The Fun of Cooking Part 25

"That's another bright idea! Of course it would be delightful to have it in here. Then afterwards we could have a wood fire in the grate and sit around it to tell stories, and have games, and charades, and sing some songs together, and be just as thankful as possible. What shall we have for supper? I fancy we shall not want anything very heavy after our dinner."

"No, of course not; but it can be something awfully good. Cold turkey to begin with, and something hot to go with it, and--and what else, Mother Blair?"

"Oh, cranberry jelly, and perhaps a salad, and then something sweet to finish with. Do you think that would do?"

"Yes, and some kind of a hot drink, I suppose; coffee for Father and Uncle and Aunt Mary and you, and cocoa for the rest of us; only I'm so tired of cocoa, I don't believe I could drink a drop."

"We certainly have had it pretty often for lunch lately; I've noticed it myself and meant to speak to Norah about it. I think I can find something else for all of us which you will like better--something especially meant for Thanksgiving."

"What the Pilgrim Fathers had for their Thanksgiving dinner, I suppose,"

laughed Mildred. "I'm sure it will be good, too, and we'll love it."

School closed the day before Thanksgiving, and that afternoon Mildred and Brownie began to be thankful, because there would be no more lessons till Monday. They put their books away, planned the funny little play they were going to have the next evening, and got together everything they would need for that; then they said it was time to think about the supper in the library.

"We will wait till Norah has gone out and the kitchen is all in order,"

said Mildred. "Then we can get out the things we want to carry into the other room, and put them on two trays; Jack and Cousin Fred can carry them when we are ready. Plates, and knives, and forks, and gla.s.ses, and napkins; and the platter of turkey--"

"And salt," said Brownie, "and bread, and b.u.t.ter."

"Yes; and cranberry jelly. Then we will make the hot things and bring them in afterward."

"What shall we make to-day, Mildred?"

"I wonder if Norah has made the cranberry jelly for dinner yet; if she hasn't, you and I might make that now, and divide it and put part away for the supper. And we can make the dessert, or whatever Mother thinks we had better have. The salad we shall have to make to-morrow."

Norah was that very minute preparing to make the cranberry jelly, but she said she was in a hurry, and the girls could make it if they would promise not to get in her way. They got the receipt from their mother, and began in a corner as far off from Norah as they could get.

CRANBERRY JELLY

1 quart of cranberries. Pick them over and wash them, then chop them a little.

1-1/2 cups of cold water.

2 cups of sugar.

Boil five minutes; rub while hot through a sieve, and pour into a pretty mold.

This rule, of course, had to be doubled for two molds. They found it was not very easy to get the cranberries through the sieve; by talking turns, however, they were slowly squeezing them through when Norah came to their aid and gave them the wooden potato-masher to use instead of the spoon they were working with. The molds were set away to get hard, and then they asked their mother for something else to do.

"I've been thinking," she said, "that we ought to have for supper something the men would like very much; they will have had turkey once already, and perhaps they will be tired of it. Would you like scalloped oysters?"

"Mother, we'd perfectly love them!" exclaimed Mildred. "But do you think we could make them? I always thought they were very hard to make."

"My dear, they are the easiest thing in the world. To save time, you may copy the rule now, and then to-morrow, when everybody is here, I will not have to stop visiting and explain it."

SCALLOPED OYSTERS

1 quart of oysters.

2 packages of crackers, or as many loose ones--about half a pound.

Roll fine.

Salt, pepper, and b.u.t.ter.

1 small cup of milk.

Drain the oysters and examine each one carefully to see that it is free from sh.e.l.l; strain and measure the juice; add to it an equal quant.i.ty of milk. b.u.t.ter a deep baking-dish and put in a layer of crumbs, and cover these with a layer of oysters; sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with b.u.t.ter; put on another layer of crumbs, then one of oysters, season, and so on till the dish is full, with a layer of crumbs on top; cover with small bits of b.u.t.ter; pour on the oyster juice and milk, and bake about half an hour, or till brown. Serve at once--it must not stand.

"Sometimes, instead of baking these in one large dish, I fill little brown baking-dishes in just the same way; only, of course, I do not bake these so long--only ten or fifteen minutes. And sometimes for a lunch party, I get from the fish-market very large oyster, or clam, or scallop sh.e.l.ls, and fill those instead of the little dishes, and they are very pretty."

"Mother Blair, those would be sweet--simply sweet! I think I'll give a luncheon and have them."

"Do, Mildred, and I'll help," said Brownie, unselfishly.

"Or you can have a luncheon and _I'll_ help!" Mildred replied. "And now what else can we do to-day, Mother? Make some sort of dessert?"

"Yes, I think so; try this; it's simple and very nice."

CHOCOLATE CREAM

1 pint of milk.

4 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

2 squares of unsweetened chocolate.

1 tablespoonful of cornstarch.

1 pinch of salt.

1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.

1/2 pint of thick, sweet cream. (Or this may be omitted.)

Put the milk in a saucepan after taking out a small half-cupful and mixing it with the cornstarch; put in the sugar and salt.

Sc.r.a.pe the chocolate (the squares are those marked on the large cake) and put this in next. When it steams and the chocolate is melted and looks brown and smooth, stir up the cornstarch and put it in, stirring till smooth. Cool, add the vanilla, and pour into gla.s.ses. Just before serving put a spoonful of whipped cream on top of each gla.s.s.

"I do love that," said Brownie, as she wrote down the last word. "When I eat it, I always think I'm eating melted chocolate creams."

"So do I!" laughed Mildred. "Perhaps Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary won't eat their creams to-morrow night, and then you and I can have them for lunch the next day, Brownie."

"They'll surely eat them!" sighed Brownie. "They're too good to leave."

When these were made and safely put away, all but the creamy tops, which were to go on just before supper the next day, Jack came strolling in.

"Smells awfully good!" he said. "Turkey, and onions, and mince-pies, and spicy things. Got any cooking for a boy to do--proper cooking, I mean?"

"I've just thought of something," his mother said quickly, "and I need you to do it right away. The girls are getting up a supper for Thanksgiving night, and they really ought to have some cake to eat with the dessert they have just been making."

"Cake!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack. "I draw the line at cake, Mother Blair; making cake is not a man's job."

"Not cake, Jack,--only something to go in cake. I want you to crack some nuts and pick them out for the girls. Here is what they are going to make now."

NUT CAKES

2 eggs.

1 cup of light brown sugar.

1 cup of nut meats, chopped fine.

2 tablespoonfuls of sifted flour.

1/4 teaspoonful of salt.