healthy cooking info

Poached Eggs with Potted Ham

Make the rounds of toast and poach the eggs as before.  Make a
white sauce in this way: melt a tablespoonful of butter, and when
it bubbles put in a tablespoonful of flour; shake well, and add a
cup of hot milk and a small half-teaspoonful of salt; cook till
smooth.  Moisten each round of toast with a very little boiling
water, and spread with some of the potted ham which comes in little
tin cans; lay a poached egg on each round, and put a teaspoonful of
white sauce on each egg.

If you have no potted ham in the house, but have plain boiled ham,
put this through the meat-chopper till you have half a cupful, put in
a heaping teaspoonful of the sauce, a saltspoonful of dry mustard,
and a pinch of red pepper, and it will do just as well.

Another way to cook them is this:

Put the eggs in a kettle of cold water on the stove, and the moment
the water boils take them up, and they will be just done.  An easy
way to take them up all at once is to put them in a wire basket,
and sink this under the water.  A good way to serve boiled eggs
is to crumple up a fresh napkin in a deep dish, which has been made
very hot, and lay the eggs in the folds of the napkin; this prevents
their breaking, and keeps them warm.

Liver and Bacon on Skewers

Get from the butcher half a dozen small wooden skewers,

and
prepare the liver and bacon as you did for frying, scalding,
dipping the liver in flour, and taking the rind off the bacon.
Make three slices of toast, cut into strips, and put in the

oven
to keep hot.  Cut up both liver and bacon into pieces the

size
of a fifty-cent piece and put them on the skewers, first one

of
the liver and then one of the bacon, and so on, about six of

each.
Put these in the hot frying-pan and turn them over till they

are
brown.  Then lay one skewer on each strip of toast, and put

lemon
and parsley around.  You can also put large oysters on the

skewers
with pieces of bacon, and cook in the same way.

FISH

One day some small, cunning little fish came home from

market, and
Margaret felt sure they must be meant for her to cook.

They were
called smelts, and, on looking, she found a rule for cooking

them,
just as she had expected.

Eggs Baked in Little Dishes

Margaret’s mother had some pretty little dishes with

handles,
brown on the outside and white inside.  These Margaret

buttered,
and put one egg in each, sprinkling with salt, pepper, and

butter,
with a little parsley.  She put the dishes in the oven till the

eggs
were firm, and served them in the small dishes, one on each

plate.

Omelette with Mushrooms

Take a can of mushrooms and slice half of them into thin pieces.
Make a cup of very rich white sauce, using cream instead of milk,
and cook the mushrooms in it for one minute.  Make the omelette as
before, and spread with the sauce when you turn it over.

Omelette

Making an omelette seems rather a difficult thing for a little girl,
but Margaret made hers in a very easy way.  Her rule said:

Break four eggs separately.  Beat the whites till they are stiff,
and then wash and wipe dry the egg-beater, and beat the yolks till
they foam, and then put in half a teaspoonful of salt.  Pour the
yolks over the whites, and mix gently with a large spoon.  Have a
cake-griddle hot, with a piece of butter melted on it and spread
over the whole surface; pour the eggs on and let them cook for
a moment.  The take a cake-turner and slip under an edge, and look
to see if the middle is getting brown, because the color comes there
first.  When it is a nice even color, slip the turner well under,
and turn the omelette half over, covering one part with the other,
and then slip the whole off on a hot platter.  Bridget had to show
Margaret how to manage this the first time, but after that she could
do it alone.

Creamed Codfish

Pour boiling water over a package of prepared codfish in the
colander and drain it.  Heat a frying-pan, and, while you are
waiting, beat the yolk of an egg.  Squeeze the water from the
fish.  Put one tablespoonful of butter in a hot pan, and when it
bubbles put in two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir and rub till
all is smooth.  Pour in slowly a pint of hot milk, and mix well,
rubbing in the flour and butter till there is not a single lump.
Then stir in the fish with a little pepper, and when it boils
put in the egg.  Stir it all up once, and it is done.  Put in a
hot covered dish, or on slices of buttered toast.

TOMATO SALAD.

Cut the tomatoes half or two-thirds size if desired. Take out the inside
and cut into dice. Fill the shells with ice. One cup tomatoes, one-half
teaspoonful shredded onion. Over this pour mayonnaise dressing made with
one egg, well-beaten oil, pour in until a little thick, salt, pepper and
vinegar. Have all very cold. One teaspoonful of this dressing to a cup
of tomatoes. Serve in the tomato shells. Nasturtium leaves are pretty on
the plate to garnish.

MAYONNAISE.

Two tablespoonfuls butter, one teaspoonful mustard, one teaspoonful
salt, four teaspoonfuls sugar, one-half cup vinegar, one cup cream,
yolks of four eggs. Beat yolks together, add butter, mustard, salt and
sugar. Boil cream and add to mixture. Boil vinegar and add. Then put on
fire and stir until it thickens.