Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-12-26
A simple Bill Of Fare for "a Christ mas
Dinner,

A simple Bill Of Fare for - ChrIst m ID
Dinner.
All good recipo-books give bills of fare for
different occasions; bills Of fare for grand
dinners bills of fare for little dinners din
ners TO cost 80 much per head dinners which
can be easily prepared with one servant, and
so on. They give bills Of fare for one week
bills OF fare for each day in month, to avoid
too great monotony in diet. There are bills
of fare for dyspoptics bills of fare for con-
sumptives bills OF fare for fat people, and
bills Of fare for thin and bills of fare for
hospitals, asylulns and prisons, as well ID for
gentlemen's houses. But among them all we
never saw the one which we give below. 1t
has hever been printed in any book but II has
been used in families. We are not drawing
on our imagination for its items. We have
sat at such dinners we have helped prepare
such dinners we believe in such dinners ;
they are within everybody's means In fact,
the most marvellous thing about this bill of
fare is that this dinner does not cost a cent.
Ho all ye that are hungry and thirsty, and
would like so cheap Christmas dinner, listen
to this bill of fare for Christmas dinner.
FIRST CoUBsE- GlddHess. This must be
served hot No two housekeepers make it
nike no fixed rule can be given for it. 1t
depends, like so many Of the best things,
chiefly on memory but, strangely enough,
it depends quite as much on proper forget
ting az on proper remembering. Worries
must be forgotten. Troubles must be forgot
ten. Yes, even sorrow itself must be denied
and shut out. Perhaps this is not quite pos
sible All we all have seen Christmas days
on which sorrow would not leave our hearts
nor our houses. But even sorrow can be COM
PEELED to look away from its sorrowing for a
festival hour which is SO solemnly joyous as
Christ's birthday. Memory can be filed full
of other things to be remembered. No soul
Is entirely destitute of blessings, absolutely
without comfort. Perhaps we have but one
Very well, we can think steadily Of that one
if we try. But the probability is that we
have more than we can count. No man has
yet numbered the blessings, the mercies, the
joys of God. We are all richer than we
think and if we once set ourselves to reck-
oning up the things of which we are glad, we
shall be astonished at their number.
Gadness then, is the first item, the first
course on our bill Of fare for a Christmas din
ner.
ENrRIEs-LOre garnished with Smiles.
GeatleHess, with sweet wine sauce Of Laugh
ter.
Gyacious Speech. cooked with any fine sa-
worry herbs, such as Drollery, which is always
in season, or Pleasant Reminiscence, which
no one need to be without as it keeps for
years. sealed or unsealed.
SECOND COURSE. - Hospitality. pre-
else form of this also depends on individual
preferences. We are uot undertaking
here to give exact recipes, only bill Of fare.
In some houses Hospitality is brought on
surrounded with Relatives. This is very
well. In others, it is dished up with Digni-
taries of all sorts men and women of posi-
ton aud estate for whom the host hns special
likings or uses. This gives q fine effect to
the eye. but cools quickly, and is not, in the
long run, satisfying. In third class, best
Of all, it is served in simple shapes, but with
II great variety of Unfortunate Persons-such
as lonely people from lodging houses, poor
people of all grades, widows and children in
their afiliction. This is the kind most pre-
ferrcd in fact, never abandoned by those
who have tried it,
For DESSERT. .-MirtA, in glasses.
Grdttude and F'dith beaten together and
piled up in snowy shapes. These will look
light if run over night in the moulds of Solid
Trust and Patience.
@ % wtH @ eSsPy aay n5a and
and Reasons in shape of Puzzles and An
swers; the whole ornamented with Apples of
Gold in Pictures of Silver, of the kind men,
toned in the Book of Proverbs.
This is a short and simple bill of fare.
There Is not cosby tnlnB IN II not thlng
which cannot be procured without difficulty.
If meat is desired, it can be added. That is
another excellence about our bill OF fare. 1t
has nothing in it which makes it incongruous
with the richest or the plainest tables. II is
not overcrowded by the addition of roast
goose and plum pudding; it is not harmed
by the addition of herring and potatoes. Nay,
it can give flavor and richness to broken bits
of stale bread served on a door step and eat
en- by beggsrs.
We might say much moro about this bill of
fare. We might, perhaps, confess that it has
an element of the supernatural that its ori-
gin is lost in obscurity that, although, as we
said, it has never been printed before, it has
been known in all ages that the martyrs
feasted upon it that generations of the poor,
called blessed by Christ, have laid out ban
quets by it that e3iles and prisoners have
lived on it and the despised and forsaken
and rejected in all countries have tasted it.
1t is also true that when any great king ate
well and throve on his dinner it was by the
same magic food. The young and the free
and the glad, and all rich men in costly
houses, even they have not been well fed with
out it,
And though we have called it Bill of Fare
for a Christmas dinner, that is only that mems
eyes may be caught by its name, and that
they, thinking it specially for festival, may
learn and understand its secret, and hence
forth, laying all their dinners according to its
magic order, may 'eat unto the Lord. III.
H., IN "Bits Of Talk"