Dinners

and

Luncheons

Dinners and Luncheons

NOVEL SUGGESTIONS FOR SOCIAL OCCASIONS.

Compiled by

PAUL PIERCE

Editor and Publisher of What To Eat, the National Food Magazine.

Superintendent of Food Exhibits at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Honorary Commissioner of Foods at the Jamestown Exposition.

BREWER, BARSE & COMPANY

CHICAGO

Copyrighted 1907

by

PAUL PIERCE.

Respectfully dedicated to the overworked, perturbed American hostess in the sincere hope that the suggestions herein may lighten her perplexities and transform her work of entertaining from a task of dread to one of delight.

This little book is the first of a series containing suggestions for entertaining, which will give the hostess novel and practical ideas on the manner of preparing and conducting various social affairs. There is also another volume on Parties and Entertainments, one on Suppers, and another on Breakfasts and Teas and a fifth on Weddings and Wedding Celebrations. These volumes, it should be remembered, have been compiled by the publisher of What To Eat, The National Food Magazine, America's leading publication upon entertainments, dinners, menus, recipes and the other subjects of importance to the hostess.

With the exercise of a little ingenuity and originality, the directions may be varied—added to or altered—to suit all needs. This first book is designed especially to describe those dinners and luncheons which, while complete in themselves, also afford the best suggestions for others.

The Publishers.

CONTENTS.

[Chapter I.] Dinner Giving for the Convenience of Busy Housewives—Upon the Serving of Wines.

[Chapter II.] How to Send the Invitation—How to Serve in Proper Form Dinners and Luncheons With Menus and Recipes—The Invitation—Dinner Menus—Simple Menu—More Elaborate Menu—A Full Course Dinner—The Ease of a Course Dinner—A Fine Menu—A Mid-Summer Dinner—Luncheon Menus—Simple Luncheon—More Elaborate Luncheon—A Berry Luncheon—Mid-Summer Luncheon—A Rural Luncheon—Buffet Luncheon for Sixty.

[Chapter III.] Dinners and Entertainments for Patriotic, Holiday and Special Occasions—Valentine Luncheon—A Lincoln Dinner—For St. Patrick's Day—Attractive Easter Luncheon—Cap and Bells Luncheon for April First—Decoration Day Luncheon—For a Hallowe'en Dinner—A Fourth of July Dinner—A Luncheon for Thanksgiving—Thanksgiving Dinner—A Christmas Dinner—An unusually Original Dinner—A Spring Dinner—College Dinners.

[Chapter IV.] "Ice Breakers," Suggestions for Dinner, Menu and Place Cards, Table Stories, Toasts, Table Decorations.

[Chapter V.] Helps Over Hard Places—Hints to the Hostess—Don'ts for the Table—The Emergency Mistress—Passing the Loving Cup.

CHAPTER I.

DINNER-GIVING FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF BUSY HOUSEWIVES.

Three things are required to give an enjoyable dinner party; good taste, good judgment and an intuitive sense of harmony. Good taste suggests the proper thing in table dressing, in menu cards, in viands and beverages. Good judgment dictates the fortunate time, the appropriate guests, the seasonable dishes and topics; and last, a sense of harmony is the quality that throws a glamour over all, combining pleasant parts in one symmetrical whole, making a picture "distinct like the billows, but one like the sea." This sense of harmony never yokes uncongenial persons at table, except through unavoidable necessity. It is on the alert to suggest congenial topics and deftly turn the conversation away from disputed or disagreeable ones. It will often succeed in putting a garrulous and self-assertive man who likes to talk all the time, beside a mild and inoffensive woman who is content if she has naught to do but listen and—eat. It will swell the heart of a silent man with gratitude by reversing this action and placing beside him a woman who chatters like a magpie. It will often turn the stupid guest, who for various reasons will, in spite of all, occasionally appear at the best of tables, over to an intimate friend to whom a sacrifice for the sake of the host or hostess is a pleasure thus saving the formal guest and maintaining the reputation of the household for excellent management. In fact this sense of harmony is the essence that permeates and vitalizes the entire proceedings and assures success to the hostess, because it guarantees pleasure to the guests.

Nervousness, annoyance, anxiety on the part of the host or hostess during the serving of dinner are the deadly foes of enjoyment. If you feel these, therefore avoid showing them as you would avoid doing any other act sure to bring discomfort to those you are entertaining. Nothing conduces more to the enjoyment of guests than the fact that the host is sharing the enjoyment. What if some servant blunders or some dish is spoiled! It is aggravating, of course, but in most cases it will afford amusement if the host regards the blunder good naturedly. Of course no lady or gentleman will lose temper under such circumstances. Such an exhibition would be unspeakably vulgar; but there ought not to be even a display of irritation or a pursuing of the subject beyond a passing and good natured remark.

There is, however, a tendency on the part of too many hosts to fix their thoughts intently on the dinner and the way it is served. They try to show an interest in the conversation, while throwing furtive glances at the servants and taking occasion to communicate orders or complaints in asides. It is far better to say, "John, give Mr. Black some wine," than to communicate the order by nods and winks as if you were secretly ashamed to have Black know that you were observing his consumption of fluids, or were trying to get him intoxicated surreptitiously. Really, of the two evils, it is better to be too inattentive—to let a course wait even—than to be on the alert, watching the dilatory eater and summoning the servant the moment he lays down his knife.

A young housekeeper in medium circumstances should never attempt too much, too large a number of guests or too many courses. It is always best to practice the dishes before, in fact, if exquisite cooking and cooking even on the smallest scale, is the daily habit, no company, however large, can upset the hostess or her domestics.

And a woman who cultivates the art of little dinners soon becomes famous; men admire her and envy her husband, women dote on her, for an invitation means brightness and merriment as well as a congenial companion. The young married woman who is expert in blending sauces, is just as clever in mixing the human elements of attraction and amalgamation.

Refreshments, daintily served, stimulate conversation; ice cream breaks the ice, so to speak, and warms the company. Serving food is a visible demonstration of hospitality which all the philosophy in the world cannot cover.

Gorgeous ornamentation of dinner table is conceded to be bad form. The embellishment—the ornate, if you will—has been overdone, and now there is a reaction which tends to simplicity extreme expressed by a handsome centerpiece and a moderate exposition of not common flowers.

A different kind and color of china with every course is affected by those whose cabinet is crowded and who are proud of it, but this pride has its limitations among people of refinement and culture. This class does not give dinners simply to exhibit earthly treasure and create envy, and, perhaps, covetousness, too.

The larger the table napkin the better. A yard square is none too big, and pleasantly recalls the Parisians, whose liberality in damask is proverbial but not a characteristic in anything else. The material should be the best obtainable, and the design the most beautiful. Any lace edging or embroidery, plain or colored, is just as bad taste as quinine.

Knives, forks and spoons now-a-days, for almost everything, are somewhat confusing to those who do not dine out with sufficient frequency to keep up with the continually advancing procession. Some of these knives, forks and spoons are quite unnecessary, not to say silly, but the business of the silversmith must be considered.

Place cards at dinners should be retained because the host or hostess has had them prepared in expectation of their being retained and preserved as souvenirs. Ignoring them would be disrespect, and such disrespect, under the social circumstances, would be unpardonable.

In planning a regular dinner the fact should always be remembered, that a heavy soup will so far cloy the appetite as to render one indifferent to the rest of the dinner, while a clear soup refreshes, and prepares one for the enjoyment of the succeeding solids. The fish and entrees should not be substantial enough to satisfy hunger entirely; the relishes will then stimulate the appetite for the heavier dishes. The service of Roman Punch before the roast refreshes the palate, and prepares it for the more perfect enjoyment of the succeeding dishes; it is as necessary to the service of a good dinner as cheese is with plain salad. When olives are on the table, they go well with entrees of game; French chestnuts boiled, are excellent with poultry; and almonds, blanched and roasted with salt, are enjoyable with Madeira or Sherry before the sweet entrements. Only a plain vegetable salad should accompany the roast or game; and a bit of any old cheese may be passed with the salad. Cheese straws or cheese crusts may be served with the salad. Although the cheese belongs with the salad, it enters into some delicate dishes, such as fondus and souffles, which may come to the table either after the oysters or soup, as relishes, or before the large sweets at dessert, previous to the service of the nuts and fruit. Then comes the dessert. If the dinner is a small one it is perfectly permissible for the hostess to make the coffee at the table, or it may be served in the drawing-room later. Even with the best chosen menu, the success of a dinner depends on the skill of the cook. A good cook appreciates the value of sauces, and will give much care to their preparation, and, above all, will endeavor to preserve the natural flavors of the different dishes. All mingling of flavors is objectionable, except in sauces and salads.

First Course Dishes.—Following are the names of the different courses which make up the detail of the regular dinner, both the English and French names being given. The complete detail of service is indicated, so that the most inexperienced can succeed. The Shellfish (Huitres), includes small raw oysters, and little neck or hard-shell clams on the half-shell at the same time, brown bread, cut very thin and buttered, and cut lemons, salt, cayenne, and some sharp table-sauces are placed upon the table in the original bottles. The Soup (Potage) is varied according to the character of the dinner, either a perfectly clear soup, or consomme, and the other a rich thick one, such as a bisque or cream. A thick cut of bread, or a roll with crisp crust, is placed upon the napkin when the cover, or place, is laid; this is not eaten with the soup usually, but is generally used after it with the shell-fish, hot entree, or at any time during dinner. The Fish (Poisson) may be of any large kind, boiled or baked, and served with a good sauce and plain boiled potatoes. If shell-fish is used at this point of the dinner, this dish should be large and hot, like broiled lobster. The Relishes (Hors d'oeuvre), which are placed upon the table as part of the decoration in the American dinner and the service a la Russe, include all kinds of table-sauces and catsups, salted almonds, pickles, olives, caviare, vinaigrettes, small cold entrees, such as bouchees and pate-de-foie-gras, pickled fish and small tongues, and individual escalops; all these are arranged on the table in little dishes. The Removes (Releves) consist of boiled, baked and braised meats, poultry and large game, large veal, ham, game and cold ornamental fish pies and large cold joints, such as boiled tongue and ham, generally served with a garnish of vegetables; the remove at a small dinner may consist of an elaborately dressed cold fish, if the regular fish service has been omitted. The Side-Dishes (Entrees) are the small hot meats garnished, such as cutlets, chops breaded or larded, sweetbreads garnished, fricandeaux, fricassees, ragouts and escalopes, all hot; hot raised pies, patés, and rissoles, combination salads of vegetables, salads with mayonnaise, such as chicken and lobster; in brief, any dish in size less than a joint or a roast. Roman Punch (Sorbet). There are many delicious ices served under the general name of Roman Punch, all having a combination of frozen fruit-sherbet and some fine liqueur, cordial, wine or spirit; served in the midst of the dinner, when the palate needs the sense of refreshment they impart to it; they prepare it for renewed enjoyment, and render it capable of appreciating the intense flavor of the roast and the bouquet of the Burgundy or Champagne that follow these. The Roast (Roti). For family dinners the roast may be a joint of any meat preferred; but for special occasions it should be of venison, larded hare, or some large game bird. If wild duck is served, there should be more than one, because only the breast is carved; when canvas-backs are used, half a breast cut in one piece is helped to each guest. Smaller birds, either roasted or broiled, may be served in this course. All game should be underdone. A garnish of watercress or celery is used with birds, and always currant-jelly and special sauces should come to the table with venison and hare. Salad (Salade). A green salad is the proper accompaniment of the roast; it may be watercress, lettuce, celery, chiccory, escarole, burnet, nasturtium (leaves, fruit and flowers), corn-salad, dandelion, tarragon, fennel, mint, young onions and any of the green sweet herbs; the five first named varieties are the most generally used. Sometimes tomatoes and cucumbers are served here in this, although they more properly belong, the cucumbers with the fish; and the tomatoes with a mayonnaise among the cold entrees. The best dressing for a green salad is of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper; a salad with mayonnaise belongs among the cold entrees, as do the salads of cold cooked vegetables. A little old, rich cheese may be served with the green salad if desired.

Dessert (Dessert). The dessert consists of the small cold sweets, such as eclairs, fancy cakes called petits-fours, confectionery, candied fruits, nuts, individual moulded jellies, ices and creams, glaces and cafe noir. When the dessert is divided in two parts, the dishes called glaces or ices are served first; these include every sweet which can be crystalized, frozen or iced; after them comes the dessert proper, composed of candied and dry fruits, nuts, bonbons and little fancy cakes, or petit-fours, with the cheese and coffee at the last.

In preparing the various dishes for the dinner which can be made ready in advance, either uncooked or for cold service, the oysters or clams on the half-shell are to be kept on the ice until just before the dinner is announced; they are then to be arranged on appropriate plates and set at each cover, the oyster-plate being placed on a large dinner plate, which is to be removed with it when the hot plate is placed for the soup or fish. A bit of lemon is to be put in the center of the oyster plate, six half-shells with oysters being served on each plate (except in California, where one can consume at least a dozen of the small delicious native bivalves). The small oyster-fork is laid either upon the plate or beside it on the table. After the shell-fish are eaten, the guest leaves the fork upon the plate so that it can be removed with it. Plates of brown bread, cut very thin and buttered, are placed upon the table with the shell-fish, and removed with them. If this bread is intended for use with the salad, it should be served in one compartment of a fancy basket or dish; the other divisions containing biscuit, crackers, old cheese, olives and small relishes. The basket containing the bread, etc., should be removed from the table with the salad. All plates are removed from and the various dishes passed at the guest's left hand; the wine is poured at the right. Hot plates are served with all the dishes except foie-gras, caviare, salads, and the cold sweets. Great care should be exercised in preparing the dishes in the kitchen, and in bringing them to the table in a perfectly neat condition. The soup should not fill the tureen so far as to endanger spilling. The dishes for fish should be suited in size and shape to the contents. If the fish is boiled, it should be served unbroken, on a napkin laid in the appropriate platter, and garnished with a few sprigs of fresh parsley or slices of lemon, the sauce being served in a sauce-boat; if sauce is served on the dish with the fish, only enough to cover the center of the dish should be used, and the fish laid on it; the rest is served in a sauce-boat. Entrees should be very neatly arranged with the proper garnishes, with only sauce enough to surround them, but not to reach the edge of the dish. Very little gravy, or none at all, should be on the dish with joints, as it is likely to be spilled in carrying; and the dish should be deep enough to contain all that may flow from the cut meat.

Upon the Serving of Wines.

If only two kinds of wine are served, sherry should accompany the soup and fish courses, and either claret or champagne brought on with the roast, and served throughout the remainder of the dinner.

For the ten course dinner, cut glass goblets filled with water and crushed ice are placed at the right of each plate, about ten or twelve inches from the edge of the table. With these are grouped sauterne, sherry, rhinewine, claret, champagne, burgundy and liqueur glasses. The goblet of water remains in place throughout the dinner, being refilled at intervals.

First Course. With the oysters, a glass of sauterne is the most appropriate accompaniment. This should be served in light green glasses, poured from native bottles, which have been cooled to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, but never iced. When the oyster plates are taken away, the sauterne glasses should also be removed.

Second Course. With the soup, sherry, slightly cooled, should be served from a decanter, and poured into small white stem glasses, flaring slightly at the top. The sherry glasses should be removed after this course.

Third Course. With the hors d'oeuvres, which may consist of cold side dishes, such as canapés, caviar, or anchovies, or of hot dishes, such as timbales, croustades or bouchees; and

Fourth Course. Of fish, rhine wine is served from original bottles cooled to 52 degrees, and poured into long stemmed, light green glasses.

Fifth Course. With the entree, claret is served from a decanter having a handle and poured into pure white glasses, never colored. The temperature of the claret should be from 65 to 75 degrees, at least thirteen degrees warmer than other wines.

Sixth Course. With the roast, champagne is served from native bottles, as cold as possible, but not iced. The usual champagne glasses are saucer-shaped stem glasses, although some prefer a goblet shape, one size larger than a claret glass.

Seventh Course. A sherbet. With this cooling refreshment, regular sherbet glasses (small glass cups with handles) are necessary.

Eighth Course. Game with salad should be accompanied with burgundy, slightly warm, at 65 or 70 degrees, served from native bottles in wicker basket, poured into plain crystal glasses. After the eighth course the table is cleared for the first time of all plates, knives and forks, leaving only the water goblets, champagne and liqueur glasses before the guests. All crumbs are carefully swept away, and dessert spoons and forks laid for the

Ninth Course. With this course champagne is the favorite beverage in every country. After the dessert plates, forks and spoons are removed, a finger-bowl partly filled with water is placed before each guest, on plate having upon it a doily, a fruit knife and a nut pick (if fruits and nuts are to be served). After the fruits, cognac and liqueurs, such as annisette, benedictine, chartreuse or kummel, are served in miniature decanters, without handles, and poured into tiny thimble-shaped glasses, which should match the decanters, either plain or colored, cut or in striking gold effects. Creme de menthe is served on shaved ice in a special bowl-shaped glass, from a highly decorated small decanter either of white or colored glass without a handle.

Sherry, port and madeira are improved by being decantered several hours before using. In winter, the decanters should be dipped in warm water or otherwise warmed.

All possible care should be taken in handling and decanting wines in order not to disturb the deposit which may exist in the bottle. Nearly all wines precipitate a sediment which sometimes resembles sand or white crystals. Its presence is rather a mark of superiority than inferiority in the quality of the wine. This deposit, however, if shaken, destroys the brilliancy of the wine, and impairs its flavor and bouquet.

Lighter wines, such as bordeaux and most Italian wines, should be decanted only an hour before dinner, and brought into the dining room as late as possible before using. Sauterne, rhine wine, burgundy and champagne should be served from the original bottles, which should be stood up on end at least twenty-four hours before serving, to give the sediment time to settle at the bottom. The cork should be very carefully drawn without shaking the bottle, the bottle slowly tilted, and the clear wine gently poured out. A small quantity of wine containing the sediment should be left in the bottle. Putting ice in the wine glass will spoil the flavor of any fine wine.

A few drops of wine should first be poured into the host's glass, before serving the guests. If a toast to the health of any one present be proposed, the guest in whose honor the toast is given, must not drink, but should acknowledge the compliment with a smile and bow of thanks. The etiquette in regard to the German custom of clinking glasses is very well defined. One must hold the wine glass by the stem, being careful not to touch the bowl with the fingers. Convention also requires that one must look the person with whom one clinks glasses in the eye, and not at the wine, as one unfamiliar with this custom is very apt to do.

CHAPTER II.

HOW TO SEND THE INVITATION—HOW TO SERVE IN PROPER FORM DINNERS AND LUNCHEONS WITH MENUS AND RECIPES.

The Invitation.

16 Overton Street,
January 2.

The invitation should be addressed to the lady invited as "Mrs. George W. Jones."

268 West Avenue,
January 3.

Address envelope to "Mrs. Reuben Brown."

These are for formal dinners. If the dinner is an informal affair, a simple note addressed to the wife, asking her and her husband to dine is sufficient.

When the guests have arrived the servant in charge should announce the dinner to the lady of the house.

The host takes the lady who is to sit at his right, and leads the way. The hostess brings up the rear with the guest who is to occupy the same position at her right.

Cards, with the name of the guest are usually placed at each place.

The custom now is for the servant to pass the dishes to each guest, the meats, etc., being carved into convenient size for the purpose. They are passed to the left side of the guests. All dishes, glasses, etc., not again required on the table, should be removed when the dessert is served.

The forks, knives and glasses to be used, should be placed on the table at the first setting. For formal dinners usually three or four forks, including an oyster fork, and three knives, including a silver one for the fish course, if fish is served.

A napkin is neatly folded and placed on the plate with a small piece of bread partly folded within it, if soup is served.

Dinner Menus.

Menu I.

Menu II. More Elaborate.

Menu III. A Full Course Dinner.

The sardine canapés, given as a first course in Menu I, is a dainty appetizer made of sardines, boned, rubbed to a paste with a little creamed butter and seasoned to taste with Worcestershire and a few grains of cayenne. Spread small thin rounds of toast with the mixture, cover with white of hard boiled egg rubbed through a sieve and place an olive in the center of each. Cream soups are considered especially dainty. The deviled crabs are easily prepared. Pick the meat from the shells, mix with a cream sauce and season highly with mustard, cayenne and lemon juice. Wash and trim the shells, fill rounding with the mixture, cover with buttered crumbs and bake until brown. Parboil the sweetbreads, split and cut in pieces about the size of a large oyster. Egg and bread crumb them, fry, arrange on nests of boiled macaroni and pour the tomato sauce over them. Serve the cheese ramakins, which is cheese souffle baked in ramequin dishes, with this course.

The chocolate loaf is made of a sponge cake, hollowed out, covered inside and out with a plain chocolate icing. Fill shortly before serving with cream, whipped, sweetened and flavored, and serve very cold.

The first course in Menu II, is oyster cocktails, which are now in high favor. Serve either in sherry glasses, lemon, orange or grapefruit shells. Choose small, firm oysters of fine flavor and allow six to a person. Cover with a sauce made of a tablespoon of lemon juice, a teaspoon each of vinegar and catsup, a fourth of a teaspoon of Worcestershire, an eighth of a teaspoon of grated horseradish, two drops Tobasco sauce and a few grains of salt. The Potage á la Reine is easily made and very excellent. Mash fine the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and mix with them a half a cup of bread crumbs, soaked until soft, in half a cup of rich milk. Stir into this gradually the cooked breast of a chicken chopped fine as meal and a pint of hot cream. Boil two minutes, then add a quart of clear chicken broth, salt, pepper and celery salt to season. To prepare the following course mix some flaked fish with a rich cream sauce, fill into scallop shells, cover with buttered crumbs and bake. Serve with the fillet of beef as a single course the mushrooms, rolls, potatoes and asparagus. The hot rolls given throughout the menus are made with yeast according to any favorite rule, the different names only indicating a difference in shape. Orange frappe is simply an orange water ice frozen to a mush and served in frappe glasses. The rules for croquettes and salad are too familiar to need special repetition. Add some chopped almonds to the usual recipe for meringues and bake in a slow oven. When done, press in the bottoms. Fill with the parfait before serving. To make the parfait, beat the yolks of four eggs until light, add three-quarters of a cup of maple syrup and cook over hot water until it thickens. Beat until cold, then stir into a pint of cream whipped until stiff. Fill into a mould and let stand about four hours well packed in ice and salt.

A favorite first course in season is blue points on the half shell, as given in Menu III. Allow six to a person, and arrange in a circle on a bed of cracked ice with a quarter of lemon in the center of the plate. Cut the bread for sandwiches very thin, butter it, place two pieces together and stamp in rounds. Serve the cream of tomato in bouillon cups with a spoonful of whipped cream floating on the surface. To make the Timbales, cook a pound of fresh halibut in boiling salted water, drain and force through a fine meat chopper. Add to this pulp three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt, a few grains of cayenne, a third of a cup of cream whipped until stiff, and the stiffly beaten whites of three eggs. Fill small, buttered timbale moulds with the mixture, half surround with hot water and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with a white sauce, to which add the beaten yolks of eggs and, if liked, a little minced parsley and lemon juice. Instead of serving the usual cranberry sauce with the turkey, scoop out the inner pulp of some small red apples and fill them with a mixture made, during the summer, of the various fruits in season, almost their weight in sugar and preserved. Maraschino punch is simply a strong lemon ice as a foundation, flavored highly with maraschino. Serve in punch glasses with a maraschino cherry in the center of each. Make some tomato jelly with gelatine and mould it in small cups. Unmould on shredded lettuce, hollow out each one and fill with a mixture of diced celery, chopped English walnuts and rich mayonnaise. The almond cake is made of the plain white cake foundation, baked in two layers. Spread thickly between the layers and on top of the cake an abundance of boiled icing made very rich with a quantity of blanched almonds chopped very fine. Serve with each portion of plain vanilla ice cream a spoonful or more of sauce made of a cup of sugar and half a cup of water boiled to a thick syrup, and to which is added, when cool, four tablespoons of claret. Chill on ice.

The Ease of a Course Dinner.

Many of our housewives who want the elegance of a course dinner, yet who are limited to the services of one maid, would be much amazed at the ease with which they can both cook and serve if a little forethought be used in the menu.

Cocktail.—A preliminary cocktail, prepared beforehand from a bottled sauce or catsup and marinated oysters or clams, makes a good beginning and can be made ready in the early morning and placed on ice to great advantage.

Soup.—A clear soup with vermicelli or noodles can be cooked the day before and may simmer quietly for half an hour before serving time without further care.

Fish.—Fish is well represented by deviled crabs, seasoned and turned into little mounds in the center of cockle shells. This may be done any time several hours previous to the feast and all they need at meal time is a simple browning in the oven.

Meat.—Large and substantial roasts are not only hard to prepare and serve but also fill the oven to the exclusion of everything else, so why not have delicious little steaks, fillet of beef, with canned French peas, and pomme de terre au gratin, served in ramekins and prepared early in the day from mashed potato and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

Salad.—Most salads may, without serious injury, be mixed several hours before using and placed in a large bowl in the refrigerator, placing it on the lettuce leaves at serving time. Cheese balls are better made early and iced.

Dessert.—Certainly for dessert nothing could be more delicious, more appetizing or more decorative than individual Charlotte Russe, more popular than ice cream with hot maple or chocolate sauce and stuffed wafers, or more soul satisfying than a tutti frutti French cream, all of which may be either ordered from the caterer or made at home early.

With bonbons, coffee, cigars and liqueurs (if used) this provides for a really elaborate dinner of eight courses, which could be prepared for that matter by the housewife herself in the forenoon, inasmuch as the only thing which must be actually cooked at mealtime is the steak. Almost any maid could be trusted to do the rest.

A Fine Menu.

"Creme de Marron"—(Nut Soup.)—One quart of chestnut meats which have been skinned, then stew tender in enough water to a little more than cover. Press through a fine sieve into the cooking pot, then add one quart of white stock. Heat to boiling point, then add ample pinch of salt and dash of white pepper, few drops of nutmeg, onion and celery essence. Lastly one pint of beaten cream. Color a rich green with a few drops of spinach extract.

Salade Mignon.—Two medium sized white potatoes pared and steamed tender, then cooled and cut into neat dice. One cup of solid cooked peas, one cup of small button mushrooms, one cup of finely minced celery, one cup of small pickled white onions cut into halves. Mix the vegetables lightly with a good white mayonnaise, then fashion in pyramid form on salad plate, and garnish with lettuce hearts and a few pink geranium blossoms.

Pate Franciere.—Line eight fluted pate tins with a delicate pastry crust, then fill with rice and bake a dainty brown in moderate oven. Remove the rice and fill them with the following force meat: Two pairs of chicken livers, steamed tender then minced fine, four steamed cocks combs, one cup of fried scallops. Moisten the ingredients with a brown gravy highly seasoned with paprika and truffle, and fill neatly into the crusts. Put on a perforated top previously baked, and serve on a folded napkin.

Roses Glace Daintee.—One half package of gelatine soaked in one and a half cups of white wine for thirty minutes, then set the bowl into boiling water, until the gelatine is dissolved. Add one half cup of sugar, a few drops of orange flower water to flavor, a few drops of spinach extract to color a delicate green. Strain and set away to cool.

When it begins to thicken beat in one pint of whipped cream. Add two ounces of candied rose petals, turn into square mold and when set turn out on lace paper mat on crystal dessert platter. Garnish with roses.

Here are three more menus:

Out of the beaten track:

Little Neck Clams on the Half Shell, and without the customary slices of lemon and various sauces and horseradish. It is a mistake to spoil the flavor of any food with highly-seasoned sauces.

Next, Chicken Okra Soup, into which, just before serving, is poured a small pitcher of plain cream.

For the fish course, instead of the usual small separate portions, have a Planked Whitefish served from the plank, with Plain Butter Sauce. Accompanying this have small Baked Potatoes, cut open in the center and with a small piece of butter placed in each one.

Instead of the hereditary Cucumber Salad, have young cucumbers quartered lengthwise, not sliced. Cucumbers prepared in this way are much more delicious, because the knife cuts through most of the seeds. They should be pared so that a great deal of the outside is taken off. The best dressing is about three parts olive oil and one part vinegar, with a little pepper and salt, poured over the cucumbers just before serving. Cucumbers allowed to stand in dressing for any length of time become rubbery and indigestible.

Here serve for each guest half a small Broiled Chicken on Toast, with Potatoes au Gratin, and large delicious young Marrowfat Peas.

Serve as a separate course, Lettuce cut in thin strips, over which is sprinkled powdered sugar and a plentiful amount of plain cream is poured.

For dessert have a large dish of delicious ripe strawberries.

Following this have plain unsweetened wafers buttered with Roquefort Paste (which is made of Roquefort cheese and butter in equal quantities) and dusted with cinnamon. Then serve Turkish coffee.

A Mid-Summer Dinner.

Have table prettily decorated with a centerpiece of ice and ferns. The ice frozen in a miniature iceberg, and encircled by low, spreading maidenhair ferns and gleaming tiny opalescent lamps. Keep the candles for the lamps in the ice chest all day and they will burn slowly and steadily through the evening. Let cut glass canoes hold the nuts, olives and bonbons. The meat courses should be served in thin white Japanese porcelain, but the other viands are to be served in cut glass dishes. The name cards are made of squares of gray paper simply lettered with the guests' names and the date—the letters formed by icicles. The menu is as follows:

The clams are served in ice shells, lying on beds of crisp cress, and the bouillon, strong and highly seasoned, served in little cut glass bowls. With the fricasseed crabs serve a smooth cool sauce, having lemon and mustard as its predominating flavor. Juicy little fillets of beef, that melt in the mouth, are next brought on lettuce leaves, with fricasseed mushrooms on toast, frozen pickled beets and potato straws. The sweetbreads are parboiled, chopped up with asparagus tips and truffles, and formed into cones with white chaudfroid sauce, then chilled to the freezing point. With them are served tomatoes filled with shaved ice, chopped cress and tartare sauce. But the triumph of cookery is the salad, each ingredient proportioned and blended into a pleasing whole. The white meat of two chickens, cut into small fillets and each dipped into a semi-fluid jelly made as follows: Three hard boiled eggs, an anchovy, one tablespoonful of minced capers, two tablespoonfuls of grated ham, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a pinch of chili pepper rubbed through a sieve and mixed well with two tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise and three of semi-fluid aspic. Then small molds are lined with aspic and a fillet—ornamented with strips of beets and cucumbers—put in each; enough aspic to cover poured in and the molds set on ice.

A rich mayonnaise is made, and peas, cut up cucumbers and string beans stirred through it. When the time comes to serve the salad, the molds are turned out on leaves of crinkly white lettuce, with a border of mayonnaise around them. The peach sherbet is served in little fluted cups of ice, set in a circle of fern fronds and pink carnations on cut glass plates. Three drops of cochineal are added to the ice just before freezing to give it a delicate pink hue. After the gelatine is dissolved in a rich custard and begins to thicken, the curacoa and the whipped cream are added, and stirred together very lightly. Individual orange-shaped molds are filled with the cream and put on ice to harden. When turned out of the molds, a little twig and leaves of crystalized ginger are inserted in each orange. Sherry wine is poured in the heart of the melon, and, after it has ripened on ice for two hours, the melon is cut open and the seeds removed. Cut out oval-shaped pieces with a big spoon and set back on the ice till wanted. Take to the table in a deep glass bowl, splints of ice shining among its juicy pink morsels. Then the coffee, the toasted crackers and blocks of frozen cheese.

Luncheon Menus.

There are but few particulars in which a formal luncheon differs materially from a dinner. Fruit or a fruit salpicon is usually preferred to oysters as a first course. The soup or bouillon is served in cups rather than soup plates, and entrees or chops take the place of heavy joints or roasts. The usual hour for a luncheon is between one and two o'clock, and artificial light is considered inappropriate for such an occasion. If the table used is a handsome and highly polished one, the cloth may be dispensed with, if desired. Instead use a handsome center piece with small doilies under the plates and other dishes to protect the table. If there are a large number of guests, they are usually served at small tables, prettily decorated with a few flowers.

If the luncheon is to be a formal affair word your invitation thus: "Mrs. Harris requests the pleasure of Mrs. Brown's company at luncheon, Tuesday, September twenty-seventh, at one o'clock." If it is an informal affair simply write a little note on this order:

Dear Mrs. Brown,

Will you not join us at luncheon Tuesday at one o'clock? My friend, Mrs. Black, is with me and I should like to have you meet her.

Sincerely yours,
Date.

Put your street and number at the head of the note. Invitations to informal luncheons are also permissible by telephone or verbally.

Simple Luncheon.

Have the fruit at each place when the guests are assembled. Garnish with any preferred flowers, which should serve also as a souvenir of the occasion. Substitute other fruit if grapes are not seasonable. Both timbale cases and Saratoga potatoes given in the next course, may be prepared early. The potatoes, of course, must be reheated. Fill the creamed oysters into the cases, surround with the potatoes and serve the biscuits, olives and pickles on the same plate. Make the biscuits with baking powder, roll out the dough half the usual thickness, cut out and put two rounds together, brushing first the lower round with melted butter. To make the moulded chicken, separate some stewed chicken into small pieces. Fill loosely into small buttered moulds with a slice of hard boiled egg in the bottom of each. Cover with the strained and clarified chicken broth, to which sufficient gelatine has been added to stiffen it, and stand aside to harden. Turn out on shredded lettuce and serve surrounded with mayonnaise. Bake a sponge cake in a large sheet, cover thickly with boiled icing and decorate with marshmallows cut in halves, and placed on the top at regular distances. Cut in squares, with a marshmellow in the center of each. The orange jelly may be made more elegant if candied fruit and nuts are added to it.

More Elaborate Luncheon.

For the salpicon of fruit, make a foundation of three-quarter orange juice, one-quarter lemon juice, and powdered sugar to sweeten. Add sliced bananas and other fruit in season. Serve very cold in punch glasses. Serve the cream of celery in bouillon cups with whipped cream on top. The puff paste points and patty shells may be made of the same paste. Serve the fried chicken, vermicelli toast and potatoes on one plate. If very young spring chickens are used, cut in halves or quarters; larger chickens may be cut in smaller pieces. It is nice, only rather expensive, to use the breasts only, cut in two or three pieces. To make the vermicelli toast, cut the bread in rounds and toast it, cover with a rich, thick cream sauce, to which add the chopped whites of several eggs, and sprinkle thickly over all the yolks rubbed through a ricer. A pretty way of serving the Waldorf salad is in apple cups. Cut off the tops and hollow out some large red apples, fill with a mixture of the scraped apple, celery, nuts and mayonnaise, replace the top and insert a celery plume for the stem. Serve surrounded with hot buttered popcorn. A plain, but very elegant frozen pudding is easily made of whipped cream, sweetened and flavored. Pack in a mold in layers, dot each layer liberally with candied fruit, nuts and grated chocolate. Pack in ice and salt for at least four hours.

Of course these dishes can be varied to suit the season and the occasion. The main thing is to be prepared for your company by being at home yourself, and in this way you will make everybody else at home.

A Berry Luncheon.

For table decorations, ribbons and candle shades use crushed strawberry tints; flowers to correspond. Primroses in a pinky purple are good. Blossoms tied with white satin ribbon make pretty decorations.

Instead of an oyster course, have strawberries served European fashion, with their hulls on, sprinkled with powdered sugar. At the end of the meal serve strawberry shortcake, the real Southern article.

Fill the rolled French omlette with strawberry jam.

The bonbons are strawberries dipped in white fondant.

Midsummer Luncheon.

For a small luncheon have on the table four cut glass bowls filled with waterlilies, resting on the lily pads set on chop plates filled with water. In the center of the table three tall cathedral candles rising from a mass of asparagus fern. Have the bonbons in green and white and the pistachio nuts in bohemian glass bowls of pink, gold, violet and green. Make the place cards of waterlilies cut out of water-color paper and painted. The menu is red and white raspberries, iced clam bouillon, lamb chops, peas, potato roses, cucumber and nut salad served in green peppers cut to imitate lily buds, ice cream of pistachio and lemon ice molded in pond lily forms, cakes iced in green and white and coffee.

A Rural Luncheon.

For the main course prepare young chickens cut in halves and fried Southern style. Serve with hot cream gravy and corn fritters. On the side of the plate put potato croquettes and two slices of thin, crisp bacon. A crisp salad of sliced tomatoes or stuffed tomatoes and strawberries and cream would make this a simple appetizing meal which you need not hesitate to serve your city friends. A delicious dish is macaroni Milanaise. Cook spaghetti well, fry it in butter and serve with mushrooms. Also serve small bits of tongue, grated Swiss cheese and a tomato sauce. Morning glories make a pretty table decoration. Place them on the vines in a cut glass bowl in the center of the table and let them run riot over the cloth. Paint morning glories in the corner of the name card. Serve the strawberries from a china platter wreathed in the morning glories.

Buffet Luncheon for Sixty.

For the first course have luscious fresh strawberries served on strawberry leaves dotted with tiny wild flowers and on flowered plates. With the strawberries the sugar is served in tiny paper cups. The second course is puree of corn served in odd Egyptian cups with whipped cream on top. The chicken croquettes are molded in form of tiny chickens with cloves for the eyes, and bits of celery tops for wings. The chicken rests on a nest of fried shoestring potatoes. With this is served a round of toast with first a slice of fried tomato and on top of that creamed asparagus tips. On the same plate are hot rolls and tiny pickles. Salted pecans and almonds should be passed during the entire luncheon. The salad course is a head of lettuce for each one. The heart of the lettuce is removed and filled with cucumber salad. Cheese straws are served with this. The ice cream is served in the form of strawberries and rests on a paper doily resembling Mexican drawnwork. The cake is a tiny white column, iced, with two candy strawberries on the side. The candies are peppermints in form of strawberries. Coffee served as a last course.

CHAPTER III.

DINNERS AND ENTERTAINMENTS FOR PATRIOTIC, HOLIDAY AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS.

Valentine Luncheon.

Here is a Valentine luncheon for young girls suggesting the "Sweet Sixteen" idea in a novel and beautiful manner. Spun sugar should be used exclusively in most of the table decorations. Have a round table set in pure white and crystal, the latest fad. At each girl's plate have a flower done in candy in a realistic manner.

On each side of the table have small, red heart-shaped candy baskets filled with red candy hearts. Imitation baskets of rock candy tied with bows of candy ribbons holding preserved citron, ginger and nuts glacé. The fruit salad should be served in paper cases imitating pink roses. Over the salad have a white mayonnaise dotted with pink rose petals. The crackers heart shaped. The ice cream should be served in white candy baskets with tall handles. For place cards use pink hearts.

A Lincoln Dinner.

As most of the evening is spent in the dining-room, particular attention is given to the decoration of it, and the appointments of the table, to make them original and attractive. The national colors prevail in the use of bunting and flowers, and none save those peculiar to February should be utilized; tropical foliage is dispensed with, and, inasmuch as Kentucky was Mr. Lincoln's native state, only such evergreens as are native to that commonwealth—as holly, cedar, laurel, etc.,—should be used to supply the necessary greenery disposed about the room, the particular arrangement of which must be decided by the furnishings therein and by individual taste.

The table is laid in the regulation white, dotted over with American Beauty petals and violets, the edge being draped in laurel tied with tri-colored ribbon. In the middle is laid a round mat of woodland moss to simulate bluegrass, and on it rests a miniature log cabin, around which is built a fancy rail fence made of chocolate sticks; a number of little pickaninnies are seen playing about the house, and grin out at the guests, which renders the effect very realistic and interesting. Little jugs tied with blue ribbon are also prominent features. In front of each cover stands a diminutive barrel labeled "Old Bourbon," but in reality holding nothing more harmful than delicious bon bons, unless it happens to be a stag affair, when the genuine article would be preferable. Ices are presented in fancy moulds decorated with small darkies, and in the form of the dome of the Capitol, or any other suggestive figure that one prefers.

In issuing the invitations the guests are informed that one and all will be expected to contribute to the general enjoyment by relating some story or anecdote of Lincoln.

For St. Patrick's Day.

Menu for Irish Luncheon:

For favors there are Irish hats, clay pipes, Irish flags, harps, shamrocks, bon bon boxes, green snakes, etc. Oxalis answers for shamrock and pots of this arranged in a "fairy ring" with fairy lamps or green-shaded candles make a pretty, inexpensive centerpiece.

Attractive Easter Luncheon.

An extremely attractive Easter luncheon is as follows: The table is round, covered with a snowy damask cloth, exquisite china, sparkling glass and silver. The center piece, a small gilded cart, wreathed in violets and smilax, holds decorated eggs colored in tints of yellow and purple, while mingling with them are clusters of violets tied with lavender ribbons, one end extending to the front of each cover and there attached to wee yellow chickens resting in nests of violets, in whose beaks are tiny cards with name in gold.

Have also nests of spun sugar containing candy eggs, wax tapers burning under creamy lace shades. At each end of the table tall vases filled with ferns and garlanded with vines and at every plate daffodils growing in pots covered with green tissue paper.

This is the menu:

Cap and Bells Luncheon for April First.

For an April fool luncheon write your invitations in red ink on dunce caps, cut out of yellow paper and seal with red seal. Call your luncheon a "Cap and Bells" or "Harlequin" luncheon, as you prefer. Use bowls of red and yellow tulips, or red carnations, in yellow bowls. Rustic wall pockets with pussy willows, tied with pale green ribbon, are delightful April decorations. When the guests assemble give them snapping bon bons which make paper caps. Let them wear these caps to the dining-room. Do not put names on the guest cards; let each draw a card from a dunce cap. Have the card clowns cut from water-color paper and a suitable quotation and a number on each one. This number marks the order of procedure to the dining-room and the privilege of choosing seats. In this way no one can regard the card quotation as offensively personal. If you wish an "April Fool" menu, serve it as a buffet luncheon before going to the table. You can find imitation dishes of every sort at the caterer's.

Over the round dining table suspend a hoop wound with smilax or red and yellow ribbon. From this hoop hang tiny bells by invisible wires. A Japanese "windbell" is especially suitable. It consists of pieces of metal of odd shapes so suspended that they strike in the wind. Light your table by red candles with yellow dunce cap shades. In the center of the table have a clown or "Pierrot" in costume of red with large yellow dots, driving toy geese by red and yellow ribbons. These geese may be made of water-color paper and filled with salted almonds and bon bons. At each plate have a "fool's stick" or wand. This is made by winding a short stick with red and yellow ribbon, the ends of which are fastened at the top with a gilt-headed tack, and tiny bells are fastened to the ends of the ribbons. Use maidenhair ferns at the base of the center piece and the candlesticks to give a touch of green. Serve:

Decoration Day Luncheon.

This pretty luncheon combines two features—it can be given on Decoration Day, and also as a bon voyage luncheon. Have bands of red, white and blue ribbon radiate from the center of the table to each plate, and a large cutglass bowl filled with white flowers, roses, hyacinths and narcissi and ferns stand in the center. Before each plate have a tiny ship in full sail, the name of the guest written in gilt on the silk sail. The favor for the guest of honor might be a bon bon box made in imitation of a shawl strap. Inside have a tiny silk flag.

Red and white should be carried out in the menu. Have a white soup with whipped cream. The salmon salad served in white paper boats with tiny American flags sticking in the prow. The ices frozen in form of flags. The cakes red, white and violet icing.

For a Hallowe'en Dinner.

Have a big pumpkin filled with yellow chrysanthemums for the center of the table and at each place a tiny pumpkin made into a candle with a green pumpkin leaf shade. Light the room with jack o' lanterns or yellow Chinese lanterns. For the menu serve cream of corn soup in yellow bowls. Serve turkey, cranberry jelly, mashed turnips, baked sweet potatoes, on yellow plates. Serve fruit salad in the red apple cups, with pumpkin pie and yellow ice cream frozen in shape of pumpkins, for dessert. Serve coffee in yellow cups.

Fourth of July Dinner.

A beautiful summer dinner for July Fourth is as follows: On the table have a centerpiece of pineapple cloth over pale green satin, on which place a flat willow basket of green and white striped grasses that border the garden flower beds. From this basket have wavy lines of pale green gauze ribbon reaching to each corner of the table, the ribbons ending in flat bouquets of daisies tied with grasses. The dinner cards should be cut out of water-color paper in the shape of long, narrow spikes of lilies and fastened to the glasses by flaps on the backs. The menu is clam bisque; lobster cutlets with egg sauce; timbales of sweetbreads; new carrots with fine herbs; crown of lamb with mint sauce; potato croquettes and salsify; peach ice; truffle-stuffed squab, cress; asparagus and lettuce salad; green cornucopiae of ice cream filled with lemon ice; white cake with green icing; coffee, nuts glace.

A Luncheon for Thanksgiving.

Have this sentiment painted on a white or dark gray background framed in cedar boughs and placed over your mantel:

The waning year grows brown and gray and dull,
And poets sing November, bleak and sere;
But from the bounteous garnered harvest store,
With grateful hearts we draw Thanksgiving cheer.

Place a row of white candles in pewter candlesticks across the mantel and display all the old china, pewter, brass and copper about the dining-room. Use cedar boughs to decorate the chandelier and plate rail. In the center of the bare table have a miniature stack of wheat (the florist can furnish this). Peeping out of the wheat have toy turkey candy boxes filled with almonds or hickory nut meats and raisins. Have the candles on the table set in flat cedar wreaths and scatter pine needles over the surface of the table. At each plate have a little doll dressed in Puritan costume with the name card tied around her neck. If one wishes to add a bit of color to the table use old-fashioned blue and white or colored bowls, in one pile glossy red apples, in another purple and white grapes, in another oranges. Here are some suitable Colonial dishes: Brown bread, roasted fowl, oysters in every style, cakes of Indian meal called bannocks which are spread before the fire on large tins and baked before the fire, brown sugar and molasses for sweetening; fruit cake, molasses cake, pumpkin, apple and mince pie; jellies, jams and conserves (a sweet mixture of fruits). Use all the old-fashioned china and silver possible.

Thanksgiving Dinner.

First an old-fashioned oyster stew served in old white, gold-banded tureen.

Next fish-balls—not great, soggy old-fashioned fish cakes, but the daintiest little golden-brown balls, fried in a basket in hot fat, and not more than an inch in diameter, just a good mouthful. Have them served individually, smoking hot, heaped up in the daintiest little piles, with a few tiny sprigs of baby parsley for garnish.

Next will come the turkey, a monster bird, "with stuffing" made of Italian chestnuts.

It goes without saying that with this will be served the historic cranberry jelly, which may be moulded in a square tin and served in tiny cubical blocks. After the sweet potatoes are baked the contents will be removed, whipped light as a feather with two well-beaten eggs, a little milk, pepper, salt and butter, the skins refilled, stood on end in a pan and the tops browned in the oven.

Then Roman punch.

Then two good old-fashioned pies, one pumpkin, the other mince, each about two inches thick.

A Christmas Dinner.

If one wishes to develop the idea of Santa and his sleigh, buy a doll and dress as Santa and fashion a sleigh out of cardboard and color red. About Santa and his sleigh, which may be filled with bonbons or tiny gifts like animals from Noah's ark, etc., for the guests, have imitation snow of coarse salt or sugar, or cotton sprinkled with diamond dust. Have tiny sprigs of evergreen standing upright for trees. At each plate have a tiny sleigh filled with red and green candies and light the table with red candles and shades in shape of Christmas bells. Have the dinner cards ornamented with little water-color Santa Claus' heads or little trees. If one uses the Christmas bell idea have the bells covered with scarlet crape tissue and swung from the chandelier. One can have the letters on them spell "Merry Christmas." In the center of the table place a mound of holly with bright red berries; have red candles arranged in any design one chooses, and far enough away so their heat will not ignite the tissue paper bells. White paper shades with sprays of holly painted or tied on make pretty Christmas shades. Have the bonbons, nuts, salads and ice cream served in cases in shape of bells, or have the ice cream frozen in bell shape. If one wishes to decorate with the tiny trees, fasten them upright in flower pots and cover the pots with red paper. Hang bonbons or sparkling objects and tinsel or little favors of bells for the guests from the branches of the trees. The holly wreaths may be used in any way the fancy dictates—a large center wreath and if the table is round, a second larger one near the edge of the table, leaving room for the plates or single candlesticks set in tiny wreaths at intervals between the larger wreaths. A wreath dinner is very pretty and easy to plan, for the different dishes may be garnished with wreaths of parsley, radishes, endive, cress, or the sweets with rings of kisses, macaroons, whipped cream roses, candies, etc.

Here is a suitable menu. Oyster or clam cocktail, wafers, consomme, bouillon or cream of celery soup, celery, radishes, small square crackers. If one wishes a fish course, creamed lobster or salmon with potato balls. Roast Turkey or game of any sort, glazed sweet potatoes, corn fritters, creamed peas, peach, currant or grape jelly, hot rolls. Cranberry sherbet; nut salad with plain bread and butter sandwiches, individual plum puddings with burning brandy, ice cream in any desired shape, white cake or fruit cake if one does not have the plum pudding, cheese, crackers, coffee.

An Unusually Original Dinner.

A quail dinner given recently will furnish ideas for others who wish to give a dinner out of the ordinary. Let the oblong table on which the dinner is served represent a field with miniature shocks of grain and stubble in which are quail, pheasants' and other birds' nests. A border of toy guns stacked mark the edge of the field. At each man's place have a toy figure of a hunter with some toy fastened to the back telling some joke on the diner. The women can have birds' nest candy boxes surmounted by birds. The name cards can be English hunting scene postals.

This is the menu:

A Spring Dinner.

To secure a pretty effect pull the extension table apart and fill in the center space with palms and ferns, keeping the foliage low enough not to interfere with the vision of the guests. Across each end of the table lay a pale green satin and lace cover on which place French baskets filled with yellow daffodils and pink tulips. Before each place set tall stem vases filled with yellow daffodils resting on wreaths of pink begonias. Have the pink and yellow candies in French baskets tied with the same colors. Use monograms of the guests on plain white cards with tiny silver boots tied to a corner for favors. Serve:

College Dinners.

To those who may have the planning of college dinners, the description of this Harvard dinner may not come amiss.

In the center of the table have a large bowl of red tulips; red shades on the candles standing at either end of the table. The favors can be small boxes in the shape of foot-balls filled with red candies. The place-cards in the shape of foot-balls, cut out of red cardboard, and painted in black and white; by each plate a roll with a small Harvard flag, of silk. Place the olives, nuts and red candies in small paper cases covered with tissue paper, which match in shape as well as in color, the central bouquet of tulips.

Even in the menu the color scheme may be carried out as far as possible with tomato bisque, deviled crabs served in the shells, chicken croquettes, fillet of beef, garnished with cress and radishes, beet salad and ice cream baskets filled with strawberries. The croquettes can be made in the shape of foot-balls. The beets for the salad are boiled until tender, and when cold scooped out and filled with dressed celery. A few curved cuts made around the sides of the beets give the effect of flower petals. The little cakes, served with the ice-cream, are covered with red frosting.

If Princeton be the Alma Mater in whose honor the feast is spread, tiger-lilies should be the flowers used on the center of the table, and the menu would of course, differ much from the one already given. Instead might be substituted black bean soup with slices of hard boiled egg; fried scallops and Saratoga potatoes; sweet bread patés; chicken with sweet potatoes; and carrots cut with a vegetable cutter into what are called shoestrings; lobster salad served in paper boxes, having around the outside, ruffles of orange crépe paper; and orange ice served in the natural oranges. If one prefers a change from the wishbone creation, Noah's Ark tigers may stand guard over the patés.

A Yale dinner would be the most difficult to arrange as there are no fruits or vegetables that could rightly be called blue, unless some varieties of grapes and plums might be considered as coming under that head. But with a large central bouquet of cornflowers, with blue ribbons extending from this to each cover, where under the bow or rosette will be laid the corn-cob pipe or other souvenir, and with blue crépe paper used to decorate some of the dishes, the table will present quite as attractive an appearance as either of the other dinners; while the genial guests will probably enjoy the feast fully as well, and be quite as loyal, even if the roast and salad do not show the college colors.

CHAPTER IV.

"ICE BREAKERS," SUGGESTIONS FOR DINNER, MENU AND PLACE CARDS, TABLE STORIES, TOASTS, TABLE DECORATIONS.

Ice Breakers.

A dinner always stands a better chance of being a success if there is some little thing to break the ice at the start. A little verse might be placed on the card bearing the name of each guest. A particularly lively and cheerful young woman might have a verse something like this:—

"Fevers are contagious,
But they're not by half
As quickly, surely catching
As Mrs. Thompson's laugh."

A lady who gives much thought and attention to political reforms might have the following:—

"Dogs have their days, so political parties
Pass through their seasons of sunshine and storm,
While longing eyes see the time that is coming,
When women shall work a more lasting reform."

An attractive young married woman might find this parody at her place:—

"How doth the dainty matron fair
Improve each shining hour,
And work on men both old and young,
Her fascinating power."

The wife of a distinguished landscape painter could get these lines:—

"Why should one desire to travel,
And in distant climes to roam,
When she has the fairest landscapes
Always hanging in her home."

When the oyster plates are removed, a letter might be found under each one, addressed to the person sitting at the place.

A man who is a well known promoter might receive this:—

"Dear Mr. J.—

"Is it true that you are interested in a project for connecting New York with the infernal regions by telephone? If so, as soon as the wires are in operation, I should like to call up Henry the Eighth, and find out what excuse he really made for getting rid of his wives. The demands upon me have been so great during this past year, that my stock of defenses has given out.

"Yours truly,"

Here place the name of some prominent criminal lawyer.

A lady whose first baby is only a few months old, might have the following in the envelope bearing her name:—

"Dear Madame:—

"Stick to the old reliable. There is only one perfectly pure and harmless soothing syrup, and that is made by yours,

"Respectfully,
"Mrs. Winslow."

An artist with a considerable reputation for painting sheep, might enjoy the following:—

"Dear Sir,

"Do you care to buy the small, stuffed lamb that has been in our window for several years past? It looks very natural, and would be much more quiet for a model than a live one.

"Respectfully,
"Beck, Butcher."
Washington Market.

Dinner, Menu and Place Cards.

The place card may be plain white edged with gold, and the monogram or crest in gold with the guest's name written plainly across it. However, handsome cards as souvenirs of a dinner are much prized by travelers and the younger set and are especially in favor for breakfasts, luncheons, bridal affairs and college dinners and spreads.

At the present moment there is the greatest diversity in guest cards. You may use a plain heavy visiting card with flowers stuck through the upper left corner, or decorated cards of every style, pen and ink, water-colors, etc. Cards for stag affairs have Old English pictures on a soft gray background; souvenir postals make interesting guest cards; tiny fans, playing cards, ribbons, cards cut out of water-color paper imitating flower pots with flowers in bloom, cards decorated with sketches of brides and bridegrooms, kodak pictures of familiar scenes, boats, different sports—you can scarcely go amiss on your cards—the more original they are the better. The card is laid on the napkin at dinner or luncheon, or if it has an easel-like back is fastened to the wineglass.

Graphology cards are an idea of the moment, and seem likely to prove more than a passing fad. Before ordering a set of these, the hostess obtains from each guest a line in his or her own handwriting; the note of acceptance received can be used, if one is sure that a secretary has not been employed. These specimens are turned over to the stationer, who, in turn, places them in the hands of an expert graphologist. When the occasion arrives for which the writing was obtained, each guest finds at his cover a card bearing his name and a printed delineation of his character formed from the chirography.

For guest cards at a large dinner have in the center of the table a gridiron of flowers and from it run orange and black ribbons to each plate. Have the guests' names in gilt letters on these ribbons, and each ribbon ends in a favor, which indicates the special fad of the guest. The oarsman finds a scull, the yachtsman a tiny yacht, the football captain a football, the hunter a tiny bear, the bowler ten pins, the poker player a miniature poker table, the glee club leader a tiny mandolin, and the man who wins hearts, a heart-shaped box with the miniature of a Gibson girl on its surface.

The girl who cuts paper dolls may make quaint and unique menu cards by cutting out little pickaninnies from shiny black kindergarten paper, then, little dresses, say of red, since this is the most striking combination, and pasting them on the plain cards.

The way to make them is to place a bit of black and a bit of red paper together, fold them shiny side out, and the red outside the black, cut out the dolls, one black, one red, then snip off heads, hands and legs of the red. This leaves the little dresses all ready to go on.

Before pasting on the dress make eyes and mouth in the little black head, by folding it perpendicularly and cutting out the mouth, then horizontally for the eyes. When the figure is once nicely pasted on the card, it is perfectly smooth, no sign of the various foldings appearing.

A dinner for a mixed company of talented men and women is made attractive by clever little quotations on the place cards. A general quotation in quaint lettering at the top of the card may apply to the feast; one following the name of the guest whose place it marks, may apply to the profession or personality of the guest.

"Who can display such varied art,
To suit the taste of saint and sinner,
Who go so near to touch their heart,
As you, my darling dainty dinner?"

"Who would not give all else for two pennyworth only of beautiful soup?"

"Your dressing, dancing, gadding, where's the good in?
Tell me, sweet lady, can you make a pudding?"

"Smoking and tender and juicy,
And what better meat can there be?"

"The true essentials of a feast are only fun and feed."—O. W. Holmes.

"May your appetite keep on good terms with your digestion."
"A good dinner is better than a fine coat."—Proverb.

"Sit down to that nourishment which is called supper."—Shakespeare.

"To thee and thy company I bid a hearty welcome."—Shakespeare.

"No man can be wise on an empty stomach."—Geo. Elliot.

For the Artist:

"Industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot."—Henry Ward Beecher.

"He is the greatest artist then,
Whether of pencil or of pen,
Who follows Nature."
—Longfellow.

For a Writer:

"Wise poets that wrap truth in tales."—Carew.

For the Architect:

"He builded better than he knew."—Emerson.

For the Actor:

"We'll hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature."—Shakespeare.

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."—Shakespeare.

For the Young Bachelor:

"A weather-beaten lover but once known,
Is sport for every girl to practice on."
—Anon.

"He had then the grace too rare in every clime
Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,
A finished gentleman from top to toe."
—Byron.

"That man that hath a tongue I say is no man
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman."
—Shakespeare.

"A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman
Fram'd in the prodigality of Nature,
Young, valiant, wise and no doubt right royal;
The spacious world cannot again afford."
—Shakespeare.

"Oh, he was all made up of love and charms,
Whatever maid could wish or man admire."
—Addison.

For the Soldier:

"They never fail who die in a great cause."—Byron.

"The rascal hath good mettle in him."—Shakespeare.

For the Young Girl:

"Blessings be about you dear, wherever you may go."—Allingham.