The Fun of Cooking Part 23

CHAPTER XIV

WHEN NORAH WAS AWAY

One day a messenger boy went around to the kitchen door with a telegram for Norah, telling her that her sister had broken her arm and she must come at once and take care of the children; as there were nine of them, including a tiny baby, Norah felt she must take the very first train, and so in only an hour she was off, and the Blairs' kitchen was empty.

"However, it isn't as though we didn't know how to cook," said Brownie, when she came home from school and found out what had happened. "Every single one of us can cook--even Jack."

"_Even_ Jack," called her brother from the dining-room. "I heard that, Brownie Blair, and I'll tell you this: I can cook just as well as any one in this family, if I do say it."

"Prove it, then," laughed his mother, "I got the lunch alone to-day because you were all away; but suppose, instead of having regular dinners while Norah is gone, we have hot suppers, and you three get them without me. Do you think you could manage it? And I will get lunch and breakfast."

"Oh, no, Mother Blair. We will all get breakfast together, and wash the dishes and make the beds before we go to school; we can get up earlier.

And every single day we will get supper all alone and you can go out calling or walking or whatever you like."

"Perhaps you'll let me help once in a while," suggested their mother meekly.

"Not once. Of course if you want to make one thing for supper to surprise us some time and have plenty of time to do it while you are getting lunch, we _might_ let you do that. A cake, I mean, or gingerbread, just to help out at night; none of us can make many kinds of cake."

"Well, I think most girls know how to make too many kinds of cake and very few kinds of more sensible things, soups and vegetables and so on; and of the two I believe the regular every-day dishes are the more important. You see, you can learn to make cake at any time."

"I think this is a rattling good time for Mildred to learn," declared Jack. "Chocolate layer cake and cocoanut cake and fruit cake are great, and she'll never learn younger, Mother."

"Well, she may make a great big cake for you on Sat.u.r.day for Sunday night supper, if she wants to; but if she does, I shall expect you to do your share of the cooking every day."

"Emergency cooking is all right; men ought to know how to do that," Jack replied stoutly. "I'm perfectly willing to cook bacon for breakfast, or scramble eggs, or cook fish for supper, or make a stew; anything I cooked in camp I can do with one hand tied behind my back!"

"This is your chance then, to show what you learned last summer. Perhaps if you do splendidly well Father Blair will want to take you again,"

said his mother. "Now hurry back to school and I will do these dishes and plan the supper and get it all ready for you--on paper,--and then if you want me to, I'll disappear and you may cook it all alone."

"Of course, Mother Blair. Don't you pay any attention to us at all; just come in with Father at half past six and it will be all ready," Mildred said as she hurried away.

That afternoon when the kitchen was all tidy Mother Blair sat down with a pencil and a sheet of paper and wrote out all about the supper. This is what she planned to have, and after each dish she wrote the name of the one who was to make it:

Cream dried beef (Mildred) Corn bread (Jack) Cocoa (Brownie) Fresh apple-sauce (Mildred) Cake (see cake box)

When the three younger Blairs came home and supper time approached, they found this pinned up in the kitchen, and with it the only receipts they needed:

CREAMED DRIED BEEF

1 box of shaved dried beef (or 1/4 of a pound if you buy it at the butcher's).

1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter.

1 tablespoonful flour.

1 cup of hot milk.

2 shakes of pepper.

Cut the beef up into tiny bits; pour boiling water over it and let it stand one minute; pour it off and squeeze the meat dry.

Put the b.u.t.ter in the frying-pan and let it melt; when it bubbles, add the flour and stir till smooth; add the hot milk and pepper, and last the meat; stir till it thickens like cream; serve on squares of hot b.u.t.tered toast.

"Easy!" said Mildred as she read the receipt over. "Same old white sauce; it's funny how that is used over and over. I think I'll let that wait till just before supper time to make, and get the apple-sauce going. That sounds easy, too."

APPLE SAUCE

6 large, tart apples.

1 cup of sugar.

1/2 cup water.

1/4 teaspoonful cinnamon.

Wipe the apples, cut in quarters, peel and core them. Cut up small and put in a saucepan with the water; cook gently till they are soft, and then add the sugar. When they are transparent and rather smooth they are done; take them up, and either serve as they are, or if you wish, put them through the colander. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

While Mildred was making this, Brownie laid the table, just as she had learned weeks before; then she got out her receipt-book and made the cocoa by that, while Jack made the corn bread by his own camp rule, reciting it aloud as he mixed the different things and shook down the fire and saw that his oven was hot.

"You learn a lot of things camping, Mildred," he said when he finished and cleared up his mixing bowl and other things and wiped off the table.

"I never had any idea how careful you had to be to keep things s.h.i.+p shape till I lived with Father up in the woods. He made me clean up after every single thing I made, and wouldn't let me leave a thing around. I thought it was just sort of fussing at first, but after a while I found out it saved time. There weren't half as many dishes to do after a meal, if you cleaned up as you went along, and when you were in an awful hurry to fish or something it helped a lot."

"I know; Mother always tells Brownie and me to do that way. One day we were cooking and I wanted the egg beater; Brownie had used it and left it in the dish pan to soak, so I had to stop and wash it. Then after I used it I put it back in the pan, and Norah needed it and she had to wash it; and that was the way it went all the time till we learned that we must wash up every pot and pan and dish and spoon just the very minute we were through with them. It seems a lot of bother at first but you don't mind after a little. And then, Jack, while we have to wash the dishes at night it will save time to do them as we go along now."

When the toast was made and b.u.t.tered, Mildred kept it hot while she quickly creamed the dried beef. The cocoa was all ready and so was the brown corn bread, and exactly at half past six o'clock supper was all ready to go right on the table, and everything was as nice as possible.

"But then," said Father Blair complacently, "what else can you expect?

This corn bread, Jack, tastes to me like that of the good old times."

"And this beef, Mildred, is exactly right, and so is the cocoa."

And so were the apple-sauce and cake, when they came on the table. The cake, especially, seemed particularly good, though it was only the same kind Mildred had often made herself,--the one in her own cook book under the t.i.tle "Christmas Cake."

"I do think nice cake is just as good as can be," said Mildred, taking a second piece. "I believe I'll learn to make several kinds right away while Norah is gone."

"That's the kind of talk I like to hear," said Jack appreciatively.

In the morning Jack made the fire and started the cereal in plenty of time, while the rest finished dressing. This was the very simple rule he used:

OATMEAL

1 cup of meal.

1 quart of boiling water.

1 teaspoonful salt.

When the water boils hard, add the salt and stir in the meal quickly; put it all into the double boiler and let it cook at least half an hour; take off the cover and let it stand till it gets a little dry (about five minutes). Serve with cream, and, if you like, sliced bananas and a little sugar.

Mother Blair and Mildred laid the table, Brownie got the fruit out of the refrigerator and arranged it and put on the finger-bowls, and then they went into the kitchen to see what should be done next.

"I'm going to cook bacon," announced Jack; "I've got it all ready; you might make the toast, Mildred, and Mother can make the coffee and we'll be all ready in one jiffy."

After breakfast they washed the dishes; or rather Jack washed them and Brownie wiped them, and they laid the lunch table after taking the crumbs up off the floor and table; meanwhile Mother Blair and Mildred made the beds and put the house in order, and when it was time for school everything was done.