The Fun of Cooking Part 11

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Refreshments were Perfectly Delicious, Everybody Said]

The refreshments were perfectly delicious, everybody said, and the girls said the pink ice-cream, and the sponge-cake, and the grape-juice lemonade were "the best ever." When everybody had gone, Mildred took a big plateful of ice-cream over to Miss Betty.

"Oh, how good that is!" she said as she ate it. "How _beautifully_ good!

So good to look at, I mean, as well as to taste. Would you like to have some more strawberry ice-cream receipts to go with it?" Mildred said she would love to, so Miss Betty began to write:

FROZEN STRAWBERRIES

1 quart of water.

2-1/2 cups of sugar.

2 quarts of berries.

Juice of 1 lemon.

Crush the berries and press through a sieve; there should be two cups of juice; if not, add a few more berries. Boil the water and sugar one minute, cool, add the berry juice and that of the lemon, cool and freeze; serve in gla.s.s cups.

"You can see, Mildred," went on Miss Betty, as she finished this, "that a pretty way to serve this is to put each cup on a small plate and lay a few fresh strawberry leaves by it."

"Sweet!" said Mildred, and Miss Betty began the second receipt

ICE-CREAM AND STRAWBERRIES

1 quart of plain ice cream.

1 quart of large strawberries.

1/2 cup of powdered sugar.

Cut the berries in slices and lay them on a dish, and sprinkle the sugar over them. Take some tall gla.s.ses, put in a layer of ice cream, then a layer of berries; let the cream be on top, and put two or three whole berries on top of all. Or, if you can get little wild strawberries, use those whole both in the layers and on top.

"Those are both just perfect," sighed Mildred. "Now haven't you one more receipt, dear Miss Betty? Three is a lucky number, you know."

Miss Betty thought a moment "Well, here is something I think is just delicious, and it's so easy that Brownie could make it alone--or even Jack! There is no turning of the freezer at all, only the ice to be broken. But it must be made in good season, for it has to stand awhile, as you will see. And when you turn it out you can put a row of lovely big strawberries all around it and sprinkle them with sugar."

PARFAIT

1 cup of sugar.

1 pint of cream.

1 cup of water.

Whites of 3 eggs.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Put the sugar and water on the stove and boil gently three minutes without stirring. Lift a little of the syrup on the spoon and see if a tiny thread drops from the edge; if it does, it is done; if not, cook a moment longer. Then let this stand on the edge of the stove while you beat the whites of the eggs very stiff and slowly pour the syrup into them, beating all the time. While you are doing this, have somebody else beat the cream stiff; when the eggs and syrup are beaten cold, fold the cream into them, add the flavoring, and put in a mold with a tight cover. Put this in a pail, cover deeply with ice and salt as before, and let it stand five hours.

"You see how easy that is," said Miss Betty. "That's all the receipts to-day. But, Mildred, if you and Jack, and Brownie will all come to luncheon next Sat.u.r.day, I'll have something else made out of strawberries for you."

"Oh, Miss Betty!" cried Mildred, rapturously, "we'll come--indeed we will!"

"Very well; and tell Jack he can have three helpings of everything!"

CHAPTER VII

STRAWBERRY TIME

Early in the morning of the next Sat.u.r.day came a note from Miss Betty, which said:

Dear Mildred and Dear Brownie:

Just to think that I forgot to tell you I wanted you both to help me cook the luncheon for our party! Do come over at about eleven, and bring your ap.r.o.ns. And please tell Jack that if he wants to come and help too, I'll find him something perfectly proper for a boy to do.

YOUR LOVING BETTY.

"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Brownie, as she read the note over Mildred's shoulder. "The very best fun of parties is getting ready for them, and I know Miss Betty will have something nice for us to do."

"What do you suppose Miss Betty wants _me_ to do?" asked Jack, curiously. "I just believe it's a joke, and she really means to get me to make cake, or some other kind of girl's cooking. I don't believe I'll go till lunch-time."

"Oh, it's an invitation!" said Brownie, much shocked. "You _have_ to go!

And it's Miss Betty, too!"

Jack laughed. "Well, all right," he said. "Miss Betty is such fun that perhaps I won't mind."

"Take your clean ap.r.o.n, Jack," said Mildred, teasingly.

"Pshaw!" sniffed Jack, with a lordly air.

Miss Betty's house was just across the lawn; when they reached it, she met them at the door and told the girls to go right in and get their ap.r.o.ns on. "Now, Jack," she said, dimpling, "I'm afraid I've brought you over under false pretenses, for I really don't want you to cook at all.

I only hope you won't be too disappointed! But the weeding man who takes care of the garden has not come to-day, and I want some strawberries.

Would you mind picking some for me?"

Jack's sober face lighted. "Why, I'd love to do it! That's what I call a man's work, Miss Betty. How many do you want?"

"Well, I want two kinds; first about a quart of ordinary ones, and the rest the very biggest in the garden; here are two baskets for them, and you may pick in one as you go along, and in the other lay the big berries on the freshest, prettiest strawberry leaves you can find. I want eight berries apiece for us--let me see--eight times four--" but Jack was off before she finished.

"Now, girls," Miss Betty said, as she tied on her own ap.r.o.n, "we will go right out to the kitchen and begin. But first, Brownie, can you lay the table for us?"

"Cer-tain-ly I can," said Brownie, proudly. "You can just tell me what you are going to have to eat, and show me where you keep things, and I can do it all alone."

So Miss Betty gave her a pretty square lunch-cloth to put cornerwise on the round table, and showed her where she kept the napkins and silver and china. "We are going to have creamed chicken, and iced cocoa, and salad, and strawberry shortcakes," she said.

"Hot plates for the chicken," murmured Brownie, counting out four, "and cold plates for salad; tall gla.s.ses for cocoa; hot or cold plates for shortcake, Miss Betty?"

"Just warm, I think. I'll help you carry all these out to the kitchen so they will be ready when we want them. And are you sure you do not want me to help you put on the silver?"

But Brownie shook her head, and went on talking to herself as she arranged the forks:

"Never use knives except to cut up meat with; so forks for creamed chicken, and forks for salad, both on the right, because everybody is right-handed; and the chicken fork farthest away, because that comes first, and the salad fork next the plate, because that comes after.

Shall I put on a fork or a spoon for the shortcake?"