Cookery for Little Girls

by Olive Hyde Foster

TEA

First, find out the kind your friends like if you possibly can, and do not give Ceylon to a lover of uncolored Japan! Then have fresh boiling water, and scald out your teapot, which should be earthenware or china. While it is still hot, put in the tea, a teaspoonful for each cup if you use the ordinary kinds, but only half a teaspoonful of some of the strong black varieties. Pour on immediately the required amount of boiling water, and set in a warm place, or cover with a cozy for five minutes. If desired cold, then pour off the grounds, and when cool enough, put in the ice box or serve at once with chopped ice. Never boil tea, nor allow to stand on the leaves very long, as it draws out the injurious tannin, besides impairing the flavor. A thin slice of lemon in each glass improves the taste as well as the looks.

COFFEE

People have different ways of making coffee, but a very easy one is to measure out a tablespoonful of ground coffee for each cup desired, tie up in a square cheesecloth, and cover with an equal number of cups of boiling water. Set on the stove where it will keep just below the boiling point, for three minutes, then pour and serve with cream and sugar. But to make this way, grind very fine. If your friends prefer boiled coffee, however, measure out a tablespoonful for each person, moisten well with part of the white of an egg, cover with one cup of cold water, and when that boils, add rest of the required amount from your boiling teakettle. Cook for five minutes, then settle with a third of a cup of cold water, and place where it will not boil up again. This will make one cupful apiece.

COCOA

Cool drinks are most welcomed in hot weather, and several kinds are quite nice for little girls to make. Iced cocoa requires for each person half a glass of milk and half a glass of water, heated to the boiling point. Mix in a cup a round teaspoonful of cocoa with one round spoonful of sugar, and dissolve with the hot milk. Then put together in the kettle, boil gently several minutes, and flavor with a drop or two of vanilla before taking from the fire. After cooling, place on ice, and when ready to serve, pour in glasses over ice, and cover the top with sweetened whipped cream. Delicious hot, however.

GRAPE JUICE

Grape-juice is the most nourishing kind of a fruit drink, and every family ought to put up enough in the fall when grapes are plentiful and cheap to last all winter. First pick the fruit from the stem, wash and put on in water enough to cover. Cook until the grapes lose their form, put in a jelly-bag, and let them hang overnight. Next day measure, and put on to boil with half as much sugar. Cook for five minutes and put at once into air-tight bottles. When ready to serve, either dilute with a small quantity of water or pour on chopped ice.

LEMONADE

A most refreshing beverage on a very warm day is a lemonade made from the juice of two lemons, a half cupful of sugar and eight glasses of water, to which is added the pulp of a small grapefruit that has been removed with a sharp-edged teaspoon. Fill up glasses with shaved ice.