Mother's Cook Book: Containing Recipes for Every Day in the Week, Including ..

Wash them perfectly clean, wipe them dry, and bake in a quick oven, according to their size — half an hour for quite small size, three-quarters for larger, and a full hour for the largest. Let the oven have a good heat, and do not open it, unless it is necessary to torn them, until they are done. FRENCH FRIED SWEET POTATOES. Prepare and fry the same as the white potatoes. Or they can first be boiled half an hour, and then pared, cut and fried as directed. The latter is the better way, as they are liable to be a little hard if frif fried when raw. TURNIPS. Boil until tender; mash and season with butter, pepper, salt, and a little rich milk or cream. SPINACH. An excellent way to serve spinach is to first look it over carefully; wash it in two or three waters. If the stalks are not perfectly tender, cut the leaves from the stalk. Boil for twenty minutes in water with enough salt dissolved in it to salt the spinach sufficiently. When done let it drain, then chop it fine, put it on the stove in a saucepan, with a lump of butter, salt, and pepper, and enough milk to moisten it When the butter is melted and spinach steaming, take from the fire and put it in the dish in which it is going to the table. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices or in rings—that is, with the yolk removed and rings of the white only left. BEETS. Clean these nicely, but do not pare them, leaving on a short piece of the stalk. Then put over to boil in hot water. Yoang beets will cook tender in an hour; old beets require several hours' boiling. When done, skin quickly while hot, slice thin into your vegetable dish, pat on salt, pepper, and a little butter, put over a little vinegar, and serve hot or cold. TO PRESERVE VEGETABLES FOR WIN- TER USE. Green string beans must be picked when young; put a layer three inches deep in a small wooden keg or half barrel ; sprinkle in salt an inch deep, then put another layer of beans, then salt, and beans and salt in alternate layers, until you have enough; let the last be salt; cover them with a piece of board which will fit the inside of the barrel or keg, and place a heavy weight upon it; they will make a brine. When wanted for use, soak them one night or more in plenty of water, changing it once or twice, until the salt is out of them, then cut them, and boil the same as when fresh. Carrots, beans, beet-roots, parsnips, and potatoes 112 Mother's Cook Boos. keep best in dry sand or earth in a cellar; turnips keep best on a cellar bottom, or they may be kept the same as carrots, etc. Whatever earth remains about them when taken from the ground, should not be taken off. When sprouts come on potatoes or other stored vegetables, they should be carefully cut off. The young sprouts from turnips are sometimes served as a salad, or boiled tender in salt and water, and served with butter and pepper over. Celery may be kept all winter by setting it in boxes filled with earth; keep it in the cellar; it will grow and whiten in the dark; leeks may also be kept in this way. Cabbage set out in earth, in a good cellar, will keep good and fresh all winter. Small close heads of cabbage may be kept many weeks by taking them before the frost comes, and laying them on a stone floor; this will whiten them, and make them tender. Store onions are to be strung, and hung in a dry, cold place. DELICATE CABBAGE.