The Yale expositor., 1912-02-15
SPECIAL FAMILY DINNER.
BY Martha McculIoch Williams.

BY Martha MeCulloch Williams.
The following menu is suitable for
a paper bag cooked dinner, to be
served during winter months, when
the occasion is more than ordinary,
say on a national holiday, or some
special family or community event:
Blue Fish or Sea Trout, Planked
Sliced Potatoes Buttered Beets
Cold Slaw
Baron of Beef, Roasted
Baked Squash Celery Satisfy Stewed
Cold Baked Apples with Rum
and Sugar
Romano Salad with Cheese Balls.
Sharp French Dressing Biscuit
Plum Pudding, Brandy Sauce
Nut Candy Stuffed Dates
Homemade Citron
The fish will require a plank, oak,
OF course, and proportional to the
size of the biggest paper bag. Get
it as thin as possible-half an inch,
say. Scour it we'll, then grease with
oil or butter, heat gently and wipe off
all surplus grease while still warm.
This before undertaking to use it. 1t
must be heated very hot underneath
the gas flame before the fish goes
on it. Sprinkle rock salt thickly over
it to prevent charring, dash it off
and grease very thickly, then lay
upon it your fish, opened fiat, sea-
soned, and well-greased all over the
skin side. Season it on top with salt,
black and red pepper, few toasted
bread crumbs or little grated
cheese, thin slices of onion and raw
peeled tomatoes. Lacking fresh to-
matoes, put on a little tomato catsup.
Squeeze lemon juice over all and dot
plentifully with butter. Flatten we'll
on the plank, then slip plank and fish
inside a thickly- buttered bag and cook
in hot oven fifteen to twenty min
utes, according to the thickness of
the fish.
The beef baron-the double sirloin
needs only to be roasted in bag
after greasing it very well all over.
Do not salt it. Roast according to
weight-fifteen minutes to the pound
for rare meat, twenty for we'll done.
Make sliced potatoes as previously
directed, also cold slaw. Beets should
be boiled quickly, putting them on
in cold water, peeled as soon as done,
and buttered while still very hot. Sea-
son with salt and pepper, also a dash
OF either vinegar or lemon juice.
Baked squash has been exploited,
stewed satisfy likewise.
Serve the cold baked apples as a
sort OF sorbet-a course to them
selves. Peel and bake the apples in
q buttered bag, with teaspoonful Of
sugar to each apple. Put in the serv-
ing dish, and while still very hot
pour over a desertspoonful Of rum
to the apple. Let cool and serve with
wafer-biscuit toasted very crisp.
For the salad, break crisp romaine
in two-inch bits, make a very sharp
French dressing, putting in little
lemon juice with the vinegar, adding
salt, celery salt, onion juice, Wor-
cester sauce, black and red pepper,
and mere suspicion of mustard.
Sour claret make take the place Of
vinegar and lemon juice-you must
aim at very piquant flavor to give
a tang to the mild cheese balls and
biscuit Shape the balls with butter
moulds from cream cheese softened
with either little oil or sweet cream.
Roll them in finely ground nuts and
stick tiny sprig of parsley in each.
Make very small biscuit to go with
them, and bake so they may come to
table very, very hot.
Plum pudding should be in hand;
heat it well either over hot water orr
inside bag.
For the nut candy, use either black
walnuts, scaly barks or pecans--I
give them in the order Of preference
mixture of all three is not so bad,
but the crisp richness of fresh black
walnut goodies appeals most to my
taste. Crack the nuts and pick out
the kernels in as big pieces as pos
sible. Be careful not to let bits of
shell fall among the meats. Measure
them after picking out, for each heap
ing cup of nuts take 6 level cup of
soft sugar and half a cup of water.
Cook sugar and water together till
1t ropes from the spoon. Have the
nuts In round, rather shallow vessel,
well creased. Pour the hot syrup up
on them and stir about until the candy
hardens around the kernels.
Make your own stuffed dates Pick
out the largest, frmest fruit, wash
quickly in cold water, drain, and take
out the seed. Stick into the cut side
either nut, a bit of crystallzed gin
ger, little candied peel, or bit of
citron. Roll in confectioners sugar
and lay in cry lightly-greased bag,
left open at the end, in cool even
to harden. Drain strips of citron from
their syrup, oil in sugar and dry off
the same way.
The country-bred may like to have
either squash or pumpkin served as
a vegetable. Peel, cut up, bake soft
and mash, then season well with salt,
a little pepper and tiny bit of onion
Juice. Make in cake and lay in a
paper bag mould or a wellbuttered