** However, it is n^t as though we did n't know how to cook,*' said Brownie, when she came home from school and found out what had hap- pened. ** Every single one of us can cook — even Jack/' ^^Even Jack," called her brother from the dining-room. **I heard that. Brownie Blair, and I '11 tell you this : I can cook just as well as any one in this family, if I do say it. ' ' *^ Prove it, then," laughed his mother, **I got the lunch alone to-day because you were all away; but suppose, instead of having regular 204 WHEN NOEAH WAS AWAY 205 dinners while Norah is gone, we have hot sup- pers, and you three get them without me. Do you think you could manage it? And I will get lunch and breakfast/^ *'0h, no, Mother Blair. We will all get breakfast together, and wash the dishes and make the beds before we go to school; we can get up earlier. And every single day we will get supper all alone and you can go out calling or walking or whatever you like. * ' * * Perhaps you 'd let me help once in a while, ' * suggested their mother meekly. **Not once. Of course if you want to make one thing for supper to surprise us some time and have plenty of time to do it while you are getting lunch, we might let you do that. A cake, I mean, or gingerbread, just to help out at night; none of us can make many kinds of cake. ' ^ **Well, I think most girls know how to make too many kinds of cake and very few kinds of more sensible things, soups and vegetables and so on ; and of the two I believe the regular every- day dishes are the more important. You see, you can learn to make cake at any time. * ' **I think this is a rattling good time for Mil- dred to learn, '^ declared Jack. *' Chocolate layer cake and cocoanut cake and fruit cake are 206 THE FUN OF COOKINa great, and she '11 never learn younger, Mother/' * * Well, she may make a great big cake for you on Saturday for Sunday night supper, if she wants to ; but if she does, I shall expect you to do your share of the cooking every day. * * ** Emergency cooking is all right; men ought to know how to do that,'' Jack replied stoutly. **I 'm perfectly willing to cook bacon for break- fast, or scramble eggs, or cook fish for supper, or make a stew ; anything I cooked in camp I can do with one hand tied behind my back ! ' ' * * This is your chance then, to show what you learned last summer. Perhaps if you do splen- didly well Father Blair will want to take you again,'' said his mother. **Now hurry back to school and I will do these dishes and plan the supper and get it all ready for you — on paper, — and then if you want me to, I '11 disappear and you may cook it all alone. ' ' **0f course. Mother Blair. Don't you pay any attention to us at all; just come in with Father at half past six and it will be all ready," Mildred said as she hurried away. That afternoon when the kitchen was all tidy Mother Blair sat down with a pencil and a sheet of paper and wrote out all about the sup- per. This is what she planned to have, and WHEN NOEAH WAS AWAY 207 after each dish she wrote the name of the one who was to make it : Cream dried beef (Mildred) Com bread (Jack) Cocoa (Brownie) Fresh apple-sance (Mildred) Cake (see cake box) When the three younger Blairs came home and supper time approached, they found this pinned up in the kitchen, and with it the only receipts they needed: CREAMED DRIED BEEP 1 box of shaved dried beef (or ^ of a pound if you buy it at the butcher's). 1 tablespoonf ul butter. 1 tablespoonful flour. 1 cup of hot milk. 2 shakes of pepper✪ Creamed Dried Beef. Cut the beef up into tiny bits; pour boiling water over it and let it stand one minute; pour it off and squeeze the meat dry.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

** However, it is not as though we did n't know how to cook,*' said Brownie, when she came home from school and found out what had happened. ** Every single one of us can cook — even Jack/' ^^Even Jack," called her brother from the dining-room. **I heard that. Brownie Blair, and I '11 tell you this : I can cook just as well as any one in this family, if I do say it. ' ' *^ Prove it, then," laughed his mother, **I got the lunch alone to-day because you were all away; but suppose, instead of having regular dinners while Norah is gone, we have hot suppers, and you three get them without me. Do you think you could manage it? And I will get lunch and breakfast." *'0h, no, Mother Blair. We will all get breakfast together, and wash the dishes and make the beds before we go to school; we can get up earlier. And every single day we will get supper all alone and you can go out calling or walking or whatever you like." * * Perhaps you 'd let me help once in a while, ' * suggested their mother meekly." **Not once. Of course if you want to make one thing for supper to surprise us some time and have plenty of time to do it while you are getting lunch, we might let you do that. A cake, I mean, or gingerbread, just to help out at night; none of us can make many kinds of cake." **Well, I think most girls know how to make too many kinds of cake and very few kinds of more sensible things, soups and vegetables and so on ; and of the two I believe the regular everyday dishes are the more important. You see, you can learn to make cake at any time." **I think this is a rattling good time for Mildred to learn, '^ declared Jack. *' Chocolate layer cake and cocoanut cake and fruit cake are great, and she '11 never learn younger, Mother." * * Well, she may make a great big cake for you on Saturday for Sunday night supper, if she wants to ; but if she does, I shall expect you to do your share of the cooking every day." ** Emergency cooking is all right; men ought to know how to do that," Jack replied stoutly. **I 'm perfectly willing to cook bacon for breakfast, or scramble eggs, or cook fish for supper, or make a stew ; anything I cooked in camp I can do with one hand tied behind my back!" * * This is your chance then, to show what you learned last summer. Perhaps if you do splendidly well Father Blair will want to take you again," said his mother. **Now hurry back to school and I will do these dishes and plan the supper and get it all ready for you — on paper, — and then if you want me to, I '11 disappear and you may cook it all alone." **0f course. Mother Blair. Don't you pay any attention to us at all; just come in with Father at half past six and it will it all ready." Mildred said as she hurried away. That afternoon when the kitchen was all tidy Mother Blair sat down with a pencil and a sheet of paper and wrote out all about the supper. This is what she planned to have, and after each dish she wrote the name of the one who was to make it : Cream dried beef (Mildred) Com bread (Jack) Cocoa (Brownie) Fresh apple-sauce (Mildred) Cake (see cake box) When the three younger Blairs came home and supper time approached, they found this pinned up in the kitchen, and with it the only receipts they needed: CREAMED DRIED BEEF 1 box of shaved dried beef (or ^ of a pound if you buy it at the butcher's). 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 tablespoonful flour. 1 cup of hot milk. 2 shakes of pepper. Cut the beef up into tiny bits; pour boiling water over it and let it stand one minute; pour it off and squeeze the meat dry.

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Creamed Dried Beef

The fun of cooking