Oyster Soup, Alphabet Crackers,Veal or Chicken Patties, Cold Boiled Ham or Tongue,Potato Salad, Apple Sauce, Dill Pickles,Hot Gingerbread, Cheese, Coffee.
Some merry, friendly countra folksTogether did convene,To burn their nuts, an' pluck their stocksAn' hand their hollowe'en.—Burns.
"Butter'd Sowens"Broiled Squirrels, Hot PocketbooksBow-kail SaladBrownie Cake, Halloween JellyRoasted Chestnuts, ApplesCoffee
Buttered Sowens—Oatmeal made into mush and eaten with butter and sugar. The Scotch always have this for their Hallowe'en supper.
Broiled Squirrels—Your squirrels must be young and tender. Clean, and soak to draw out the blood. Wipe dry, and broil over a hot, clear fire, turning often. When done to a golden brown, lay in a hot dish and anoint with melted butter. Season each squirrel with a salt spoon of salt and half spoon of pepper. They are delicious.
Hot Pocketbooks—One pint of sweet milk, brought to boiling point, to which, add one tablespoonful of sugar, half teaspoonful of salt and butter the size of an egg; let cool till luke warm, then add half cake of yeast, two eggs and a quart of flour. Let the dough rise in a warm place until very light, then put down with the hand and let rise again; roll out to about five-eighths of an inch thick, cut in four inchcircles, brush with melted butter and fold over; let rise on tins, bake until a delicate brown, then while warm, go over the surface with melted butter to make the crust tender.
Bow-Kail Salad—Put one-half cup of vinegar and one tablespoonful of butter to heat in a double boiler. Beat yolk of one egg, one spoonful of flour and one of sugar together, add two tablespoonfuls of sour cream and cook in the vinegar until smooth. Just before it boils, stir in the well-beaten white and pour immediately over your cabbage or "bow-kail," which has been shredded and salted.
Brownie Cake—One cup of sugar, one-half cup of butter, one-half cup of sweet milk, two eggs, one teaspoonful of vanilla, one cup and a half of flour, sifted with one teaspoonful of baking powder. Set one square of chocolate on a kettle of boiling water and let it melt. After melting, mix one-half cup of sweet milk slowly in the chocolate, add half-cup of sugar. Pour into batter, mix thoroughly, and bake in layers. Put together with the following filling:
Filling—Four ounces chocolate melted, add one-half cup of cream, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one cup of sugar; boil until it forms a very soft ball when dropped in cold water, then add one cup finely chopped nuts. Spread this very thick between the layers. Ice with plain chocolate icing, which you have reserved, before adding the nuts, and decorate with unbroken halves of English walnuts.
Hallowe'en Jelly—Soften one ounce of gelatine in half a pint of coldwater. When quite soft, add half a pint of hot water and a pint of good sparkling cider. If the cider be very sweet, the juice of a lemon is an improvement. Set on ice until firm, and when ready to serve, turn into a pumpkin shell which has been prettily carved on the edges.
A suggestive menu is the following:
Goblins' Broth, Elves' FingersFairy RingsChicken and Celery Salad in Mayonnaise TrianglesAlmond Butter HeartsStrawberry Jelly Crescents with Whipped CreamWitches' Wands, The Cake of DoomFruit, Nuts, BonbonsCoffee
The goblins' broth is merely a delicious beef or chicken bouillon, the elves' fingers, strips of brown bread and butter, and the fairy rings mushroom patties baked in ring moulds. To make the salad use any favorite recipe for chicken salad, and mix it with a bright golden mayonnaise to which enough aspic jelly has been added to make it quite firm when cold. Pour into a square mould to set, cut into dainty triangles just before it is to be served, and lift carefully with a broad thin-bladed spatula. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves on gilt-edged plates. Spread white bread with almond butter and cut into heart shapes. Mould the strawberry jelly in half moons and serve with a spoonful ofwhipped cream (made golden with the yolk of egg) between the "horns."
The witches' wands are most delicious. Roll puff paste thin, sprinkle lightly with finely chopped blanched almonds, press the rolling pin lightly over again, and cut in strips not over two inches wide. Wind from the small end of the pointed tin tubes called lady lock sticks, and have each layer slightly overlay the preceding one. Set the tubes across a baking pan and bake in a good oven to a deep yellow. When done remove from the oven and push the paste from the tube. Just before serving fill with pineapple meringue. Have bonbons in all kinds of suggestive shapes; brownies, witches, brooms, rings, crescents, triangles, et cetera.
Thanksgiving is the pie seasonpar excellence. The very name calls up visions of old fashioned, buttery shelves loaded down with rows upon rows of the flaky wheels and delicious fillings.
A new idea in entertaining for Thanksgiving, "the pie party," makes use of this American product. The scheme is an excellent one for the day itself or for any time during Thanksgiving season.
To prepare for a pie party, get together as many pie plates as you can beg, borrow or buy. A couple of dozen will be needed at least.
Arrange tables along the wall of the room in which the guests are to be received, and place the pie plates upon these tables. Cover the tableswith white paper terminating in paper lace to give the effect of quaint, old-fashioned shelves.
In each pan place a group of articles or pictures which will represent in anagram the filling of a pie. Punning and word stretching of all kinds are allowable, although each puzzle must be simple enough to be readily recognized when guessed.
Here is a rough suggestion to show the plan of the puzzles. The hostess may modify it to suit her own needs.
A twig from a pine tree and an apple. Pineapple.
The letters of the word cheese on alphabet cards, jumbled together, with a slice of cake. Cheesecake.
A cigarette case in the form of a coffin (bury) and a scrap of straw. Strawberry.
A paperweight representing a ragged little dog and an entomological photograph of the common ant. Cur(r)ant.
A little oyster crab and an apple. Crabapple.
A lead line (plumb). Plum.
A pot, the letter A from baby's alphabet and the toe of a boot (pot-a-toe), all four articles being sprinkled with granulated sugar. Sweet Potato.
A bicycle pump and a card having the words Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Uncle, Aunt, Cousin, written upon it. Pump-kin.
A breakfast cocoa box and a chestnut. Cocoanut.
A tailor's iron and a berry. Blackberry.
Cardboard cut in the shape of a peach with "to inform against," written upon it. Peach.
Two aces (pair). Pear.
A slip from the daily calendar bearing the date November. Date.
A bow of cherry colored ribbon. Cherry.
A bow of blue ribbon and a berry. Blueberry.
Some fluffy Easter chickens and a pot. Chicken pot pie.
A pair of pruning shears. Prune.
The guests are invited to inspect the pies and guess the contents. Each player works for himself and consultations are not allowed.
Wee note books, having covers decorated in water color, with picturesque Thanksgiving scenes, are distributed among the guests, for use in writing down guesses.
It is explained that fruits, vegetables and everything of which pies are made, figure in the list.
One hour is the usual time limit. The player, who in that time discovers most of the fillings, carries off first honors. There should be a second award and a couple of laughable boobies in the form of jelly tarts.
The first prize might be a smart silver pie knife, and the second a pretty china pie dish.
Smoking hot roasted oysters, jellied tongue with chopped pickle served in Spanish peppers, little hot rolls in form of balls, a plain tomato salad and slices of delicious home-made pies are among the good things of the menu.
In the cake put a gold penny, a silver four-leaf clover, and a little image or amulet to drive away bad luck. Wrap them in paraffine or waxed paper or coat them with paraffine before putting them in the cake. Ask each one to make some birthday wish as the birthday person cuts his slice of cake. Place the cake on a table wreathed in greens or flowers or on a flower-trimmed tray. As many prefer scarlet carnations, this flower and red candles will make a pretty party. Just after supper pass the loving cup filled with claret, or fruit punch or cider. Each guest takes a sip to the health of the host. If your guests enjoy cards, let them play bridge, euchre, cinch, hearts, or the new card games in which figures are involved. If they do not care for cards a short program of old ballads by a good singer is always liked. As a surprise arrange a little series of funny tableaux showing the different birthdays of the guest of honor. To do this darken a room behind the players, and have a big screen for a background. No special stage properties are needed as the more ludicrous this is the more it will be enjoyed. Have some one at the piano play appropriate music for the different tableaux. For one year old have a baby in a cradle or in its mother's arms; for seventh birthday, a little boy starting to school with books and apple or candy; for the fourteenth birthday have a youth in sweater with football in arms rushing to the goal; have the twenty-first birthday represented by the young man courting, the twenty-eighth by the wedding; and for thethirty-sixth have someone dressed and made up as nearly like the guest of honor as possible.
For decoration have a frieze of ropes or smilax caught with scarlet ribbon. Cover the chandeliers with the greens and the shades with scarlet tissue paper. Bank the mantels with greens, having a mass of scarlet berries or flowers in the center of each. Red candles and shades on the mantels help the effect. If you have a table in the dining-room make the initials of the guest of honor in candles placed in a large wreath tied with scarlet ribbon. At each corner of the table have a single candle in a smaller wreath.
For supper serve a hot course, creamed oysters, or creamed sweetbreads and mushrooms, tiny hot buttered rolls and tiny pickles, chopped pickle or spiced peach, quince or pear, or brandied quince; chicken salad, or sweetbread salad on a lettuce leaf with cheese straws, stuffed olives, coffee, ice cream frozen in fancy forms, (leaves being a pretty design), and cakes in tiny squares with little red candies like scarlet berries on green or white icing.
Candles may be used for a centerpiece and also to outline the figures representing the number of years. A pretty ceremony, if you use candles on a birthday cake, is to have each guest light a candle with a wish for the guest of honor. When the cake is cut, blow out the candles and lift them off.
For the red color scheme, garnish the dishes with radishes, slices of tomatoes, red peppers, beet rings, candied cherries. Serve cream oftomato soup, tiny radishes cut in rose forms, wafers, salted almonds. Broiled lobster garnished with slices of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.
Serve individual chicken pies baked in ramekins and served in red paper cases. In making these pies add mushrooms, potato marbles, white of hard-boiled eggs cut in rings and yolks cut in half. Make the cream sauce by using the liquor from the canned mushrooms, strong chicken stock and milk, thickened with flour. With this course serve a relish in red peppers, creamed peas, tiny hot rolls and a slice of sweet cucumber or watermelon pickle with a candied cherry on top. A beet salad garnished with rings of hard-boiled egg whites and the yolk run through a ricer, or chicken salad served in red peppers, tomato, cucumber and celery salad served in tomato shells, fruit salad served in red apples hollowed out. Serve wafers with the salad course. A pretty idea for the ice cream is to have it moulded in shape of candles with a little wick to be lighted just as it is brought to the table. Serve little square cakes with white icing and red bonbons. This menu gives two hot and two cold courses. Serve coffee or tea. At the close of the supper pass a loving cup of fruit punch, grape juice or wine, and ask each one to drink to the health of the guest of honor.
The guests are requested to represent, in some manner, their birth month.
Most of them wear the birth stone suitable to the month which, as old legend tells us, is sure to protect against misfortune, the jewel acting as a talisman.
Some may substitute flowers appropriate to their birth month. A young lady, whose birthday is in January, may wear a string of tiny silver beads which tinkle musically wherever she goes. Another claiming January, also, as her birth month, may wear a brooch showing an old man and an infant, representing the old and new year.
February's children are decked in red paper hearts, pierced with arrows.
A young girl wearing a white apron, with several bars of music on the hem, represents March.
April is represented by a paper fool's cap, and May by a pretty spring gown, decorated with violets and lilies of the valley.
July, with her tri-colored streamers and numerous flags is easily dressed.
August has white organdy and carries a palm leaf fan.
September is adorned with golden rod and purple asters.
October's daughter, wears a rich yellow gown, nearly covered with glorious autumn leaves, and a cap of the same brilliant leaves.
November's costume is most striking, being a poster design, representing Thanksgiving.
December's is a picturesque suit of white eider down flannel, ornamented with holly berries and running pine.
Each guest is requested to furnish one dish appropriate to the month in which she was born. In this way the supper is quite out of the ordinary and the only tax on the hostess, with the exception of her one dish, is for coffee, pickles and cake. Below is given the menu:
Oyster Stew,Butter Wafers,Fish Souffle,Potato Balls with Cream Sauce,Cold Turkey,Currant Jelly,Salted Nuts,Olives,Salmon Sandwiches,Orange and Nut Salad,Wafers,Strawberries,Ice Cream and Cake,Pumpkin Pie and Cheese,Fruit,Coffee.
Throughout this broad land of ours, thousands of campers will be folding their white tents into compact rolls, tying gay blankets into portly bundles, investing in mosquito netting and hammocks, packing into boxes their cooking utensils and fishing tackle, and finally loading all into boat or farmer's wagon, to gain health and happiness, and incidentally, to have a royal good time.
Happy the camper who, taking hint from the big lumber camps, ties to his wagon an iron bean pot, and has always on hand for hungry souls a mess of delicious baked beans. Every well-regulated camp should have a bean-hole dug close by the camp fire, and then when guests come out from town, if the camp is near town, a bean bake enlivens things. Thebean-hole is dug three feet square and carefully lined with flat stones or boulders, then it is filled with hard wood which makes fine coals. The wood is fired and burned until there glows a bed of hot coals and the stones are at white heat. A place is scooped out in the center for the bean-pot, and it is placed in this little oven, the coals swept back into place, the hot ashes added, and the hot earth around the fire put over it all. Then, snugly tucked away in their bed so warm, the beans are left alone for four and twenty hours. When taken out, steaming and fragrant, they are perfect in form, brown and crisp, and of flavor so delicious that the mouth waters at the mere recollection. This with brown bread or cone pone, baked in the ashes, and good strong coffee, makes a meal in itself, and if the beans are served hot, the hungry campers feel they have had a feast fit for a king. Those who cling to their bean-pots keep one mess of beans baking all the time and are never without this dish. Even city folks have had royal good times at bean bakes given at some home with large yard, and, with an addition to the beans, salads, sandwiches, cakes, and other frills, generally scorned and passed by for the delicious baked beans.
Naturally digging a hole in the ground and building a fire does not constitute a dish of baked beans; among other things necessary might be mentioned the beans themselves. These are soaked over night and then placed in the iron pot; the best sort is the English kettle with three iron legs and rounding bottom. Right in the center of the beans a placeshould be made for the pork. The pork should be pickled pork of a particular kind—fat on top, lean below and scored across the top. One pound of pork to one pound of beans is the allowance. For flavoring use one cookingspoonful of New Orleans molasses; one teaspoonful of mustard, one teaspoonful of salt and one of pepper. Stir into the beans and fill even to the top of the pork with water. Given twenty-four hours of slow baking, with no chance for the moisture to escape, the result is an ideal dish worth trying.
To the camper who comes in when the sun is tinging the western sky with crimson, tired and hungry from carrying a gun or holding a fishing rod all day, there is no dish so appreciated as chowder. This dish is easy of preparation. Take peeled potatoes and parboil them, then add fresh water, and put into the kettle the result of the day's chase. The little birds found along the streams, like squabs and sandpipers, are fat and give the chowder a fine flavor. In go the fish, squirrels and other small game, the fish of course, being boned. Add green corn cut from the cob, salt and pepper, and perhaps a little salt pork, though the little birds furnish fat enough. Serve smoking hot and as you stretch your tired limbs under the camp table, you will thank your stars that some genius invented chowder.
The ideal way to cook fish in camp is to first clean the fish and then stuff it, if one chooses (though he need not stuff the fish unless he like) and then make a stiff mortar of clay and encase the fish. Lay it on the coals and when the clay cracks and peels off the skin of thefish comes off with it, leaving the pure sweet fresh meat, which retains the juices and delicate aroma of the fish. This way of cooking fish cannot be beaten. This is also a good way to cook corn. Just leave on the husks and lay the ears on the coals and by the time the husks have burned off the corn is cooked deliciously. In the regions where shad abounds, there is nothing to be compared with planked shad, and this is the most popular dish. The shad is fastened on an oak shingle and turned before the fire until it is cooked, when it will be found that the fish has absorbed the aroma of the wood and the result is a flavor that delights epicures.
A clam-bake is a delight wherever and whenever partaken of, but when it is prepared in the piney woods of Cape Cod by the inimitable skippers of Buzzards Bay it is something that is not to be forgotten. It is a joy, from the gathering of the first stone to the swallowing of the last possible clam.
The skippers of Onset are particularly noted for their skill in making clam-bakes.
First select the stones, (which must be about the size of large paving blocks,) and arrange them in a circle. Then bring wood and chips and brush and lay them in the center, and thoroughly pile on top other blocks which have been collected.
The pile of stones and wood being completed, the next thing is to set fire to it, and soon a merry blaze rises up, the flames licking aroundthe stones and forming a pretty picture.
The stones once hot enough the real work of the bake begins. The right amount of heat has been obtained, a barrow load of rockweed is brought—rockweed, not seaweed. As soon as the rockweed is thrown on the red hot stones a salty, savory smelling steam begins to rise.
First and foremost come two great barrow loads of clams which are spread on the steaming rockweed, then follow great piles of blue fish, each fish being stuffed and wrapped in a piece of cheesecloth to prevent coming into contact with the weed.
The blue fish is carefully placed on top of the clams and following that is a heaping load of corn, with a few leaves left on each ear to protect it from the weed. When the corn is piled high a barrow weighed down with live lobsters is brought.
Be particular over the disposition of the lobsters. Each one is placed with care and precision into the precise spot where it will do most good.
A milk pail full of fresh eggs follows the lobsters and the whole mass of food is buried in a stack of rockweed, and to complete the process a sail and a tarpaulin are drawn over the top and battened all down so that not a speck of steam can escape.
While the guests play games or stroll along the shore, the men heat big, round stones in the oven. This is a deep hole lined with stones, and the fire is built in the hole. When the fire dies down the stones are left red hot. Then the chef places dozens of clams in their shells on thehot rocks. Then a blue fish wrapped in cheesecloth and then half a dozen chickens prepared for broiling and wrapped in a similar way are placed in the hole. Next comes a peck of Irish potatoes with their jackets on, and three dozen ears of sweet corn. Over it all is packed seaweed and then heavy canvas, and then the guests sit patiently for three-quarters of an hour until the steam has thoroughly cooked the supper. When it is done it is fit for a king, and is served on a long table of boards, on wooden platters, with big watermelons for dessert.
A nutting party is particularly appropriate to be given during the fall season.
The invitation may be written on paper, folded neatly and slipped inside an English walnut shell—which is then glued together and sent in a small box, labeled "A Nut to Crack."
Decorations should carry out, as far as possible, the effect of a woodland scene. The walls may be entirely covered with branches of autumn leaves, and mantels and over doorways banked with pine boughs and greenery of all sorts. Rustic tables and chairs, if available, are most appropriate, and lights shaded with red or yellow shades. As the guests arrive, each should be given a peanut shell, glued together or tied with ribbons. On a slip of paper inside is written the number of table and partner. To indicate progressions, ribbons may be glued to nuts ofdifferent kinds and one given for each game won. Or little baskets may be given into which a nut is dropped for each game won. Or if tally cards for finding partners are preferred, they may be painted to represent nuts of different kinds, not more than two being alike.
The nutting game itself is played similarly to that well known children's game, "jackstraws." On each table is placed a pair of bonbon tongs—the kind that come in candy boxes are best—and a tall tumbler heaped full of nuts—peanuts are best for the purpose—with one gilded nut. For the first game, lady No. 1 at all the tables begins play and after the first game the lady begins who lost in the game preceding. The gentleman opposing the lady who begins play, carefully turns out on the table the peanuts and the players proceed as in jackstraws, getting with the tongs as many peanuts as possible, one at a time, without shaking the others. The winners progress and change partners, after the bell rings at the head table. At the head table, as at the other tables, the winners progress and the losing lady remaining begins play for the next game. At the head table each player has two chances at the peanuts and then the bell is rung. The natural-color peanuts count one each and the gilded one ten.
Suitable prizes are: For the ladies, a silver English walnut thimble case; a linen centerpiece in chestnut design; a silver almond charm, "Philopena," which opens with kernel inside; a silver English walnut, exact size, which opens, containing powder puff, mirror, place for miniature, small scent bottle and pin-cushion, "All in a Nut Shell"; areal English walnut shell containing a fine lace-betrimmed handkerchief, enclosed in a series of boxes, one fitting within the other; a sterling silver almond set or almond scoop; a silver vinaigrette in exact reproduction of a peanut. For the gentlemen, a burnt wood nut bowl, with nut cracker and set of nut picks; a handsome edition of E. P. Roe's "Opening of a Chestnut Burr;" a silver peanut magic pencil, etc. The shops show big paper mache English walnuts, peanuts and almonds, full of sweetmeats in imitation of the real nuts, which make appropriate consolation prizes. French "surprise mottoes" in the shape of walnuts, each containing a hat, make very amusing favors.
The refreshments may perfectly carry out the nutting idea:
Peanut Sandwiches, Walnut Sandwiches,Chicken and Nut Salad,Salted Nuts,Bisque of Almonds or Burnt Almond Ice Cream,Cocoanut, Hickory Nut, or Pecan Cake,Nut Bonbons, Festinos,Cheese Balls with English Walnuts,Coffee.
For the peanut sandwiches, use the ready-made peanut butter. For walnut sandwiches, chop meats very fine, mix with mayonnaise and spread on buttered bread. Serve salad on lettuce leaf, garnished with a few whole nut meats. In salting mixed nuts, it is not considered necessary to blanch any except almonds and peanuts. The bisque of almonds requires one pound blanched almonds, one heaping cup of sugar and two pints of cream. Pound almonds a few at a time, together with a little sugar androsewater, mix with cream and freeze. For burnt almond ice cream use one quart of cream, one-half pound of sugar, four ounces of shelled almonds, one teaspoon of caramel, one tablespoon of vanilla, 4 tablespoons of sherry. Blanch and roast almonds, then pound in a mortar to a smooth paste. Put one-half the cream and the sugar on to boil, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the remaining pint of cream and the almonds; stand away to cool; when cold, add the caramel, vanilla and sherry. Freeze and pack. For the nut cake, use two pounds nuts cut fine, eight eggs, one pound sugar, one pound flour, one teacup butter, two heaping teaspoons baking powder, one cup milk, and juice of one lemon. Mould the cheese balls round with the hands, and stick an English walnut meat on either side.
The rooms can be trimmed beautifully with corn, asparagus, hops, Jack-o'lanterns, and so on. State in the invitations, which are to be tied in corn husks with grass, that a hay-rack will call for the guests.
On each of the gate posts place huge Jack-o'lanterns. In fact, have these for illumination wherever one can find places to put them. For decoration use autumnal grasses, wheat, oats and corn, and festoon strings of them wherever possible. Make a frieze around the room of ears of corn from which the husks are pulled apart. This will form a festoon from which will hang down like tassels, the ears of white and yellowcorn, and if one can find a few red ears so much the better.
Bank the fire-place and corners with boughs of autumn leaves, and festoon them in garlands wherever there is a vacant place. Scrub the bare floors well, put a little wax on them, and engage one or two musicians to dispense old time melodies.
Carry out the Harvest Home idea in the dining-room. Have most of the decorations, fruits and garlands with graceful sprays of the Virginia creeper in the glory of its autumnal colors, festooned from doors to windows and back again, and have the table decorations the same. Serve the guests sitting around the room, with delicious turkey, ham, bread, sweet and sour pickles, doughnuts, cider, etc. By all means have pumpkin pie, which would be so much in keeping with the occasion.
Just before closing your cottage for the season, send out invitations to friends, asking them to spend an evening with you at your home. The invitations may be written upon scarlet maple leaves. When the evening for entertaining arrives the cottage should reflect the glory of the woods. Boughs and branches of silver and sugar maples decorate the hall, "den," dining room and kitchen, and berries, vines and burrs fill jars, vases and cornucopias of birch bark. In the rough stone fire-places, log fires burn. The guests go to the kitchen to make maple sugar creams, and while the candy is hardening, games are played and stories told. Each guest, blindfolded, must draw the outline of a maple leaf. Next, leafshaped cards are distributed with the names of different trees written upon them, acrostically arranged. A nut race closes the games, and the prizes are then awarded. Then the company may gather around the fire. Bundles of lichen covered twigs, of pine cones and of twisted tree roots are selected according to individual fancy and put on the fire, each person telling a story, original or otherwise, until his bundle is burned away; the changing shapes in the fire suggesting many quaint fancies.
For table decorations have a garland of leaves encircle the polished top just outside the plates. A large wreath and a low bowl of nut burrs and sprays of bright leaves and berries make a gorgeous centerpiece. Have smaller wreaths around the bonbon and nut dishes, and mats of leaves laid under the plates and dishes and used for doilies under the finger bowls. A birch bark cornucopia of maple sugar candy and a droll little nut Indian clad in a scarlet blanket by each plate make pretty souvenirs of the feast. Leaves can be pasted on the candle shades which are made of stiff-buff paper:
Roasted Quail on Toast,Strawed Potatoes,Salad Sandwiches, Maple Layer Cake,Waffles,Nuts, Coffee.
The hostess who wants to provide a simple, and at the same time a novel entertainment for her friends should call to her aid the glossy, orangecoated pumpkins. With pumpkins for the motif, so to speak, an evening full of fun may be enjoyed. Decorate square white cards with a huge pumpkin; one who cannot draw can cut a very presentable looking pumpkin from orange paper and paste it on the cards. Then write on each: The Mighty Mammoth Pumpkin will be on exhibition at Mrs. Blanks, from 7 to 11 p. m., next Thursday night. You are cordially invited to come and guess its weight. Get the largest pumpkin you can find and a goodly collection of shapely, medium-sized ones. Make a record of the weight, the length, and the girth of the big pumpkin, then carefully cut open lengthwise and scoop out, and if trouble is no object count the seeds. Fill the pumpkin with sawdust and bury in it the souvenirs, simple little trifles, orange hued penwipers, needlebooks, pincushions, etc. Wrap them up in paper and bury them deep. Set the pumpkin on a mat of leaves on a small table and label "Hands Off." Each guest is given a card with a pencil attached to record his guesses. Little leather covered inkstands, the exact counterpart of tiny pumpkins, and pumpkin paper weights equally as natural in appearance are appropriate for the head prizes, while pumpkin emery bags and pumpkin-shaped blotters will please the winners of the boobies. The rest of the evening may be spent in carving Jack o' Lanterns from, small pumpkins. The guests may be required to write a recipe for pumpkin pie which will bring forth some wonderful flights of fancy. Decorate the rooms with pumpkin vases filled with chrysanthemums and have a bowl of orange fruit cup set inside of alarge pumpkin for the guests' refreshment during the evening. In setting the table have a pumpkin vase of ferns and yellow and white chrysanthemums for the centerpiece. The supper is served from pumpkin dishes. Select round, deep pumpkins with a stem, choosing those of a pretty color and shape. Saw off the tops even, so they may be put back on the pumpkins as lids, scoop out and line with parchment paper. As this supper is very informal, sandwiches with various fillings, a rich chicken salad made with walnut meats and chopped celery, cheese and bread sticks and coffee may form the substantial part. Stuffed figs and dates, bonbons and macaroons are served for the sweet course and an orange ice or snow pudding in little pumpkin paper cases.
A happy selection of time for a Dickens party is the Christmas season, which is so peculiarly connected with so many of Dickens' writings.
Have the rooms brilliantly lighted, and the bright berries of the Christmas holly against a background of the "ivy green" which Dickens loved. The hostess might dress in a handsome costume of the time of Edith Dombey.
The guests can each represent some character of Dickens.
Betsy Trotwood, tall and rigid in stiff gown and tight cap.
Dora, young and blonde, with infantile manner.
Peggotty, buxom and tightly compressed into her gown.
Dick Swiveller and the marchioness.
Mrs. Tizziwig, "one vast substantial smile."
Madame Defarge, stolid and plying her ceaseless knitting.
Joey B., with his swagger, "Sly sir; devilish sly."
Mr. Micawber, bland and portly.
Little Nell and her grandfather, and so on with the characters which Dickens has made living creatures indeed. Gathered in the reception rooms the group will make a quaint, lovely picture to the entering guest. When all the guests have arrived cards are distributed, on each of which is a water colored sketch of some of Dickens' characters. An English walnut shell tied with pink ribbon and attached to the corner of the card holds a quotation from Dickens, and beneath this nut is the pertinent quotation, "The Dickens to crack." A prize can be awarded to the one answering most correctly from which books the different quotations were taken.
Some of the pathetic scenes from Dombey and Son can be read by some one whose musical voice and gentle face, as well as intelligent reading, make this part especially effective. The hostess can read an extract from verses headed "The Christmas Carol" in Pickwick Papers.
"My song I troll out, for Xmas stoutThe hearty, the true and the bold;A bumper I drain and with might and mainGive three cheers for this Christmas old!We'll usher him in with a merry din,That shall gladden his joyous heart,And we'll keep him up while there's bite or sup,And in fellowship good we'll part."
Pass around small glasses of egg-nog and have toasts of Christmas cheer.
For refreshments have delicious oyster and mushroom cream soup, cold wild duck, jelly and celery. A frozen salad after this; it is made of tomatoes (canned) cooked a little, strained, and when cold mixed with a thin mayonnaise, then frozen, making a delight for the palate. The ice is a lemon ice frozen in individual molds very hard and covered with a hot chocolate sauce, making a most delicious blending of hot and cold, sweet and sour. A tiny glass of cordial completes the repast.
For the prize for the quotations have a handsome copy of Christmas Stories tied with red ribbons and ornamented with a bunch of holly. For the booby prize have a bag of the buttons Peggotty burst from her gown when an exuberance of emotion filled her breast.
When the guests assemble put them in charge of a man with a megaphone and start them through the rooms on a "Seeing Boston" tour. Have fake tablets and different objects to represent the places of interest. These objects could be numbered and turn the "Seeing Boston" into a guessing contest. Give each guest a note book and pencil to enter the correct name opposite the correct number. This can include side trips to Lexington, Concord, Bedford, etc.
Take the folders and circulars of a trip through Boston, cut out the tiny pictures, mount on grey paper, letter with white ink and give them as souvenirs. Or remove all lettering and use these pictures as a contest, asking the guests to name the pictures correctly. For amusement have "Paul Revere's Ride" acted in pantomine, or charades on the different names. For supper serve pork and baked beans, Boston brown bread, pie, tea, etc. Tiny earthen bean-pots, spectacles, handbags, imitation folders—any of these things would do for souvenirs.
Have a large room fitted up as the deck and after deck of a steam yacht. To reach the room have the guests climb through a hatchway. Steamer chairs and nautical paraphernalia fill the deck and a dozen life preservers hang conveniently near. Have all the necessary rigging and a flag pole floating the yacht flag. The host and his guests should wear yachting costumes and the souvenirs be tiny red and green lanterns for the men and yacht stickpins for the girls. The menu cards are decorated with the insignia of the yacht and couched in nautical terms. Serve the following menu:
Oysters in Block of IceCelery, Stuffed Olives, Salted WafersRum OmeletCold Ham, Cold Tongue, OlivesPate de fois gras Sandwiches, Rare Beef SandwichesRoquefort Cheese, Hard CrackersGrape Fruit SaladCoffee
Under the chandeliers, in corners and doorways, have butterflies fluttering from invisible silver wires. These butterflies are made from delicate hued crepe paper, their wings marked with rings of ruby, green, blue, gold and silver. Each guest is offered a butterfly on entering the drawing room; the men wearing them as boutonniers, the women putting them in their hair.
The host fastens a large paper butterfly, minus one wing and the antennæ, to a curtain hung across a window. Each guest, in turn, blindfolded, tests his idea of distance in trying to pin the wing and antennæ on the butterfly. A set of six paper butterfly princess lamp shades is the woman's head prize. A butterfly whisk holder, containing a silver handled brush, is given the equally lucky man. The "boobies" are a miniature lantern and a toy spy-glass.
In the dining room this supper is served. First a fruit drink, lemonade or grape juice. On the plate on which the glass cup rests have a small bunch of purple grapes. Decorate fish plates with lemon baskets holding the sauce tartare. With broiled chops serve stuffed tomatoes and corn pudding moulded in cups with white sauce flavored with onion. Serve raspberry ice. For salad serve pears and German cherries sweetened. For dessert serve the nutmeg muskmelons filled with ice cream or ice.
Have a tin-smith make a butterfly shaped cake cutter, four inches across the wings. Bake these cakes in a quick oven, ice them white, pink and green and then mark with rings of a contrasting color of icing.
The centre scarf and doilies, of fine white linen, for the dining table, have a cut-out butterfly border worked with white silk and gold thread. A fairy rose-tree, trained on a bamboo trellis, the pot dressed in skirts of white and green paper and sash of satin ribbon, makes a most effective centre piece. Paper butterflies shade the candles, and a crepe paper covered box of bonbons, with a butterfly hovering over the top, stands beside each plate. Decorate the name cards with sketches of butterflies.
For the young married couples' supper carry out the heart-shape idea. Outline large heart in smilax on the table. Have the smilax at least three inches wide. Dot it with clusters of roses, lilies of the valley or any preferred flower. In the center have a mound of the same flowers and between the center and the smilax place individual candlesticks with white candles and shades to match the flowers. A few single flowers may be scattered over the cloth. For a menu serve a fruit cup in the parlor before asking the guests to the dining room. At the table have first hot bouillon with a bit of lemon in it. Have the main course fried chicken and rice with shoestring potatoes, tiny red radishes, creamed cauliflower, pickles and hot rolls. Creamed sweetbreads on toast may be used for a course if wished. Serve salmon salad on a lettuce leaf and with it reception flakes on which grated cheese has been sprinkled andthe wafers put in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. To serve the chicken take a large chop plate, pile the rice in a snowy mound in the center and place the pieces of chicken around it, serving a spoonful of rice with each piece of chicken.
For a head-dress party ask each guest to dress the hair in some fancy way. The men dressing in Washington, Jefferson and other wigs noted in history, while the ladies fix their locks according to noted beauties, queens, and others. Strings of pearls, tiaras, and jewels make a beautiful display. Conventional evening dress is worn in most instances, save where a ruff or frill is added to heighten the effect of the headgear. A prize is offered for the best head-dress. The minuet makes a pretty dance to finish the evening.
For refreshments serve chicken salad in tomatoes hollowed out or cucumber boats, cheese wafers, stuffed olives, tiny pickles and squares of jelly, strawberries and plain vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake, coffee or chocolate. Serve fruit punch during the evening.
Build a little log cabin of twigs for the center of the supper table and arrange stick candy, bread sticks, celery, cheesesticks and other viands, log-cabin style, on pretty plates. Light the table by candles in old-fashioned candlesticks. Serve a hot course, oyster patties, sandwiches, potato salad, hot gingerbread, apple sauce, tea and coffee.
First serve an orange or lemon ice. Serve this in tall glasses and decorate the top of the glass with a sprig of mint. Have the ice served from a tray decorated with a wreath of green or green and white. For the green have mint leaves, lemon verbena or geranium leaves or ferns. Then serve chicken salad made of the breast of chicken cut in dice, celery cut coarse, and large nut meats. Add sweetbreads and cucumbers to the salad if desired. Mix with a white mayonnaise and serve in white head lettuce, using the cup-like outside leaves. Use the tiny lettuce heart for a crown, and garnish with white radishes cut into roses, and olives cut in fancy shapes. Serve plain white bread and butter sandwiches cut in hearts and rings or salted wafers. Have the salad on white plates and passed from a tray trimmed in ferns or white sweet peas. Have the ice cream in any fancy shape. Pink hearts dotted with pink candied roseleaves makes a very pretty course. Lay a pink rose on each plate. If one cannot get fancy shapes from their caterer, use the cone shaped spoon and dish the cream in shape of cones. Then surmount each cone with a pink candy heart. For cakes, serve cocoanut balls or squares of white cake covered with pink or green icing. Serve these from a tray or platter covered with pink and white sweet peas, putting the cakes in among the flowers. Have the wedding cake on a flower trimmed table under a gay little canopy and have the bride cut it the last thing, after coffee is passed.
Let us have a waffle party and introduce some of the men to more intimate acquaintance with the mysteries of the cuisine.
Flat dwellers (the word always reminds me of "Cliff dwellers") seem to consider that the propinquity of the kitchen makes entertaining a difficult matter, but if the truth were known, it makes possible many a winter evening's jollity.
The invitations are made of cream white satin, fashioned in the exact shape and size of a waffle section, padded with white cotton wadding and tacked to simulate the meeting place of the irons. They are then scorched to the right color with a hot iron and on them is printed in sepia tints
"Come and eat me;"
on the reverse side is printed
Date "——, at 8 P. M. —— Ave."
Use the abbreviated forms for this lettering on account of the difficulty encountered from limited space and the writing on satin.
Before the evening arrives prepare cards about four by six inches, in the center of which print a much praised recipe for waffles, reading as follows: Six cups flour; three teaspoonfuls baking powder; four cups milk; three tablespoonfuls butter; one and one-half teaspoonfuls salt; nine eggs beaten separately. Mix flour, baking powder and salt, yolks with milk, then melted butter, flour and last the beaten whites.
In the upper left hand corner of the card have a small pen and inksketch of some cooking utensil and in the right hand corner a number. In the center a ribbon for fastening. The utensils are as follows: 1. Waffle irons. 2. Mixing bowl. 3. Milk bottle. 4. Salt box. 5. Eggs. 6. Egg beater. 7. Butter. 8. Flour sieve.
It is possible to introduce as many different cooking utensils as there are guests.
After half an hour's visit let the guests all repair to the kitchen where the numbered articles are to be found. No. 1, to whom is apportioned the two waffle irons, lights the gas under them, greases the irons when hot with a square of salt pork on the end of a fork and—later—cooks the first waffle, but that comes later on. Each secures his special utensil.
The Master of Ceremonies takes charge and calls off the various ingredients in proper order. Number 2 warms the mixing bowl slightly, Number 3 unstoppers the milk and measures it, Number 4 measures the salt, Number 5 breaks the eggs and beats the yolks, Number 6 beats the whites, Number 7 melts the butter, Number 8 measures the flour, Number 9 produces and measures the baking powder, etc.
Finally, when all is ready and the Master of Ceremonies has superintended the proper mixing, the rest adjourn to the dining room, leaving numbers one and two to bake the first waffles.
The Master of Ceremonies sits at the head and the numbers run consecutively from his right. The swinging doors through the butler's pantry are propped open so as not to isolate the cooks and the supper begins.
At one end of the table have a medium sized veal loaf, at the other a mould of tongue jellied with hard boiled eggs. Chocolate is poured at one side of the table, coffee at the other. Marmalade, pickles and graham bread cut thin and made into sandwiches are placed in small dishes. Two large bowls of whipped cream with small bowls of powdered sugar, two pitchers of maple syrup boiled down and beaten until thick as batter, are for service with the waffles.
By the time the meats are served, the first sets of waffles are ready and the cooks pass them around. The next couple then pass to the kitchen to bake the next sets and so on until all are served.
An indoor moonlight picnic is a new diversion. The lights should be hidden by soft white silk shades, giving a moonlight effect, and the rooms decorated with foliage plants. A fishpond with grotesque objects, including a live mermaid, (a man in startling costume), is one feature. In one room is a "merry-go-round." The chairs are placed in a circle and a graphaphone in the center plays popular tunes. At 10 o'clock the doors to the dining room are opened. The table cloth is spread on the floor, surrounded by cushions. In one corner of the room are the baskets containing the supper of sandwiches, olives, pickles, baked beans, cake, pie and other picnic favorites. The girls take the viands from the baskets and arrange them on the floor, while the men serve coffee from a coffee boiler on a small table. During the meal each guest is obligedto describe some picnic he has attended or pay a forfeit.
Have a "railroad party" if you like the refreshing flavor of informality at your social functions.
Have the invitations read, "an excursion on the Funville, Frolictown & Featherbrain Railway."
To begin with, the rapidly gathering guests "getting aboard" are greeted by the hostess and her receiving party, who cover their evening attire with spic-and-span linen dusters and caps. Down the line are distributed a miscellaneous collection of peregrinating paraphernalia from the red and white cotton umbrella, which the hostess resolutely grasps in the middle, to the omnipresent hand-box and the traditional bird cage.
With a final "all aboard" from a bustling man in regulation railway uniform, accompanied by the clanging of a bell, the trip to interesting cities begins. The conductor, in blue coat and brass buttons, promptly appears, to distribute tickets to the animated tourists. These tickets are in booklet form, inside the covers being an eighteen-inch pink paper ticket. At the top is a space for the excursionist's name, and further down a series of spaces where the excursionist is to write the names of the various stations at which the train is to stop. The name of the station is suggested by a preceding statement. This ticket, including"rules and regulations," as well as correct insertions for the stations, reads as follows:
Excursion Ticket
Issued to...............................................
Tuesday, —— ——
Good for One Trip Only.
This Ticket is not transferable, reversible, or salable. It must be signed by the person to whom it is assigned.
The conductor will not punch this ticket. Punch is prohibited on this railroad.
If you cannot crack these nuts call on the brakeman.
Do not pull the bell rope; this is not a Pullman car.
The Company will not be responsible for cattle killed by the carelessness of the passengers who throw crackers out of the window.
Doctors are not provided on this train, but if you have the grip it can be checked by the baggage master.
The porter is the car-pet and he has to have his tax.
The First Station at Which this Train Stops is:
That for which our forefathers fought.
INDEPENDENCE.
The Second is:
A female habiliment.
GALVESTON.
The Third is:
A military defense and a Paris dressmaker.
FORT WORTH.
The Fourth is:
An ancient city whose downfall, after a long siege, avenged the abduction of a woman.
TROY.
The Fifth is:
An accident which generally gives one a ducking.
BATH.
The Sixth is:
An opera encore.
SING SING.
The Seventh is:
A city whose end and aim is "go."
CHICAGO.
The Eighth is:
Begins with an exclamation, appeals to maternity, ends with a laugh.
OMAHA.
The Ninth is:
A board of city fathers, in connection with a precipice.
COUNCIL BLUFFS.
The Tenth is:
Where the seat of affection is easily waded.
HARTFORD.
The Eleventh is:
One of the Apostles.
ST. PAUL.
The Twelfth is:
A woman's Monday occupation and two thousand pounds.
WASHINGTON.
The Thirteenth is:
An infernal region, a girl's name.
HELENA.
The Fourteenth is:
What a young man called when his sweetheart Anna was drowning.
SAVANNAH.
The Fifteenth is:
An afflicted stream.
CRIPPLE CREEK.
The Sixteenth is:
A small geological formation.
ROCK ISLAND.
The Seventeenth is:
What most old maids desire to find.
MANITOU.
The Eighteenth is:
A pleasing beverage and a period.
WYANDOTTE.
The Nineteenth is:
Outward sign of spiritual grace and exclamation.
SACRAMENTO.
The Twentieth is:
A young miss and a slang term of coin.
GALLATIN.
The Twenty-First is:
The father of Democracy and a large town.
JEFFERSON CITY.
The Twenty-Second is:
An extinct King of the Prairies.
BUFFALO.
The Twenty-Third is:
A girl's name, a laugh and a tumble.
MINNEHAHA FALLS.
The Twenty-Fourth is:
That upon which we rely.
PROVIDENCE.
The Twenty-Fifth is:
A bandmaster's staff and a society girl's cheeks.
BATON ROUGE.
Appropriate prizes—leather traveling bags—are awarded to excursionists who have done the most sight seeing—that is, who have guessed the names of most of the stations. In the mean time small boys in uniform pass through the "parlor cars" dispensing to the passengers such train delectables as popcorn and peanuts, while other uniformed youths passlemonade in the time-honored tin receptacle with glasses in openings at the side.
Suddenly the station supper gong is sounded and the brisk announcement made, "Twenty minutes for refreshments." Thereupon the lively excursionists proceed in sections to the dining room where the novel feature of the railroad party is cleverly carried out. Along one end of the room is constructed a high lunch counter with every equipment of the metropolitan station. There is the steaming coffee urn, the familiar glass covers under which repose pumpkin pie and doughnuts, old-fashioned cake-stands with fruit, and so on. Bright colored placards on the wall announce the eatables, including chicken and ham sandwiches, stuffed eggs, hokey-pokey ice cream, assorted cakes, coffee, chocolate and milk.
The floral decorations in this "buffet car" are effective. The white cloth that covers the counter and extends to the floor is festooned with strings of smilax and spotted with sprays of fern. On top of the counter is a huge bowl of scarlet roses, and two immense palms behind the lunch counter make a pleasing background. In all the coaches, in fact, flowers and foliage are used in profusion.
Give each guest a card numbered, and ask him to draw thereon a picture which shall illustrate some well-known novel. When all have finishedhave them pass the cards and on a second numbered list write the titles of the books illustrated. Give a prize for the most perfect list and the best illustration. Let the guests vote on the best illustration.
Or, pin on the back of a guest the name of a character in a book, or the name of an author, and let him by questions discover his own identity. If he fails to guess and has to be told, he sits down. If he guesses correctly, another name is pinned on his back, and another, and so on. The one guessing the greatest number of names receives the prize, which may be simply a bunch of flowers.
Ask each guest to wear something representing the title of a book. Give each a number as he enters and a list of numbers and let all place correct names opposite the numbers on their lists. Write a simple love story, leaving blanks to be filled with names of books. This may be written on a large sheet of paper or on a blackboard, the blanks numbered and each guest given a numbered list to place words intended to fill blanks, or enough copies may be made for each guest to have a copy.
Partners for supper may be found by cutting quotations in half and matching them again. Or one guest may be given the name of a book to find his partner in the author; or he may receive a slip containing the name of some man character in fiction, to find his partner in the corresponding woman character, as "David Copperfield" would seek "Dora," "Mr. Micawber" would seek "Mrs. Micawber," etc.
Serve pressed chicken or veal cut in squares resting on cress;sandwiches of white grapes and nuts, chopped pickle; fruit salad served in white lettuce leaves, cheese crackers, ice cream or ices, cake, coffee or chocolate. Make the cheese crackers by spreading a thin layer of cheese on the crackers and toasting them in the oven.