Dinners and Luncheons Part 2

Out of the beaten track:

Little Neck Clams on the Half Sh.e.l.l, 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 b.u.t.ter Sauce.

Accompanying this have small Baked Potatoes, cut open in the center and with a small piece of b.u.t.ter placed in each one.

Instead of the hereditary Cuc.u.mber Salad, have young cuc.u.mbers quartered lengthwise, not sliced. Cuc.u.mbers 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 cuc.u.mbers just before serving.

Cuc.u.mbers 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 b.u.t.tered with Roquefort Paste (which is made of Roquefort cheese and b.u.t.ter in equal quant.i.ties) 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 gla.s.s canoes hold the nuts, olives and bonbons. The meat courses should be served in thin white j.a.panese porcelain, but the other viands are to be served in cut gla.s.s 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:

_Clams,_ _Cold Bouillon,_ _Soft Crabs,_ _Mushrooms, Fillets of Beef,_ _Beets, Potato Straws,_ _Tomatoes, Sweetbreads,_ _Chicken Salad a la Prince,_ _Peach Ice,_ _Curacoa Cream,_ _Frozen Melon, Coffee._

The clams are served in ice sh.e.l.ls, lying on beds of crisp cress, and the bouillon, strong and highly seasoned, served in little cut gla.s.s bowls. With the frica.s.seed 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 frica.s.seed 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 cuc.u.mbers--put in each; enough aspic to cover poured in and the molds set on ice.

A rich mayonnaise is made, and peas, cut up cuc.u.mbers 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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.

_White Grapes on Mat of Natural Leaf,_ _Creamed Oysters in Swedish Timbale Cases,_ _Saratoga Potatoes, Twin Biscuits, Pickles, Olives,_ _Moulded Chicken in Aspic, Mayonnaise Wafers,_ _Marshmallow Cake, Orange Jelly, Whipped Cream,_ _Chocolate._

Have the fruit at each place when the guests are a.s.sembled. Garnish with any preferred flowers, which should serve also as a souvenir of the occasion. Subst.i.tute 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 b.u.t.ter. To make the moulded chicken, separate some stewed chicken into small pieces. Fill loosely into small b.u.t.tered 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.

_Salpicon of Fruit,_ _Sweet Wafers, Cream of Celery, Crisp Crackers,_ _Olives, Pickles, Salted Almonds,_ _Lobster a la Newburg, Puff Paste Points,_ _Fried Chicken, Vermicelli Toast, Shredded Potatoes,_ _Oyster Patties, Mushrooms, Waldorf Salad,_ _Popcorn, Bon Bons, Nuts, Figs and Raisins, Macaroons,_ _Frozen Pudding, Cream Mints, Coffee._

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 gla.s.ses. Serve the cream of celery in bouillon cups with whipped cream on top. The puff paste points and patty sh.e.l.ls 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 sc.r.a.ped apple, celery, nuts and mayonnaise, replace the top and insert a celery plume for the stem. Serve surrounded with hot b.u.t.tered 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.

MID-SUMMER LUNCHEON.

For a small luncheon have on the table four cut gla.s.s 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 ma.s.s of asparagus fern. Have the bonbons in green and white and the pistachio nuts in bohemian gla.s.s 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, cuc.u.mber 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 b.u.t.ter 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 gla.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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 cuc.u.mber 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.