Part 62

To use. Boil the strips a few at a time in salted water, taking them out with a skimmer, and keeping them warm. Strew over them bread crumbs fried in butter, or use like macaroni.

These noodles will keep indefinitely when dried hard. Therefore, when eggs are cheap, they may be made and laid up for the winter. The water in which they are boiled is the basis of noodle soup. It needs only the addition of a little butter, a teaspoon of chopped parsley, and a few of the cooked noodles.

=Cream-of-rice Pudding=, page 206.

=Browned Flour Soup.=

2 Tablespoons of butter or fat. ½ Cup of flour. 2 Pints of water. 1 Pint of milk. 1 Teaspoon of salt.

Cook the flour brown, in the fat over a slow fire, or in an oven. Add slowly the water and other ingredients. Serve with fried bread.

=Toast and Cheese.= Toast some slices of white or Graham bread, arrange them in a platter, and pour over sufficient salted water to soften them. Grate over enough old cheese to cover the toast. Set it in the oven to melt, and place the slices together as sandwiches. This is the simplest form of "Welsh Rarebit."

SUNDAY, MAY

Breakfast. Dinner. Supper. Milk Toast. Beef Stew. Noodle Soup. Coffee. Creamed Potatoes. Broiled Herring. Dried Apple Pie. Bread. Bread and Cheese. Tea. Corn Coffee.

=Milk Toast=, page 130. =Beef Stew=, page 186. =Creamed Potatoes=, page 166.

=Dried Apple Pie.= Make a crust in the following manner: One quart of flour, one teaspoon of salt, one tablespoon of butter or lard, or butter and suet, one scant pint of sweet milk, or water, with one teaspoon of soda and two of cream of tartar, or three teaspoons of baking powder.

Sift the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and soda together twice, put it into a chopping-tray, and chop in the shortening, which should be cold and hard, till all is fine and well mixed. Now add the milk a little at a time, still mixing with the chopping-knife. Turn the dough on to a molding-board, and roll it out quickly. When half an inch thick, bake in a sheet or cut it into rounds, and bake in layer cake tins.

When done, split it in two, and spread each half with dried apples, stewed with a little lemon-peel and sugar. Lay the two pieces together, and eat while warm.

Any other fruit may be used in the same way, and if a richer crust is wanted, two tablespoons of fat instead of one may be used.

=Corn Coffee.= Roast common field corn as brown as possible without burning. Grind coarsely, and steep like coffee. Add milk and sugar, and you will find it a delicious drink.

=Noodle Soup=, page 305.

MONDAY, MAY

Breakfast. Dinner. Supper. Oatmeal Mush, with Pea Soup. Bread Pancakes. Milk and Sugar. Mutton Stew. Fried Bacon. Bread. Broiled Potatoes. Tea. Coffee. Bread.

=Oatmeal Mush=, page 91.

=Pea Soup.= Ingredients, one pound of peas, one onion, two tablespoons of beef fat, salt and pepper. Additions to be made according to taste. One fourth of a pound of pork, or a ham-bone, a pinch of red pepper, or, an hour before serving, different vegetables, as carrots and turnips, chopped and fried.

Soak the peas over night in two quarts of water. In the morning pour it off, put on fresh water, and cook with the onion and fat until very soft. Then mash or press the peas through a colander or soup-strainer to remove the skins, and add enough water to make two quarts of somewhat thick soup. Season.

=Mutton Stew=, page 187.

=Bread Pancakes.= Make in the following manner: One quart of milk, three eggs, one tablespoon of butter, one teaspoon of salt. Add to this one cup of flour, and two cups of bread crumbs that have been soaked soft in milk or water and mashed smooth. The batter should be rather thick. Bake in small cakes, adding more flour if they stick.

TUESDAY, MAY

Breakfast. Dinner. Supper. Oatmeal Mush and Fried Fish, with Fried Farina Pudding. Milk. Mint Sauce. Broiled Salt Pork. Buttered Toast. Fried Potatoes. Bread. Tea. Coffee. Bread.

=Mint Sauce.= Two tablespoons of chopped green mint, one tablespoon of sugar, one half cup of vinegar. Mix and let stand an hour or two.

=Fried Farina Pudding.= One pint of water, one pint of milk, one teaspoon of salt, one half pint of farina, two eggs. Mix the flour and eggs smooth with a part of the milk. Heat the remainder to boiling, and stir in the egg and flour. Continue stirring until it thickens, then cook for fifteen minutes in a double boiler. When cold, cut it in slices and fry them brown on a griddle.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER