The cooking garden

Toward spring you must watch them and pick off the sprouts, lest they become rank. Soak them to plump them, and cook them with greater care. The roots are particularly nice when they first come, if quite ripe. When young and tender they require less time to cook. The Leaves should be thoroughly washed and put into salted water just beginning to boil — one table-spoonful of salt to every two quarts of water. The water should be drawn fresh, and the vegetables put in its first boiling, or they will not look a good color. A bit of soda, size of a pea, is necessary to counteract an unhealthy oil in spinach as well as in all beans. Nearly all vegetables are dressed with salt and butter, sometimes a little sugar and pepper sprinkled in at the last. Spinach and cabbage are apt to be sandy unless carefully looked over and washed. The first washing should be done in warm, not cold water, in which it should be shaken up and down, but not allowed to lie. Asparagus and celery are both cooked as a vegetable, and seasoned Io8 LESSON SEVENTH. with butter and salt ; but rhubarb, which is more for a sauce, has only sugar cooked in it. In a city like New York all varieties are in the market nearly all the months of the year ; but not until they are growing near where we live can we expect to find them cheap. During the summer, if you can get them fresh and cook them nicely, you will not need to buy near as much meat, and can make many nice dishes, mostly all vegetables. Question. How are vegetables divided? Answer. Into four classes : Roots, such as carrots. Seeds, as oats, rice, etc. Leaves, as spinach, lettuce, etc. Stems, as asparagus, celery, etc. Q. How should the roots be prepared for cooki7tg ? A. Washed and scraped. Q. How should the leaves be prepared ? A. Thoroughly washed and carefully looked over. Q. In salting the water for vegetables, what are the proportions ? A. One table-spoonful of salt to two quarts of water. Q. In boiling spinach and beans, what should be ptct into the water ? A. A bit of soda size of a pea. Q. What is this for ? A. To make the greens a good color, and to correct the effects of an unhealthy oil which is in spinach. Q. How should spinach be washed f A. First in warm (not hot) water, dipped in and out, but not allowed to lie. Q. How is rhubarb used? A. As a sauce, and is seasoned with sugar. MINCED SPINACH. Wash carefully, put into salted boiling water with soda size of a pea. When tender, drain in colander and chop fine. For each quart of chopped spinach put two table-spoonfuls of butter and one of flour in frying-pan, and when this has cooked smooth, and before it has browned, add the spinach, stir in a cup of milk, and when thoroughly heated remove. Arrange spinach in a mound on a hot dish, with slices of cold boiled egg on top. CREAM CARROTS. Wash and scrape, cut into dice, put into boiling water slightly salted, and boil until tender; drain, and serve with a dressing made of one table-spoonful of butter, one of flour, rubbed together and stirred into a cup of Ao^ milk. Let it come to a boil, and pour over the carrots. FRIED PARSNIPS. Scrape and boil the parsnips in salted boiling water. When tender, drain, slice lengthwise, dredge with flour, and fry in hot lard, or half lard and half butter. Season and serve.