FOR A ST. VALENTINES DAY LUNCHEON.FOR A ST. VALENTINE'S DAY LUNCHEON.
A luncheon on Valentine's Day is one of the prettiest possible, for theprofusion of flowers which might be excessive at another time is quite the proper thing now, and the accessories of the occasion, the ribbon bows, the cupids, the heart-shaped cakes and ices all make the table attractive. Lay it as daintily as possible with your most elaborate doilies, your prettiest candle-shades, and all your odd little dishes of silver. Of course, pink is the colour to choose, and the more pink rosesyou can have, the better. A very beautiful table which will suggest the day at first sight is set with five tall slender glass vases, one in the centre and four grouped around it at intervals filled with roses. This arrangement really takes no more flowers than is required for one large bunch, but the effect is of far more. The florist will sell or rent to you a large snow-white dove, the emblem of Venus, which can be suspended from the ceiling with an invisible wire; you can tie a number of narrow pink ribbons to his feet, or to his bill, and draw them down to thetable, fastening two or three by each plate with a pink rose. If you have a large bisque Cupid it will do quite as well as the dove, and if you prefer to use vines instead of ribbon, these will form a sort of bower under which the meal is served. Put the central vase on a lace centrepiece laid over pink silk, and if your doilies are of lace they, too, may be lined with pink for this one occasion. There are candle-shades made of small paper roses which are very inexpensive and pretty, and these may be used with pink candles in silver sticks. If you fancy the idea, large pink satin bows laid on the corners of the table, if it is a square one, or at intervals if the table is round, add to the colour. Fill your bonbon dishes with small heart-shaped candies, pink-iced cakes of the same shape, and candied rose leaves, in addition to those filled with the usual olives and salted almonds.
Your guest cards will of course be valentines, and you can buy them inany variety and at any price, but the most appropriate are those painted with old-fashioned figures, or with Watteau-like groups. Of course, if these valentines are on heart-shaped cardboard they are still better; it is easy for one who paints in water-colour to decorate such pieces of board with figures and an appropriate rhyme or a quotation, adding the name of the guest and the date of the luncheon. Besides these cards, there are boxes in heart shapes of all prices, from the plain ones which need the addition of sketches, to those of satin which come from Paris and cost a small fortune. The plainer boxes may take the place of guest cards, and so serve a double duty; in any case, the boxes may be filled either with tiny candy hearts or with rose leaves such as are in the small dishes.
The sandwiches served with the meal are of course to be cut out with a heart-shaped cutter, as are the cakes, and the latter should have smallsilver arrows stuck through each of them.
Clams on the Half-Shell.
Cream of Spinach Soup with Whipped Cream.
Whitebait.Brown Bread and Butter.
Chicken Mousse.Stoned Olives.
Chops with Peas.Bermuda Potatoes.
Grape Fruit Salad.Cheese Sandwiches.
Ice Cream Hearts.Cakes.
Coffee.Bonbons.
The cream of spinach soup is made by cooking the vegetable until very tender, pressing it through a sieve and adding hot, thickened milk; a little whipped cream is to be put in the bouillon cups before the soup is poured in. The whitebait is one of the most delicious things in our winter markets; it is a very tiny fish of delicate flavour, and while it is rather expensive at first thought, it is not so in reality, for it is so light that a pound goes a long way. It is cooked after being dredgedwith flour, by frying for only a moment in a wire basket in hot fat, and served with a bit of lemon on rounds of lace paper; brown bread and butter in thin strips is passed with it. If it is not to be had, and of course outside a city it is difficult to obtain, lobster Newburgh, made from the canned fish, is an excellent substitute. About a pint of the meat is needed for eight persons; a half-pint of cream is put on the stove with the yolks of two well-beaten eggs; when it thickens the lobster is added, then the seasoning and last a dash of sherry, and it is served in ramekins or paper cases.
The chicken mousse is a cold dish, made by chopping and pounding the cooked white meat of chicken until it is a paste, seasoning, and adding enough chicken stock in which gelatine has been dissolved to thoroughly moisten it; it is then whipped with an egg-beater until light, pressedin a pan, and allowed to harden; sometimes in addition to the stock a half cup of whipped cream is mixed in, and this is an improvement to the ordinary rule for making it. When it is to be used it is sliced and cut out in heart-shaped pieces; two stoned olives are put on the plate with each piece, or, if you prefer it, a spoonful of sauce tartare.
The ices may be of strawberry cream or of raspberry ice or a mixture of both, they are to be heart-shaped, as has been said, and each one should have a sugar arrow stuck through it. If you prefer roses to hearts, these should be laid on lace papers. If this course must be prepared at home, the cream can easily be coloured a rose tint with fruit colour, and a spoonful served in a dainty little box made of pasteboard covered with rose crêpe paper, cut to resemble petals of the flower, tied with ribbons to match.
The twenty-second of February suggests that an almost unlimited amount of ingenuity may be spent in preparing a meal in honour of the Father of our Country. There is opportunity for decoration such as few gala days offer, and this may easily be the prettiest luncheon of the year.
If the meal is an informal one a centrepiece may be arranged which will amuse the guests. Get at the florist's a small dead plant, such as an azalea, and pick off some of the twigs, making a symmetrical tree of diminutive size. At a Japanese shop you can buy the pretty artificial cherry blossoms used to set off the bric-à-brac in the windows, and these can be fastened to the twigs with invisible wire, the little tree may stand in a low pot filled with moss, and at its base may be a small hatchet. With this, your candle-shades should be a sort of rosy white.You might use in preference to this a bunch of the cherry branches in a vase in the centre.
Or, if you prefer to have the Colonial colours, choose a large dark-blue bowl and fill it with yellow tulips, and have all the dishes, or at least several sets of plates, of dark-blue ware; if one does not own Staffordshire of her grandmother's or the beautiful Chinese Canton china, still she need not despair, for the shops are full of a cheap and pretty imitation of the latter which gives an admirable effect. Thecandle-shades should be yellow, in tulip pattern preferably, and the candlesticks of old-fashioned silver.
A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY FAVOUR.A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY FAVOUR.
At each plate lay a bonbon box in the form of a paper hatchet with the handle filled with red and white candies, and tie a bunch of artificial cherries to it with narrow ribbon. You can get at the printer's cards with the head of Washington which a line of gold paint and a bowknot will transform into a miniature. Fold your napkins into little cocked hats, and stand small silk flags in your dishes of almonds and olives. In addition to all this, you can send to Mount Vernon for small souvenirs in the shape of hatchets, supposably made of the actualhistoric cherry-tree, which may take the place of the paper hatchets at the plates.
Should your luncheon be given for the members of some patriotic association, you might add the name of some famous Revolutionary battle to your guest cards, or possibly a quotation from some well-known novel which has historic characters, such as "Richard Carvel" or "The Virginians."
Grape Fruit with Brandied Cherries.
Cream of Chicken Soup.
Smelts with Sauce Tartare.
Fried Sweetbreads.Mushroom Sauce.
Carrots in Cases.Bermuda Potatoes.
Celery and Cabbage Salad in Peppers.
Ice Cream Hatchets.Cakes.
Coffee.Bonbons.
Cut the grape fruit in half and remove the seeds and core, loosen thepulp around the sides and put in the cavity in the middle a couple of preserved or brandied cherries, with a little of their juice. The soup is a strong chicken stock to which cream has been added; a spoonful of whipped cream is put on top of each cup as it is served, and hot crackers are passed with it.
Put a little water-cress on the plate with the smelts as well as the sauce.
Sweetbreads are especially good with both mushrooms and carrots, though one does not often see the latter vegetable with them, but creamed, in small paper or paste cases, they are by no means to be despised, above all, if they are the new ones which have just come to market.
The salad is made by cutting off the tops of green peppers, removing the seeds and filling them with shredded celery and cabbage with stiff mayonnaise, and serving on lettuce; if the peppers are not to be had,the salad may be put directly on the lettuce. The cheese straws are made by sprinkling thin strips of pie-crust with red pepper and grated cheese, twisting a little and browning in the oven.
The ice cream hatchets must come from the caterer; they are extremely realistic with the initials Gr. W. on their handles, and add greatly to the gaiety of the occasion; but if they are not to be had, the hostess can serve in their place a plain cream in little cocked hats, or haveit sliced with a few preserved or brandied cherries on each slice. The bonbons passed with the coffee may be one or more kinds of candied cherries to be found in great variety at the confectioner's.
A still more elaborate menu might be this one:—
Grape Fruit with Cherries.
Cream of Chicken Soup.
Fried Oysters with Sauce Tartare.
Chicken Croquettes with Peas.
Sweetbreads, Mushroom Sauce.
Carrots in Cases.Bermuda Potatoes.
Cherry Sherbet.
Celery and Cabbage Salad in Green Peppers.
Ice Cream Hatchets.Cakes.
Coffee.Bonbons.
ALSO FOR A FEBRUARY 22 LUNCHEON.ALSO FOR A FEBRUARY 22 LUNCHEON.
The sherbet course is exceedingly pretty. The ice is made from home-made candied cherries and put in glass sherbet cups with a little bunch ofartificial cherries tied to the handle with green ribbon the colour of the leaves.
Shrove Tuesday comes the day before Lent begins, and there is always much gaiety on hand by way of a temporary farewell to festivities. The old custom of serving pancakes on this day should not be forgotten in planning one's menu for the gala day meal; true, they are certainly an unusual dish for luncheon, but they should by no means be omitted.
There is a very beautiful and odd decoration to be made with delicate white flowers and tiny white candles, which can be arranged with little trouble. Have a low mound of moss for a foundation with a border of maiden-hair fern; stand Roman hyacinths or lilies of the valley in this, not too near together, with the candles between, having first inserteda toothpick in the bottom of each and had them on the ice over night to prevent them from melting too soon. Keep all the colour on the table green and white,—the candles, the china, if possible, and the ice cream. The pancakes should be made very large, one covering the whole griddle, spread with jelly, rolled, and sprinkled with sugar. One, or at most two, should serve a tableful of guests.
Bouillon.
Oysters on Skewers.
Chops and Peas.French Fried Potatoes.
Asparagus Tips with Mayonnaise.
French Pancakes.
Pistache Ice Cream.Cakes.
Coffee.Bonbons.
The oysters are to be rather small, and put on skewers with bits of thin bacon alternating, and fried quickly till crisp; serve on toast with lemon. This is an easily prepared and delicious dish and one whichmakes a good substitute for any other suggested in any winter luncheon which is not within reach. Serve the ice cream in cases of white candy, or white cream in green cases, or use whipped cream as a bed around either ice cream if cases are not to be had.
Lincoln's birthday comes early in February, and a patriotic luncheon can easily be arranged for that from the suggestions already given for Washington's birthday. Patriotic affairs admit little variation; red, white, and blue ribbons and flowers, ice cream in paper boxes with red and white stripes, and cards with suitable inscriptions are about all one can have by way of appropriate decoration.
With March comes a lull in the social world. Lent holds sway, whether one professes to observe it or not. Dinners, receptions, dances, are all postponed for a time, and quiet teas and luncheons are the accepted forms of entertaining. A Lenten luncheon gives opportunity for a meal without meat, one which may be a pleasant change from the usual menu, and still will not suggest a fast.
For this no colour is so appropriate as violet, and luckily this is the month when the flower itself appears most plentifully in market. In arranging the table it may be well to depart for once from the rule ofhaving all the linen in white, and use any violet-embroidered pieces you happen to have. Such a centrepiece is especially pretty, under the real flowers, and violet and white china, if you have it, will make an attractive table. In the centre have a basket of rough green straw tied with ribbons of violet, and filled with a mass of the flowers arranged to look like one large, loose bunch, but really in a quantity of small bunches which are to be given to the guests as they leave the table at the close of the meal, unless you prefer to have a knot of the flowers at each place, tied with narrow ribbons. This giving of individual bunches of flowers at the beginning of the meal, although always a graceful and pretty custom, is not seen just now as much as formerly.
If you use candles, have them of violet, with plain violet shades edged with the flowers sewed to the paper or silk foundation; or else haveplain shades of heavy paper painted with wreaths of the flowers. Your cards may match these, being squares of cardboard almost covered with a wreath of violets, with a bowknot painted on it, and the name of the guest written across the flowers. Your bonbon dishes may be filled with candied violets and other violet-tinted sweets.
Oysters on the Half-Shell.
Bouillon.
Halibut Timbales with Lobster Sauce.
Salmon Croquettes with Peas.
Shad with Roe.New Potatoes.Cucumbers.
Violet Cabbage Salad.
Brown Bread and Butter.Olives.
Violet Ice Cream.Cakes.
Coffee.Bonbons.
If shad is not in market as yet, though it should be in March, use any broiled fish; if white fish is obtainable, nothing is nicer,especially if it is planked. The salad is an odd one; a head of purple cabbage is taken, the leaves turned back and the centre cut out; a white cabbage is shredded and mixed with as much shredded celery and stiff mayonnaise, and this is put into the purple cabbage head, and it is passed on a round platter to the guests.
The ice cream is a plain one coloured violet with fruit colour; it is put in a circular border mould and turned when firm out on a bed of whipped cream; the centre of the mould is heaped with this same whipped cream, and over the whole a quantity of candied violets is sprinkled. On the edge of the platter a wreath of natural violets is arranged with their leaves, making a really beautiful dish. If this seems too elaborate, or if the flowers are not abundant, fill meringue shells with the violet cream and tie two together with narrow violet ribbon and lay on rounds of lace paper on each plate; the cream should rather morethan fill the shells.
If you prefer a menu with less fish and some meat, this would do:—
Oranges.
Bisque of Oyster Soup.
Halibut Timbales with Shrimp Sauce.
Chicken and Pim-olas in Cases.
Sliced Breast of Duck.Currant Jelly.
Potato Roses.
Apricot Sherbet.
Sardine Salad.Mayonnaise.
Violet Ice Cream.Cakes.
Coffee.Bonbons.
The oranges are to be prepared as was the grape fruit; that is, the pulp is loosened from the sides after a thick slice has been cut from the top, the core is taken out, and powdered sugar and sherry, if you use it, put in. The creamed chicken has chopped pim-olas added to it to give a delicious flavour. The salad is an aspic with one sardine embedded ineach small mould. The potato roses are made by pressing mashed potato through a tube in spirals, and browning in the oven.
Sometimes one is moved to give a luncheon "Just for fun," on some gala day which suggests that informality will be in keeping with its atmosphere. Of course one invites to such a meal only such of one's friends as will appreciate the spirit in which the luncheon is given; nothing is more discouraging than to have one's little jokes fall flat, as they are sure to, unless all are in sympathy.
requires kindred spirits to really enjoy it.
FOR A ST. PATRICK'S DAY LUNCHEON.FOR A ST. PATRICK'S DAY LUNCHEON.
POTATO BONBON.POTATO BONBON.
Of course the meal should be carried out in green, Ireland's colour, and potato salad should be one of the distinctive Irish dishes. Have a white and green centrepiece, and if you have any green and white china haveit conspicuously used, and for decoration get from the florist a wire harp, typical of that which "Once thro' Tara's halls," and cover its frame and strings with delicate green vines, letting their ends trail on the table. Stand small green flags among your candies and olives, and have pistache nuts among the salted almonds. If you use candles, have them green with their shades decorated in shamrock, which is like a small clover. For cards use the same thing, painted in little bunches tied with ribbon, or have a sketch of a typical Irish peasant, or of a tiny white-washed cottage with vines as one sees so many in Ireland. Under the name of the guest put a quotation from Moore, the poet of thecountry, the more familiar the better. Have your bonbons in the form of small potatoes, or else give each person one of the bonbon boxes which look exactly like large Irish potatoes, and fill it with green candies.
Grape Fruit.
Cream of Green Pea Soup.
Shad Roe with Sauce Tartare.
Chops, with Peas and Bermuda Potatoes.
Lemon Sherbet in Lemon Baskets.
Potato Salad.Lettuce Sandwiches.
Pistache Ice Cream.Cakes.
Coffee.
There is just enough green about this meal to suggest the day, without trying to have the whole in the colour, a thing seldom seen now, though not long ago it was thought a very pretty fancy.
This potato salad is a very delicious one, not to be despised because of its plebeian name. It is made by mixing equal parts of cold boiledpotatoes cut into cubes with olives in rather large bits and blanched English walnuts, the whole covered with a stiff mayonnaise. The sandwiches passed with this are made by spreading thin slices of bread and butter with leaves of lettuce and mayonnaise, rolling them and tying with a narrow green ribbon.
The ice cream may be either a melon mould of French cream covered with a thick layer of pistache, or else a brick of the pistache with a centre of lemon ice. The little cakes should be iced with green.
"When friends are nearest, when joys are dearest, oh, then remember me.""Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast,And a heart and a hand all thine own to the last.""You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.""Oh, there are looks and tones that dartAn instant sunshine through the heart.""There's nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream."
The day that the baby is christened is surely a gala day, and one that admits a very dainty and beautiful luncheon after the service. Of course the colour of the decorations, whether in the parlours or the dining-room, should be white, and the flowers should be the delicate ones suggestive of childhood, such as white violets, Roman hyacinths, lilies of the valley, and daisies; these should be mingled with asparagus fern and other airy green, and used as lavishly as one's purse will permit. On the table spread for the luncheon there should be only white decorations. For this occasion it is more appropriate to use a cloth of plain damask or heavy linen and lace rather than the usualdoilies, the centrepiece being of lace. If candles are used, they should be white with shades of silver; the appointments of the table should be, as far as possible, of glass, and all the bonbons and other decoration of white, such as candy baskets filled with crystallised fruits.
The centrepiece may be a wicker cradle painted white and tied with white ribbons, filled with delicate flowers and asparagus ferns, and the ices may be in cradle shape also.
Cream of Corn Soup.
Timbale of Halibut in Melon Shape.
Lobster Sauce.
Chicken Breasts with Celery Sauce.
Potato Balls.
Orange Sherbet.
Sweetbreads in Aspic with White Mayonnaise.
Ices in Forms.Angels' Food.
Coffee with Whipped Cream.
The fish is prepared by putting a pound and a half of boiled halibutthrough a sieve, adding a teacup of whipped cream, seasoning, and the whites of five eggs well beaten; the whole is put in a buttered mould and steamed for half an hour, turned out on a round platter with the lobster sauce around it, and passed. The sauce for the chicken is made by pressing stewed celery through a sieve, adding seasoning and thickening. Stewed celery may be served with the chicken in place of this sauce.
The sweetbreads are cleaned, blanched by throwing in cold water when taken from that in which they have been boiled, and cut in bits; they are then seasoned and put in small moulds and aspic, or melted beef extract, and dissolved gelatine is poured over them. When they are served they are put on lettuce leaves and a white mayonnaise is put by the side of each.
The cream may be in the form of cradles, as has been suggested, or a white cream may be served in spun sugar cases, or, if neither of these is to be had, a plain cream may be served in slices with whipped cream around each. The cake should be passed in a large iced loaf, and the coffee should have a spoonful of whipped cream on top.
With the last course a large silver tray may be carried around the table with a mass of white roses and asparagus fern on it, which proves to separate readily into individual roses, each one holding a tiny cardbearing the name of the newly named baby, which the guests will doubtless like to preserve as souvenirs of the day.
To alter this menu a trifle for those who do not fancy a sherbet and a cream in the same luncheon, have for dessert small moulds of whipped cream set with gelatine, filled with chopped almonds and flavoured with sherry; serve a spoonful of whipped cream with each. This is a good dish and one that is easily prepared, and may be substituted in any luncheon for the suggested cream when that is not just what is wanted.
April brings many other good things beside the showers typical of the month; summer now begins to declare itself, and flowers, fruits, and fresh vegetables are in season. Easter usually comes in April, and brings not only a religious festival but a gala day as well, for Easter Monday is holiday time the world over. To keep it hospitably, let us have an
FOR AN EASTER LUNCHEON.FOR AN EASTER LUNCHEON.
For this, no flowers are so appropriate as jonquils, for they are thecolour of spring sunshine, and have a suggestion of gaiety all their own. They do not lend themselves to any arrangement other than the massing of them in a bowl, but they do blend well with violets; and if your luncheon is very elaborate, the two may be used, the jonquils in the centre and the violets in a wreath around the bowl, or in smallerbowls about the table. A mahogany table is at its best with yellow flowers, each setting off the other; but whatever the table, lay it with doilies; if you have a yellow and white centrepiece, use it, but if not, choose a white one. Candles are not to be used in summer weather, unless, as one sometimes sees them by way of decoration, they are unlighted.
EASTER EGG.EASTER EGG.
EASTER FAVOUR.EASTER FAVOUR.
In addition to your little dishes of radishes, almonds, candied ginger, and other relishes on the table, have some filled with Easter eggs in candy. Each guest may have a tiny, downy chicken at her plate, such as fill the shops at this season, or if you prefer, a box in the shape of an egg, filled with bonbons, or rather candy eggs. These boxes come in all prices, ranging from a few cents for those of plain cardboard to the expensive ones in satin which are imported and cost an alarming sum;one will have no trouble in finding something pretty within her means.
The ice cream for an Easter luncheon may be very attractive; it comes in various egg forms from the caterer, but the prettiest is that which is in small eggs of ice and cream, in different sizes, served in a nest of spun sugar of a straw colour. There is also a large form in which a hen sits on a larger nest of the same sort with little chickens peeping from under her wings, but this is rather too elaborate for a luncheon. If all caterers' forms are out of reach, the best substitute is made by serving rounded spoonfuls of a very yellow cream as nearly like eggs as possible. The menu for the luncheon should consist principally of chicken and eggs in different styles.
Clams on the Half-Shell.
Cream of Chicken Soup.
Green Peppers Filled with Creamed Salmon.
Patties of Sweetbreads and Mushrooms.
Chicken in Rice Border.New Potatoes.
Lemon and Peppermint Ice.
Egg Salad.Cheese Straws.
Ice Cream in Egg Forms.Cake.
Coffee.Bonbons.
The peppers are prepared by cutting off the small end and filling them with creamed salmon, heating them in the oven before serving. The patties are to be purchased at the bakery and filled with a mixture of sweetbreads and canned mushrooms. The chicken in rice is a delicious dish, and one easily prepared, but seldom seen. The white meat of two or if necessary three chickens is stewed until tender, then cut intopieces about four inches by two, and put in the centre of a border of boiled rice which has been turned out on a round platter; a sauce made of the strained chicken stock, thickened and with cream added until it is white in colour, is then poured over the whole. If sherry is used it should be added the last thing.
ICES IN A NEST OF SPUN SUGAR.ICES IN A NEST OF SPUN SUGAR.
The sherbet is odd; make a lemon ice and divide it; colour one half light green and flavour with essence of peppermint; serve the two ices together in glass cups, one layer of each.
The salad is made by cutting a head of lettuce into strips with thescissors, until it looks like grass, and putting this in a sort of nest shape on the plate with the yolks of hard-boiled eggs in a group in the centre and mayonnaise in a stiff spoonful on top. The cake served with the cream should be what is called sunshine cake, an angels' food to which the yolks of the eggs has been added.
EASTER LILY OF ICE CREAM.EASTER LILY OF ICE CREAM.
Another Easter luncheon may be arranged in green and white, which is even more beautiful and stately than this in yellow. For this, have a centrepiece of Easter lilies in a tall slender glass vase, or have three such vases down the table, if it is an oblong one, or several grouped around one larger one in the middle if it is round. Have guest cards painted with Easter lilies, and use only white and green decorations of bonbons on the table,—ribbon candies are pretty, or candy baskets in green filled with white candies. If you use candles on the table, havethe shades represent lilies, inverted. The little cakes may be iced in green, and the colours carried out in the ice cream, which may be purchased in beautiful forms of lilies, the flower being of lemon ice and the leaves of pistache cream. Or, if the cream must be home-made, you may have it of the pistache and serve it in a bed of whipped cream in rounded spoonfuls. Or, by way of still another method, have a plain white cream and serve it with a spray of maiden-hair fern on each plate.
By a curious coincidence, Shakespeare's birthday and the day on which he died are the same,—the twenty-third of April; so this date is peculiarly appropriate for a luncheon to a literary club, or a group of literary friends. There is ample scope here for all sorts of Shakespearian suggestions, from views of his home, or sketches of Anne Hathaway's cottage on the cards, to quotations taken from one play, or from many; for reminders of some one heroine, or suggestions of some historic event. One might have a Rosalind or Juliet luncheon, or carry out in one of half a dozen ways some play which a class has been studying.
The flowers should certainly be English, either roses or primroses, and the decorations should be rather simple, as in keeping with the classic nature of the presiding genius of the day. The cards might bear a cut of his head, or each guest might have a small plaster bust, preferably oneof the odd coloured ones which are sold in Stratford; the plain plaster ones are easily coloured; or, if these little busts are not easily procured, get the small Japanese masks which are so artistic; they cost but a few cents each, and the expressions will convey the idea of comedy and tragedy.
Strawberries will be in market in cities by the latter part of April, and these will make a first course.
Strawberries.
Bouillon.
Soft-Shell Crabs.
Broiled Mushrooms on Toast.
Chops.Peas.French Fried Potatoes.
Chocolate.Lemon and Peppermint Ice.
Tomato and Lettuce Salad.French Dressing.
Cheese Straws.
Coffee Mousse.Cakes.Bonbons.
The strawberries should be served with their hulls on, with a spoonfulof powdered sugar on each plate; this may be moulded in a pyramid by pressing it into a little paper horn Of course finger bowls should be placed on the table at each plate.
The mousse may be either in a melon form or in slices, as is more convenient, but a little whipped cream served with it is an improvement in either case. Having this dessert, coffee is not offered at the close of the meal, as is usually done, but a cup of chocolate is passed with the chop course. The mousse is made by whipping sweetened cream, strongly flavoured with black coffee, until it is perfectly stiff, and packing it in a mould and burying it in ice and salt for at least four hours before it is needed.
If a breakfast is desired for this Shakespeare celebration, as possibly may be if given for a club or class, this luncheon may be easily transformed into one. Breakfasts and luncheons differ principally inthe hour at which the meal is served, a breakfast being at twelve and a luncheon at one or half after one. It is also customary to begin a breakfast with fruit, and often, though not always, the meal concludes with cheese and coffee rather than with a sweet. This menu might be altered to cover these requirements, for as it begins with strawberries there need be no change until the final course, except that the chocolate should be omitted. Instead of the mousse serve crême Gervaise; that is, a slice of cream cheese about one inch by three, with a spoonful of whipped cream on it and a spoonful of gooseberry jam by its side. There is a variety of French preserved gooseberries called Bar-le-Duc which is particularly delicious. Sometimes before serving this dish the cheese is beaten with a little olive oil or cream to make it soft and light, and then it is pressed into shape again before it is cut into pieces for serving. If this is the final course at breakfast,serve coffee with it.
There are an unlimited number of Shakespearian quotations for the cards, but for a woman's meal they might be taken either from the words of Juliet, Katharine, Portia, Rosalind, Hermione, Ophelia, Hero, Celia, Imogen, and Helena, or else the familiar ones which are given below; in case this luncheon or breakfast is given for those interested in study, a guessing contest might be introduced, with or without prizes, as to the context of these quotations:—
"Daffodils, that come before the swallow does.""Thou shalt not lack the flower that's like the face,Pale primrose.""I could wish my best friend at such a feast.""Things won, are done. Joy's soul lies in the doing.""I have been so well brought up that I can write my name.""You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful;I never was nor never will be false.""Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.""My heart unto yours is knitSo that but one heart we can make of it.""Loving goes by haps;Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.""Of good discourse, an excellent musician.""My affection hath an unknown bottom."
Still another menu may be given for those who cannot obtain some of the articles suggested, such as strawberries, crabs, or fresh mushrooms.
Grape Fruit.
Bouillon.
Sardines on Toast.
Mushroom Patties.
Chops.Peas.French Fried Potatoes.
Chocolate.
Lettuce Salad with Shredded Bananas.
French Dressing.
Coffee Mousse.Cakes.Bonbons.
In this menu the patties are to be filled with canned mushrooms, cut inbits and creamed. The salad is made by cutting bananas in halves, and then cutting each half into strips no larger than a knitting needle; these are to be arranged on lettuce with French dressing poured over the last thing before serving.