WHILE the principal features of the home breakfast remain essentially the same throughout the year, variety is gained by adapting the different articles of food to the season of the year in which they are served. A lighter, less carbon-producing diet is not only more agreeable, but more healthful, in warm weather than one containing much animal food, while the latter is preferable and almost necessary in winter. To this consideration is added the eminent propriety of making one's bills of fare seasonable, and thus achieving fitness and economy.

With the desire to aid the housewife in her labors, a few selected menus for each meal and each season will be given, none of them too costly to be beyond the reach of people of moderate means, and appended to each bill of fare will be recipes for the preparation of certain dishes therein mentioned which may possibly be unfamiliar to the readers of these chapters.

1.
Oranges.
Cracked Wheat.
Parsley Omelet. Corn Muffins.
Buttered Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.

Parsley Omelet.—Five eggs, two tablespoonfuls milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful finely minced parsley; pepper and salt to taste. Beat the whites and yolks of the eggs separately and very light; add the milk to the yolks and stir in the whites, not mixing them in thoroughly, however; season to taste. Pour into the omelet pan in which the butter has been heated, and set over the fire in a moderately hot spot. Keep the omelet from adhering to the pan by slipping a knife between them from time to time. Just before the omelet is "set," sprinkle it thickly with the chopped parsley. When done, fold one half over the other, slip to a hot dish, and serve at once, as it falls quickly.

Corn Muffins.—One and a half cups flour, one and a half cups yellow corn-meal, three tablespoonfuls sugar, two tablespoonfuls butter, two eggs, one and a half cupfuls milk, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, half teaspoonful salt. Sift the salt and baking-powder with the flour; beat the eggs light; add the milk, the butter (melted), and the sugar. Stir in the flour and meal; beat hard, and bake in muffin-tins.

Buttered Potatoes.—Slice cold boiled potatoes, heat them in a steamer, thence transfer them to a hot dish. Put on them a large tablespoonful of butter into which have been worked a teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a saltspoonful of lemon juice. Set the dish, covered, over hot water for two minutes, and serve.

2.
Mandarins.
Cerealine Porridge.
Creamed Cod, with Potatoes. Griddle Muffins.
Coffee. Chocolate.

Creamed Cod, with Potatoes.—To two cupfuls of boiled cod, salt or fresh, well picked to pieces, allow one cupful of mashed potato. Season to taste. Put into the frying-pan over the fire with a half-cupful of milk and a large tablespoonful of butter. Stir and beat constantly while it heats, and soften it by adding to it boiling water at discretion. When a creamy, smoking mass, transfer it to a hot dish. If you have drawn butter in the house, or sauce tartare, or egg sauce left over from the first appearance of the fish, this may be used in place of the milk and butter.

Griddle Muffins.—One egg, one tablespoonful butter, one cupful milk, one teaspoonful baking-powder, pinch of salt, flour enough to make a soft dough. Mix the milk, beaten egg, and melted butter together; sift the baking-powder and salt into one cupful of the flour; then add the rest; roll out the dough as thick as for biscuit, cut into rounds with a biscuit-cutter, and bake slowly on a griddle, turning when done on one side. Tear open, and butter while hot.

3.
Graham Brewis.
Baked Mince. Feather Muffins.
Water Cress.
Stewed Prunes.
Tea. Cocoa.

Graham Brewis.—Two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one saltspoonful salt; Graham bread crumbs at discretion. Heat the milk in a double boiler, stir in the butter and salt, and add the Graham crumbs until the brewis is as thick as ordinary oatmeal porridge; cook ten minutes, and eat with butter, or butter and sugar.

Baked Mince.—Two cups chopped beef, one cup mashed potato, half an onion minced, one cup gravy or one cup boiling water, and a tablespoonful of butter, two teaspoonfuls Worcestershire sauce; pepper and salt to taste. Mix the ingredients well together, and put into a greased pudding-dish; sprinkle a few fine crumbs over the top; set in the oven and brown.

Feather Muffins.—One cup flour, one cup milk, lump of butter the size of an egg, one teaspoonful baking-powder, pinch of salt, two eggs. Beat the eggs light, the whites and yolks separately. Into the latter stir the milk, the flour, with which has been sifted the salt and baking-powder, and the butter, melted. Last, add the whipped whites, and bake in a quick oven.

4.
Fruit.
Oatmeal Porridge.
Scallop Patties. Graham Gems.
Baked Potatoes.
Tea. Coffee.

Scallop Patties.—Cook a pint of scallops in their own liquor for ten minutes. Take out the scallops and add to the liquor a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with one of flour, and pepper and salt to taste. Return the scallops to this sauce, and let it just come to a boil. Fill scallop-shells with the mixture, sprinkle fine crumbs over them, dot with bits of butter, and brown in the oven. Pass lemon with this.

Graham Gems.—Two cups Graham flour, two cups milk, two eggs, two teaspoonfuls butter, two teaspoonfuls sugar, pinch of salt. Melt the butter, warm the milk, and stir these into the unbeaten eggs. Add the flour and salt, and beat well before baking in heated gem-pans in a hot oven.

5.
Fruit.
Corn-meal Hasty Pudding.
Broiled Fresh Mackerel. Saratoga Potatoes.
Buttered Toast.
Tea. Coffee.

6.
Wheat-Germ Meal.
Curried Eggs. Rice Muffins.
Strawberries and Cream.
Tea. Cocoa.

Curried Eggs.—One cup good gravy, six hard-boiled eggs, one teaspoonful curry-powder. Heat the gravy; stir into it the curry-powder wet up in a little cold gravy or water, and lay the eggs, each sliced in three, in the scalding gravy. Set the saucepan at the side of the stove where it will not boil, and let it stand ten minutes before sending to table.

Rice Muffins.—One cup boiled rice, two eggs, two cups flour, one tablespoonful melted butter, pinch salt, three cups milk. Stir together the milk, eggs, butter, and salt; beat in the rice and flour; bake quickly.

7.
Fruit.
Graham Porridge.
Broiled Steak. Stewed Potatoes.
Omelet Bread.
Coffee. Cocoa.

Omelet Bread.—Half-cup flour, three eggs, one tablespoonful melted butter, one teaspoonful sugar, pinch of salt, milk enough to make thick batter. Beat the whites and yolks of eggs separately, and very light; stir the butter, flour, milk, salt, sugar, and yolks together, and add the frothed whites; pour into a well-greased tin pan, and bake, covered, on the top of the stove; uncover and brown in the oven; eat immediately.

8.
Fruit.
Wheatena.
Crisped Smoked Beef. Brown Biscuit.
Chopped Potatoes.
Coffee. Chocolate.

Crisped Smoked Beef.—Boil slices of smoked beef for five minutes; take them out, dry, and put into the frying-pan with a tablespoonful of butter; stir about until crisp, but not too dry.

Brown Biscuit.—One cup white flour, two cups Graham flour, two tablespoonfuls lard, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, a little salt, milk enough to make a soft dough. Handle the dough as little as possible, and bake quickly.

9.
Hominy boiled in Milk.
Poached Eggs. Fried Bacon.
Raspberry Short-cake.
Tea. Cocoa.

Raspberry Short-cake.—Four cups flour, two cups milk, two tablespoonfuls lard, or lard and butter, three teaspoonfuls baking-powder, salt, one quart raspberries. Roll out a little more than half the dough into a sheet to cover the bottom of a deep biscuit-pan. Spread the berries thickly on this, sprinkle with sugar, and of the remaining dough make a top crust. Bake in a steady oven, cut into squares, and eat hot with butter and sugar, or with sugar and cream.

10.
Oranges.
Cracked Wheat.
Broiled Chicken. Saratoga Potatoes.
Boston Brown Bread.
Coffee. Chocolate.

Boston Brown Bread.—One cup Indian-meal, one cup rye-meal, half-cup white flour, one cup milk, half-cup molasses, pinch salt, one small teaspoonful soda. Sift the meal, flour, soda, and salt together, work in the milk and molasses, pour into a well-greased brown-bread mould, and boil two hours, taking care that the water in the outer vessel does not come to the top of the mould. Unless you have a late breakfast, it is well to cook the bread the day before, and warm it the next morning.