ORANGES
Cut an orange in half crosswise. Place on an attractive dish, scoop out the juice and pulp with a spoon and sweeten if necessary.
PINEAPPLE
Peel the pineapple, dig out all the eyes, then cut from the core downward, or chop in a chopping-bowl, and set on ice until ready to serve. Then sugar the fruit well, and form into a mound in a dish.
Garnish the base well with leaves or small fruit of any kind. You may squeeze the juice of one orange over all.
PEACHES
Peel fine, ripe freestone peaches. Cover plentifully with pulverized sugar, and serve with whipped cream. The cream should be ice cold.
Peaches should not be sliced until just before dining, or they will be very apt to change color.
WATERMELONS
Use only those melons that are perfectly ripe. Do not select those that are very large in circ.u.mference; a rough melon with a b.u.mpy surface is the best. Either cut in half or plug and fill with the following: Put on to boil some pale sherry or claret and boil down to quite a thick syrup with sugar. Pour this into either a plugged melon or over the half-cut melon, and lay on ice for a couple of hours before serving. If you use claret you may spice it while boiling with whole spices.
SNOWFLAKES
Grate a large cocoanut into a fruit dish, and mix it thoroughly and lightly with pulverised sugar. Serve with whipped or plain sweet cream.
TUTTI-FRUTTI
Slice oranges, bananas, pineapples and arrange in a gla.s.s-bowl; sprinkle with pulverized sugar, and serve either with wine or cream. You may use both.
RIPE TOMATOES
Select nice, large, well-shaped tomatoes, pare, slice and put on ice.
When ready to serve sprinkle each layer thickly with pulverized sugar.
PINEAPPLE SOUFFLe
Take a nice ripe pineapple, grate it and sweeten to taste. Beat the whites of two eggs stiff and mix with the pineapple. Before serving, whip half a pint of cream and put on the pineapple.
FROSTED APPLES
Pare and core six large apples. Cover with one pint of water and three tablespoons of sugar; simmer until tender. Remove from the syrup and drain. Wash the parings and let simmer with a little water for one-half hour. Beat the white of one egg to a stiff froth and add one tablespoon of sugar. Coat the top of the apples lightly with the meringue and place in a cool oven to dry. Strain the juice from the parings, add two tablespoons of sugar, return to the fire and let boil for five minutes; add a few drops of lemon juice and a little nutmeg, cool and pour around the apples.
APPLE FLOAT
Peel six big apples and slice them. Put them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them and cook until tender. Then put them through a colander and add the grated rind and juice of half a lemon, sweeten to taste and stir in a trace of nutmeg. Fold in the stiffly beaten whites of four eggs and put the dish on ice. Serve with whipped or plain cream.
APPLE DELIGHT
Put a layer of apple sauce in a b.u.t.tered pudding dish, dot with b.u.t.ter, add a layer of chopped peaches and apricots, sprinkle with blanched almonds ground rather coa.r.s.ely, repeat until the pan is full; pour the peach juice over the mixture and bake for one hour.
APPLE COMPOTE
Take six apples ("Greenings," "Baldwins" or "Bellflowers"), pare, quarter, core and lay them in cold water as soon as pared. Then take the parings and seeds, put in a dish with a cup of water and a cup of white wine, and boil for about fifteen minutes. Strain through a fine sieve, then put on to boil again, and add half a cup of white sugar and the peel of half a lemon. Put in the apples and let them stew for fifteen minutes longer. When the apples are tender, take up each piece carefully with a silver spoon and lay on a platter to cool. Let the syrup boil down to about half the quant.i.ty you had after removing the apples, and add to it the juice of half a lemon. Lay your apples in a fruit dish, pyramid shape, pour the syrup over them, serve.
BAKED APPLES
Take large, juicy apples, wash and core them well, fill each place that you have cored with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, and put a clove in each apple. Lay them in a deep dish, pour a teacup of water in the dish, and put a little sugar on top of each apple. When well done the apples will be broken. Then remove them carefully to the dish they are to be served in and pour the syrup over them. To be eaten cold. If you wish them extra nice, glaze them with the beaten white of an egg, half a cup of pulverized sugar and serve with whipped cream.
STEAMED SWEET APPLES
For this dish use sweet apples, and steam in a closely covered iron pot for three-quarters of an hour.
Quarter and core five apples without paring. Put into the pot and melt beef drippings; when hot, lay a layer of apples in, skin down, sprinkle with brown sugar, and when nearly done, turn and brown; place on a platter and sprinkle with sugar.
FRIED APPLES
Quarter and core five apples without paring. Put into a frying-pan one cup of sugar, one tablespoon of b.u.t.ter and three tablespoons of water.
Let this melt and lay in the apples with the skin up. Cover and fry slowly until brown.
APPLE SAUCE VICTORIA
Pare, quarter and core the apples. Set on to boil in cold water, and boil them over a very brisk fire; when they are soft mash with a potato masher and pa.s.s the mashed apples through a sieve. Sweeten to taste and flavor with a teaspoon of vanilla. This way of seasoning apples is highly recommended, especially if they are tasteless.
PEACH COMPOTE
Pare the fruit, leave it whole and put on to boil with sweetened water.
Add a few cloves (remove the heads), also a stick of cinnamon bark. Boil the peaches until tender, then take up with a perforated skimmer and lay them in your fruit dish. Boil the syrup until thick, then pour over the peaches. Eat cold with sweet cream. Common cheap peaches make a very nice dessert, cooked in the above manner, clings especially, which cannot be used to cut up.
COMPOTE OF RASPBERRIES
Make a syrup of half a pound of sugar and half a cup of water, put into it one quart of berries which have been carefully picked and washed.
Boil up once. Serve cold.
COMPOTE OF PINEAPPLE