Potatoes au Gratin

2 cups diced cooked potatoes 2 tablespoons grated onion 1/2 cup grated American Cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 1/2 cup milk 1 egg Salt Pepper More grated cheese for covering

In a b.u.t.tered baking dish put a layer of diced potatoes, sprinkle with onion and bits of b.u.t.ter. Next, scatter on a thin layer of cheese and alternate with potatoes, onions and b.u.t.ter. Stir milk, egg, salt and pepper together and pour it on the mixture. Top everything with plenty of grated cheese to make it authentically American _au gratin_. Bake until firm in moderate oven, about 1/2 hour.

Eggs au Gratin

Make a white sauce flavored with minced onion to pour over any desired number of eggs broken into a b.u.t.tered baking dish. Begin by using half of the sauce and sprinkling on a lot of grated cheese. After the eggs are in, pour on the rest of the sauce, cover it with grated cheese and bread crumbs, drop in bits of b.u.t.ter, and cook until brown in oven (or about 12 minutes).

Tomatoes au Gratin

Cover bottom of shallow baking pan with slices of tomato and sprinkle liberally with bread crumbs and grated cheese, season with salt, pepper and dots of b.u.t.ter, add another layer of tomato slices, season as before and continue this, alternating with cheese, until pan is full. Add a generous topping of crumbs, cheese and b.u.t.ter. Bake 50 minutes in moderate oven.

Onion Soup au Gratin

4 or 5 onions, sliced 4 or 5 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 1 quart stock or canned consomme 1 quart bouillon made from dissolving 4 or 5 cubes Rounds of toasted French bread 1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Saute onions in b.u.t.ter in a roomy saucepan until light golden, and pour the stock over. When heated put in a larger ca.s.serole, add the bouillon, season to taste and heat to boiling point. Let simmer 15 minutes and serve in deep well-heated soup plates, the bottoms covered with rounds of toasted French bread which have been heaped with freshly grated Parmesan and browned under the broiler. More cheese is served for guests to sprinkle on as desired.

At gala parties, where wine flows, a couple of gla.s.ses of champagne are often added to the bouillon.

In the famed onion soup _au gratin_ at Les Halles in Paris, grated Gruyere is used in place of Parmesan. They are interchangeable in this recipe.

AMERICAN CHEESE SOUPS

In this era of fine canned soups a quick cheese soup is made by heating cream of tomato soup, ready made, and adding finely grated Swiss or Parmesan to taste. French bread toasted and topped with more cheese and broiled golden makes the best base to pour this over, as is done with the French onion soup above.

The same cheese toasts are the basis of a simple milk-cheese soup, with heated milk poured over and a seasoning of salt, pepper, chopped chives, or a dash of nutmeg.

Chicken Cheese Soup

Heat together 1 cup milk, 1 cup water in which 2 chicken bouillon cubes have been dissolved, and 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup. Stir in 1/4 cup grated American Cheddar cheese and season with salt, pepper, and plenty of paprika until cheese melts.

Other popular American recipes simply add grated cheese to lima bean or split bean soup, peanut b.u.t.ter soup, or plain cheese soup with rice.

Imported French _marmites_ are _de rigueur_ for a real onion soup _au gratin_, and an imported Parmesan grinder might be used for freshly ground cheese. In preparing, it is well to remember that they are basically only melted cheese, melted from the top down.

CHEESE SALADS

When a Frenchman reaches the salad he is resting and in no hurry.

He eats the salad to prepare himself for the cheese.

Henri Charpentier, _Life & la Henri_,

Green Cheese Salad Julienne

Take endive, water cress and as many different kinds of crisp lettuce as you can find and mix well with Provolone cheese cut in thin julienne strips and marinated 3 to 4 hours in French dressing. Crumble over the salad some Blue cheese and toss everything thoroughly, with plenty of French dressing.

American Cheese Salad

Slice a sweet ripe pineapple thin and sprinkle with shredded American Cheddar. Serve on lettuce dipped in French dressing.

Cheese and Nut Salad

Mix American Cheddar with an equal amount of nut meats and enough mayonnaise to make a paste. Roll these in little b.a.l.l.s and serve with fruit salads, dusting lightly with finely grated Sapsago.

Brie or Camembert Salad

Fill ripe pear-or peach-halves with creamy imported Brie or Camembert, sprinkle with honey, serve on lettuce drenched with French dressing and scatter shredded almonds over. (Cream cheese will do in a pinch. If the Camembert isn't creamy enough, mash it with some sweet cream.)

Three-in-One Mold

3/4 cup cream cheese 1/2 cup grated American Cheddar cheese 1/2 cup Roquefort cheese, crumbled 2 tablespoons gelatin, dissolved and stirred into 1/2 cup boiling water Juice of 1 lemon Salt Pepper 2 cups cream, beaten stiff 1/2 cup minced chives

Mash the cheeses together, season gelatin liquid with lemon, salt and pepper and stir into cheese with the whipped cream. Add chives last Put in ring mold or any mold you fancy, chill well and slice at table to serve on lettuce with a little mayonnaise, or plain.

Swiss Cheese Salad

Dice 1/2 pound of cheese into 1/2-inch cubes. Slice one onion very thin. Mix well in a soup plate. Dash with German mustard, olive oil, wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce. Salt lightly and grind in plenty of black pepper. Then stir, preferably with a wooden spoon so you won't mash the cheese, until every hole is drenched with the dressing.

Rosie's Swiss Breakfast Cheese Salad

Often Emmentaler is cubed in a salad for breakfast, relished specially by males on the morning after. We quote the original recipe brought over by Rosie from the Swiss Tyrol to thrill the writers' and artists'

colony of Ridgefield, New Jersey, in her brother Emil's White House Inn:

First Rosie cut a thick slice of prime imported Emmentaler into half-inch cubes. Then she mixed imported French olive oil, German mustard and Swiss white wine vinegar with salt and freshly ground pepper in a deep soup plate, sprinkled on a few drops of pepper sauce scattered in the chunks of Schweizer and stirred the cubes with a light hand, using a wooden fork and spoon to prevent bruising.

The salad was ready to eat only when each and every tiny, shiny cell of the Swiss from the homeland had been washed, oiled and polished with the soothing mixture.

"Drink down the juice, too, when you have finished mine Breakfast Cheese Salad," Rosie advised the customers. "It is the best cure in the world for the worst hangover."

Gorgonzola and Banana Salad

Slice bananas lengthwise, as for a banana split. Sprinkle with lemon juice and spread with creamy Gorgonzola. Sluice with French dressing made with lemon juice in place of vinegar, to help bring out the natural banana flavor of ripe Gorgonzola.