Vegetables are invaluable for mak ing cream soups. Take green peas, for instance. Boil 1 quart peas and 1 small onion in 3 pints water. When soft, squeeze the puree through a po tato ricer; add it to the liquor in which the vegetables were boiled. Rub together 1 tablespoonful flour with 2 tablespoonfuls butter. This makes sufficient thic.-ening. Season with 2 level teaspoonfuls salt and tea spoonful pepper; then add 1 quart scalding-hot milk. Cook ten minutes, stirring frequently. Serve with crou tons or wafers. The outside stalks of celery, corn, beans, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, leeks, tomatoes, or lettuce may often be economically converted into cream soups. In this way a vegetable left-over is deli ciously re-served.
Boiling potatoes is such an every day task that it seems almost un necessary to offer a recipe for it, yet how seldom do we find a cook make the best of potatoes. If potatoes are " new," they should merely have their skins rubbed off with the burlap scrubber; if old, wash them well, soak half an hour in cold water, then pare off a ring lengthwise around the po tato. This allows the skin to be ta ken off easily after boiling. Put them in a saucepan with plenty of boiling water, add a tablespoonful salt, boil another fifteen minutes, then drain off every drop of water, and leave them to dry for ten minutes covered with a folded towel. A fav orite method for serving many vege tables is in cream sauce. A dish of creamed cauliflower will illustrate how potatoes, carrots, cabbage, peas, parsnips, artichokes, salsify, celery, onions, Brussels sprouts, and aspara gus may be cooked. Blend 1 table spoonful butter with 1 tablespoonful flour; then add gradually 1 pint hot milk, and beat till creamy. Add 1 tea,spoonful salt, a dash pepper, and a small head blanched cauliflower broken into branches. Set it at the back of the stove where it may cook slowly for ten minutes.
The best way to cook spinach for preserving its refreshing and laxative qualities is not to add water, for af ter thorough washing the leaves re tain enough moisture to steam it. Put it dry in a saucepan over the fire; in ten minutes it will be ready to drain and chop. Afterwards return it to the pan and season with 2 table spoonfuls butter and a teaspoonful salt. Let it simmer ten minutes be fore serving. Old, tough spinach is better if blanched before it is sea soned and served.
Boiled Lettuce.
Wash 4 or 5 heads lettuce, remov ing thick, bitter stalks and retaining all the sound leaves. Cook in boiling salted water for ten or fifteen min utes, then blanch in cold water. Drain, chop lightly, and heat in a stewpan with butter and pepper to taste, or the chopped lettuce may be heated with a pint of white sauce seasoned with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. After simmering for a few minutes in the sauce, draw to a cooler part of the range and stir in well beaten yolks of 2 eggs.
Beet Greens.
Wash thoroughly, put into a stew pan, and cover with boiling water. Add a teaspoonful salt for every 2 quarts greens. Boil rapidly for thir ty minutes. Drain off the water, chop rather coarsely, season with but ter and salt.
Asparagus Tips in Cream.
Cut the tender part of asparagus into short pieces. Add boiling water enough to cover the vegetable, and cook fifteen minutes. Serve in a
cream dressing.
Boiled Peas with Butter.
Put 1 quart shelled peas in a stew pan and add enough boiling water to cover them generously. When they begin to boil, draw back where the water will bubble gently. When ten der, add 1 teaspoonful salt and 3 ta blespoonfuls butter. Cook ten min utes longer. If the peas are not the sweet kind, add a teaspoonful sugar.
Peas with Pork.
1 quart peas, 4 ounces pork, 1 tablespoonful butter, cupful water, 2 small white onions, i; teaspoonful pepper.
Cut pork into small bits. Put but ter into stewpan; when it melts add the pork and cook gently until light brown, then add the water, peas, onion, and pepper. This is good way to cook peas when they are old.
Peas with Lettuce (French recipe).
1 quart peas, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, 1 head lettuce (the heart), 1 small onion, 1 teaspoonful sugar, cupful water.
Put the vegetables into a stewpan, cover, and cook for five minutes. Draw the pan back where the con tents will simmer slowly for half an hour, drain, season, and serve hot.
Sugar Peas in. the Pod.
Gather the pods while the peas are very small. String them like beans and cut into two or three lengths. Cover with boiling water, and boil gently twenty-five or thirty minutes. Season with salt and butter, and serve at once.
Shelled Beans Stewed.
1 quart shelled beans, pound salt pork, 1 onion, teaspoonful pepper, 1 tablespoonful flour, 1 quart boiling water, Salt to taste.
Cut the pork in slices and fry ten minutes in d. stewpan. Add the onion, cut fine, cook twenty minutes. Cover the beans with boiling water and boil ten minutes. Drain off the water. Put the beans and flour in the stewpan with the pork and onion, and stir over the fire five minutes. Add the boiling water and pepper. Place the saucepan where its contents will simmer for two hours.
Green Lima Beans. ' Cover 1 quart shelled beans with boiling water. Place on the fire where they will boil up quickly, then draw back where they will simmer until done. When tender, pour off part of the water. Season with a teaspoonful salt and 2 tablespoonfuls butter.
Dried Beans Sante& Soak beans over night, and cook until tender, but not broken. Drain when soft. For 1 quart beans put 3 tablespoonfuls butter in a stewpan. When hot, put in the beans, which have been seasoned with a tablespoon ful salt and I teaspoonful pepper. Cook for fifteen minutes, frequently turning the beans with a fork. Cover, and let cook slowly for half an hour. If they are liked moist, add a cupful meat broth, then cook for half an hour.
Baked Lentils.
1 quart lentils, 1 quart water, 6 ounces mixed salt pork, 1 clove garlic or 1 small onion, 1 teaspoonful salt, teaspoonful pepper.
Pick over and wash the lentils. Soak in cold water over night. In the morning pour off the water and put them in a stewpan with quarts cold water and place on the fire. As soon as tbe water begins to boil, the len tils will rise to the top. Take them off with a skimmer and put in a deep earthen dish, with the pork and onion in the center. Mix the pepper and salt with a quart boiling water and add. Put the dish in a moderate oven, and cook slowly four or five hours. The lentils must be kept moist, and it may be necessary to add a little water from time to time.—