The summer days in the country are apt to seem rather long, if the weather is too hot for vigorous exercise, but entertaining one's friends breaks the time delightfully. If the July noontime is warm, still the heat adds to the pleasure a luncheon of cold and delicious dainties gives, especially if such a meal is served on a cool and shady porch, when it becomes fit for the gods. If one's summer home is unfortunately without this sort of outdoor room, a little ingenuity will serve to provide a substitute. In the early spring, some tall, strong posts may be set in the ground on the north or west side of the house about fourteen feet or more away, and the tops of these joined to the wall by some lighter strips of wood; then a floor may be laid, unless the grassy turf is preferred, and quickly growing vines, such as the morning glory or the moon-vine, planted, and soon one will have a really beautiful arbour room.
The first gala day of the month, indeed the only one the calendar recognises, is the Fourth of July; this certainly deserves to be celebrated by a luncheon.
FOURTH OF JULY LUNCHEON
FOR A FOURTH OF JULY LUNCHEON FOR A FOURTH OF JULY LUNCHEON
IN PLACE OF A GUEST CARD. IN PLACE OF A GUEST CARD.
Stand a toy cannon on your table for a centrepiece, draping it with delicate vines; or, if this proves too expensive to buy, and too difficult to borrow, suspend a large bell from two wooden supports in the middle, with the same vines. At each plate lay a bonbon box which exactly resembles a cannon fire-cracker, filled with small red candies; the name of the guest may be printed on the side and it will serve for a guest card. Or you may give the guests small liberty bells instead of the large crackers, and use small crackers for cards. Or, instead of either of these things, you may give each one a bunch of real fire-crackers with her name printed on the outside.
Have several vases of flowers on the table, with red and white carnation and blue bachelors' buttons in each; or if you do not like them mixed, alternate vases with red ones alone, white alone, and blue alone. In your little dishes of radishes, almonds, and bonbons, stand tiny American flags; tie the sandwiches with narrow red, white, and blue striped ribbon, and the handles of the currant cups as well; the table may also have little tents and soldiers as in the military luncheon already suggested.
MENU
Iced Currants.
Iced Bouillon. Water-Cress Sandwiches.
Cold Salmon. Sauce Tartare.
Tongue in Aspic.
Tomatoes with French Dressing.
Raspberry Shrub.
Pineapple Salad. Cheese Crackers.
Ice Cream in Drums. Cakes. Bonbons.
The currants are to be crushed with a silver fork, sweetened, and put on the ice; just before serving they are put in glass cups and a spoonful of crushed ice put on top. The bouillon is prepared the day before it is needed, and packed in ice and salt for an hour before the luncheon. The sandwiches passed with this are made by spreading very thin bread and butter with chopped water-cress, rolling and tying them, and then inserting a sprig of the cress at either end; it is not absolutely necessary to tie them, but they keep their shape far better if it is done.
Choose a large smoked tongue, and two days before the luncheon boil it until tender, skin it, and lay it in a long narrow pan. Make a bouillon of beef extract, season it highly with red pepper, salt, and lemon juice, and herbs; simmer these together for a few minutes, then add sufficient dissolved gelatine to set the quantity you will need, and strain the whole over the tongue, a little more than covering it. Put this on the ice, and the next day you will have what our grandmothers used to call "a sightly dish." It is to be put whole on the table, and sliced with a very sharp knife. The tomatoes served with this are to be on the same plate, not treated as a salad.
ICES SERVED IN DRUMS. ICES SERVED IN DRUMS.
The pineapple is to be picked up in rather large bits and placed on lettuce with mayonnaise. The ice cream is to be put into little paper drums, which may be had at the confectioner's or possibly the toy store; if, however, they are not to be had in the country, the cream may be put in meringue shells and tied with ribbons.
The raspberry shrub may be served all through the meal, or made a separate course instead of a sherbet. It is to be made some days before it is needed; this is a simple and excellent rule: Put two and a half ounces of tartaric acid into a quart of water, and pour over six quarts of red raspberries. After two days stir and strain; add to each pint of juice a pound and a half of powdered sugar, stir till dissolved, let it stand four days, and then bottle. If this is too much trouble to prepare, serve lemonade coloured with raspberry juice, and if you wish to have it very nice, use vichy instead of water in making the lemonade. A fruit sherbet may be introduced if the drink is served all through the meal. For a hot day in summer it is a mistake to have the noon meal too long or too heavy, so in this menu the usual patÉ or croquette is omitted.
A NAUTICAL LUNCHEON
This meal may be served at a seaside cottage, or near a lake or even a river, or it may be used on board a yacht. If it happens to be in a house or on a piazza by the sea, the walls near by may be decorated with fish nets and oars.
Use a table-cloth for the time, and omit any central decoration whatever, even the customary piece of lace. Arrange a small fleet of sail-boats all over the table, fastening them to each other by a couple of strands of narrow ribbon, drawn loosely and tied to each central mast. Heap the decks with some small flower which will look well with the colour of the ribbon. If buttercups are to be had, they are pretty, with yellow ribbons; or small pansies are lovely, with purple and yellow; or the deck can be heaped with bonbons, and the ribbons used as with the flowers, if this is preferred. It is necessary to cut off the keels of the little boats in order to have them stand securely, and the small unpainted boats which children use will do, and they can easily be painted white if they are unfinished.
Your cards may be adorned with bits of pressed seaweed, if you are at the seashore, or with little sketches of sail-boats, row-boats, oars, or marine views. A meal of sea food might be fancied for variety.
MENU
Cream of Clam Soup with Whipped Cream.
Scalloped Lobster.
Broiled Bluefish. Potato Balls. Rolls.
Shrimp Salad. Sandwiches.
Ices in Fish Forms. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
The boiled lobster is removed from the shell, seasoned, and mixed with bread crumbs, returned to the shell of the backs and tails, and browned in the oven. The shells may be saved when lobster is used for some time previous to the luncheon, if it is difficult to obtain a number at once.
The salad is made by cutting canned shrimps into halves, and after putting them into small individual moulds, pouring over them a lemon jelly made without sweetening, and well seasoned. These moulds are to be turned out on lettuce leaves, and one or two small shrimps placed by each, and stiff mayonnaise passed with them. The ices may be had from the caterer in the form of shells, or fishes, or boats. If these are not to be had, a home-made cream may be served in the large scallop shells which are to be purchased very cheaply. If you are too far inland to obtain sea food, or if you do not fancy it for a whole luncheon, your decoration will sufficiently suggest the idea of the meal, and another menu can be substituted.
MENU
Red Raspberries.
Cream of Green Pea Soup.
Fish Cutlets. Sauce Tartare.
Fried Chicken. Potato Croquettes. Peas.
Iced Tea (or Tea Sherbet).
Whole Cucumber Salad. Almonds. Pim-olas.
Caramel Ice Cream. Bonbons.
The cutlets, which are simply croquettes moulded into cutlet form, may be made either from any fresh fish, or from canned salmon, or from well-freshened salt codfish; and these last are really delicious. The tea is best made with boiling lemonade instead of boiling water; it is to be served in tall glasses, either as a separate course, or all through the meal as one prefers; in case a sherbet is wished, this iced tea may be frozen with a flavour of rum in addition to the lemon, if one uses it, and served in sherbet cups; and cafÉ frappÉ may be used as a final course if the day is warm, or the coffee may be simply hot and black as usual.
The whole cucumber salad is very pretty. Rather large and very smooth ones are chosen, a slice is cut from the side lengthwise, the pulp is scooped out, mixed with bits of tomato and French dressing, and the whole put back with the slice put on again so that the cut is concealed. These are served on lettuce leaves with two small cheese balls by the side of each, made by grating American cheese, mixing with a little chopped parsley, salt, red pepper, and enough melted butter to make it moist, and rolling between the hands until you have balls the size of marbles; they are to be dusted with chopped parsley before serving.
A TRAVELLER'S LUNCHEON
As so many go abroad as the hot weather begins, a luncheon may be arranged in honour of some friend who is about to sail. The centrepiece may be a large toy steamer with the decks filled with flowers, or a floral piece may be obtained from the florists, who now construct extremely realistic steamers with flowers, green, and moss; but flowers are never at their best under such circumstances, and the toy steamer is to be preferred. Very pretty and inexpensive bonbon boxes are to be had in the shapes of steamer trunks, dress-suit cases, travelling bags, trunks ready labelled with the names of foreign cities, and dainty little lunch baskets tied up with ribbon, as well as the more expensive but useful favours made to resemble rugs in shawl straps which are to be used as penwipers after the day is over. The cards may bear the picture of a steamer disappearing in the distance with its trail of smoke curving back to form the name of the guest, or the words "Bon Voyage."
The menu could, of course, consist of foreign dishes such as the traveller is presumably to eat during her absence; but as few of them are as good as our own luncheon dishes this is not altogether to be commended. An attractive menu would be:—
MENU
Clams Cocktail in Tomato Baskets.
ConsommÉ with Hot Crackers.
Devilled Crabs.
Chicken Livers on Skewers.
Roast Ducklings. Jelly. Mashed Potato.
Cauliflower Salad.
Nesselrode Pudding. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
The tomatoes are to be cut into baskets with handles and filled with the clam cocktail just before serving. The crabs are to be boiled, removed from their shells, well seasoned, and wet with a little cream, put back into the shells with bread crumbs and bits of butter over them and browned in the oven. The chicken livers are to be stewed, cut in halves, and put on the small skewers with bits of bacon between the pieces and turned in the frying-pan until they brown in the bacon fat; they are to be sent to the table on strips of toast. The ducklings should be young, and a thick slice of breast or the second joint served to each person before the plates are sent to the table; the potato should be browned in the oven and passed.
The salad is made by cooking cauliflower, breaking it into bits, and serving on lettuce with mayonnaise. The Nesselrode pudding is made in various ways, most of them very elaborate; probably the simplest is a caramel cream with preserved figs and marrons cut up fine in it, with a flavouring of wine. It is also made by putting marrons into a plain rich white cream, flavouring it with the wine and serving it on whipped cream; in any form it is always a delicious dessert.
This menu omits the sherbet and gives a rather solid meat course; it may be varied by substituting chops for the duckling and adding a course of frozen oranges and bananas in lemon ice.
