Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Use one pint of cold boiled corn, cut from the cob, or one can of preserved corn, one pint of pared and chopped tomatoes, one level table-spoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, three table-spoonfuls of butter, one teaspoonful of sugar, and a generous half-pint of grated bread crumbs. Mix together the corn, tomato, seasoning, and two table-spoonfuls of the butter, and pour the mixture into an escalop-dish, — one that will hold three pints. . Spread the bread crumbs over the mixture, and dot with the third table-spoonful of butter. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. This dish may be used for luncheon, dinner, or tea. * Cauliflower. This is a handsome and delicate vegetable. It is a pity that more people do not know how to cook it properly. Frequently a head of cauliflower, which was white and delicate when it went to the kitchen, is red and strong-flavored when placed on the table, and perhaps has a thick coating of melted butter and flour, or a thick sauce of flour and milk, which tastes as if it were prepared for a paste rather than a sauce. There are many ways of cooking this vegetable, but the simplest is the best. The cauliflower should be washed thoroughly, and then allowed to stand in cold water for a quarter of an hour or longer ; it should next be put into a stew-pan — either one of granite-ware or one with a lining of porcelain — with a plentiful quantity of boiling water ; and after the cover has been put on the stew-pan, the cauliflower should be simmered for half an hour, if it be fresh, crisp, and of moderate size, or for forty minutes, if it be rather large; it should then be drained and placed in a deep vegetable-dish ; and finally a sauce should be poured over it. The simplest and best sauce is made by beating two table-spoonfuls of butter and one of flour to a cream, pouring over this mixture three gills of boiling milk, and adding half a teaspoonf ul of salt after the liquid has boiled for five minutes. Half a teaspoonful of salt should be sprinkled over the cauliflower before the sauce is poured over it. * Escaloped Cauliflower. Put a good-sized cauliflower into a kettle containing two quarts of boiling water, and after adding a tablespoonful of salt, cook the vegetable slowly for half an hour. At the end of that time remove it, and after allowing the water to drip from it, break the cauliflower apart, and put a layer into an escalop-dish. Moisten with cream sauce, and sprinkle with grated cheese ; then put in another layer, pour the remainder of the sauce over it, and sprinkle thickly with cheese and bread crumbs. You will need a pint of sauce, a scant halfpint of bread crumbs, and two table-spoonfuls of cheese — or more if you desire a strong flavor. Cook the dish for twenty minutes, and serve as soon as it comes from the oven. To Make the Sauce. — Put two table-spoonfuls of butter into the frying-pan, and when it becomes melted, add a table-spoonful of flour. Stir the sauce until it is smooth and frothy ; then gradually add a pint of cold milk. Season with salt and pepper, and boil up once. * Creamed Cabbage. For six persons use two quarts of sliced raw cabbage, two table-spoonfuls of butter, one of flour, one teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, and one cupful of milk.