BETTINA'S BIRTHDAY GIFT
"YOUR set, Bob," said Bettina, as she gathered up the tennis balls. "But
please say you think I'm improving! Oh, there'll come a time when I'll
make you a stiff opponent, but I'll have to work up my service first!
It's time to go home to breakfast now, but hasn't it been fun?"
"Fine, Betty! We'll do it again! I don't object at all to getting up
early when I'm once up! And we ought to get out and play tennis before
breakfast every day."
"I knew you'd like it when you'd tried it once. But it took my birthday
to make you willing to celebrate this way."
"Just you wait till you see what I have for you at home! I made it all
myself, with a little help from Ruth!"
"Oh, Bob, is that what you've been doing all these evenings? I'm so
anxious to see it! I've begrudged the time you've spent all alone
hammering and sawing away down in the basement, but I didn't let myself
even wonder what it was you were making, since you had asked me not to
look."
"Well, while you're beginning the breakfast, I'll be bringing your
birthday gift upstairs. Then I can help you."
In a short time, when Bettina was arranging the cheerful hollyhocks on
the table, she heard a low whistle behind her. There stood Bob--looking
like a sandwich-man, with a brightly flowered cretonne screen draped
about him.
"Well, how do you like it?"
"Oh, Bob, it's the sewing-screen I've been wanting, and it just matches
the cretonne bedroom hangings! Here are the little pockets for mending
and darning materials--and the larger ones for the unfinished work! How
beautifully it is made--and won't it be convenient! It will be useful as
a screen, and also as a place for those sewing things, for I have no
good place at all in which to keep them! It will be decorative, too! And
how light it is! I can carry it so easily, and work beside it on the
porch or in the living room!"
"Glad you like it! Ruth designed it, and made the pockets. I did the
carpenter work."
"Bob, it's a lovely birthday gift, and I appreciate it all the more
because you made it yourself. How pretty it is with all the woodwork
enameled white!"
"I wanted it to match the bedroom things. Well, is that coffee done yet?
Tennis certainly does give me an appetite!"
Breakfast consisted of:
Iced Cantelope
Poached Eggs on Toast
Toast Apple Sauce
Coffee
BETTINA'S RECIPES
(All measurements are level)
=Poached Eggs= (Two portions)
2 eggs
1 t-butter
1 t-salt
1 pt. water, boiling
Butter the bottom of a saucepan or frying-pan. Fill half full of boiling
water. Break the eggs one at a time in a sauce dish, and slip them very
gently into the pan of boiling water. The eggs will lower the
temperature of the water to a point below the boiling point. Keep the
water at this point (below boiling). Allow the eggs to remain in the
water four to six minutes, or until the desired consistency. Remove from
the water with a skimmer and serve on slices of toast which are hot,
buttered, and slightly moistened with water. The proper length of time
for poaching eggs is until a white film has formed over the yolks and
the white is firm. A tin or aluminum egg poacher is very convenient.
When using rings, butter the rings, fill each compartment with an egg,
and dip into the boiling water. These are inexpensive, and economical,
as no part of the egg is wasted.
=Toast= (Four Pieces)
4 slices bread
2 T-butter
Toast slices of bread one-half an inch thick on the broiler directly
under the flame, or on a toaster fitted for a burner on top of the
stove. Brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other. When both
sides are an even golden brown, butter one side, care being taken to
butter the edges. Set the toast on an enamel plate or tin pie-pan in the
oven, until all the pieces are ready for serving. Always serve toast
very hot.
=Apple Sauce= (Two portions)
4 apples
1/3 C-water
4 T-sugar
1/2 t-cinnamon
Wash, peel and core the apples. Add water and cook slowly in a covered
utensil until tender. Remove cover, add the sugar and cook two minutes.
Sprinkle cinnamon on the top.