My best 250 recipes

MY FAVORITE SPAGHETTI Grasp half a pound of spaghetti in your hand, put the ends down in a kettle of boiling water, and as they soften, slightly press until the whole is under the water. Shake it apart with a fork, add a teaspoonful of salt, and boil rapidly for twenty minutes. Drain, throw it in cold water for fifteen minutes, and drain again. Return it to the kettle, cover with a pint of good stock to which you have added a teaspoonful of beef extract. Cook slowly for twenty minutes; add a level teaspoonful of salt, two rounding tablespoonfuls of butter, and two tablespoonfuls of tomato My Best 250 Recipes 55 paste mixed with half a cupful of good cream. Stir constantly until it reaches the boiling point. Turn on a large platter, and pass with it grated parmesan. SUMMER SQUASH Cut the squash in eighths; take of? the rind and cut each piece into cubes of about one inch. Throw them into boiling, salted water, and cook slowly for thirty minutes until transparent. Drain carefully in a colander, dish, and cover with cream or Hollandaise sauce. STUFFED POTATOES Wash four large potatoes and cut them into halves crosswise. With a "scoop" take out the centres, leaving a wall at least half an inch thick. Bake these shells in a hot oven for twenty minutes. Chop sufficient meat to make a pint ; add a level teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, a tablespoonful of grated onion, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley; add sufficient stock to make the mixture moist (about half a cupful). Remove the potatoes from the oven; fill the shells with this mixture, rounding it up; dust them lightly with breadcrumbs and bake until browned. Serve as a supper or luncheon dish. Sweet potatoes may be used in place of white if preferred. 56 My Best 250 Recipes HASHED BROWN POTATOES Hash sufficient cold boiled potatoes to make a pint ; add a level teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and about four tablespoonfuls of cream. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a shallow frying-pan; when hot turn in the potatoes; pack them down smooth and even with a spatula ; cook slowly until they are thoroughly browned on the bottom. Fold them over as you would an omelet, and turn them on a heated dish, TOMATOES, FRENCH FASHION Scald and peel small, solid tomatoes ; to each six allow half a pint of cream sauce made by rubbing together a rounding tablespoonful of butter and one of flour ; add half a pint of milk ; stir until boiling. Take from the fire, add a level teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. Put a tablespoonful of the sauce in the bottom of a custard-cup ; then put in a tomato and cover with another tablespoonful of sauce ; dust the top with breadcrumbs; stand the cups in a pan of boiling water, and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Serve in the cups. STUFFED TOMATOES Cut a slice from the stem ends of the tomatoes ; scoop out the seeds and a portion of the hard centres. To each six good-sized tomatoes allow My Best 250 Recipes 57 a pint of breadcrumbs; a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of grated onion, a level teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and two tablespoon fuls of melted butter; mix, stuff this in the tomatoes, heaping it slightly. Stand them in a baking-pan, add half a cupful of water, and bake in a slow oven for three-quarters of an hour, basting once or twice with a little melted butter. CORN PUDDING