FRESH VEGETABLE SALAD

To make the best of the few vegetables we have found on hand, wash the lettuce carefully (looking out for the tiny green bugs found on some kinds,) and arrange on a plate. Peel and slice the two tomatoes, and lay lightly on the lettuce, with a few bits of celery, several radishes or some thin slices of cuc.u.mber if available, and cover with salad dressing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HEART SALAD]

For the heart salad ill.u.s.trated, cut cold boiled beets into heart-shaped sections, and serve on lettuce hearts, with French dressing.

COOKED VEGETABLE SALAD

Small quant.i.ties of cooked vegetables, such as beets, string beans, asparagus, peas and boiled potatoes, make a nice salad cut into small pieces, laid on lettuce leaves and covered with French dressing. But they must be thoroughly chilled.

CABBAGE SALAD

Cabbage salad is possible at all seasons of the year, and should be one of the first that the child should learn to make. Insist on getting small, perfect heads, and have the leaves removed one at a time, examined closely and washed as carefully as lettuce, for fear of worms.

After chopping finely, the desired quant.i.ty is to be seasoned with salt and pepper and served on the small, tender white leaves, with the following dressing:

SOUR CREAM DRESSING

To half a cup of thick sour cream, add half a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of sugar, a dash of black pepper, and two teaspoonsful of strong vinegar.

FRESH FRUIT SALAD

Almost all kinds of fruit are used in salads. Bananas and oranges, alone or together, are served on lettuce with the cream salad dressing, as are also the skinned and seeded white grapes. Pineapple and grapefruit are delicious with head lettuce, served with the French dressing containing but a few drops of the onion juice. Then again, all may be combined, served with either dressing preferred, and improved by the addition of a few nuts.

WALDORF SALAD

For four people have the little cook take four pretty red apples, cut a slice off the top, and after removing the core, carefully cut out with a teaspoon the inside of each without breaking the skin. Taking half the scooped-out apple, she must add an equal amount of celery (cut in small pieces) and chopped English walnuts, one teaspoonful salt and boiled dressing enough to cover. After tossing up lightly with a fork pack in the apple sh.e.l.ls, and when possible serve in nests made of lettuce cut in strings.

GREEN PEPPER SALAD

Take sweet green peppers, cut a slice from the top, remove seeds, and fill with either the mixed vegetables or diced cuc.u.mbers, covered with French dressing. Serve on lettuce.

CHAPTER III

Some Easy Soups

Every little cook should early be taught how to make a variety of soups, as many small quant.i.ties of food can be utilized in this way that otherwise might be wasted.

STOCK

Take, for instance, the bones and small tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs from steaks, chops or a roast, and the remnant of a chicken. These, with a five-cent soup bone, will make the stock, which is the foundation for a great many kinds of soup. If part of the sc.r.a.ps have been fried or roasted, so much the better, as then the stock will be a delicate brown and have even a richer taste. The meat, cut in small cubes, with the bones well cracked, should be covered with twice the quant.i.ty of cold water and allowed to stand for several hours.

CLEAR VEGETABLE SOUP

Any kind of vegetables on hand can be put in at the same time, a small onion cut in slices, a little chopped carrot, turnip, a few string beans cut in inch lengths, half a cupful of peas, a couple of stalks of celery, a few sprigs of parsley, together with three or four cloves and salt and pepper to taste. If these vegetables with the meat fill the kettle one-third full, then it can be filled to the top with cold water.

After standing several hours it should be placed where it will heat slowly and allowed to simmer for two hours, then strained and set aside to cool and let the grease come to the top. When it is cold the cake of fat can easily be lifted off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREEN-PEPPER SALAD]

CONSOMMe AND BOUILLON

Then to make the finest kind of perfectly clear soup, stir into each two quarts of cold stock the beaten white and crushed sh.e.l.l of one egg, place on the fire and keep stirring until it boils. Allow to cook without stirring for twenty minutes, after which set aside for ten minutes; skim and strain through a cheese-cloth bag. This may seem like a good deal of work, but if the soup is first boiled in the morning while cleaning up the kitchen and then clarified while getting dinner, it will not require much time nor trouble, and the result will be a delicious consomme or bouillon. It is called bouillon if made princ.i.p.ally of beef with vegetables, and brown in color; it is consomme if made of uncooked meat and bones, including veal and chicken, and consequently light in color.

PLEASING VARIATIONS

Stock made thus can be simply reheated or changed to any desired kind of soup by the addition of a particular garnishing. For rice soup, either a few teaspoonfuls of uncooked rice or half a teacupful of cold boiled rice can be added; for vegetable soup a cupful of mixed vegetables cut in small pieces can be put in and boiled until tender. Macaroni, broken in inch lengths, washed and then cooked in the stock until it is done makes a nice change, called Italian consomme, while a cupful of tomatoes will convert it into a tomato soup. If the additions suggested are to be made, however, it is not necessary to clarify the stock. It takes common sense to make good soup, as well as time and patience, and one must learn to be guided by the taste if trying to use up left-overs instead of following a regular recipe.

Cream soups, however, do not require any stock, and so are easily and quickly made. They are delicious, too, and something any bright girl could make while her mother got up the rest of the dinner. They take the name of the kind of vegetable used, but all are put together in about the same way.

CREAM OF CELERY

For cream of celery take two cupfuls of diced celery, using the leaves, ends and coa.r.s.e pieces not good enough to send to the table uncooked.

Cover with two cupfuls of cold water, season with salt and allow to cook until tender--about twenty minutes. While this is boiling the little maid mixes in another pan two tablespoonfuls of melted b.u.t.ter with two tablespoonfuls of flour. Placing it over the fire, she adds three cupfuls of milk and stirs for five minutes while it boils. After seasoning with salt and pepper and a dash of red pepper, pour in the strained water from the cooked celery and boil all gently on the back of the stove for five minutes before serving.

PEA AND ASPARAGUS

For cream of pea soup, simply subst.i.tute two cupfuls of cooked peas that have been pressed through a colander. For cream of asparagus boil up first two cupfuls of the tough ends of the asparagus that would not do for the table, or take two cupfuls of the water used in cooking the asparagus for dinner and put with the thickened milk. But in order to avoid giving the family the same vegetable twice at a meal, it is best to save the asparagus water or the celery ends until another time, putting in the ice-box to keep fresh. We all like variety, and in this way it can be had without extra expense.

CREAM OF POTATO

Cream of potato soup is made by adding two scant cupfuls of mashed potato to the milk foundation given. Some people like the addition of a half-teaspoonful of onion juice to flavor or a tablespoonful of chopped bacon. If too thick it can be thinned with some of the boiling potato water.

It is advisable for the mother to have the child make a certain cream soup twice in close succession to be sure that she thoroughly understands the process, and then make each of the other kinds soon after, so that she will get used to using up whatever left-overs she finds on hand.

BLACK BEAN SOUP

Black beans make a particularly nice soup for a company dinner. To two cupfuls of the dried beans use four cupfuls of cold water and let stand over night. Next day add two cupfuls of boiling water and cook until the beans are perfectly tender, with one small chopped onion, three cloves, salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne. Melt two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour, add a cupful of cold water; cook the same as the milk foundation and add to the beans after they have been put through a colander. Boil up well together, stirring to blend well. Put a couple of thin slices of hard-boiled egg and lemon in each plate and pour the hot soup in. If desired, the soup can be additionally flavored with a small winegla.s.sful of sour wine.

CREAM OF TOMATO