The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-01-10
WHOLE NO. 1923.
LITTLE DINNERS.
How to Make These Entertainments
Bright and Cheerful to

Fright and Cheerful to
the Guests.
The little dinner, to be a success, says
writer in the Home Journal, should
consist of from six to twelve we'll
chosen guests, bright, clever, sociable
people, who will keep the ball of con-
versation rolling, changing the topics
''from grave to gay, from lively to Sc
we're" The room well lighted, well
warmed, with pretty, well arranged
table. will alone give sense of bier
entire to people coming in from the out
side cold. The dinner for small
party ought to be small. Clear soup,
fish, two nice entrees Zone light and
one dark) joint, well hung saddle of
mutton, being the best. game, and two
well chosen sweets, one being an iced
souffie, and a savory will be quite
enough. But everything must be well
cooked, as hot, if not hotter than pos
sible, the meat well hung, and the
soup, fish and entrees perfect of their
kind. Let dinner like this be served
at round table, and the wine be of
the best quality of its kind; and what
man, aye, and woman, tco, but what
will say: Fate cannot harm ne, l have
dined to-dayr' All this, to be well
done, must entail trouble on the mis-
tress of the house. But, if she is the
right sort of woman, these cares will
be pleasures; and if she is not of the
right sort, no little dinner will ever be
a success in her house, even with a
round table. The table decorations
alone are e test as to the capabilities
of the mistress of the house. This is
with some women an inborn gift; some
have no artistic faculties whatever A
pretty arrangement at this time of the
year is piece of peacock-blue plush in
the center of the table, with low mass
es of Iaaiden-hair fern, and large white
or yellow Japanese crysanthemums;
and, if had my way, no dessert should
ever be put on the table. A clearly
written menu to every guest. And let
the dinner be helped with "a feast of
reason and a flow of soul" much be-
ing In the power of the hostess, if a
bright, intelligent woman, to start top
les, and keep the conversation going
without seeming to do so. Then let the
dinner finish with little dessert, some
Chateau Margaux with the chill off,
and good coffee well made. Most peo-
pie, after this, will be in a genial mood
when they reach the drawing-room, and
will be ready to be entertained and be
entertaining.
1t has been the misfortune of most of
us to experience quite another sort of q
little dinner, where from first to last
everything goes wrong. AS we enter
the door, toreboding of our fate comes
over US, as mingled smell of cooking,
grease, and other denominations greet
our olfactory nerves; the servants show
us into cold, primly furnished draw
ing room, where the fire, half out,
vainly struggles with the gloom of the
badly-trimmed, evil-smelling lamps.
The mistress of the house is handsome
ly, but untastefully dressed, and from
the higher regions come shrieks of woe.
We go down to dinner; the soup is thin,
the salmon is either half raw or else
boiled to rags; the entrees, evidently
from the pastry cook consist of vol
au-vent, with the legs of The chicken
from last nights ball supper, dish of
outlets, evidently a rechauffe; tie Joint
is tough and undercooked, and the
game not fit to eat; sweets il-chosen
and worse served. This is a little din
ner at which the male element is
gloomy, and the female bored. The
mistress of the house leaves things in
the hands of an incompetent staff of
servants. We have suffered like this
at the hands of our friends, and regis
tered VOW never to suffer the like
again, if it is in our power to prevent
it. Now, if the menu had only con-
sisted of good soup, well cooked fish. a
good leg of mutton, fruit tart and
cream, with good bit of cheese to fin
lsh up with, in a well-warmed room,
very few would have found anything to
grumble at,
The first little dinner is, if well done,
q bright and cheerful episode in our
lie. Du, if it is not in the power of the
mistress of the house TO have it well
done, she had better leave it alone.
When | say well done, l by no .neans
intend that it must be the cause of great
expense to the giver. 1t will be found
quite possible, with good care and good
management, to have perfectly
faultless little dinner, which both en-
tertalner and entertained will feel much
brighter and better for, without the
cost being at all beyond the means of
the sort of people | am referring to.
The great art of dinner giving is,
never attempt more than your own staff
can do well; have no dishes you have
not proved your own cook can do, and
let house, table, dinner, all show that
every care has been taken by all con-
cerned to make the little dinner sue
cess. And if madam does ask her lord
and master for little more money for
the months bills, he knows that he has
got something for it; and, feeling how
much social enjoyment he gives and re-
celves. he will not grudge the expense,
nor will hardly grumble at it's not in
frequent repetition.