With this month of roses come many gala days; it is the favourite month for weddings, and weddings always bring other festivities in their train. Perhaps the bride gives a luncheon for her bridesmaids, or one of the bridal party gives a luncheon for the rest. Besides these days of rejoicing, there are those other days when the graduates give parting entertainments of various sorts to each other; and since this is the month of Commencements, it is also the time for fraternity meetings and all those delightful reminders of school-days. June luncheons with such backgrounds of interest as these may well be memorable.
A BRIDAL LUNCHEON
On the wedding-day itself, white should be the colour of the decorations, especially if the day is a warm one, for nothing gives such a sense of coolness as a roomful of white flowers and ferns. Even if pink roses are used in the drawing-room and the halls, the dining-room is most attractive all in white. A beautiful background for the table is made by removing all the pictures and hangings, and covering the walls with asparagus fern hung lightly from the ceiling to the floor; where the lines are broken at door and window the vines are to be drawn back and tied at the side with white satin ribbon.
FOR A JUNE BRIDAL LUNCHEON. FOR A JUNE BRIDAL LUNCHEON.
The table should be covered with a white cloth, as elaborate as one possesses, and the centrepiece should be of lace. On this should be a large mound of white roses and asparagus fern; and if you choose, a canopy of vines from the centre of the ceiling to the edges of the table, fastened wherever they touch the cloth with a white rose. If candles are used they should be white with shades of white rose petals, or else silver openwork. The table should be set with silver and glass as far as possible, and the small dishes which ornament it should be filled with small cakes with white icing, white candies, strawberries covered with white icing, white candied rose petals, and all the other pretty things to be found, such as large white candy baskets filled with crystallised fruits,—those made to represent broad-brimmed hats, bent into odd shapes, are very graceful,—or the simpler mounds of charlotte russe, tied with wide white ribbon.
At a wedding luncheon or breakfast the guests of course sit around the room, not at the table, which is used simply to serve from, and the menu is simpler than for a regular meal.
MENU
Cream of Clam Soup.
Crabs Newburgh in Cases.
Sweetbread Croquettes with Peas. Rolls.
Chicken Salad.
Ice Cream in White Rose Forms. Angels' food.
CafÉ FrappÉ.
This is a suitable menu for a large and formal wedding; for a smaller and simpler one the crabs may be omitted, and the frappÉ be replaced by hot coffee; indeed, in any case, hot coffee may be served as well as that which is iced.
The crabs are prepared by boiling, removing from their shells, and heating in cream mixed with the yolks of three eggs, seasoning, and a dash of sherry; they are more delicate than the lobster prepared in the same way, but unless one has ample time and a number of workers, it is better to have the lobster, as picking the meat from crab shells is no light undertaking: still, the dish is so delicious it well repays some effort in preparing.
If the ice cream cannot be obtained in rose forms, any rich white cream will do, or a mousse, made by whipping stiff cream until solid, sweetening, flavouring, and packing in ice and salt for four or five hours.
If instead of a wedding breakfast or luncheon one desires a more informal meal to be given a day or two before the wedding itself, the menu may be altered to suit the occasion. The prettiest possible cards may be prepared for this by painting the head of the bride in her veil with the date beneath the guest's name.
MENU
Clams on the Half-Shell.
Cream of Corn Soup.
Halibut Timbales. Lobster Sauce.
Broiled Squabs on Toast. Currant Jelly.
Creamed Potatoes.
Strawberry Sherbet.
Tomato and Nut Salad.
Brown Bread and Butter.
Ice Cream in White Rose Forms. Cakes.
CafÉ FrappÉ, or Black Coffee.
The sherbet is made by pressing the juice from two quarts of berries, adding a cup of water and the juice of half a lemon with sugar; this is boiled for a few moments, strained, and frozen. The salad is made by blanching English walnuts and adding them to mayonnaise, serving with sliced tomatoes. The ice cream if in rose forms should be passed on a large silver tray with asparagus fern among the ices. The frappÉ should be in small glass cups, if it is served at all, but unless the weather is very warm, have the coffee hot as usual.
A GRADUATES' LUNCHEON
The prettiest possible decoration for this occasion is made by the lavish use of sweet peas, the flowers which seem to suggest young girlhood. The brilliant pink ones should be chosen, and bowls of them should stand about the table, one large one in the centre and smaller ones around irregularly; or else one large bowl may be in the centre and a quantity of the blossoms with the stems broken off scattered all over the table. This is one of the times when satin bows are not out of place, for girls generally think a table all the more attractive for them, though for most luncheons they are tabooed, as suggestive of the professional decorator who revels in bows. The bonbons should be pink, and the cards should be small sheets of paper rolled up to resemble diplomas, each tied with a rose-coloured ribbon, with the name of the guest written on the outside.
MENU
Bouillon.
Creamed Fish in Shells.
Asparagus with Cream Dressing.
Broiled Spring Chicken. Peas. Potatoes.
Currant Jelly.
Cherry Ice.
Lettuce and Tomato Salad with French Dressing. Cheese Straws.
Individual Strawberry Shortcakes.
Chocolate. Bonbons.
The shortcakes may be either made by baking cakes in small tins, splitting, adding the crushed fruit, and putting whipped cream on top, or else in a fashion which all girls will welcome, by using a very small charlotte russe with a quantity of strawberries heaped about the base and powdered sugar over all.
A ROSE LUNCHEON
In this month of roses it is a pretty fancy to have a meal when they shall be especially in evidence. The table may be laid much as for the sweet pea luncheon,—that is, with bowls of the flower scattered over the table or one large bowl, and the flowers themselves, despoiled of their stems, scattered over the cloth. The cards may be of stiff paper, cut out to resemble flat, open roses, coloured pink, with the name of the guest written directly across. A large rose may lie at each plate, or in a pretty fashion they may be laid in a loose wreath around the centrepiece, and at the close of the meal each guest may be asked to take some of those before her plate. The bonbons used should be candied rose leaves.
MENU
Pineapple filled with Fruits.
Cream of Asparagus Soup.
Soft-Shell Crabs on Toast.
Fried Sweetbreads. Peas. Potato Croquettes.
Currant Sherbet.
Tomato Baskets with Cucumber Jelly.
Mayonnaise.
Frozen Strawberries. Cakes.
Coffee. Bonbons.
The pineapple is to have its bushy top cut off, and the inside scooped out; the core is put aside, the soft part picked up and mixed with a little banana, orange, and small strawberries, sugar, and sherry, if you use it, and the whole put back in the shell and passed, the top lying on one side of the dish; small glass saucers, or nappies, as they are called, are on each plate, and the guest is to put a spoonful in hers. The colder the pineapple is, the better. If soft-shell crabs are not to be had, serve a creamed fish in whole cucumbers, as was suggested for a January luncheon. The tomato baskets are very pretty; they are made by cutting smooth tomatoes in basket shapes, removing the inside with a small spoon, and filling with cucumber jelly mixed with mayonnaise. This latter is made by crushing peeled and sliced cucumbers, adding seasoning and a little onion, and stewing till soft; they are then set with gelatine in a dish and when firm they are broken into pieces small enough to go in the baskets. If you are to have crabs, this course is all right, but if you have substituted the cucumbers with fish, you must again substitute and serve another salad for this. The frozen strawberries are made by crushing the fruit to a paste, adding one-third as much boiled lemonade, sweetening well, straining, and freezing. The cakes served with this should be iced in a rather deep pink.
There are so many pretty and appropriate quotations about roses that one may well add one to each guest card.
"Roses for the blush of youth."
"The sweetest rose, where all are roses."
"She looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew."
"Mantling on the maiden's cheek,
Young roses kindled into thoughts."
"It was roses, roses, all the way."
"The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew."
"The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near!'
And the white rose weeps, 'She is late!'"
"O beautiful, royal rose,
O rose so fair and sweet!"
"Gather ye roses while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying."
"Queen rose in the rose-bud garden of girls."
A PEONY LUNCHEON
is certainly novel, and if carried out carefully it is extremely pretty, although at first thought one would think the peony too large and coarse a flower to use on the table. In order to get the best effect, the table must be a round one and quite large. Then the peonies, pink and white ones mixed, and with plenty of their own foliage, should be piled in a mass in the centre, with the bowl which holds them in place completely concealed. The flowers should lie on the cloth as well as rise in a mound from the table. Any one of the menus previously given will do to serve until the final course is reached, when the ice cream is to appear in the peonies themselves. A white cream is chosen, the hearts of the largest pink peonies are cut out, a round of waxed paper laid in the place, and a heaping, rounded spoonful of the cream is placed in the flowers. It is to have a spray of leaves under it as it lies on the plate.
