonful salt.
1/4 cup of milk.
1/2 of a beaten egg.
1 teaspoonful of butter.
Mix the potato with the milk and salt and heat it, beating it
well. Then stir in the butter after warming it till soft, and last
the egg. Put in a small dish and bake in a hot oven till brown.
"I think it would be nice to bake this in one of the small brown
earthenware dishes, Brownie; they always look well on the table, and a
tin or agate pan wouldn't do at all; you know you must serve it right in
the pan you bake it in."
"Isn't it funny, you have one-half an egg in the potato and one-half in
the rice patties, Mother. Do you do that on purpose?"
"No, it just happened to be so, but it's an economical thing, Brownie,
because eggs are so high now-a-days that one has to remember to use them
carefully. The sandwiches come next. What kind do you think would be
best?"
"Not cheese, Mother; dolls and children don't eat cheese; I know
_that_! And not nut; nor ham; nor hard-boiled egg. I can't think of any
kind that would do."
"White bread and brown bread put together, just with plain butter, you
know; I think those would be lovely for children."
"So they would; I can make those. And we can cut them out in little,
little circles."
"I think you could use an egg cup and press it down hard; that would
make little circles."
"Just the thing. Now comes the cocoa, and I can make that all alone; may
we use the little after dinner coffee cups to drink it out of? We'll be
very careful."
"Well, if you'll be _very_ careful indeed," Mother Blair said,
hesitating.
"Oh, yes, we'll be just awfully careful. And what about jelly?"
"You can have a glass of jelly out of the closet made over for you in
this way:"
MADE-OVER JELLY
A glass of currant jelly warmed in a saucepan till it melts.
1 teaspoonful of granulated gelatine.
1/2 cup of cold water.
2 tablespoonfuls of boiling water.
Put the gelatine into the cold water, stir it well and let it
stand for ten minutes; then stir again and add the boiling water
and the hot jelly; stir till it is smooth and strain through a
coarse bag into two or more small glasses. Put on ice till firm.
"While the jelly is melting you get the rest of the things ready and
then it takes only a moment to put them all together. Norah always has a
bag because she washes out and puts away those that the table salt comes
in. When you have used it don't forget to wash it out for her, will you,
dear?"
"No, Mother. Mildred and I never forget to wash up and put things away
ever since she said we couldn't come into the kitchen at all unless we
always did that. Do you remember how cross she was?"
"I don't wonder, Brownie. Some day when you have a kitchen of your own
you will be cross, too, if little girls come in and use your pots and
pans and leave them all sticky and messy."
"Of course I will. It makes me feel real cross now just to think of it.
I guess we'd better plan the dessert before I get worse."
"Perhaps we had," laughed Mother Blair. "Those children must have
something very simple, indeed, and I really can't think of anything
better for them than cornstarch pudding."
"Well," said Brownie doubtfully, "that certainly won't hurt them."
"I know you don't like it very well, and grown people don't care for it
either, but it is good for children, and if you learn to make it for
them you can easily change the rule a little bit and make it in half a
dozen different ways which grown-ups do like. I'll give you two or three
rules for your book and you can try them all. Here is the first, for
your party:"
PLAIN CORNSTARCH PUDDING
2/3 cup of scalded milk; put in the double boiler.
1-1/2 tablespoonfuls of cornstarch.
1/2 tablespoonful of sugar.
1 pinch of salt.
2 tablespoonfuls of cold milk.
1 egg.
1/4 teaspoonful vanilla.
While the milk is heating till it scalds (that is, till the top
wrinkles, but it does not quite boil), mix the cornstarch, sugar
and salt in the cold milk and then pour slowly into the scalded
milk, stirring well all the time till it grows thick; put on the
cover and let it cook eight minutes. Beat the egg without
separating it and stir this in and cook one minute; take it off
the stove, add the vanilla, pour it into a mold and let it get
firm; serve with cream.
"You see that isn't bad at all; but to make it ever so much better try
this:"
CHOCOLATE CORNSTARCH PUDDING
Melt a square of unsweetened chocolate by putting it into a saucer
over the steam of the tea-kettle; stir this in just before adding
the egg. Pour into a pretty mold on ice; turn it out and heap
whipped cream around it.
ALMOND CORNSTARCH PUDDING
Use almond flavoring instead of vanilla, and when you take the
pudding off the fire, stir in a cup of chopped almonds. Serve with
whipped cream.
"That last one sounds, oh, so good, Mother. Can't I make that for Sunday
dinner?"
"Yes, indeed you can, and Father will love it, I know. Now, Brownie, let
me tell you just one thing more about the dessert for the party; put the
pudding into egg cups, and fill them just half full; then you see when
you turn them out they will be lovely little molds, one for each child;
and you can have the cream in the small silver pitcher to pass with
them."
"What a nice party it will be," sighed Brownie. "I'm so glad Helen is
only five, because if she were older we couldn't have these cunning,
cunning things."
The party really was lovely. The little table had six low seats around
it, a hem-stitched lunch cloth over it and a small vase of flowers in
the center. The little girls, each with her best doll in her lap, sat
around it, too impressed to talk. First they had rice patties filled
with hot creamed chicken on little plates, and spoonfuls of brown potato
puff; with these the little round sandwiches were passed, brown on one
side and white on the other, and tiny cups of cocoa, and helpings from
the little glass of jelly which Brownie had turned out in a pretty red
mold on a little bit of a glass dish. After they had eaten all they
possibly could of these things Norah came in with some more small plates
and each one had a little mold of delicious cold pudding, with cream to
put on it and two small star-shaped cookies to eat with it. Oh, it was
all so good! And the best thing about it was that Brownie really made
every single thing they had all by herself, except the cookies. Mildred
had made those the day before for her. "I'm so sorry I'm too big to come
to the party," she said, "but at least I can make doll-cookies."
"'Doll and little-girl cookies,' you mean," corrected Brownie.