This month brings the two most important gala days of the year, and gives therefore the best possible opportunity for entertaining at luncheon. Then, too, this is the time when every one is giving teas, dinners, and social affairs of all sorts and the sense of gaiety is inspiring to all hostesses. In cities the spring flowers, fruits, and vegetables begin to come in with this month, and there ample scope is given for a fresh and delicious menu. Of course, where one has no access to large markets she must content herself with the usual winter foods, yet with a little ingenuity she can give the impression of a spring-like meal, using the resources at her command.
A luncheon on Valentine's Day is one of the prettiest possible, for the profusion of flowers which might be excessive at another time is quite the proper thing now, and the accessories of the occasion, the ribbon bows, the cupids, the heart-shaped cakes and ices all make the table attractive. Lay it as daintily as possible with your most elaborate doilies, your prettiest candle-shades, and all your odd little dishes of silver. Of course, pink is the colour to choose, and the more pink roses you can have, the better. A very beautiful table which will suggest the day at first sight is set with five tall slender glass vases, one in the centre and four grouped around it at intervals filled with roses. This arrangement really takes no more flowers than is required for one large bunch, but the effect is of far more. The florist will sell or rent to you a large snow-white dove, the emblem of Venus, which can be suspended from the ceiling with an invisible wire; you can tie a number of narrow pink ribbons to his feet, or to his bill, and draw them down to the table, fastening two or three by each plate with a pink rose. If you have a large bisque Cupid it will do quite as well as the dove, and if you prefer to use vines instead of ribbon, these will form a sort of bower under which the meal is served. Put the central vase on a lace centrepiece laid over pink silk, and if your doilies are of lace they, too, may be lined with pink for this one occasion. There are candle-shades made of small paper roses which are very inexpensive and pretty, and these may be used with pink candles in silver sticks. If you fancy the idea, large pink satin bows laid on the corners of the table, if it is a square one, or at intervals if the table is round, add to the colour. Fill your bonbon dishes with small heart-shaped candies, pink-iced cakes of the same shape, and candied rose leaves, in addition to those filled with the usual olives and salted almonds.
Your guest cards will of course be valentines, and you can buy them in any variety and at any price, but the most appropriate are those painted with old-fashioned figures, or with Watteau-like groups. Of course, if these valentines are on heart-shaped cardboard they are still better; it is easy for one who paints in water-colour to decorate such pieces of board with figures and an appropriate rhyme or a quotation, adding the name of the guest and the date of the luncheon. Besides these cards, there are boxes in heart shapes of all prices, from the plain ones which need the addition of sketches, to those of satin which come from Paris and cost a small fortune. The plainer boxes may take the place of guest cards, and so serve a double duty; in any case, the boxes may be filled either with tiny candy hearts or with rose leaves such as are in the small dishes.
The sandwiches served with the meal are of course to be cut out with a heart-shaped cutter, as are the cakes, and the latter should have small silver arrows stuck through each of them.
MENU
Clams on the Half-Shell.
Cream of Spinach Soup with Whipped Cream.
Whitebait. Brown Bread and Butter.
Chicken Mousse. Stoned Olives.
Chops with Peas. Bermuda Potatoes.
Grape Fruit Salad. Cheese Sandwiches.
Ice Cream Hearts. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
The cream of spinach soup is made by cooking the vegetable until very tender, pressing it through a sieve and adding hot, thickened milk; a little whipped cream is to be put in the bouillon cups before the soup is poured in. The whitebait is one of the most delicious things in our winter markets; it is a very tiny fish of delicate flavour, and while it is rather expensive at first thought, it is not so in reality, for it is so light that a pound goes a long way. It is cooked after being dredged with flour, by frying for only a moment in a wire basket in hot fat, and served with a bit of lemon on rounds of lace paper; brown bread and butter in thin strips is passed with it. If it is not to be had, and of course outside a city it is difficult to obtain, lobster Newburgh, made from the canned fish, is an excellent substitute. About a pint of the meat is needed for eight persons; a half-pint of cream is put on the stove with the yolks of two well-beaten eggs; when it thickens the lobster is added, then the seasoning and last a dash of sherry, and it is served in ramekins or paper cases.
The chicken mousse is a cold dish, made by chopping and pounding the cooked white meat of chicken until it is a paste, seasoning, and adding enough chicken stock in which gelatine has been dissolved to thoroughly moisten it; it is then whipped with an egg-beater until light, pressed in a pan, and allowed to harden; sometimes in addition to the stock a half cup of whipped cream is mixed in, and this is an improvement to the ordinary rule for making it. When it is to be used it is sliced and cut out in heart-shaped pieces; two stoned olives are put on the plate with each piece, or, if you prefer it, a spoonful of sauce tartare.
The ices may be of strawberry cream or of raspberry ice or a mixture of both, they are to be heart-shaped, as has been said, and each one should have a sugar arrow stuck through it. If you prefer roses to hearts, these should be laid on lace papers. If this course must be prepared at home, the cream can easily be coloured a rose tint with fruit colour, and a spoonful served in a dainty little box made of pasteboard covered with rose crÊpe paper, cut to resemble petals of the flower, tied with ribbons to match.
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY LUNCHEON
The twenty-second of February suggests that an almost unlimited amount of ingenuity may be spent in preparing a meal in honour of the Father of our Country. There is opportunity for decoration such as few gala days offer, and this may easily be the prettiest luncheon of the year.
If the meal is an informal one a centrepiece may be arranged which will amuse the guests. Get at the florist's a small dead plant, such as an azalea, and pick off some of the twigs, making a symmetrical tree of diminutive size. At a Japanese shop you can buy the pretty artificial cherry blossoms used to set off the bric-À-brac in the windows, and these can be fastened to the twigs with invisible wire, the little tree may stand in a low pot filled with moss, and at its base may be a small hatchet. With this, your candle-shades should be a sort of rosy white. You might use in preference to this a bunch of the cherry branches in a vase in the centre.
Or, if you prefer to have the Colonial colours, choose a large dark-blue bowl and fill it with yellow tulips, and have all the dishes, or at least several sets of plates, of dark-blue ware; if one does not own Staffordshire of her grandmother's or the beautiful Chinese Canton china, still she need not despair, for the shops are full of a cheap and pretty imitation of the latter which gives an admirable effect. The candle-shades should be yellow, in tulip pattern preferably, and the candlesticks of old-fashioned silver.
A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY FAVOUR. A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY FAVOUR.
At each plate lay a bonbon box in the form of a paper hatchet with the handle filled with red and white candies, and tie a bunch of artificial cherries to it with narrow ribbon. You can get at the printer's cards with the head of Washington which a line of gold paint and a bowknot will transform into a miniature. Fold your napkins into little cocked hats, and stand small silk flags in your dishes of almonds and olives. In addition to all this, you can send to Mount Vernon for small souvenirs in the shape of hatchets, supposably made of the actual historic cherry-tree, which may take the place of the paper hatchets at the plates.
Should your luncheon be given for the members of some patriotic association, you might add the name of some famous Revolutionary battle to your guest cards, or possibly a quotation from some well-known novel which has historic characters, such as "Richard Carvel" or "The Virginians."
MENU
Grape Fruit with Brandied Cherries.
Cream of Chicken Soup.
Smelts with Sauce Tartare.
Fried Sweetbreads. Mushroom Sauce.
Carrots in Cases. Bermuda Potatoes.
Celery and Cabbage Salad in Peppers.
Ice Cream Hatchets. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
Cut the grape fruit in half and remove the seeds and core, loosen the pulp around the sides and put in the cavity in the middle a couple of preserved or brandied cherries, with a little of their juice. The soup is a strong chicken stock to which cream has been added; a spoonful of whipped cream is put on top of each cup as it is served, and hot crackers are passed with it.
Put a little water-cress on the plate with the smelts as well as the sauce.
Sweetbreads are especially good with both mushrooms and carrots, though one does not often see the latter vegetable with them, but creamed, in small paper or paste cases, they are by no means to be despised, above all, if they are the new ones which have just come to market.
The salad is made by cutting off the tops of green peppers, removing the seeds and filling them with shredded celery and cabbage with stiff mayonnaise, and serving on lettuce; if the peppers are not to be had, the salad may be put directly on the lettuce. The cheese straws are made by sprinkling thin strips of pie-crust with red pepper and grated cheese, twisting a little and browning in the oven.
The ice cream hatchets must come from the caterer; they are extremely realistic with the initials Gr. W. on their handles, and add greatly to the gaiety of the occasion; but if they are not to be had, the hostess can serve in their place a plain cream in little cocked hats, or have it sliced with a few preserved or brandied cherries on each slice. The bonbons passed with the coffee may be one or more kinds of candied cherries to be found in great variety at the confectioner's.
A still more elaborate menu might be this one:—
MENU
Grape Fruit with Cherries.
Cream of Chicken Soup.
Fried Oysters with Sauce Tartare.
Chicken Croquettes with Peas.
Sweetbreads, Mushroom Sauce.
Carrots in Cases. Bermuda Potatoes.
Cherry Sherbet.
Celery and Cabbage Salad in Green Peppers.
Ice Cream Hatchets. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
ALSO FOR A FEBRUARY 22 LUNCHEON. ALSO FOR A FEBRUARY 22 LUNCHEON.
The sherbet course is exceedingly pretty. The ice is made from home-made candied cherries and put in glass sherbet cups with a little bunch of artificial cherries tied to the handle with green ribbon the colour of the leaves.
A SHROVE TUESDAY LUNCHEON
Shrove Tuesday comes the day before Lent begins, and there is always much gaiety on hand by way of a temporary farewell to festivities. The old custom of serving pancakes on this day should not be forgotten in planning one's menu for the gala day meal; true, they are certainly an unusual dish for luncheon, but they should by no means be omitted.
There is a very beautiful and odd decoration to be made with delicate white flowers and tiny white candles, which can be arranged with little trouble. Have a low mound of moss for a foundation with a border of maiden-hair fern; stand Roman hyacinths or lilies of the valley in this, not too near together, with the candles between, having first inserted a toothpick in the bottom of each and had them on the ice over night to prevent them from melting too soon. Keep all the colour on the table green and white,—the candles, the china, if possible, and the ice cream. The pancakes should be made very large, one covering the whole griddle, spread with jelly, rolled, and sprinkled with sugar. One, or at most two, should serve a tableful of guests.
MENU
Bouillon.
Oysters on Skewers.
Chops and Peas. French Fried Potatoes.
Asparagus Tips with Mayonnaise.
French Pancakes.
Pistache Ice Cream. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
The oysters are to be rather small, and put on skewers with bits of thin bacon alternating, and fried quickly till crisp; serve on toast with lemon. This is an easily prepared and delicious dish and one which makes a good substitute for any other suggested in any winter luncheon which is not within reach. Serve the ice cream in cases of white candy, or white cream in green cases, or use whipped cream as a bed around either ice cream if cases are not to be had.
Lincoln's birthday comes early in February, and a patriotic luncheon can easily be arranged for that from the suggestions already given for Washington's birthday. Patriotic affairs admit little variation; red, white, and blue ribbons and flowers, ice cream in paper boxes with red and white stripes, and cards with suitable inscriptions are about all one can have by way of appropriate decoration.
