Evening star., 1943-01-09
CAPTER VI.
Wartime on Your Hands.

OH L han0S.
Indeed. you will be busy these war
days. Your job, your home. your
volunteer work will absorb almost
every minute of your time. But
there will come an hour. a kind
OF pause in our new occupation, that
will be filled with unbelievable
emptiness.
What you really want is an un-
troubled. unwarlike interest in life
and a little bit of the gay, friendly
sociability you and your husband
once enjoyed together.
Now sociability breeds sociability.
Your old friendships will stay solid
and responsive If you keep renewing
them. One of the best ways to
keep up your social life is to enter
tain as of yore.
If you ever liked entertaining at
all you'll discover that entertaining
Is still fun 1t won't be the same
without the host, but it will have
its good points.
Being a hostess is good for the
soul. 1t keeps you thinking of your
self as the mistress of household.
1t keeps you from getting into that
state of high mourning where you
cache all the good dishes and glasses
and silver for the duration. 1t
keeps you thinking in terms of
house that is open to friends and
gives you a present that is closely
linked to your past.
II you have always followed the
custom of dressing up for parties
at home, why don't you continue to
do so? Glamorous house coats have
a way of starching the spine. They
make you feel like a lady of the
manor. even if you have to scrub up
the dishes after the guests have
gone. Get dressed for your guests
just as if your husband were there
to watch you across the room with
a possessive, proud gleam in his eye.
Your velvet tea gown may be as
ancient as Lady Mendl, but it is still
complete change of pace from the
efficient clothes you wear during the
day. Also dressing up in your own
home is probably the only dressing
up you will be doing. There is very
little of it at present in public, espe-
cially for the manless woman, and
there's also less of it in dining out
at the houses of your friends.
The easiest kind of evening enter
tainment is the buffet supper. 1t
can be handled without maid and
still keep you from being in the
kitchen all night. You can serve
1t at the usual dinner hour and
have your friends stay the evening,
Many working wives, even in peace
time, used the buffet supper as their
principal form of entertainment be-
cause it allowed them to invite more
guests than they could handle at
an apartment dinner table, took less
trouble. cost less money. It's an
intimate. friendly kind of arrange
ment and perfect for your present
simplified life.
Basis of the buffet supper is the
one superb main dish, served in a
casserole, tureen or on a platter,
from which every one helps himself
Find few good important recipes to
alternate for your buffet suppers and
you are made. You'll get yourself a
reputation as a cook you'll find hard
to live down when a more ordinary
dinner has to be prepared. But why
worry? Best of all from a budget
standpoint, the most delectable of
the buffet dishes can be made mex
pensively. Just provide an abun-
dance so you can offer second and
third helpings without fear the food
Is running low.
If you think you are going to be
lonesome during the evening think
again about Sundays. Sundays are
awful. Even with your husband at
home there is a vague, pearly nostal-
gia that catches the heart on Sunday
afternoons; and If you have any
leanings toward melancholy. that
8 o'clock Sunday shadow will grow
into a storm cloud when you are
alone.
You want to do something about
Sundays. Beware the Sunday that
creeps up on you without plans.
The Sunday that reduces you to