Picnic and Travelling Luncheons
Choose a drawer or shelf on which to keep all the neat boxes which otherwise would be thrown away. With them put cords, small, wide-mouthed bottles, with suitable corks, a package of paraffine paper, and some light wrapping paper.
With these accessories at hand it is an easy matter to put up a few sandwiches, some olives or tiny pickles, and some wafers or cake.
If picnic luncheons are frequent in summer and the waitress assists the cook in putting them up, she can save much time and many mistakes of omission by writing out a list of all the things ordinarily needed for such occasions. This list she will keep in a safe place, and refer to it as soon as a picnic is mentioned to see what will have to be done the day before or early in the morning.
A list may be something like this:
- Plates.
- Glasses.
- Cups.
- Knives.
- Forks.
- Doilies.
- Teaspoons.
- Can-opener.
- Corkscrew.
- Hatchet.
- Coffee, sugar, and cream.
- Canned tongue.
- Canned chicken.
- Cold fried oysters.
- Cold roast lamb.
- Graham and white wafers.
- A loaf of bread.
- Coffee-pot.
- Glass jar for cream.
- Glass jar for salad.
- Jelly glass or a bowl with tight cover for butter.
- Box and paper for prunes, etc.
- Agate pail for water.
- Matches.
- Butter, packed in jelly glass or bowl, and left in the ice-box overnight.
- Vegetable salad.
- Pickles, olives, salt.
- Prunes, crystallized ginger.
- Sweet chocolate.
Care of Dining-Room
Suppose a dining-room in which the movable furniture consists of a table, a sideboard, a side-table, a dinner wagon, a screen, and twelve chairs. In the middle of the floor is a large rug which covers all except a polished border of three feet from the walls all around the room. The two windows are draped with curtains, there are pictures on the walls and candelabra and ornaments on the mantel. In one corner of the room is a closet, with glass doors, for glass, and in another corner one similar for fine china. Under the one for glass is a safe for silver, and under the one for china, shelves for some linen. Both safe and shelves are enclosed by doors without glass.
The dining-table is the right size for the family, its extra leaves being in their frame in