Pour liquid with peanut butter into double boiler; dissolve butter so there are no hard lumps. Do not let milk boil but place on moderately hot fire.
Just before serving add the catsup and seasoning.
Soup for Invalids
Cut into small pieces one pound of beef or mutton or a part of both. Boil it gently in two quarts of water. Take off the scum and when reduced to a pint, strain it and season with a little salt. Give one teacupful at a time.
Peanut Soup
Peanut soup for supper on a cold night serves the double duty of stimulating the gastric juices to quicken action by its warmth and furnishing protein to the body to repair its waste. Pound to a paste a cupful of nuts from which the skin has been removed, add it to a pint of milk and scald; melt a tablespoon of butter and mix it with a like quantity of flour and add slowly to the milk and peanuts; cook until it thickens and season to taste.
Chestnuts, too, make a splendid soup. Boil one quart of peeled and blanched chestnuts in three pints of salt water until quite soft; pass through sieve and add two tablespoons of sweet cream, and season to taste. If too thick, add water.
Mock Oyster Soup
The oyster plant is used for this delicious dish—by many it is known as salsify. Scrape the vegetable and cut into small pieces with a silver knife (a steel knife would darken the oyster plant). Cook in just enough water to keep from burning, and when tender press through a colander and return to the water in which it was cooked. Add three cups of hot milk which has been thickened with a little butter and flour and rubbed together and seasoned with salt and white pepper. A little chopped parsley may be added before serving. ½ cup cream instead of all milk greatly improves taste.