April brings many other good things beside the showers typical of the month; summer now begins to declare itself, and flowers, fruits, and fresh vegetables are in season. Easter usually comes in April, and brings not only a religious festival but a gala day as well, for Easter Monday is holiday time the world over. To keep it hospitably, let us have an
EASTER LUNCHEON
FOR AN EASTER LUNCHEON. FOR AN EASTER LUNCHEON.
For this, no flowers are so appropriate as jonquils, for they are the colour of spring sunshine, and have a suggestion of gaiety all their own. They do not lend themselves to any arrangement other than the massing of them in a bowl, but they do blend well with violets; and if your luncheon is very elaborate, the two may be used, the jonquils in the centre and the violets in a wreath around the bowl, or in smaller bowls about the table. A mahogany table is at its best with yellow flowers, each setting off the other; but whatever the table, lay it with doilies; if you have a yellow and white centrepiece, use it, but if not, choose a white one. Candles are not to be used in summer weather, unless, as one sometimes sees them by way of decoration, they are unlighted.
EASTER EGG. EASTER EGG.
EASTER FAVOUR. EASTER FAVOUR.
In addition to your little dishes of radishes, almonds, candied ginger, and other relishes on the table, have some filled with Easter eggs in candy. Each guest may have a tiny, downy chicken at her plate, such as fill the shops at this season, or if you prefer, a box in the shape of an egg, filled with bonbons, or rather candy eggs. These boxes come in all prices, ranging from a few cents for those of plain cardboard to the expensive ones in satin which are imported and cost an alarming sum; one will have no trouble in finding something pretty within her means.
The ice cream for an Easter luncheon may be very attractive; it comes in various egg forms from the caterer, but the prettiest is that which is in small eggs of ice and cream, in different sizes, served in a nest of spun sugar of a straw colour. There is also a large form in which a hen sits on a larger nest of the same sort with little chickens peeping from under her wings, but this is rather too elaborate for a luncheon. If all caterers' forms are out of reach, the best substitute is made by serving rounded spoonfuls of a very yellow cream as nearly like eggs as possible. The menu for the luncheon should consist principally of chicken and eggs in different styles.
MENU
Clams on the Half-Shell.
Cream of Chicken Soup.
Green Peppers Filled with Creamed Salmon.
Patties of Sweetbreads and Mushrooms.
Chicken in Rice Border. New Potatoes.
Lemon and Peppermint Ice.
Egg Salad. Cheese Straws.
Ice Cream in Egg Forms. Cake.
Coffee. Bonbons.
The peppers are prepared by cutting off the small end and filling them with creamed salmon, heating them in the oven before serving. The patties are to be purchased at the bakery and filled with a mixture of sweetbreads and canned mushrooms. The chicken in rice is a delicious dish, and one easily prepared, but seldom seen. The white meat of two or if necessary three chickens is stewed until tender, then cut into pieces about four inches by two, and put in the centre of a border of boiled rice which has been turned out on a round platter; a sauce made of the strained chicken stock, thickened and with cream added until it is white in colour, is then poured over the whole. If sherry is used it should be added the last thing.
ICES IN A NEST OF SPUN SUGAR. ICES IN A NEST OF SPUN SUGAR.
The sherbet is odd; make a lemon ice and divide it; colour one half light green and flavour with essence of peppermint; serve the two ices together in glass cups, one layer of each.
The salad is made by cutting a head of lettuce into strips with the scissors, until it looks like grass, and putting this in a sort of nest shape on the plate with the yolks of hard-boiled eggs in a group in the centre and mayonnaise in a stiff spoonful on top. The cake served with the cream should be what is called sunshine cake, an angels' food to which the yolks of the eggs has been added.
EASTER LILY OF ICE CREAM. EASTER LILY OF ICE CREAM.
Another Easter luncheon may be arranged in green and white, which is even more beautiful and stately than this in yellow. For this, have a centrepiece of Easter lilies in a tall slender glass vase, or have three such vases down the table, if it is an oblong one, or several grouped around one larger one in the middle if it is round. Have guest cards painted with Easter lilies, and use only white and green decorations of bonbons on the table,—ribbon candies are pretty, or candy baskets in green filled with white candies. If you use candles on the table, have the shades represent lilies, inverted. The little cakes may be iced in green, and the colours carried out in the ice cream, which may be purchased in beautiful forms of lilies, the flower being of lemon ice and the leaves of pistache cream. Or, if the cream must be home-made, you may have it of the pistache and serve it in a bed of whipped cream in rounded spoonfuls. Or, by way of still another method, have a plain white cream and serve it with a spray of maiden-hair fern on each plate.
A SHAKESPEARIAN LUNCHEON
By a curious coincidence, Shakespeare's birthday and the day on which he died are the same,—the twenty-third of April; so this date is peculiarly appropriate for a luncheon to a literary club, or a group of literary friends. There is ample scope here for all sorts of Shakespearian suggestions, from views of his home, or sketches of Anne Hathaway's cottage on the cards, to quotations taken from one play, or from many; for reminders of some one heroine, or suggestions of some historic event. One might have a Rosalind or Juliet luncheon, or carry out in one of half a dozen ways some play which a class has been studying.
The flowers should certainly be English, either roses or primroses, and the decorations should be rather simple, as in keeping with the classic nature of the presiding genius of the day. The cards might bear a cut of his head, or each guest might have a small plaster bust, preferably one of the odd coloured ones which are sold in Stratford; the plain plaster ones are easily coloured; or, if these little busts are not easily procured, get the small Japanese masks which are so artistic; they cost but a few cents each, and the expressions will convey the idea of comedy and tragedy.
Strawberries will be in market in cities by the latter part of April, and these will make a first course.
MENU
Strawberries.
Bouillon.
Soft-Shell Crabs.
Broiled Mushrooms on Toast.
Chops. Peas. French Fried Potatoes.
Chocolate. Lemon and Peppermint Ice.
Tomato and Lettuce Salad. French Dressing.
Cheese Straws.
Coffee Mousse. Cakes. Bonbons.
The strawberries should be served with their hulls on, with a spoonful of powdered sugar on each plate; this may be moulded in a pyramid by pressing it into a little paper horn Of course finger bowls should be placed on the table at each plate.
The mousse may be either in a melon form or in slices, as is more convenient, but a little whipped cream served with it is an improvement in either case. Having this dessert, coffee is not offered at the close of the meal, as is usually done, but a cup of chocolate is passed with the chop course. The mousse is made by whipping sweetened cream, strongly flavoured with black coffee, until it is perfectly stiff, and packing it in a mould and burying it in ice and salt for at least four hours before it is needed.
If a breakfast is desired for this Shakespeare celebration, as possibly may be if given for a club or class, this luncheon may be easily transformed into one. Breakfasts and luncheons differ principally in the hour at which the meal is served, a breakfast being at twelve and a luncheon at one or half after one. It is also customary to begin a breakfast with fruit, and often, though not always, the meal concludes with cheese and coffee rather than with a sweet. This menu might be altered to cover these requirements, for as it begins with strawberries there need be no change until the final course, except that the chocolate should be omitted. Instead of the mousse serve crÊme Gervaise; that is, a slice of cream cheese about one inch by three, with a spoonful of whipped cream on it and a spoonful of gooseberry jam by its side. There is a variety of French preserved gooseberries called Bar-le-Duc which is particularly delicious. Sometimes before serving this dish the cheese is beaten with a little olive oil or cream to make it soft and light, and then it is pressed into shape again before it is cut into pieces for serving. If this is the final course at breakfast, serve coffee with it.
There are an unlimited number of Shakespearian quotations for the cards, but for a woman's meal they might be taken either from the words of Juliet, Katharine, Portia, Rosalind, Hermione, Ophelia, Hero, Celia, Imogen, and Helena, or else the familiar ones which are given below; in case this luncheon or breakfast is given for those interested in study, a guessing contest might be introduced, with or without prizes, as to the context of these quotations:—
"Daffodils, that come before the swallow does."
"Thou shalt not lack the flower that's like the face,
Pale primrose."
"I could wish my best friend at such a feast."
"Things won, are done. Joy's soul lies in the doing."
"I have been so well brought up that I can write my name."
"You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful;
I never was nor never will be false."
"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."
"My heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it."
"Loving goes by haps;
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps."
"Of good discourse, an excellent musician."
"My affection hath an unknown bottom."
Still another menu may be given for those who cannot obtain some of the articles suggested, such as strawberries, crabs, or fresh mushrooms.
MENU
Grape Fruit.
Bouillon.
Sardines on Toast.
Mushroom Patties.
Chops. Peas. French Fried Potatoes.
Chocolate.
Lettuce Salad with Shredded Bananas.
French Dressing.
Coffee Mousse. Cakes. Bonbons.
In this menu the patties are to be filled with canned mushrooms, cut in bits and creamed. The salad is made by cutting bananas in halves, and then cutting each half into strips no larger than a knitting needle; these are to be arranged on lettuce with French dressing poured over the last thing before serving.
A beautiful decoration for an April luncheon may be arranged with crocuses, flowers seldom or never seen on our tables, and therefore especially desirable by way of novelty. Have a large flat basket in the centre of the table filled with moss, and in this stick crocuses of all colours with their leaves, crowding as closely as possible. Repeat the colours in your candle-shades, if you use candles, having them delicate lilac with yellow touches on the edges, and use ribbon candy in lilac, yellow, and white. Serve yellow ices, or white ones in lilac baskets, and lay some of the crocuses on the plates with the finger bowls which appear with the coffee.
