Winter squashes vary so much in quality that no one way of cooking will do for all. There are some varieties from which the skin may be peeled like a tomato, after steaming; others are so hard that it is impossible to pare them; from these scrape outthe pulp with a spoon after steaming; others still, are better to be pared before steaming. When soft and watery after cooking, dry in the oven before mashing, and again afterwards if necessary. Some watery squashes have a rich flavor when well dried out.
Saw squash in halves, remove the seeds and fibre with a spoon, cut into quarters or eighths, pare or not according to the variety, lay inside down in the steamer and cook over boiling water until tender. Remove from the shell if not pared, mash through a fine colander, season if soft with butter or cream and salt, or with salt only; if dry and mealy like the “Delicious,” use plenty of milk and cream with salt. Beat well and serve.
Bake halves of squash from which the seeds have been removed, cut side down until tender, 1–2 hours or longer. Scrape pulp clean from the shell, mash, add salt, beat well and serve. Baked squash is so sweet that it requires no seasoning but salt, though a little milk or cream may be added if it is very dry.
Bake pieces of desired size, the shell side up, on waxed paper in baking pan. Serve on platter, allowing each guest to season to taste, and eat from the natural dish.
As the tomato, though a fruit, is prepared and served in so many ways as a vegetable, we will follow custom and consider it under that head; but it must be borne in mind that it should not be served or eaten in combinations unsuitable for other acid fruits.
The most desirable way to serve the tomato is uncooked when well ripened. When perfectly ripe the skin will peel off without any preparation, and it may sometimes be loosened by rubbing the tomato all over firmly with the back of a silver knife; but when more convenient to use the hot water method, the tomatoes do not need to be soft nor to have a cooked taste.
First—have a kettle with an abundance of perfectly boiling water, also a pail with plenty of the coldest water you can get, ice water if possible. Put a few tomatoes (not enough to cool the water much) into a wire basket. Plunge into the boiling water, let rest an instant if very ripe and a second longer if quite solid, then lift the basket and set quickly into the cold water, then turn the tomatoes out into the water and leave them there. Repeat the process, take care each time that the water is boiling before dipping the tomatoes into it and renew the cold water when necessary.
Tomatoes may be put into the boiling water and transferred quickly to the cold water with a skimmer. When thoroughly cooled, set without peeling into the ice box until ready to use.
Peel, slice into not too thin slices, or cut into quarters or sixths from the blossom end just deep enough for the pieces to spread apart without separating. Serve with salt or with some of the salad dressings as a garnish for meat dishes, or as fresh fruit with sugar or sugar and lemon juice. With sugar and heavy cream my grandfather used to think tomatoes were more delicious than peaches and cream.
Slice tomatoes into sauce pan and bring to boiling point slowly, boil up well, only, season with salt and serve. Long boiling frees the acid of tomatoes and renders them less wholesome. Tomatoes require more salt for palatability than any other article of food.
Put rather small tomatoes on pan in steamer, steam from 10–15 m., or until tender. Serve on hot toast or crackers or thin round slices of broiled nut meat with a dainty spray of parsley or chervil, for luncheon or supper; allowing each guest to season to taste. If desired, drawn butter, cream sauce or oil may be passed.
Cut tomatoes in halves without peeling, dust with salt and fine cracker crumbs, broil over hot coals, skin side down, 15–20 m. Serve plain or with Sauce Amèricaine or any desired dressing with wafers or toast. Firm tomatoes may be cut into thick slices and broiled on both sides. They may be just browned and set in the oven to become tender.
Heat tomatoes, crushed celery and sugar for 15 m. Simmer onion in butter without browning, add flour, then tomato, boil up well, strain and add chopped parsley. Serve on toast or with boiled rice or with some meat dish. Very nice on toast with sliced hard boiled eggs.
The later varieties of turnip are by far the best though some of the earlier varieties are sweet and tender. As they need to be grown quickly turnips are never good in a dry season but will be pithy and strong. Turnips require the greatest care in cooking. If they are over-cooked 5 m., they will begin to turn dark and will have a strong, disagreeable flavor. For that reason they are better to be cut into thin slices. They must be boiled rapidly.
Wash, cut into quarters or sixths if large, pare very thick, cut into ½ in. slices, put into perfectly boiling water; boil rapidly for 25 m., or until just tender. Add salt at the end of 20 m. or when nearly tender, if at all; nice, sweet turnips are delicious without salt. Drain thoroughly, in cheese cloth if convenient. Serve plain, or with Chili sauce, Sauce Imperial or Sauce Amèricaine; or pour cream sauce over after draining; or pass oil, oil and lemon juice or French dressing with them.
There are white and yellow ruta-bagas or Swedish turnips, and both are richer in flavor and more nutritious than common turnips. The yellow ruta-bagas are especially sweet and rich. Prepare, cook and serve the same as turnips, except that the ruta-bagas require a little longer time for cooking. They are delightful served with Chili sauce, but are so rich and sweet of themselves that no sauce is necessary.
Mash well drained boiled turnips with potato masher in hot pan. Do not put through colander. Season with salt and if not sweet a little sugar. Serve plain or withsauce 57,58or75.
Cook separately 1 pt. of string beans, 2 small potatoes and 2 small carrots cut into small pieces, and 1 pt. of green peas. When tender, drain, put all together, add salt and cream or a thin cream sauce.
This makes a very pretty as well as a palatable dish.
The proportion of sugar in nearly all of the other starchless vegetables is small.
Since chestnuts are so largely composed of starch though they also contain a large proportion of albuminoids, from 8.5 to 14.6 according to different authorities, we allow them to follow vegetables while not classing them with them. One writer says “they might have been included among the bread stuffs.” London vegetarians often serve a tureen of plain boiled chestnuts in place of potatoes.
The recipes are for the large imported chestnuts. The smaller native ones require a longer time for cooking. The dried chestnuts which we sometimes find in the stores require 3 hours for boiling.
Boil whole chestnuts rapidly for 10 m. Leave in the hot water, shell and remove the brown covering while warm.
Cook blanched chestnuts in salted water until just tender, 10–20 m., drain, serve plain or withsauce 14,16or17. Or, boil whole for 25 m. and serve in the shells.
Mash boiled chestnuts, add salt, and cream or milk and butter. Beat well, heat in double boiler, serve in center of platter surrounded by nut meat cutlets or croquettes which in turn are garnished with boiled small onions, Brussels sprouts or flowerets of cauliflower suitably seasoned; or purée may be served with globe artichokes, green peas, stewed cucumbers or mashed dry green peas.
Make at right angles small incisions at the point of the chestnut. Bake 10–20 m. in a rather hot oven, stirring occasionally,or put into a corn popper and shake over the coals.
Prepare bananas as suggested for salads, and cover with Cream Dressing—Sweet. Cut boiled chestnuts in quarters and mix lightly with bananas and dressing. Serve in cups or on dainty china plates garnished with flowers or leaves.
For luncheon, supper or dessert
Add sugar or honey with dairy or cocoanut cream and vanilla, to mashed chestnuts; heat, pile on dish with spoon in rocky form or force through vegetable press, and surround with whipped cream.
Boil blanched, fresh or dried chestnuts until tender (fresh 15 m., dried, 3 hours). When almost tender, add sugar or honey to water and when the liquid is nearly boiled away, flavor with vanilla; finish in slow oven; serve as confection. Raisin pulp instead of vanilla is delightful.
Since experience has taught us that the delicate machinery of the body requires oil to keep it running smoothly, salads as one of the most agreeable means of supplying this need, have been growing in favor.
In our recipes for salad dressings, we have endeavored to give sufficient variety in oils to suit all tastes and circumstances.
“Vinegar—acetic acid, is about ten times as strong as alcohol, and makes more trouble in the stomach than any other acid except oxalic.”—Dr. Rand.
“No acid should be taken into the mouth with starch as it will prevent the action of the saliva; but if starches have been properly masticated, and a proper amount of saliva mingled with them, lemon juice will not interfere with the digestion of starch in the stomach.”—Dr. Kress.
For the above reasons, we use no flour or cornstarch in dressings, use lemon juice as the acid, and exclude potato salad. Cold potatoes of themselves are difficult of digestion and combining them with an acid renders them still more so.
Use nuts as a garnish, or as an accompaniment to salads instead of mixed with them, as they become tough quickly after touching the dressing. Coarse chopped nuts may be sprinkled over the salad just as it goes to the table.
In beans, green or red French, Lima or California are best for salads since they do not cook to pieces easily.
The whites of hard boiled eggs are more digestible when ground fine, or pressed through a wire strainer. When desired for fancy shapes they may be poached separate from the yolks,p. 199.
Vegetables for salads must be crisp, tender and dry.
Gather lettuce early in the morning, put it into a closed pail or a paper sack and leave in the refrigerator for a few hours; or if it comes from the market slightly wilted, cover it at once with ice water until revived. Never allow the wind to blow upon lettuce. Crisp, by allowing it to stand in ice water after washing until just before serving, then drain and shake in a wire basket or in mosquito netting, cheese cloth or a netted bag.
Celery, parsley, spinach, endive and dandelion may be kept fresh the same as lettuce and crisped in ice water before serving.
Always cut celery, never chop it. Wipeit dry before cutting and if possible, roll in a dry towel a moment after cutting.
Unless cabbage is shaved thread-like it is better to be chopped.
In cooking carrots for salads, drain them when about half done and add boiling water to finish cooking.
The apple, grape fruit and tomato are the only fruits with which a French or Mayonnaise dressing is harmonious.
Dip ripe tomatoes quickly into perfectly boiling water, lift them out and drop into cold water, change the water two or three times if ice is not at hand, set them in a cold place, and peel just before serving.
Do not mix cut, colored fruits (like strawberries) with cream dressings. Lay the pieces between the layers and on top of the salad.
It is seldom suitable to serve fruit salads with lettuce; some glass dish with decorations of leaves, vines and flowers is prettiest.
As a rule, do not mix many kinds of fruit in one salad. One flavor often destroys another.
Many of the fruit salads are suitable for desserts.
Cut oranges in about the middle of the section or just each side of the membrane, leaving that out if convenient; then cut into pieces crosswise.
Cut grape fruit in halves, then around the inside next to theskin, and after removing the pulp, carefully separate it from the membrane.
When juicy fruits are to be used with any but fruit juice dressings, they should be drained. The juices may be used for nectars, other salad dressings or for pudding sauces.
Soak currants or pitted sour cherries in syrup made of one part sugar and two parts water, for an hour or longer, then drain.
For most salads, bananas are better cut into quarters lengthwise, then sliced across.
Pare, quarter and core choice, fine flavored apples, one at a time, cut the quarters into not too thin lengthwise slices, place three or four of the slices together and cut across into small wedge-shaped pieces. Never chop apples for salad. Both apples and bananas should be prepared just as short a time before the meal as possible and should be cut right into the dressing. After being coated with the dressing they will not turn dark.
Shred fresh pineapple according to directions,p. 44. For nut and cream dressings cooked pineapple is preferable. After draining and drying canned sliced pineapple, lay two or three of the round slices together and cut into wedge-shaped pieces about ¼ inch across at the large end.
Keep orange, lemon, grape fruit or tangerine cups in cracked ice or ice water until just before serving, then drain and wipe dry.
The edges of the cups may be pointed or scalloped, and if cups are large the points may be cut deep, and then rolled down. Apple cups may be kept in the same way, or the cut surface may be coated with dressing.
We marinate or pickle some ingredients by mixing them with lemon juice, with or without salt, or with French dressing, a short time before serving. Drain if necessary, before adding the dressing.
A wooden spoon which is used for nothing else is best for stirring dressings while cooking. Dip in cold water and wipe it just before using and wash in cold water immediately after.
Sour cream may be substituted for sweet cream in all dressings; a little less lemon juice is required.
One-third water may be used with lemon juice for dressings if too sour.
Use plenty of salt in dressings for people accustomed to mustard and pepper.
For uncooked dressings all the ingredients and utensils should be as nearly ice cold as possible.
The yolks of five eggs may be used in the place of three whole eggs in boiled dressings.
For salads with eggs, tomatoes or cabbage, a larger proportion of lemon juice and salt is required, and with tomatoes a little sugar is an improvement.
Beat all the ingredients in the inner cup of a double boiler just enough to blend well. Put into the outer boiler containing warm (not hot) water, set over fire, stir with a wooden spoon continuously, taking the inner boiler out occasionally and stirring well if there is danger of cooking too rapidly. When the dressing begins to thicken, remove at once from the fire and set in a dish of cold water which was all ready, stirring until partially cooled. Strain through a wire strainer.
The recipe for this dressing (with some unhygienic adjuncts) was given to me in the early days of my work by a lady to whom a famous chef had given it as a special favor; and to my mind its value is unequalled. It has not an excess of oil like the regular mayonnaise, is easily and quickly made and will keep well in a cool place, covered. I sometimes use ½ cup of oil and ¼ cup of lemon juice, and sometimes just the reverse, according to what I am using it over and the tastes of the people for whom I am preparing it. Three eggs will do very well if one needs toeconomize in eggs. ¼ cup of cream, whipped, may be added just before serving for Cream Improved Mayonnaise.
Use melted butter and less salt in improved mayonnaise dressing.
Follow directions for improved mayonnaise dressing.
Beat yolks, add salt and lemon juice, cook over hot water, cool; add stiffly-beaten whites of eggs when ready to serve.
Especially good plain on lettuce, and with flavorings for chopped cabbage.
Beat egg slightly, add cream, cook the same as boiled custard, cool, add water, salt and lemon juice. When desired, water and lemon juice may be flavored according to directionsp. 28.
Substitute sweet or sour milk and 1 tablespn. of oil or butter for sour cream in preceding recipe. Omit water and use 2 eggs if desired very stiff.
For fruits especially, but suitable for lettuce, cabbage, beets, celery or carrots.
Beat cream, sugar and eggs in inner cup of double boiler; cook as for custard, set dish in cold water; add the lemon juice gradually, stirring, then a trifle of salt, strain.
⅔ only of the cream may be cooked and the remainder whipped and added to cold dressing. In substituting sour cream for sweet, use 1–1½ tablespn. only of lemon juice.
Rub butter smooth with water, cook just a moment, stirring. Remove from fire, add salt and lemon juice, cool.
Some flavoring is an improvement with the unroasted peanut butter.
Roasted peanut butter dressing and improved mayonnaise dressing may be combined with a very pleasing effect.
Use from ½–¾ cup strained stewed tomato in place of the water, and ¾ teaspn. of salt, for Nut Tomato Dressing.
Add 2 tablespns. of sugar to the nut dressing made with almond butter and you have one of the most delightful fruit salad dressings.
While the liberal use of rhubarb is not to be recommended on account of the oxalic acid it contains, it affords variety in dressings and has the advantage of always being at hand in the country when one gets out of lemons.
Stew rhubarb without peeling, with not more than one tablespoon of water to the quart of rhubarb. Rub through a fine colander or sieve, mix in the proportions given, with the other ingredients and cook the same as improved mayonnaise dressing.
Green gooseberries prepared in the same way may be used in the place of rhubarb.
Make “No Oil” dressing with 1½ only, tablespn. lemon juice and just before serving sprinkle over it two tablespns. coarse chopped ripe olives.
Excellent on apples, string beans, celery, cabbage and lettuce, on peas croquettes, and for decorating.
Drain juice from stewed tomatoes, rub pulp through strainer or fine colander, combine with other ingredients and cook as improved mayonnaise dressing.
For suitable fruit salads.
Boil sugar and water to syrup; cool, add orange and lemon juice, strain. If desired, flavor with oil of orange.
I insert this dressing with many apologies for the cornstarch, which as we know, is entirely out of place in a salad dressing, and trust that it will be used in emergencies only when eggs are very scarce.
Boil salt and water, add the cornstarch which has been stirred smooth with cold water; boil up, add beaten eggs and lemon juice; beat well, cool.
Suitable for vegetables, apples, tomatoes, eggs, legumes and nut foods.
The proportions of lemon juice and oil in this dressing vary from 1 part of lemon juice to 4 parts of oil, to equal parts of each, and in extreme cases to the use of four or five times as much lemon juice as of oil according to the ingredients of the salad and individual taste, but the proportions most generally used are the following:
Mix salt and oil well, add lemon juice slowly, stirring, pour over salad, serve at once. If flavorings are used, mix them with the salt and oil before adding the lemon juice. My experience is that this method of combining the ingredients gives the best results. A bit of ice may be added while stirring, but if ingredients and utensils are ice cold it will not be necessary.
Let orange juice stand for a few moments with thin shavings from the outside of the rind in it, strain and combine with the salt and oil as above, using equal quantities of oil and orange juice or only ½ as much of the juice. Serve over sliced apples or tomatoes.
Equal quantities of grape and lemon juice with salt and a small proportion of oil. Delightful over apples, oranges, grape fruit, pears or peaches, or suitable combinations of the same.
Use equal quantities of lemon juice and honey or three or four times as much lemon juice as of honey, with oil and a trifle of salt, over lettuce or suitable fruits. Honey and lemon juice without the oil may be used by those who prefer it.
Add water to any preferred nut butter until of the desired consistency;then salt and lemon juice according to the ingredients of the salad. Butter from either Brazil, almond or pine nuts is good. Raw pine nuts have much the flavor of cheese. If unroasted peanut butter is used, the flavor of onion or garlic or both is an improvement.
Mix dry ingredients, add oil, then lemon juice slowly, stirring.
For lettuce and many fruits.
1 tablespn. each of lemon juice and water to each slightly rounded tablespn. of sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. For juicy fruits, use lemon juice and sugar only.
For fruits.
1 teaspn. chopped tarragon to each half cup of lemonade dressing.
Cut thin slices from the yellow part of the rind; let stand with the other ingredients for 15 m. Strain and pour over fruit. Omit rind for strawberries, pineapple and such other fruits as it will not harmonize with.
Add sugar flavored with oil of orange, with lemon juice, to rich red raspberry juice, the proportions depending upon thesweetness of the raspberry juice. Serve over apple or apple and orange.
Mix cream, sugar and salt, add lemon juice slowly, stirring until dressing is thick, and be sure to stop when it is thick.
For shredded lettuce, chopped cabbage or cooked beets, and some fruits.
Whip cream,sugar and salt together, chop lemon juice in lightly.
Whip cream until just thick, add lemon juice and salt which have been mixed. For lettuce or apples, use such flavorings as fresh mint, tarragon, onion, chives, celery salt or seed when desired.
For Sweet Dressing of Sour Cream—Add 1½ tablespn. of sugar to lemon juice in above recipe.
Beat yolks with salt, add milk, then lemon juice gradually, stirring, then the stiffly-beaten whites of the eggs. For a sweet dressing add 2 tablespns. of sugar to the whites of the eggs.
Use only 1 cup of oil unless a very thick dressing is required.Have all utensils and ingredients cold. In very hot weather only, set dish in which dressing is made on chopped ice or in ice water. Use a soup plate with a silver or wooden fork, or a bowl with revolving egg beater. Beat yolk of egg and salt, add ½–1 teaspn. lemon juice, mix well, then add oil, drop by drop at first, stirring constantly (one way, some say). After a little, oil may be added faster. When mixture becomes thick, stir in a little lemon juice. Do not allow it to get too thick before adding lemon juice. When done the dressing should drop, not pour, from a spoon.
If mixture shows signs of curdling, set dish on ice, continuing to stir, and if it does not become smooth then, add a teaspoon of cream or a little white of egg or a few drops of lemon juice, beating well. Or, take another yolk, begin again more carefully, and when well started add the curdled portion slowly.
If a hard boiled yolk is crushed and worked smooth with a spatula and mixed thoroughly with the raw yolk, the dressing is not so apt to curdle and the oil may be added a little more rapidly.
The tendency to curdling is very much lessened by adding the lemon juice to the yolk before any oil is added.
Add ½ or an equal quantity of whipped cream, or ½ to 1 stiffly-beaten white of egg to mayonnaise at serving time.
Macerate with a spatula or in a mortar spinach, parsley or chervil, tarragon, chives or green tops of onions, using a little lemon juice if necessary. Express the juice and add to dressing.
Whip ¼–½ cup of heavy cream, chop into it the beaten yolk of an egg, add salt and lemon juice to taste. Chopped parsley may be sprinkled through the dressing, or a little green or red vegetable coloring may be used in it.
For these salads, rich in proteids, the nut dressings are not required. As a rule, lemon juice, lemon juice and salt, or the French dressing with suitable flavorings will be most appropriate. Use the different varieties of Mayonnaise with judgement.
Take equal quantities (or any proportion desired) of diced trumese and slender crescent slices of celery with a little very fine chopped onion. Mix lightly with improved mayonnaise dressing. Pile in center of lettuce border. Serve. Trumese may have been marinated. Onion may be omitted. Nasturtiums, parsley, fringed celery or other garnishes may be used with or without the lettuce.
Make a custard of the yolk of one or two eggs or one whole egg, and one cup of rich milk; add salt, a little grated or chopped onion, celery salt if desired and two cups of diced trumese which has been marinated with two tablespns. of oil, 1 or 2 tablespns. of lemon juice and a little salt. Heat without over-cooking the egg. Serve on toast or in the center of large wafers with stalks of fringed celery or with a sprinkling of sliced crisp celery.
In the center of a lettuce or spinach leaf border place stewed green French beans surrounded by a row of sliced cucumbers. Garnish with white, green or yellow mayonnaise.
The combination of the different shades of green is very pretty. The addition of nasturtiums gives a different effect.
Prepare different colored legumes according to directions for mashed lentils,p. 185, very dry. Mold in block shaped tins and when cold cut into cubes and serve in any desired border with improved mayonnaise dressing. A rail fence of cucumbers sliced lengthwise may constitute the border. The French dressingmay be used, but there is nothing quite equal to a mayonnaise dressing for mashed legumes.
While warm, press mashed green peas or other legumes (a little softer than for molding) through pastry tube in form of roses. Garnish with a delicate vine and lemon points, or with the yellow mayonnaise.
This salad is to be served on individual plates. When it is the principal dish for luncheon, use one egg to each plate, but with a variety of other dishes two eggs will be sufficient for three plates.
Make a deep border of shredded tender lettuce leaves around a gilt edged plate. In the center of the plate, pile as high as possible the yolk of a hard boiled egg which has been pressed through a wire strainer. Surround this with a border of the white which has also been vermicellied. Then drop with a teaspoon improved mayonnaise dressing at frequent regular intervals on the lettuce border. This salad gratifies the senses of both sight and taste.
Cut hard boiled eggs in halves lengthwise. Lay the halves on the vegetable board, the flat side down, and cut each half carefully into four pieces. Remove yolk from pieces, rub through wire strainer, place in center of individual plates and surround with a wreath of shredded lettuce or of tender spinach leaves. Then place pieces of white inside down over the wreath, radiating from the center. Serve with French dressing, or with roses of yellow or green mayonnaise around the outside.
Surround a molded border of cottage cheese with radish lilies onlettuce, endive, parsley, chervil or spinach border and fill the centerwith green mayonnaise.
Pour French dressing in which drained canned pears whole or in halves, have been soaked for an hour or two, over a mound of creamy cottage cheese. Surround with the pears and garnish with geranium leaves or ferns. Serve with crackers or cocoanut crisps.
To be served with any preferred dressing.
Baked or stewed California or red kidney or green French beans and string beans.
Lima beans and eggs.
Baked beans and chopped cabbage.
Beans and tomatoes.
Halves or quarters of hard boiled eggs on lettuce—salad entrée or improved mayonnaise dressing.
Cottage cheese mixed with sliced celery in balls or molds.
Cottage cheese and lettuce—salad entrée dressing.
Cottage cheese, apple and mint—English dressing, or with lemon juice and sugar.
Cottage cheese and dried or fresh apple sauce (quite dry)—cream dressing—sweet.
Cottage cheese and drained stewed or canned cherries—cream dressing—sweet.
Cottage cheese and tomatoes.
Add just as it is going to the table, whipped cream dressing, to 1 pt. of chopped crisp white cabbage. Some of the whipped cream may be left out of the dressing and dropped by spoonfuls on top of the salad.
Use purple or red cabbage in the place of white in snow salad. For luncheon, the cream mayonnaise dressing may be used.
Coarse chopped red beets with whipped cream dressing. ⅓ fine cut celery improves the flavor.
Beat eggs in the inner cup of a double boiler, pour slowly over them stirring, a boiling mixture of all the remaining ingredients except the cabbage; add the cabbage and cook until just creamy. Serve at once.
Cool hot slaw, and just before serving, add ¼ cup of cream, whipped. The slaw is excellent without the cream, however.
Serve flowerets of cauliflower, cooked according to directions,p. 246, masked with improved mayonnaise or with cream improved mayonnaise dressing on a bed of shredded lettuce in a border of lettuce leaves garnished with parsley or nasturtiums. Pass dressing.
Skim from a pan of thick sour milk, equal quantities of cream and milk. Beat lightly together and mix with nice crisp shredded lettuce and salt. I wish I could tell you how highly I prize this recipe. Try it.
Tear in pieces with the fingers, nice crisp lettuce, mix with it a few leaves of shredded fresh mint, and pour English salad dressing over. Serve at once.
Select the tender inside leaves of spinach, wash well and serve with French or mayonnaise dressing or in almost any way that lettuce is used, the flavor of which they almost excel.
Combine as great a variety of starchless vegetables in differentcolors as convenient. Celery, onions, carrots, beets, green peas, red and green French beans and string beans make a good combination. Turnips, asparagus, cauliflower, chives and parsley may be used also, and some like a flavoring of celery seed.
Cut the larger vegetables into small pieces or dice, or into fancy shapes with vegetable cutters (the pieces left after cutting out the shapes with vegetable cutters may be chopped and used as the base of the salad, or for another salad or for soup); cut the string beans into diamond shapes and chop the onion very fine. Pile the lightly mixed vegetables in the center of a border of lettuce or spinach leaves; lay some of the brightest pieces on the top and pour French dressing over all.
In the center of a platter with a lettuce or variegated beet leaf border, place marinated sliced or chopped beets. Surround the beets with roses of cream mayonnaise or mayonnaise cream with stoned ripe olives between.
Cut short crisp cucumbers in halves lengthwise, hollow out the center to within a half inch of the rind, pare shells carefully and drop into ice water. Slice or chop the centers, mix with fine cut raw onion, salt and French or improved mayonnaise dressing. Drain and thoroughly dry shells, fill with mixture, lay on leaves of lettuce, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve. Cut long cucumbers into two-inch lengths, remove centers, set rings upright on lettuce and fill. Pass dressing if more is desired.
Place six-inch stalks of cooked asparagus in rail fence style just inside a lettuce or endive border on a platter, with lemon cups of mayonnaise (one for each person to be served) in the center.
Cut tender celery into eighth-inch crescents, pour over it lemonadedressing without the water in the proportion of one cup of dressing to each half cup of celery. Stand in a cool place for an hour or longer, then serve over young string beans which have been cooked in salted water until tender. Canned stringless or string beans may be used.
Fill hollowed out tomatoes with a mixture of drained, salted, grated cucumbers, fine chopped onion and improved mayonnaise or French dressing. Serve in nest of lettuce with dressing.
Or, use celery with improved mayonnaise dressing, in place of cucumber and onion, with border of nuts.