1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.
Put the salt and baking-powder in the flour and rub the b.u.t.ter into these with a spoon; little by little add the milk, mixing all the time; lift the dough out on the floured board, dust it over with flour, and flour the rolling-pin; roll out lightly, just once, till it is an inch thick. Flour your hands and make it into little b.a.l.l.s as quickly as you can; put a very little flour on the bottom of a shallow pan, and put the biscuits in it, close together. Bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes, or till they are brown.
These were great fun to make, and when the very last panful was done, Mildred tucked all the little brown biscuits up in a big fresh towel, and put them in a pan in the warming oven to keep hot till they were needed. At that very minute, they heard sleigh-bells, and everybody rushed to throw open the door and let the party in. Such shouting and laughing and talking you never heard in all your life! All the boys and girls had been out to the House in the Woods often before, and they were so glad to come again, they hardly knew what to do.
While they were taking off their wraps, Jack slipped out into the kitchen and demanded the frying-pan. "See," he said proudly, opening a box, "here are the cheese dreams, all ready to cook! Aren"t they fine?"
"Lovely!" exclaimed his mother, and then added, with a merry twinkle in her eyes, "you"ll be a great cook yet, Jack!"
This was the receipt Jack had used to make them:
CHEESE DREAMS
(Six large sandwiches)
12 slices of bread, cut half an inch thick.
12 thin slices of cheese.
1 pinch of soda, cayenne pepper, and salt for each slice.
Put together like sandwiches, and then cut into rounds. Heat a frying-pan very hot, melt a teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter in it, and lay in two or three sandwiches; when one side is brown, turn it over and cook the other; take from the pan and lay in the oven in a pan on a paper till all are ready.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Jack Fried the "Cheese Dreams"]
Of course Jack had made more than six sandwiches, for he knew everybody would want two apiece; so he had a great boxful, and it took him quite a little time to fry them all; but it was just as well, for Mildred and her mother had to make the oyster stew, which was to be eaten first.
OYSTER STEW
1 pint of oysters.
1/2 pint of water.
1 quart of rich milk.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
Drain the juice off the oysters and examine each to remove any pieces of sh.e.l.l that may still adhere to it; add the water to the oyster juice, and boil one minute; skim this well. Heat the milk and add to this, and when it steams, drop in the oysters and simmer just one minute, or till the edges of the oysters begin to curl; add the salt and take up at once; if you choose, add a cup of sifted cracker crumbs.
"What is "simmer?" asked Mildred, as she read the rule over.
"Just letting it boil a tiny little bit," said her mother, "around the edges of the saucepan, but not all over. And here is the receipt for:"
SCRAMBLED EGGS
1 egg for each person.
2 tablespoonfuls of milk to each egg.
2 shakes of salt.
1 shake of pepper.
Break the eggs in a bowl, beat them twelve times, then add the milk, salt, and pepper; heat a pan, put in a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of a hickory-nut, and when it is melted, pour in the eggs; stir them as they cook, and sc.r.a.pe them off the bottom of the pan; when they are all thick and creamy, they are done.
"I have taken the rule for the stew three times over for twelve people, and I don"t think it will be a bit too much; but as almost everyone will want the cheese dreams, suppose we scramble only five eggs.
"You"d better do that right away, for supper is almost ready. Brownie"s potatoes are just done, and she can be filling the gla.s.ses with water, and putting on the b.u.t.ter and bread, and these two big dishes of honey to eat with the biscuits for the last course."
While Mildred was cooking the eggs, Mother Blair put the oysters on the table, with the hot soup-plates and a generous supply of crisp oyster-crackers; the cheese dreams were done and in the oven, and Mildred covered the eggs and set the dish in the warming oven, and put the cocoa on the table in a chocolate pot. Then everybody sat down and began to eat.
After the oyster stew was all gone, they had the hot cheese dreams and scrambled eggs and the stuffed potatoes and cocoa all at once; and when those too had vanished, there were the little biscuits and the beautiful golden clover-honey in the comb, and perhaps that was the very best of all.
"Never, never, did I eat anything so good as this supper!" Father Blair said solemnly, as he ate his fourth biscuit. "That oyster stew--those potatoes--the cheese dreams--"
"What a greedy father!" said Mildred. "And you never said a word about the cocoa--"
"Nor about the scrambled eggs--" said Brownie, eagerly.
"But I ate them all," said her father. "I ate everything I was given, and I should like to eat them all again! Next time we come, have twice as much of everything, won"t you?"
But everybody else said that they couldn"t have eaten one single crumb more. And they knew perfectly well that Father Blair couldn"t, either.
Then everybody helped wash the dishes and put things away, and Farmer Dunn came over to put out the fires and shut the doors; and presently it was all dark in the House in the Woods, and so still that, far, far off, you could hear the sound of the singing of the boys and girls as they rode home across the snow.
CHAPTER III
JACK"S SCHOOL-LUNCHEONS
"Mother," said Jack, one evening, "I"d like to take my lunch to school for the next few weeks; all the fellows are going to, so we can have more time for cla.s.s elections and so on. Do you suppose Norah could put up one for me every morning?"
"Why not let Mildred put it up? Her school is so near that she does not have to start till long after you do; and then, Jack, you could easily pay her for her trouble by helping her with her Latin; you know she is bothered with that just now."
Mildred was overjoyed at the suggestion of the bargain. "Oh, Jack! I"ll do you up the most beautiful luncheons in the world if you will only help me with that horrid Caesar. I"m just as stupid as I can be about it.
What do you like best to eat in all the world?"
Jack said he wasn"t very particular as long as he had plenty of pie and cake and pickles and pudding and ice-cream; Mildred laughed, and said she guessed she could manage to think up a few other things beside.
So the very next morning she put up the first luncheon. But, alas, Norah had no cold meat to slice--only bits of beefsteak left from dinner; and not a single piece of cake. All she could find for lunch was some plain bread and b.u.t.ter, which she cut rather thick, a hard-boiled egg, and an apple. "Pretty poor," she sighed, as she saw him trudge off with the box under his arm.
That afternoon, when she came home from school, she went to Mother Blair for help. "I must give him nice luncheons," she explained. "Now what can I have for to-morrow? I can"t think of anything at all, except bread and cake, and stupid things like those."
"Oh, there are lots and lots of things," said her mother. "Putting up lunches is just fun! I only wish you would do up some for me, too! And first, dear, you had better see that there is plenty of bread, because it takes a good deal for sandwiches, and it must not be too fresh to slice nicely, nor too stale; day-old bread is best. And if you can find some brown bread as well as white, that will be ever so nice. You will want cake, too, and fruit; you might ask Norah what she has on hand."
In a moment, Mildred came back with the news that, as there was to be fish for dinner, there would be no left-over meat at all in the morning; the bits of steak were still there. "But imagine beefsteak sandwiches!"
said she, scornfully. And though there was no cake now, Norah was going to make some.
"I think we had better learn first how to make all kinds of sandwiches, because that will help you more than anything else in putting up lunches," her mother said, getting out her cook-book. "You will need some paraffin paper for them, too, and paper napkins; suppose you look on the top shelf of the kitchen closet and see if we had any left over from summer picnics."
By the time Mildred had found these, as well as a box to pack the lunch in, these receipts were all ready for her to copy in her own book:
SANDWICHES