Physical culture cook book

Fruit is best, of course, eaten raw, but cooked fruit is better than no fruit at all. One way or the other, it should form a large part of our diet, since it is most healthful. If the fruit is fresh and ripe, serve it raw. Arrange it daintily and tastefully, and it is sure to be appreciated. Serve oranges or grapes at the beginning of a meal ; they go equally well with breakfast, luncheon or dinner, and their medicinal properties are well known. Stewed fruits should follow the meal, unless they are used at breakfast, when they may accompany the cereal. Bananas are so hearty that they made a nice desert with a light meal, as luncheon. Nuts have not, until lately, been appreciated at their true value as articles of food, chiefly because of their general indigestibility. If, however, they are boiled, they will be found much more digestible. The many nut foods on the market may be used to make various dishes or the ordinary nuts may be bought and prepared at home. There is much nutriment in them, as they are rich in several of the food elements, particularly the fats. Apples. — This exceedingly wholesome fruit should be often used, raw preferably. Select perfect, bright-looking apples and arrange prettily with oranges or other fruit in season, and serve at beginning to any meal. 1. Baked Apples. — Wash and core a sufficient number of good-sized tart apples. Put a little sugar in each core (or omitted if desired) and bake in a hot oven until soft. About onehalf an hour will usually suffice, but much depends on the apples. 2. Apple Sauce. — Pare and cut up tart apples. Put in saucepan, and with just enough hot water to prevent burning and cook quickly until soft — about fifteen minutes. Put through colander or potato ricer, and then return to the stove with enough sugar added to sweeten to taste for five minutes. A rose geranium leaf, washed well and put in the bottom of the dish into which the sauce is poured, imparts a very delicate flavor. Cook apple sauce in graniteware, never in tin. 3. Stewed Crab Apples. — Wash a quart of crab apples, and stew twenty minutes in one pint hot water. Add one cup sugar, cook five minutes longer, and set to cool. 4. Dried Apples. — Wash carefully and stew very slowly for two to two and a half hours. 5. Baked Pears. — Wash partially ripe pears, cut in halves and remove cores. Place in small jar, add a little boiling water and cover closely. Bake in a slow oven five or six hours. When done they should be nearly dry. 6. Stewed Pears. — Peel, quarter and core the fruit. Stew slowly in enough boiling water to cover for three hours. Sweeten to taste when nearly done. 7. Steamed Pears (or other fruit). — Prepare as tor baking, put in covered granite pan, and set in a pan of boiling water (or use a regular steamer) two or three hours. When nearly done, sweeten to taste. 8. Stuffed Quinces.— Pare and core the fruit; place in deep dish with half a pint each of water and sugar; fill cavities with chopped almonds or English walnuts and raisins ; cover and bake tender; set away in a cool place to chill thoroughly, and serve.