The salad is one of the commonest Spanish dishes. To make it, take a cup of dice made of stale bread, sprinkle with bits of red peppers, add a cup of stoned olives, cut up, and half a cup of chopped cuc.u.mber pickles; mix the whole with mayonnaise and serve on lettuce cut in strips; pa.s.s a strong cheese with it. The stuffed cake is also a dish frequently seen in Spain. A large sponge cake is soaked in mild sherry, stuck full of blanched almonds and stoned raisins, and eaten with a rich boiled custard poured over it.

A HORSE-SHOW LUNCHEON

In New York the horse show is the great November event; perhaps in other cities there is something corresponding to it, and certainly in small places there is a great interest taken in the County Fair, which comes somewhat earlier in the fall. For any day when a number of friends are to visit a place where the horse is the hero, a luncheon may precede the hour. A large floral horse-shoe may be the decoration of the table, or one may be suspended over the table and the flowers may be of the same variety in the centrepiece, but arranged with more grace. The guest cards may bear a sketch of a horse, or of a horse-shoe, or a whip or some similar device, and the favours may be of the same character, in the shape of little silver pins; or, if the luncheon is sufficiently informal to warrant it, these favours may be chocolate horses, standing at each plate.

MENU

CLAMS ON THE HALF-Sh.e.l.l.

CREAM OF LIMA BEAN SOUP.

CREAMED SCALLOPS IN RAMEKINS.

CHICKEN IN GREEN PEPPERS.

BREADED CHOPS WITH TOMATO SAUCE.

POTATOES AU GRATIN. HOT ROLLS.

LOBSTER SALAD. Cheese Straws.

ICE CREAM WITH MAPLE SAUCE.

COFFEE.

The chicken in the peppers is to be ordinary minced white meat, with sufficient white sauce to make it palatable; if it is too wet it will not be good. It is put in raw peppers from which the ends have been cut, and the seeds removed, and the whole thoroughly heated in the oven. The potatoes are baked and served in their own sh.e.l.ls after they have been scooped out and seasoned, and cut in half, with grated cheese over them.

The ice cream is a rich French cream made with eggs, and the sauce is hot maple syrup with English walnuts broken in pieces in it; it is one of the most delicious of desserts, well worth being used in place of any of the suggested creams at any luncheon during the year.

AN INDIAN LUNCHEON

Boys are supposed to scorn luncheon as a purely feminine meal and one which is necessarily frivolous; nevertheless there are occasions when a boy is interested in entertaining his friends at luncheon, perhaps before going to see a football game, or some such athletic contest, and then a meal with Indian accessories will delight him.

The table should be laid with a cloth rather than with doilies, and the centrepiece may be a birch-bark canoe, planted with ferns. The cards may be of birch bark with quotations from Hiawatha, or of cardboard with an Indian's head in colours, or a sketch of a wigwam, or a tomahawk, or a pair of snowshoes.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The bonbons may be in pretty little bead pouches laid at each plate, or else in pairs of small moccasins around on the table, or in tiny birch-bark canoes. The luncheon should be a hearty one without those "frills" which the budding masculine intelligence refuses to admire.

The menu, like the one suggested for the Thanksgiving luncheon, may have a suggestion of Indian dishes in it.

MENU

OYSTER BISQUE.

CREAMED FISH IN Sh.e.l.lS.

SLICES OF TURKEY BREAST. PEAS.

CREAMED POTATOES. CRANBERRIES.

LOBSTER SALAD. Sandwiches.

INDIVIDUAL MINCE-PIES.

VANILLA ICE CREAM. CAKES.

A CARD LUNCHEON

After a morning at whist, one should have an appet.i.te for the noon meal; let it be so delicious that the anxieties and disappointments of the game may be speedily forgotten! The table may be prettily laid with the usual doilies, and the flowers chosen chrysanthemums again, unless you fancy carrying out the red and black colours of the cards, when the plan suggested for the Musical Luncheon in January may be adopted, and red carnations tied with narrow black ribbons may be laid by each plate, and dark chocolate bonbons may be in the little dishes around a centrepiece of red carnations. At each of the places may be a small box of cardboard in the shape of a heart, a club, a diamond, or a spade alternately, filled with bonbons. There are tin cutters which are in these same shapes, and the cakes and sandwiches may still further carry out the idea. The ices, too, are to be found at the caterer's in slices of white with the figures on them in colours, but you may make a white cream at home and serve it in paper boxes painted with the various figures around the edge, if you choose.

Any one of the preceding menus may be used, or one may have something different which yet reproduces the best dishes which have been suggested, especially the delightful ice cream which was mentioned for one luncheon, with the maple sauce, one of the delicious things among new dishes.

MENU

OYSTER BISQUE.

LOBSTER CROQUETTES WITH TOMATO SAUCE.

MUSHROOM OMELETTE. HOT ROLLS.

FRIED CHICKEN IN CREAM SAUCE. POTATO SOUFFLe. ASPARAGUS TIPS.

WALDORF SALAD. CHEESE SANDWICHES.

FRENCH VANILLA ICE CREAM WITH MAPLE SAUCE.

COFFEE. BONBONS.

The mushroom omelette is easily prepared by putting a mixture of chopped mushrooms and olives in a delicately browned omelette as it is folded over just before it is served; there is nothing better in an egg dish than this. The salad is made by cutting rather sweet apples in bits and adding as much chopped celery and a stiff mayonnaise and laying on lettuce leaves; if English walnuts are added, the salad is entirely changed from the original, but it is thought quite as good by most persons; the fact that these nuts are to be served in the dessert, however, gives reason for omitting them from the mixture of apple and celery. If it is desired to have a sherbet for this luncheon, add it after the chicken, one of canned pineapple, or grape fruit, and have the final course a cream cheese with Bar-le-Duc currants and crackers, with the coffee; the mixture of sweet and cheese seems odd to one who has not tried it, but it is warranted to give satisfaction.

December

One of the charming things about Christmas Day is the now customary late luncheon for the members of the family and the intimate friends who are afterwards expected to prolong their stay until the lighting of the tree at early candle-light. Men as well as women are invited to this holiday celebration, and the occasion is one of the happiest of the happy season. Of course the guests are chosen with an especially careful thought as to their congeniality, for Christmas is never the time for the payment of social obligations, but rather for the fulfilment of the idea of peace and good-will, and comradeship must mark the keeping of the festival.

This Christmas luncheon in no way conflicts with the family dinner which comes later in the day, but is a thing apart. The children join in this, even if they are too young to remain out of bed for the later meal, and will hugely enjoy the fun which marks it.

A CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOR A CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON.]

The table should be arranged in scarlet, with holly to offset the more brilliant colour; in the centre should stand one of the diminutive Christmas trees, such as are to be had in the German toy shops; they are artificial, and do not take fire from the candles, and have the additional advantage of lasting for years, as they fold up like an umbrella and may be tucked out of the way from one season to another.

The pot in which this little tree stands is to be surrounded with a broad wreath of holly, lying on the table. The candles on the tree are to be scarlet, and they will sufficiently light the room except for the side lights on the wall. A narrow scarlet ribbon should extend from each plate to a little parcel lying at the foot of the tree, tied up with white tissue paper and scarlet ribbons, with a spray of holly attached, and at the close of the meal these ribbons are to be pulled by each guest and the gift opened; here the fun of the Christmas luncheon begins, for these presents should in every case be some small joke on the recipient, and ingenuity and cleverness should be the price paid for them by the giver. If one has the knack of writing jingles,--and it is easily acquired,--the card bearing the verse is to accompany the gift, and the words must be read aloud for the entertainment of all.

A young man who is addicted to the bad habit of Sunday golf might have a small plaid paper golf-bag, and a card with a picture of a golfer with his sticks,--this can be cut from an advertis.e.m.e.nt or catalogue,--and a rhyme something like this:--

"Behold this young golfer so fit, Who his ball (or his caddie) doth hit, When six days in the week And the seventh day eke, To the links he doth eagerly flit."

An enthusiastic young housekeeper might be given a set of small tin baking dishes with this jingle:--

"This matron can cook wondrous well; Every recipe known she can tell; She can roast, stew, and bake, Make marvellous cake, And her jelly will frequently 'jell.'"

A pretty girl might have a pasteboard heart with the words written on it, "A heart for the heartless," and this verse below:--

"This maiden's an arrant young flirt; Her ways are both subtle and pert.

Every man that she spies She looks on as a prize, And she cares not a fig for his hurt."

A little practice will make perfect in writing similar ridiculous nonsense.

The menu for this Christmas luncheon should be a very simple one in order not to impair the appet.i.tes for the Christmas goose, which will appear before many hours.