Soak for eight or ten hours any sort of large dried beans, then drain them and put them into boiling water two hours or more, or until cooked. One way of testing them is to remove a few and blow on them; if the skins crack they are done. Drain, and put them in a bean-pot or casserole and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of chopped onion and 2 cups of strained tomatoes, and dredge well with salt. Cover the dish and bake slowly for an hour. A quarter of an hour before taking out, pour over them 1 tablespoon of melted butter and remove the cover. LIMA BEANS Let Lima beans stand in cold water for an hour or so after they are shelled, and in cooking them allow 8 cups of water to every 4 cups of beans. Put them in boiling salted water, and let them cook for an hour, or more if not fresh picked. Drain them and add 1/2 cup of the water they cooked in, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of butter, and season highly with salt and pepper. Dried beans must soak ten or twelve hours and cook two hours. Canned Lima beans only need reheating, draining, and a little milk and butter and seasoning added to them. LIMA BEANS HOLLANDAISE Boil 1 quart of beans until tender, salting them well when half cooked. Beat a large tablespoon of butter to a cream, beat in the yolk of 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley, 1 saltspoon of black pepper, and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice; when this sauce is well mixed stir it into the beans, taking care not to break them. CREAMED LIMA BEANS Cover 2 cups of boiled Lima beans with 1 scant cup of cream, and let simmer in a double boiler for ten minutes; then add 1 teaspoon of butter, and season with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. LIMA BEAN SAUQUETASH Boil 2 cups of freshly picked Lima beans in 1 quart of water for half an hour, then drain them and add 1 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of butter, and enough green corn cut from the cob to make 2 cups. Season well, and let simmer for fifteen minutes, and salt again before serving. If canned corn and canned beans are used they need be cooked for only ten minutes. BEETS Great care should be taken in washing beets that the small rootlets are not broken or the skin of the beet bruised, as anything which causes the juice to escape injures both the taste and the colour. In the city, beets are seldom obtainable which require less than two or three hours' cooking; but really young, small beets should not require more than one hour's boiling. When boiled they should be drained, then plunged into cold water, after which the skin can be rubbed off with the hand. Some, however, prefer that beets should be baked or steamed; the time required to cook will then be somewhat longer. Canned beets are a great convenience. CREAMED BEETS