Onions (boiled).
Remove the outer layers until you reach the sleek, silvery, crisp skins. Cook in plenty of boiling, salted water, until tender. Forty minutes should be sufficient, unless the onions are very old and large. Turn off all the water; add a cupful from the tea-kettle with one of warm milk and stew gently ten minutes.
Heat, meanwhile, in a saucepan, half a cupful of milk with a large tablespoonful of butter.
Drain the onions in a hot clean colander, turn them into a heated deep dish, salt and pepper lightly, and pour the boiling milk and butter over them.
Onions cooked thus are not nearly so rank of flavor as when boiled in but one water.
Tomatoes (stewed).
Put ripe tomatoes into a pan, pour boiling water directly from the kettle, upon them, and cover closely for five minutes. The skins will then come off easily.
When all are peeled, cut them up, throwing away the unripe parts and the cores, and put them into a clean saucepan with half a teaspoonful of salt.
Stew twenty minutes before adding a heaping tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of white sugar (for a dozen large tomatoes) and a little pepper. Stew gently fifteen minutes, and serve.