Little French dinners

a pint of boiling water ; let it cook fairly fast over a brisk fire until all the water is absorbed. Then add by degrees, a little at a time, a pint and a half of milk, and let the rice cook very slowly indeed at the side of the stove for about four hours, or until the rice is quite tender. Add then some caster sugar to taste, let it cook for ten minutes longer and put it away in a cool place. When half cold add the contents of a small jar of Cornish cream, slightly whisked ; mix all together and turn the rice into a silver dish ; sprinkle the surface all over with powdered cinnamon and put the dish on ice until wanted. Compote d'Abricots (Compote of Apricots). — Pare some ripe apricots, cut them in half, remove the stones, and put them into a boiling syrup, made with half a pint of water and six ounces of sugar; add some of the kernels blanched and skinned, and lemon juice to taste. Let the apricots simmer in the syrup very gently indeed until they are quite tender, then drain them, arrange them on the dish on which they are going to be served, reduce the syrup, pour it over the apricots and place the dish on one side to get quite cold. Tinned apricots may be used instead of the fresh ones. Little French Dinners. 17 MENU*— VL POTAGE A LA TARTUFE. PALAIS DE BOEUF A LA SAUCE TOMATE. FAISANS ROTIS. SALADE DE CELERI RAVE. BOUCHEES DE VERMICELLE. MOUSSE A L'OBANOE. Potage a la Tartufe (Puree of Chicken). — Take the remnants of one or two fowls which have been plainly roasted, and after having removed all skin, put the meat in a stewpan with a few vegetables (not cut up) and three or four pints of water. Bring to the boil, add three or four slices of crumb of bread, and leave it to simmer for about four hours. Then remove the vegetables and pass the pieces of fowl and the bread through a hair sieve into a large basin. When all has been passed through, add the rest of the liquor or so much as will make the soup of the desired consistency, with pepper and salt, a grate of nutmeg, and sufficient " spinach greening " to colour the soup a pale green. Then cut out some carrots and turnips into the shape of peas, fry them in butter with pepper and salt till they begin to take colour, then finish cooking them in a small quantity of stock. Bring the soup to the boil, add a gill of cream, put in the above vegetables and serve at once. N.B. — The quantity of crumb of bread used to thicken this soup will vary according to the amount of flesh there is on the chicken bones. Palais de Bcenf a la Sauce Tomate (Ox-Palates with Tomato Sauce). — Wash a couple of ox-palates in two or three waters the day before they are wanted, put them into a saucepan half full of cold water, let them boil up once or twice, then drain off the water 1 8 Little French Dinners.