Cookery for little girls

A pretty idea for a Christmas table is to carry out as fully as possible a color scheme of red and green. The centerpiece, of course, should be of holly, and a novel one it will be if large beautiful pieces are put in the upper part of a double boiler and set out to freeze. I did this once by accident, and when I went for my holly there it was —imbedded in a solid block of ice. The shape of the oat-meal kettle, like a flowerpot, allowed the ice to turn out easily, and it could then be set on a plate and trimmed around the bottom with the holly leaves. A couple of bolts of red baby ribbon will be enough for streamers from the chandelier to each plate, at which should be a pretty piece of the holly — or better still, if you can get them, three or four red carnations for CHRISTMAS DINNER PARTY each lady, and one for the buttonhole of each gentleman. COLOR SCHEME To carry out this color plan, the oysters should be served with catsup and garnished with parsley, the tomato jelly be turned out on lettuce, the plum pudding (ablaze with a spoonful of alcohol) decorated with holly, and the candy — red and white peppermint wafers — tied with green baby ribbon. If the details of preparing the dinner have been followed out as I have suggested, and everything possible done the day before, on Christmas morning there will be little to do: the goose to put into the oven and roast, the potatoes to mash and the beans to dress, the plum pudding to heat up, the sauce to prepare, with the gravy and the coffee to make at the last moment. Our small cook of course has the celery cleaned preparatory to cutting up, and the nuts all cracked, and she can tie up the candy and' assist with the decorations. Having helped set the table for the Thanksgiving party, she will feel perfectly competent to undertake the arrangement now, alone, and you, Mother, can say, " You have gotten along with everything so nicely, and remembered so well, I will let you put on the dishes and silver all by yourself." Then when she reports that all is ready, look over the work yourself and see that it is all right. Possibly she will have misplaced some pieces, forgotten others, but if you point out the errors and have her remedy the mistakes herself, she will likely remember next time and make her table a well-appointed one. CHAPTER XIV Delicious Home-Made Candies All children love to make candy, and the homemade kinds are much purer and better — besides being much cheaper — than those usually sold at the small confectionery stores. Every mother will do well to help her little daughter master this branch of cookery, for it will not only enable her to make wholesome sweets for the family when desired, but also to prepare a dainty box when she wishes to make an inexpensive present. NUT CANDY For fine nut candy, have the child first pick out half a cupful of nut meats. Put on in a small saucepan two level cupfuls of light-brown sugar, one-half cupful of water, a level teaspoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of vinegar, and boil without stirring until the candy crackles when dropped in cold water. Pour into a wellbuttered pie-pan that has been sprinkled with the nuts, and as soon as cool, mark into squares. w ^L^ cc ^ •'**£//