Indoor and Outdoor Recreations for Girls

by Lina Beard; Adelia B. Beard

The Dinner

Fig. [565].—Picnic salt-box.

early, as the brisk drive in the morning air tends to stimulate the appetite. Bring the lunch-boxes to the place selected for the meal; let one person take full charge and give directions, while the others unpack, build the fire, and go to the spring for water.

The lunch should have been packed in paper boxes, to avoid the care of baskets. In the first box might be the loaves of fresh uncut bread and a tin baking-powder can of sweet butter, the bread to be cut into thin slices, buttered and prepared for sandwiches of various kinds. These can be easily made by adding either the chopped nuts that have been packed in a separate small box, or crisp lettuce leaves which have been detached from the stalk, well cleaned and sprinkled with fresh water, then carefully placed by themselves in a box lined with waxed or oiled paper such as is used by confectioners for sweetmeats. Or the sandwiches may be of sliced ham, tongue, roast-beef or lamb, each kind of meat being folded in waxed paper and packed in its own box. When the different articles of food are managed in this way they are much more attractive and palatable, each retaining its own flavor, and there is no danger of their being mashed and jumbled together, as happens too often when the dinner is indifferently arranged and put together in a thoughtless manner.

Fig. [566].—Paper over the top.

The best way to carry salt, pepper, etc., is to put each into a small paper box, the salt in one of cylindrical form, the lid of which has previously been punched full of holes with the aid of a tack or a slender wire nail ([Fig. 565]). The pepper can be in a smaller and differently shaped box, and sugar in a box of still another size and shape, that there may be no chance of mistaking one for the other and covering the meat with sugar or trying to sweeten the lemonade with salt. The perforations in the lid of the pepper-box must be quite small; punch them with a large-sized needle. After the boxes are filled the lids can be fastened securely with strong paste and, before they are packed, may have paper tied down over the tops ([Fig. 566]), to preclude all chance of the contents sprinkling out during the journey.

If mustard is needed, it should be prepared at home and carried in a small, wide-mouthed bottle. Mayonnaise dressing is best conveyed corked up in a small stone china jar, such as is often used for jam.

Boiled, fried, or broiled chicken is always acceptable at a picnic dinner; the chicken must be well cooked, cut into pieces and each portion wrapped in a separate piece of waxed paper, then packed together in a box. Cold-boiled asparagus or string beans, with fresh lettuce and mayonnaise dressing, may take the place of a meat salad if desired.