To Peel Tomatoes.
Put the tomatoes in a frying basket and plunge them into boiling water for about three minutes. Drain, and peel.
Baked Onions.
Peel large onions, and boil one hour in plenty of water, slightly salted. Butter a shallow dish or a deep plate, and arrange the onions in it. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, put a teaspoonful of butter in the centre of each onion, and cover lightly with crumbs. Bake slowly one hour. Serve with cream sauce.
Stuffed Onions.
Boil as for baking. Cut out the heart of the onions, and fill the space with any kind of cold meat, chopped fine, and highly seasoned.
To each pint of meat add one egg and two-thirds of a cupful of milk or cream. When the onions are filled put a bit of butter (about a teaspoonful) on each one. Cover with crumbs, and bake one hour. Serve with cream sauce.
Parsnips Fried in Butter.
Scrape the parsnips, and boil gently forty-five minutes. When cold, cut in long slices about one-third of an inch thick. Season with salt and pepper. Dip in melted butter and in flour. Have two table- spoonfuls of butter in the frying pan, and as soon as hot, put in enough parsnips to cover the bottom. Fry brown on both sides, and serve on a hot dish.
Parsnips Fried in Molasses.
Have one cupful of molasses in a large frying-pan. When boiling, put in slices of parsnips that have been seasoned with salt, and cooled.
Fry brown, and serve hot.
Parsnip Balls.
Mash one pint of boiled parsnips. Add two table-spoonfuls of butter, one heaping teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, two table-spoonfuls of cream or milk and one beaten egg. Mix all the ingredients except the egg. Stir on the fire until the mixture bubbles; then add the egg, and set away to cool. When cold, make into balls one-third the size of an egg. Dip them in beaten egg and in crumbs. Put in the frying basket and plunge into boiling fat. Cook till a rich brown.
Escaloped Parsnip.
Prepare the parsnips as for the balls, omitting the egg. Turn into a buttered dish, cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven.
Asparagus with Cream.
Have the asparagus tied in bundles. Wash, and plunge into boiling water in which there is a teaspoonful of salt for every quart of water. Boil rapidly for fifteen minutes. Take up, and cut off the tender heads. Put them in a clean sauce-pan with one generous cupful of cream or milk to every quart of asparagus. Simmer ten minutes. Mix one tablespoonful of butter and a generous teaspoonful of flour together. When creamy, stir in with the asparagus. Add salt and pepper to taste, and simmer five minutes longer.
Green, Peas a la Francaise.
Boil green peas until tender, and drain. For every quart, put in a sauce-pan two table-spoonfuls of butter, one of flour, and half a teaspoonful of sugar. Stir until all are thoroughly mixed. Add the peas, and stir over the fire for five minutes. Add one cupful of white stock or cream, and simmer ten minutes. The canned peas can be prepared in the same manner.
Minced Cabbage.
Drain boiled cabbage in the colander. Put it in the chopping tray and chop fine. For each quart of the chopped cabbage, put two table- spoonfuls of butter and one of flour in the frying-pan. As soon as smooth and hot, put in the cabbage, which season well with salt, pepper, and, if you like it, two table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Stir constantly for five or eight minutes. When done, heap on a dish. Make smooth with a knife, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs.
Minced Spinach.
Boil the spinach in salt and water until tender. Drain in the colander, and chop fine in the tray. Season well with pepper and salt.
For each quart of the chopped spinach, put two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour in a frying-pan. When this has cooked smooth, and before it has become browned, add the spinach. Stir for five minutes; then add half a cupful of cream or milk, and stir three minutes longer. Arrange in a mound on a hot dish. Garnish with a wreath of slices of hard-boiled eggs at the base, and finish the top with another wreath. Serve hot. Lettuce can be cooked and served in the same manner. It must be boiled about twenty minutes to be tender.
Cauliflower with Cream Sauce.
Take off the green leaves and the stalk of the cauliflower. Wash, and put on to cook in boiling water. Boil gently for half an hour. Turn off the water, and add one pint of milk, one pint of boiling water and one table-spoonful of salt. Simmer half an hour longer. Take up with, a skimmer, being careful not to break it. Pour over this a cream sauce, and serve.
Escaloped Cauliflower.
Cook the cauliflower one hour in salt and water. Drain, and break apart. Put a layer of the cauliflower in an escalop dish, moisten it with Bechamel or cream sauce, and sprinkle in a little grated cheese.
Put in another layer of cauliflower, and continue, as directed before, until all of the vegetable is used. There should be two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese and one pint of sauce to each head of cauliflower.
Cover with bread crumbs and cheese, and dot with bits of batter. Bake half an hour in a moderate oven.
Stewed Celery with Cream Sauce.
Wash and scrape the tender white part of two heads of celery. Cut them in pieces about two inches long. Cover with boiling water and simmer gently half an hour. Season well with salt. Drain off the water in which the celery was cooked. Add a pint of cream sauce, and serve.
Celery Stewed in Stock.
Scrape, wash and cut the white part of two heads of celery. Put in a stew-pan with one pint of stock, and simmer half an hour. Mix together two table-spoonfuls of butter and one of flour. Stir this in with the celery. Season with salt, and simmer five minutes longer.
Stewed Okra.
After the ends of the pods have been cut off, wash, and put on with just enough water to prevent burning (about a cupful to a quart of the okra) and a teaspoonful of salt. Simmer gently thirty minutes. Season with pepper and butter, and with more salt, if necessary.
Okra Stewed with Tomatoes.
Cut the okra in thin slices, and pare and slice the tomatoes. Have one pint of tomatoes to two of okra. Put the vegetables in a stew-pan with one teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper. Simmer half an hour. Add one table-spoonful of butter, and more salt, if needed.
Scalloped Okra and Tomatoes.
Prepare the same as stewed okra and tomatoes. When they have been stewing fifteen minutes add the butter and pepper, and turn into a deep dish. Cover with bread or cracker crumbs, dot with butter, and bake half an hour.
Fried Egg Plant.
Cut the plant in slices about one-third of an inch thick. Pare these, and lay in a flat dish. Cover with boiling water, to which has been added one table-spoonful of salt for every quart of water. Let this stand one hour. Drain, and pepper the slices slightly, and dip in beaten egg and bread crumbs (two eggs and a pint of crumbs for a good- sized plant). Fry in boiling fat for eight or ten minutes. The slices will be soft and moist when done. Or, the slices can be seasoned with pepper, and fried in just enough pork fat to brown them. The egg plant is sometimes stewed, and sometimes baked, but there is no other mode so good as frying.