The home cook book

Peel enough peaches to fill the average pudding dish — do not take out the pits. Add about two cups of water, cover tight and bake till the peaches are tender. Take the water in which the peaches have cooked and to it add a mixture made as follows : Beat well four eggs, add a cup of milk, a cup of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of butter, and a cup of flour into which a teaspoon of baking powder has been sifted. Stir together. There should be a thin batter. Pour over the peaches, set in the oven and bake till brown. Serve with cream. PEACH TAPIOCA Wash and soak overnight a cup of tapioca. Next morning set the tapioca to boil in a pint of boiling water. It is best to use a double-boiler. Boil slowly until the tapioca is clear. Then stir in a can of peaches. Put in a dish and serve cold with cream and sugar. PINEAPPLE WITH STRAWBERRIES When selecting pineapples pull the centre spines from the crown. If they come out easily the fruit is ripe and in condition to use. If sliced first, the peel can be removed much easier than paring the fruit whole. Slice with a sharp knife; then, after paring, with a pointed knife remove the eyes. Shredding is done by placing the sliced fruit on to a platter and picking it with a silver fork. It is popular to serve this fruit in the shell. Cut the crown about one inch from the top. With a sharp-pointed spoon remove all of the pulp, leaving the shell perfect. Shred the pulp, discarding the hard centre; add to this pulp halved strawberries, enough sugar to sweeten, and put back into the shell. Stand on ice until wanted. Then heap whipped cream or ice cream, flavored with pineapple, on top. Serve on a dish with the spines about the base. [See illustration, Plate XXIV.] PRUNES WITH WHIPPED CREAM Stew till tender half a pound of prunes. Drain off the water, take out the pits, mash the prunes, and stir in sweetened whipped cream — a pint or half a pint, as your taste and convenience directs. Put into small cups, chill in the ice-box, and drop a spoon of whipped cream in each cup as the sweet is served. PRUNE PUDDING After thoroughly washing one pound of prunes, stew them till tender. Put them through a colander and add two cups of sugar. Beat to a stiflf froth the whites of five eggs and stir in the prunes. Pour into a pudding dish and bake ten minutes. For the sauce to the prunes heat a pint of milk in a doubleboiler, add a little sugar to your taste, the yolks of the five eggs and a dash of vanilla. Cook a moment after the yolks are in. Instead of this sauce cream may be used. PUMPKIN CUSTARD The old-fashioned red pumpkins are apt to be the best. Cut new-moon shaped pieces from a ripe pumpkin and free the pieces from seed and rind. Cut in small squares or dice, put them in a steamer over a kettle of boiling water and steam Small Custard Cups till tender. Next press through a sieve or colander. To a quart of milk add five beaten eggs, two cups of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt and half a nutmeg. If you beat into the sugar before it is added a piece of butter the size of an egg the dish