Cookery for little girls

it is heating, however, she should stir smooth one tablespoonful butter and one tablespoonful flour. When the water boils on the beef she must pour off half (or it will be too salty)*, and add an equal amount of milk. Into this stir slowly the mixed butter and flour, season with pepper and let boil until thick. Some people like the addition of two well-beaten eggs, but I prefer the beef plain, with the gravy rather thick, served on rounds of hot buttered toast. The toast could be made first and set where it will keep warm, and thus save the time of making afterwards, for a dish of this kind cools very quickly, and should be sent to the table as soon as ready- A Standing Roast of Beef ROAST BEEF A roast of beef, after being scraped and wiped free from all particles of sawed bone, should be seasoned well with salt and pepper, and dredged with flour. Put it in a hot oven, and when it has seared on top, to keep in the juice, turn over and allow to sear on the bottom. Then pour in the pan enough boiling water to keep from burning, and baste frequently. Allow about one hour for a five pound roast rare, and an hour and a half to cook well done. Serve a rib roast, left on the bone, standing as shown in the illustration, garnished with parsley. CHAPTER VI The Interesting Potato Every girl should know how to cook potatoes properly ; yet really there is scarcely any other one vegetable that can be prepared in so many ways and still is often so poorly cooked as to be practically unfit to eat. It would seem an easy thing to make a light, appetizing dish of mashed potatoes — and what is more inviting? — but how often are they served wet and soggy! To understand the right way to cook and serve potatoes is as much an art as to make a salad or bake a cake. BOILED POTATOES Plain boiled potatoes, with the skin on, are delicious when cooked as they should be. The requisite number should be selected, perfect in form and uniform in size, and scrubbed with the vegetable brush, but the skins not broken. If they are old they will be better for soaking half an hour in cold water. A half hour before dinnertime, if they are of medium size, they should be covered with boiling salted water and placed on the stove, where they will boil gently, not hard, until the skins begin to crack open. Test with a fork, and as soon as they are tender, drain off all the water and set on the back of the stove to steam dry. Serve in a hot, open vegetable dish ; and if there is company or you are very particular, remove the skins (without breaking the potatoes) just before sending to the table. In case there is to be fish or a meat dish without gravy, serve the potatoes with the white sauce our little cook was taught to make in one of her first lessons. MASHED POTATOES