Food and health

When we cook, we should plan everything carefully, and take out what we need for work. This saves time and steps. We must think beforehand of : 1. What to take. 2. How much of each kind. 3. What utensils to use. 4. How to put the materials together. 5. How to cook these materials, — apply heat. 6. How to serve the cooked food. These are what the cook books tell you about in what is called a " recipe '' or " receipt." Mollie Stark, another Pleasant Valley schoolgirl, is making her own cook book. Suppose we all begin to do so, too. Mollie is using a notebook with loose leaves, such as we have in school. If the cover of your notebook is not a pretty color, you can make one of some washable material, in the sewing class, perhaps, or for home work. Mollie illustrates her book either with drawings or with pictures pasted in. Making the cocoa. A quart of cocoa serves six people very well, for the cups we drink from hold less than a half pint. How many quarts of cocoa shall you need for them? Let us now, one by one, think of the points we must remember. * Cocoa. What to use? Cocoa, sugar, water, milk. How much to take. Equal parts of water and milk. 8 teaspoonfuls of powdered cocoa to a quart of liquid. The same amount of sugar as of cocoa. Utensils? This depends upon the amount of cocoa, does it not? You can plan this easily yourself. Remember that a large pail or kettle full needs a long spoon for stirring. How to make? This is the one way that saves dishes: Heat the water and milk together. Mix together the cocoa and sugar, dry. When the liquid begins to bubble, throw in the dry materials, and begin to beat and stir as fast as you can. When the cocoa and sugar are all dissolved, your beverage is ready. How to serve? Have a dipper and the cups all ready. Remember, if you do not spill, there is nothing to clean up. There are other ways of making cocoa. Try more than one. Some girl in the club may know another way, or your teacher may have another recipe. How shall you know which is best? It is the way that makes ^ Hereafter, for convenience, simply JVhaty How muchy Utensils^ How to makey and How to serve, will be used. [illustration: Fig. 17. — Cocoa is easy to prepare for the school luncheon] Fig. 17. — Cocoa is easy to prepare for the school luncheon. the smoothest cocoa, with the fewest dishes, and with the least work. The Dutch people, who manufacture cocoa, also make it well. They always beat it to make it smooth. If you can have a large *' Dover '' egg beater, a few minutes' beating, while the cocoa is still on the stove, makes it free from grains and lumps. 1. How many liquid teaspoonfuls make a tablespoonful f 2. How many dry ? 3. How can you divide a dry spoonful in halves ? 4. How many tablespoonfuls are there to a quarter cup ? To a whole cup ? 5. Copy your cocoa recipe in your notebook. 6. Begin a table of measures, and leave space for more. Lesson 4 the value of milk as a food How can we use milk for the school lunches ? A glass of cool, clean milk is one of the best possible foods for luncheon at school. Sip milk very slowly ; for, if you gulp it down, you may have indigestion. Carry Fig. 18. — Do not let milk stand in this way. it to school in a clean bottle, and keep it in a cool place. Would you like a little change from plain milk, either at school or at home ^. Renneted milk, or junket. What? Milk, sugar, a flavoring, rennet tablets (bought at the grocer's).. The flavoring may be vanilla, or nutmeg, or cocoa dissolved in the milk. How much? 1 quart of milk 1 cup of sugar 1 teaspoonful vanilla A few gratings nutmeg I tablet, usually Utensils? Something for warming the milk; something to hold the milk; measuring implements.