Cut cold boiled potatoes into pieces as large as the end of your finger; put them into a pan on the back of the stove with enough milk to cover them, and let them stand till they have drunk up all the milk; perhaps they will slowly cook a little as they do this, but that will do no harm. In another saucepan or in the frying-pan put a tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles put in a tablespoonful of flour, and stir till they melt together; then put in two cups of hot milk, and stir till it is all smooth. Put in one teaspoonful of salt, and last the potatoes, but stir them only once while they cook, for fear of breaking them. Add one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and put them in a hot covered dish. You can make another sort of potatoes when you have finished creaming them in this way, by putting a layer of them in a deep buttered baking-dish, with a layer of white sauce over the top, and break-crumbs and bits of butter for a crust. Brown well in a hot oven. When you do this, remember to make the sauce with three cups of milk and two tablespoonfuls of flour and two of butter, and then you will have enough for everything.
You can buy very nice, fresh crab meat in tins, and the shells also. A very delicious dish is made by mixing a cup of rich cream sauce with the crab meat, seasoning it well with salt and pepper and putting in the crab-shells; cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven. This is a nice thing to have for a company luncheon.
4 eggs. 2 tablespoonfuls of milk. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
Put the eggs in a bowl and stir till they are well mixed; add the milk and salt. Make the frying-pan very hot, and put a tablespoonful of butter in it; when it melts, shake it well from side to side, till all the bottom of the pan is covered. Put in the eggs and stir them, scraping them off the bottom of the pan until they begin to get a little firm; then draw the pan to the edge of the stove, and scrape up from the bottom all the time till the whole looks alike, creamy and firm, but not hard. Put them in a hot, covered dish.
Put the milk on the stove to heat in a good-sized pan. Beat the whites of the eggs very stiff, and as soon as the milk scalds,--that is, gets a little wrinkled on top,--drop spoonfuls of the egg on to it in little islands; let them stand there to cook just one minute, and then with the skimmer take them off and lay them on a plate. Put the milk where it will keep hot but not boil while you beat the yolks of the eggs stiff, mixing in the sugar and beating that, too. Pour the milk into the bowl of egg, a little at a time, beating all the while, and then put it in the double boiler and cook till it is as thick as cream. Take it off the fire, stir in a saltspoonful of salt and half a teaspoonful of vanilla, and set it away to cool. When it is dinner-time, strain the custard into a pretty dish and slip the whites off the top, one by one. If you like, you can dot them over with very tiny specks of red jelly.
2 cups of milk. 1 cup soft bread-crumbs. 1 tablespoonful of sugar. 2 egg yolks. 1 egg white. 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla. 1 saltspoonful of salt.
Crumb the bread evenly and soak in the milk till soft. Beat it till smooth, and put in the beaten yolks of the eggs, the sugar, vanilla, and salt, and last the beaten white of the egg. Put it in a buttered pudding-dish, and stand this in a pan of hot water in the oven for fifteen minutes. Take it out and spread its top with jam, and cover with the beaten white of the other egg, with one tablespoonful of granulated sugar put in it, and brown in the oven. You can eat this as it is, or with cream, and you may serve it either hot or cold.
Sometimes you can put a cup of washed raisins into the bread-crumbs and milk, and mix in the other things; sometimes you can put in a cup of chopped almonds, or a little preserved ginger. Orange marmalade is especially nice on bread pudding.
Turn the corn into the colander and pour water through it a moment. Heat a cup of milk with a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, and three shakes of pepper, and mix with the corn and cook for two minutes. Or, put in a buttered baking-dish and brown in the oven. Many people never wash corn; it is better to do so.
1 cup of sugar. 4 eggs. 2 lemons. 1 pint of milk. 1 tablespoonful of sugar. 2 tablespoonfuls of corn-starch. 1 pinch of salt.
Wet the corn-starch with half a cup of the milk, and heat what is left. Stir up the corn-starch well, and when the milk is hot put it in and stir; then boil five minutes, stirring all the time. Melt the butter, and put that in with a pinch of salt, and cool it. Beat the yolks of the eggs, and add the sugar, the juice of both lemons, and the grated rind of one, pour into the milk, and stir well; put in a buttered baking-dish and bake till slightly brown. Take it out of the oven; beat the whites of two eggs with a tablespoonful of granulated sugar, and pile lightly on top, and put in the oven again till it is just brown. This is a very nice rule.
1/2 a small cabbage. 1 cup very stiff mayonnaise. 1 teaspoonful celery-seed.
Cut the cabbage in four pieces and cut out the hard core; slice the rest very fine on the cutter you use for Saratoga potatoes; mix with the mayonnaise and put in the salad-dish; sprinkle over with celery-seed, when you wish it to be very nice, but it will do without this last touch.
Put one pint of milk on in a double boiler and let it heat. Melt one tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles stir in one small tablespoonful of corn-starch, and when these are rubbed smooth, put in one-third of the milk. Cook and stir till even, without lumps, and then put in the rest of the milk and stir well; add half a teaspoonful of salt, and put on the back of the stove. Make six slices of toast; put one slice in the dish and put a spoonful of the white sauce over it, then put in another and another spoonful, and so on till all are in, and pour the sauce that is left over all. If you want this extra nice, do not take quite so much butter, and use a pint of cream instead of the milk.
Cut six hard-boiled eggs up into bits, mix with a cup of white sauce, and put in small baking-dishes which you have buttered. Cover over with fine, sifted bread-crumbs, and dot with bits of butter, about four to each dish, and brown in the oven. Stick a bit of parsley in the top of each, and put each dish on a plate, to serve.
