Foods and home making

Girls should be especially careful in building a fire outdoors. Skirts of light weight material can easily catch fire. It is safer to wear slacks if a fire is to be built at a picnic. If food is to be cooked in a griddle or kettle, it is well to arrange stones in the form of a shallow well and build a fire inside the well. A good brisk fire should be built and the fuels allowed to burn until the blaze disappears and glowing coals remain. If a cooking utensil is used, it may be placed on top of the stones. The glowing coals will heat the utensil without depositing soot on it. Often foods are cooked by holding them directly over the glowing coals. There are several foods which can be conveniently cooked outdoors. They are : i. Bacon. — .Whittle the end of a stick so as to clean it and point it. Stick a slice of bacon on the end of the stick and broil it over glowing coals. Picnic Lunches 543 2. Beef Steak. — Thin slices of meat may be cooked in the same way as bacon. Meat in steaks may be broiled over glowing coals by placing the meat on a rack. 3. Corn on the Cob. — For this it is necessary to have hot coals Do not remove the husks from ears of corn. (It is not necessary to remove the silk until after cooking.) Dip the ears in water. Bury the corn in the hot ashes, completely covering each ear. Let the corn cook until it is tender. 4. Potatoes. — Wrap each potato (use small potatoes) in several thicknesses of paper. Moisten the paper and bury the potatoes in hot ashes. Cook until the potatoes are tender when tried with a fork. 5. Canned Baked Beans. — Puncture the top of the can, then place the can in the hot coals until its contents are heated thoroughly. Other canned foods may be heated in the same way. 6. Bread. — Stick a slice of bread on the end of a stick and toast it over glowing coals. 7. Hot Cheese Sandwiches. — Make cheese sandwiches by placing thin slices of cheese between unbuttered pieces of bread. In a hot griddle or frying pan cook a few pieces of bacon. When the bacon is brown, remove the slices from the griddle or pan. Place the cheese sandwiches in the hot bacon fat and brown. Turn the sandwiches so that both sides may be browned. Serve hot with bacon. Cheese sandwiches prepared in this way are sometimes called dreamers. Since cheese and bacon are rich in fat, dreamers are a rich food and should be eaten sparingly. 8. Marshmallows. — Put a marshmallow on the end of a stick and toast it over glowing coals. Shall you drink water from streams or springs at a picnic? Water may be clear and sparkling, but unsafe to drink. Disease bacteria sometimes lurk in water. These cannot be seen with the naked eye. Water found in streams or springs often contains disease bacteria. Such water is, of course, unsafe to drink. Unless you know that water in a spring, stream, or well has been tested by a scientist and pronounced safe for drinking, do not taste it unless it is first boiled. Because dangerous disease germs may exist in water, it may be necessary to carry water from home for a picnic. It is far better to do this, even though it may be inconvenient, than to 544 Hospitality run any risks. Typhoid fever is one of the diseases which may be caused by drinking water containing certain kinds of bacteria.