Foods and home making

As soon as the potatoes come from the oven, cut criss-cross gashes in the top of each potato. Press the potato slightly so some of the steam may escape. A bit of butter and a dash of salt, pepper, or paprika may be placed on the top of each potato. Serve at once. Keep pota- toes warm by placing over them a napkin — not a dish cover. Mashed potatoes are often prepared by mashing boiled pota- toes. Baked potatoes (both white and sweet) also make very good mashed potatoes. Potatoes often become cool while being mashed. Mashed baked potatoes may be placed in the potato skins or shells and returned to the oven. Thus they may be served piping hot. Baked sweet potatoes, mashed and heated in their shells, are sometimes called Sweet Potatoes , Southern Style. BAKED POTATOES (White or Sweet) STUFFED POTATOES (White or Sweet) 6 medium-sized potatoes 2 teaspoons salt | teaspoon white pepper 2 tablespoons butter Enough milk or cream to moisten — . usually about \ cup 416 Dinner Immediately after taking the baked potatoes from the oven, cut them in halves lengthwise or cut a piece from the top of each potato. With a fork or spoon remove the inside of the potato, dropping the mealy por- tion into a bowl and taking care not to break the skin. Mash the potatoes; add the butter, milk, and seasoning. Beat until the ingredients are thoroughly blended and the potatoes are lighter in color. Put the mixture in the potato shells, heaping it unevenly. Place the stuffed potatoes in a pan and bake in a very hot oven (joo° F.) until the potatoes are brown. Serve hot, garnished with parsley sprigs. Baked potatoes taste different from boiled potatoes ; baked squash tastes different from steamed squash. Although baked squash is very tasty, a longer time is required to bake this vege- table than to steam it. BAKED WINTER SQUASH Wash the outside of a squash. Cut or break it into pieces of suitable size for serving. Remove the seeds and stringy part from each piece. Do not pare the vegetable. Place the pieces, soft part up, on a baking sheet. Put the pan in the oven. Bake in a very hot oven — 500° F. — for 1 hour or until the vegetable is tender. Put a piece of butter on each piece. Add salt and pepper. Serve hot. What care should be taken in cooking vegetables in water? Vegetables are cooked in water more often than in any other way. In Experiment 26, we learned that mineral matter and vitamins, as well as other nourishing substances, may be lost by cooking vegetables this way. Vegetables may be cooked in water and served in such a way that no nourishing materials are wasted. Such methods of cooking vegetables in water are de- scribed in this book. When cooking vegetables in water, make every effort to save all nourishing materials. As a usual thing a shorter time is required to cook vegetables in water on top of the stove than to cook them in a steamer or in the oven. The longer vegetables are cooked, the more vita- mins are destroyed. Short cooking may be an advantage as Vegetables for Dinner 4*7 far as saving vitamins are concerned, if there is no loss of vita- mins in the water in which vegetables are cooked. There are some ways of preparing and cooking vegetables in water so that we lose very little of the mineral matter, vitamins, and other nutritious materials. These ways are :