Ten Dollars Enough: Keeping House Well on Ten Dollars a Week: How It Has Been Done; How It May Be Done AgainOwen, Catherine
General
Ten Dollars Enough: Keeping House Well on Ten Dollars a Week: How It Has Been Done; How It May Be Done Again
Owen, Catherine
Cost and standard of living; Home economics
“Well, that depends on what train we take.”
“I hoped you would stay and see Harry.”
Mrs. Bishop looked inquiringly at her husband, who said:
“Oh, we must stay and see Harry, I suppose.”
Molly smiled inwardly, as she thought that his luncheon had reassured
him as to his dinner. They all went out for an hour; there was not much
to see but some pretty, well-kept Queen Anne houses, and Mrs. Bishop
let drop the remark that she had little expected ever to see a son of
hers living in the second-rate neighborhood of a country town, which
remark Molly prudently ignored.
When they returned to the house, Mrs. Bishop, at Molly’s suggestion,
went to lie down, and her husband stretched himself on the sofa, and
Molly slipped from the room, for she could see he too was drowsy. She
went to the kitchen, told Marta how well she thought she had managed
the lunch, and then gave directions for the dinner in writing, for she
wanted to attend to her guests as much as possible. What she wrote was
as follows:
“At five o’clock, put the mutton in the oven as usual, and the fish
into salt and water. At a quarter past, put white onions on to boil
in boiling water; and potatoes. When the potatoes are just done, cut
them in slices thick as a dollar. Have ready a pint of white sauce,
remembering to use _two_ table-spoonfuls of flour and _two_ of butter
to the pint of milk. Chop a dessert-spoonful of parsley very fine, lay
the potatoes in a dish, sprinkle a little parsley, pepper and salt
among them, pour white sauce over them enough to moisten without making
them sloppy, and strew grated bread crumbs over all; put them in the
oven to brown. Keep the rest of the white sauce for the onions, which
must be boiled very tender, poured dry immediately after they are done,
and then put into the white sauce, and allowed to stew a few minutes.
“As soon as you have the potatoes ready for the oven, put the fish,
which you have nicely wiped, on a plate, lay that on a napkin and set
both in a saucepan of boiling water, with two tea-spoonfuls of salt and
two of vinegar. It will take twenty minutes to boil.”
Molly had told Marta to take the peg out of the freezer and let off
the water, at luncheon. She now went to see if the frozen banana
custard was in good condition, and found it all right; then she took
out the paddle, worked the custard down from the sides, and covered it,
packing in more salt and ice.
“How glad I am we happened to have cold dessert,” she thought; “it will
save Marta so much at the last moment.”
She read over the written instructions, although there was nothing
new but the manner of cooking the potatoes, assured herself Marta
understood everything, and told her she would come out herself and make
the fish sauce.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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