Cookery for Little Girls

by Olive Hyde Foster

Peel off the outside skin, cover with boiling water, cook five minutes, drain, and cover with fresh boiling water, well salted. Cook until tender, the length of time depending on the size, then drain and serve in a hot covered vegetable dish with white sauce, made while the onions were cooking.

BAKED ONIONS

First boil as above directed, then lift into a piepan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place a small lump of butter in a little hole on top of each, and bake until brown.

ASPARAGUS

With the coming of the spring vegetables will be opened a new field for the child to explore. Asparagus, one of the first in the market, is considered one of the choicest, and it is also one of the most easily prepared. To retain all the delicate flavor many people think it should be served plain. For this, tie the asparagus in bunches, after washing carefully and snapping off the tough ends. Set upright in a deep kettle and pour over boiling salted water enough to reach nearly to the tips, but do not cover. The tender ends will cook enough at first, for ten minutes, in the steam, and then the bunches should be turned down sideways for thirty minutes more. Lift carefully with a skimmer, allowing the water to run off, lay on a hot platter, remove the strings and serve immediately with tiny lumps of butter and a dash of pepper over the top. Or the asparagus can be first cut in small lengths, boiled until tender in salted water, then drained, laid on hot toast and covered with cream sauce. As mentioned before, the water in which it has been cooked can be set away to be used for soup, with a few tips added if desired.

CUCUMBER JELLY

Take one pint of well-seasoned bouillon, and while still warm, add the quantity of gelatine stated on the package necessary to make one pint of jelly, and when thoroughly dissolved, set away until it begins to stiffen. Then slice one cucumber, after peeling and ridging the sides, season with salt and pepper, and lay in vinegar for a moment. Rinse out the mould in cold water, lay around the cucumber in any pattern desired, and fill up the mould with the thickening jelly. Leave on ice after set, until ready to serve.

STRING BEANS

Wax or string beans should be snapped in small pieces and all strings removed, then washed and put on to boil in hot salted water. Cook until tender (generally this requires about forty minutes), drain and serve in a hot dish with butter, pepper and salt, or, if preferred, the cream sauce. Our young cook will have many opportunities to use her recipe for white sauce with the spring vegetables, for almost all kinds are improved when it is added.