Fig. 71.—A table set for Sunday night supper. Courtesy of Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College.
The other articles on the table may vary widely. For everyday use, where there is no maid, or only one, set in places convenient to pass, the salt and pepper, vinegar and sugar, bread plate and butter plate, and any small dish of condiment or pickle, with pretty mats for the hot dishes to be set on later, and enough spoons for serving. See that the arrangement is symmetrical and convenient. A table laid in this way has room for little more in the way of “decoration” than a slender vase holding a few flowers in the center. The dishes for dessert can be ready on a side table.
For formal service nothing is placed on the table in addition to the equipment at each place, but some centerpiece containing ferns or flowers, with pretty dishes of silver or glass holding relishes, candies, or dried fruits, a graceful arrangement being to alternate four of these with four candlesticks for meals served late in the day.
Table decorations.—Here fancy may run riot with color schemes, and pretty devices for special occasions. A painted place card, a small bonbon box, a single flower with a pin for fastening it on,—all these have their place at times. Satin ribbon is not an appropriate table decoration laid across the table in a broad band, even when it displays a class color. Find some other way to make the color effective. A color scheme in the food can be carried out to a degree for some occasion, but do not let the color interfere with a really satisfactory menu.
Relishes have already been suggested as decoration—radishes cut in rose shape, olives, candies, and fruit.
The tray for invalid and convalescent.—Figures 72 and 73 suggest the daintiness possible in setting a tray. It is well worth while to spend time in the careful arrangement of the tray, for pretty dishes in orderly array may tempt the appetite of the invalid.
Fig. 72.—A convalescent’s tray. Courtesy of the Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College.
