American Cookery Part 13

Polly's Thanksgiving Party

By Ella Shannon Bowles

The idea for the party came to Polly one night as she was was.h.i.+ng the dinner dishes, and that very evening she waved away the boys' objection that Thanksgiving was a family affair pure and simple.

"I'm not planning to have any one in for dinner," she said, "though there's nothing that would suit me better, if the apartment boasted a larger dining room. But there are three girls in my Sunday School cla.s.s that can't possibly go home this year, and I've no doubt you boys could find somebody that won't be invited anywhere. Thanksgiving is such a cheerless place in a boarding house! If we ask a few young people in for a party in the evening, it will liven things up a bit for them, and I think it will be pretty good fun for us, don't you?"

In the end Polly had her way, and just a week before Thanksgiving, she sent invitations to three girls and to two boys whom Rupert and Harry suggested.

Polly searched the shops for a card of two-eyed white b.u.t.tons of the size of ten cent pieces. She carefully sewed a b.u.t.ton on the upper part of a correspondence card, added eyebrows, nose and mouth with India ink, copied a body and cap from Palmer c.o.x's "Brownie Book," painted the drawing brown, and behold, a saucy brownie grinned at her from the invitation. Underneath the picture, she carefully printed a jingle.

"This Thanksgiving Brownie brings a message so gay, To visit our house on Thanksgiving Day, To help celebrate with all kinds of good cheer The 'feast of the harvest' at the end of the year."

The boys took a walk into the country on Thanksgiving morning and came laden with sprays of high-bush cranberries. These, with the bunches of chrysanthemums which they bought, and Polly's fern and palm, gave the small living room a festive appearance.

a.s.sisted by her brothers, Polly served the dinner early. After clearing the dining room table, she placed a pumpkin jack-o-lantern in the center, and arranged around it piles of apples, grapes, and oranges.

After the guests had been introduced to each other, Polly pa.s.sed each one a paper plate containing a picture, cut and jumbled into small pieces, and a tiny paper of paste and a toothpick. Each girl and boy was asked to put the "pi" together and paste it on the inside of the plate.

When arranged, the pictures were found to be of Thanksgiving flavor.

"Priscilla at the Wheel," "The Pilgrims Going to Church," "The First Thanksgiving," and others of the same type. To the person making his "pi" first a small and delicious mince pie was awarded.

Pencils and paper were then pa.s.sed. On one slip was written, "What I have to be thankful for," on the other, "Why I am thankful for it." The slips were collected, mixed up, and distributed again. Each guest was asked to read the first slip handed him with the answer. The result caused much laughter.

This was followed by a modification of the famous "donkey game." Polly had painted a huge picture of a bronze turkey, but minus the tail, and this was pinned to the wall. Real turkey feathers with pins carefully thrust through the quills were handed about, and each guest was blindfolded and turned about in turn. To the one who successfully pinned a feather in the tail was given a turkey-shaped box of candy, and the consolation prize was a copy of "Chicken-licken."

A pumpkin-hunt came next. Tiny yellow and green cardboard pumpkins were concealed about the apartment. The yellow pumpkins counted five and the green two points. At the end of the search a small pumpkin scooped out, and filled with small maple sugar hearts, was presented to the guest having the highest score, and a toy book of, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" was awarded to the unfortunate holding the lowest score.

Polly had determined to keep the refreshments very simple. The day before Thanksgiving she made an easy salad dressing by beating two eggs, adding one-half a cup of cider vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of mustard and one-half a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoonful of melted b.u.t.ter. She placed the ingredients in a bowl, set in a dish of water on the front of the stove, and when they thickened she removed it from the fire and thinned with cream. To make sandwiches, she mixed the dressing with minced turkey, added half a fine-chopped pepper, and spread the mixture between dainty slices of bread.

The sugared doughnuts she made by beating two eggs, adding one cup of sugar, one cup of sour milk, three tablespoonfuls of melted b.u.t.ter and flour, sifted with one-half a teaspoonful of soda and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, to make the mixture thick enough to roll without sticking to the moulding board. They were cut with a small cutter, fried in deep, hot fat, and sugared plentifully.

Rupert contributed "Corn Popped in a Kettle." A large spoonful of lard and a teaspoonful of salt were placed in the bottom of a large kettle over a hot fire. A cup of sh.e.l.led popcorn was added and stirred briskly with a mixing spoon. When the kernels began to pop, the kettle was covered and shaken rapidly, back and forth, until filled with fluffy, white popcorn.

With the fruit and "grape-juice lemonade," the sandwiches, doughnuts and popcorn made a pleasing "spread," Polly felt. She served everything on paper plates and used paper napkins, decorated with Thanksgiving designs.

To Make a Tiny House

Oh, Little House, if thou a home would'st be Teach me thy lore, be all in all to me.

Show me the way to find the charm That lies in every humble rite and daily task within thy walls.

Then not alone for thee, but for the universe itself, Shall I have lived and glorified my home.

_Ruth Merton._

Home Ideas and Economies

Contributions to this department will be gladly received. Accepted items will be paid for at reasonable rates.

Vegetable Tarts and Pies

Elizabeth Goose of Boston bestowed a great blessing upon American posterity when she induced her good man, Thomas Fleet, to publish, in 1719, "The Mother Goose Melodies," many of which rhymes dated back to a similar publication printed in London two hundred years before. Is it strange that, with this ancestral nursery training, the cry against the use of pastry goes unheeded, when as children, we, too, have sung to us, over and over, the songs of tarts and pies?

The word tart comes from the Latin word _tortus_, because tarts were originally in twisted shapes, and every country seems to have adopted them into their national menus. That they were toothsome in those early days is shown in these same nursery rhymes, and, that tarts seemed to have been relished by royalty and considered worthy of theft is evinced in the rhymes,

"The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts."

and,

"Little King Boggen he built a fine hall, Pie-crust and pastry-crust that was the wall."

Again this ancient lore speaks of "Five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie," and, too, there was that child wonder, "Little Jack Horner" who, with the same unerring instinct of a water wizard with a willow twig, could, by the sole means of his thumb, locate and extricate, upon the tip of the same, a plum from the Christmas pie.

American tarts and pies are in a cla.s.s of their own. Pies were very closely allied to pioneer, and the Colonial housewife of early days was forced to concoct fillings out of sweetened vegetables, such as squash, sweet potatoes, and even some were made of vinegar. Yet the children still doted on these tempting tarts, pies and turnovers, for were they not trotted in babyhood on a

"c.o.c.k horse to Banbury Cross, To see what Tommy can buy: A penny white loaf, a penny white cake, And a two-penny apple pie."

The next time you have a few varieties of vegetables left over, or wish a dainty luncheon side dish, try making a tray of vegetable tarts with various fillings, and they will prove as fascinating to choose from as a tray of French pastries.

While I have worked out these modern recipes in tempting ways of serving left-overs using common vegetables, I will lay all pastry honors to our fore-mothers, who pa.s.sed on to us the art of pie-making. Proof as to the harmlessness of pies in diet is shown in the fine const.i.tution of our American doughboy, who is certainly a great credit to the heritage of pastry handed down by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The moral of this discourse is that, "The child is father of the man,"

and men dote on pies.

Potato Tarts a la Gratin

Line round m.u.f.fin pans with pastry circles as for other preserve tarts, and fill with the following:

Dice cold-boiled potatoes, season with salt and pepper, moisten with white sauce, made of two tablespoonfuls of flour, two tablespoonfuls of lard, one cup of milk, one-half a teaspoonful salt. Mix with this grated cheese. Fill the sh.e.l.ls and sprinkle grated cheese on top. Bake a light brown.

Baked Onion Dumplings

Parboil medium-sized onions in salted water. Cut half way down in quarters, add salt, b.u.t.ter, and pepper. Place each on a square of biscuit dough or pastry, rolled thin. Bring together opposite corners, twist, and place in a moderate oven to bake the onion tender. Serve with white sauce.

Fresh Tomato Tart Salad