Every-day dishes and every-day work

add to the soup a quantity of cream as seasoning, in the proportion of one cup of thin cream for every quart or three pints of soup. Nut butter or nut meal may be used for seasoning, in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls to the quart of soup. Many soups are excellent without the addition of cream or other fat. To avoid the possibility of any lumps or fragments in the soup, pour it again through a colander or a Chinese soup strainer into the soup tureen, and serve. It is well to take the precaution first to heat the strainer and tureen, that the soup be not cooled during the process. The consistency of the soup when done should be about that of single cream, and equal throughout, containing no lumps or fragments of material. If it is too thick, it may be easily diluted with hot milk or water ; if too thin, it will require the addition of more material, or may be thickened with a little flour or cornstarch rubbed to a cream with a small quantity of milk, used in the proportion of one tablespoonful for a quart of soup, — heaping, if flour; scant, if corn-starch, It should be remembered always to boil the soup five or ten minutes after the flour is added, that there may be no raw taste. SOUPS WITHOUT MILK. Baked Bean Soup. — Soak a half pint of white beans overnight. In the morning turn off the water, and place them in an earthen dish with two or two and one-half quarts of boiling water; cover and let them simmer in a moderate oven four or five hours. Also soak overnight a tablespoonful of pearled tapioca in sufficient water to cover. "When the beans are soft, rub through a colander, after which add the soaked tapioca, and salt if desired ; also as much powdered thyme as can be talcen on the point of a penknife, and sufficient water to make the soup of proper consistency. Return to the oven, and cook one-half hour longer. Bean and Tomato Soup. — Take one pint of boiled or a little less of mashed beans, one pint of stewed tomatoes, and rub together through a colander. Add salt, two tablespoonfuls of nut meal, one-half cup of nicely steamed rice, and sufficient boiling water to make a soup of the proper consistency. Reheat and serve. Black Bean Soup.— Soak a pint of black beans overnight in cold water. When ready to cook, put into two and one-half quarts of fresh water, which should be boiling, and simmer until completely dissolved, adding more boiling water from time to time if needed. There should be about two quarts of all when done. Rub through a colander, add salt, and reheat. When hot, turn through a soup strainer, add two or more teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, and serve. Bran Stock. — For every quart of stock desired, boil a cup of good wlieat bran in three pints of water for two or three hours, or until reduced one third. This stock may be made the base of a variety of palatable and nutritious soups by flavoring with different vegetables and seasoning with salt. An excellent soup may be prepared by flavoring the stock with celery, or by the addition of a quantity of strained stewed tomato sufficient to disguise the taste of the stock. It is also valuable in giving consistency to soups, in the preparation of some of which it may be advantageously used in place of other liquid.