The housekeeper's companion

Spinach is boiled with salt beef, pork or ham. After the meat is done, take it up and press it between two plates that it may be cut nicely; meanwhile put the spinach into the pot, let it boil fast for fifteen minutes, then take it into a colander, press all the water from it, cut it small and serve with the meat. To be served with fried meat and gravy; boil it in water with a teaspoonful of salt, press the water from it and serve. Green Peas. — Shell green peas until you have a quart; half a peck in the shells will generally produce a quart o! shelled peas. Put boiling water to cover them, add a teaspoon- ful of salt, cover the stewpan, and boil fast for half an hour; then take one between your fingers, if it will mash easily they are done; drain off the water, take them into a deep dish, put to them a teacupful or less of sweet butter, and a little pepper; a small teaspoonful of white sugar is a great improvement; serve hot. Small young potatoes, nicely scraped, may be boiled and served with them, or in a separate dish with a little butter over. Lamb and peas are a favorite dish in the spring of the year; they are nice with poultry, veal and mutton. A bit of saleratus or carbonate of soda, the size of a pea, put with green vegetables, improves the color and renders them more healthful: fast boiling keeps the color good. Asparagus. — Choose green stalks of asparagus, the largest are best; cut off the white, tough part, wash the green in cold water, and tie it in small bundles that they may be taken up without danger of breaking, put them in hot water with a teaspoonful of salt, and let them boil for half an hour; toast some thin slices of bread a delicate brown, cut off the extreme outside crust, butter each slice frequently; and then lay them on small oval dishes; untie the asparagus and lay it on the toast, butter it a little, sprinkle pepper over and serve. Or it may be served without the toast; the toast may be moistened by puting a little of the water in which the asparagus, was boiled, over it. Vinegar is eaten with asparagus; it is generally added at table by such as like it. Asparagus may be laid on plain toast, and a little drawn butter poured over both. Green Beans. — Cut the bud and stem end off, and take the strings from the sides of stringed beans, cut them in inch lengths, wash them in cold water, then put them into a stewpan of hot water, add a teaspoonful of salt, cover the stewpan and let them boil fast for half or three-quarters of an hour; take one up, if it will mash easily when pressed between the thumb and finger, they are done. Drain off the water, add sweet butter and pepper to taste, cut some nicely toasted bread in squares or diamonds, lay them on a dish, and serve the beans over. Green beans, when good, will be a bright color, and crisp, when broken. They should be fresh picked. Beans and Corn, Called Succotash. — Take the husks ttOtrsJSHOLD. 181