Cookery for little girls

After getting all her ingredients out on the table and ready, the little cook should cream her butter and sugar, beat in yolks, add milk, and then stir in the flour alternately with the stiff whites. Then put in the brandy and spice, and last of all the fruit and nuts, dredged with a little flour. This should be well stirred, and then packed in a thoroughly greased covered mold and steamed for four hours. HARD SAUCE Two kinds of sauce are nice for this pudding, served together. A hard sauce is made by creaming one-half cupful of butter in one cupful of fine sugar, adding half teaspoonful of brandy or vanilla and one teaspoonful cream and stirring until light and creamy. It can be set in a bowl of hot water at first to help make the butter cream, but after being beaten light should be set in the cold to harden. A teaspoonful of this hard sauce is served on each portion of the pudding. HOT SAUCE The following hot sauce is poured around: one-quarter cupful butter, one cupful sugar, one teaspoonful flour. Mix flour and sugar, add butter and one cupful cold water, and stir until it boils and thickens. Flavor with nutmeg. The day before Christmas repeat the lesson in dressing a fowl, and let her make the stuffing from the recipe used before, only this time she should omit the sage or oysters and season with a small onion chopped fine. APPLE SAUCE For the accompanying apple sauce, let her peel and quarter half a dozen tart apples, put on to cook in a cup of cold water, and when tender press through a colander, sweeten to taste, and then put in a pretty glass dish and grate nutmeg over the top. This should then be covered and set away until ready to be carried to the table. CHRISTMAS DINNER PARTY OYSTERS ON THE HALF SHELL As we intended to have as little work as possible about this particular dinner, I have suggested raw oysters for the first course instead of a soup. Serve on the half-shell if you can get them that way, putting a little chopped ice on each plate to hold the shells in place, giving four or five oysters to each person, and putting one empty shell in the center to hold the horseradish or slice of lemon. If the oysters are opened at the market all you have to do is to see that they are kept on ice until served. TOMATO JELLY SALAD For the tomato jelly salad, first boil together until very tender one quart can of tomatoes, one small sliced onion, six cloves, one-half cupful chopped celery. Strain through a jelly bag, season with salt and pepper, and add gelatin which has been dissolving in a few spoonfuls of cold water. As different brands vary, however, study the directions on the box in order to get the right amount to stiffen one quart of jelly. If the gelatin does not thoroughly melt with the warm tomato juice, set over the fire for a few moments, and then pour into small molds (wine glasses or after-dinner coffee cups will serve nicely), and set away to harden over night. Next morning fix the required number of salad dishes with lettuce leaves or tender cabbage cut in strings, and turn out carefully the molded tomato jelly. Over the top of each drop a large spoonful of thick boiled dressing. CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS