Luncheon

add the ham and a very little hot water and a pinch of cayenne. When quite hot arrange it neatly on slices of toast, put a poached egg on top of each, and serve. Minced ham prepared for evening parties and not all used may be served in this manner. Frizzled Beef with Egg. — Cut half a pound of smoked or jerked beef into the thinnest of pieces or shavings ; cover with boiling water for five minutes, and drain. Melt an ounce of sweet butter in the frying pan, and add the wafers of beef. When they begin to frizzle or turn up, break over them three eggs ; stir until the eggs are cooked ; add a little white pepper, and serve on slices of buttered toast. MACARONI. An Italian invention, and the most popular form in which wheat flour is sent to table, bread excepted. It is an excellent dish to serve at luncheon or other impromptu meals ; and, while the dish called " au gratin " is known to nearly all cooks, there are many other ways of preparing this very excellent food product. MACARONI WITH ROAST MEATS. 37 Macaroni with Roast Meats. — A most excellent dish is made as follows. Break into small inch pieces enough macaroni to make a pint; cover with boiling water slightly salted, and boil fifteen minutes ; drain. Cut into small pieces one small onion, put it in a pan with a little oil or lard, simmer until brown, and add half a pint of hot water or soup, then add half a pound of cooked meat of any kind, and also add the macaroni, salt and pepper to taste ; now add a teaspoonful of flour, cover, and let the dish sim.mer fifteen minutes. This is an excellent way of disposing of those odds and ends which, while they are not large enough to be served a second time, are nevertheless too good to be thrown away. Macaroni with Tomato Sauce. — Boil the macaroni fifteen minutes ; then drain, put it on a flat dish, and pour round it a tomato sauce ; strew over the dish a quantity of grated cheese. The tomato sauce is prepared as follows : Open a can of tomatoes that contains but little hquid ; simmer them gently three-quarters of an hour ; season with salt, cayenne, a clove of garlic bruised, and very little mace. Press them through a fine sieve ; put the pulp in a clean, hot stewpan with a little butter, stir to prevent burning, and when quite thick serve. A most 38 MACARONI PIE. excellent tomato sauce is made of a brilliant red tomato ketchup. Take half a pint of it, heat it gently, add a gill of rich soup stock and a teaspoonful of flour dissolved in a httle cold water, simmer until it thickens, and serve. Ordinary ketchups do not have the proper color, and are liable to sour when heated. Macaroni Pie. — Put into a round baking tin two slices of bacon, add to it a layer of macaroni; next add a layer of raw meat cut into inch pieces ; season with salt and pepper ; add another layer of macaroni, and so on until the dish is nearly full. Then add sufficient quantity of gravy, soup, or hot water, to have the dish quite moist when done. Cover the dish with an ordinary piecrust, and bake brown. A very nice pie is made by adding a layer or two of tomatoes, and, if not objected to, a httle onion may be added for its flavor. Fish and shell fish are added to macaroni when the pie is made for fast- day meals.