What to eat, how to serve it

But some one may object, one does not want all sandwiches. True enough, but they are the pièce de résistance of the lunch. They may be supplemented, however, by a piece of cold fowl, by, once in a while, a broiled bird, by a few pickled oysters, by deviled and plain hard-boiled eggs, by salads without number, by olives, cheese, and pickles. And for desserts are there not the little dishes already suggested, to say nothing of cake, cookies, ginger-snaps, apples, oranges, mandarins, bananas, pears, grapes, and other fruits ? For school children there are such simple dainties as bread or rolls spread with jam, jelly, marmalade, or apple-sauce. And are not crackers and cheese always at hand, and almost always popular ? While all this may at first seem to impose additional labor upon the housekeeper, she will soon find, when the habit is once estab- lished of providing regularly for the lunch, that she feels it no more of a burden than she does to cater for the other meals of the day. Let her keep on the alert for new fancies, and they will come to her more rapidly than she can utilize them. FAMILY LUNCHES FOR SPRING THESE menus for simple home lunches, given as were those for breakfasts — ten for each season — are not designed to serve as exact guides, but merely as suggestions to the housekeeper. They may easily be improved upon or altered. To some they will doubtless appear much too simple, while others may condemn them as being too elaborate. Certain selected recipes will accompany them. Baked Cheese Omelet. Toasted Crackers. Strawberry Jam. Cocoa. Baked Cheese Omelet — Two eggs, two cups milk, one small cup grated cheese, one small cup fine bread-crumbs, salt and Cayenne pepper to taste, one tablespoonful melted butter. Soak the crumbs in the milk, in which FAMILY LUNCHES FOR SPRING you have dissolved a tiny pinch of soda ; beat the eggs light, and add to the bread and milk ; stir in the butter, the seasoning, and, last of all, the cheese. Bake in a weU-greased pudding-dish, and eat at once, before it falls. Toasted CrcbcJcera. — SpUt and toast Boston crackers. Butter them well on the inside, lay the two. halves together, and serve them in a hot covered dish. They are not nearly so good when they are cold. Ham Fritters. Baked Bananas. Bread-and-Butter. Ginger Snaps. Tea. Ham Fritters. — Two cups minced cold ham, one ^gg^ half-pint good stock, saltspoonful dry mustard, teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce, tiny bit of scalded onion (chopped), half -teaspoonful minced parsley, one tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful flour. Heat the stock to boiling, and thicken it with the butter and flour rubbed together; stir into it the ham, seasoned with the mustard, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and parsley; 9 129 add the beaten egg. Pour the mixture on a flat plate to cool. When cold and firm, make into flattened balls about the size of a small plum; drop each into a batter made of a cup of flour, two teaspoonfuls of melted butter, a small cup of warm water, the beaten white of an egg, and a little salt. Lay each fritter out of the batter into boiling fat. They will puff up at once, and should be of a delicate brown. Baked Bananas. — Select large ripe bananas, and bake them in the oven as you would potatoes. When the skin begins to split at the seams they are done. Take them out, and serve one to each person, as a vegetable. They should be peeled, and eaten with butter and a little salt. Bread-and'Butter, — Butter bread a day old on the loaf, and cut into thin slices. Double, the buttered side inward. Ginger Snaps, — Two eggs, two cups sugar, one cup butter, two teaspoonfuls ginger, one teaspoonf ul cinnamon, flour to make a stiff dough. EoU into a thin sheet, cut into