Breakfasts and Teas, Paul Pierce [best reads txt] 📗

The sunburst done in one color is a very popular design for summer hostesses. Suppose one is giving a pond lily breakfast. In the center of the table have a cut glass bowl of the lilies. From beneath the bowl radiate long streamers of pale green ribbon ending at the plates of the guests with name cards decorated with the lilies cut out of watercolor paper. Half way between the bowl and the plate, the ribbon is knotted about a bouquet of the flowers or a bunch of maidenhair ferns which will become the corsage bouquet of the guest. Sometimes several strands of narrower ribbon are used giving more rays; a very pretty effect. Do not have artificial light at a summer breakfast. Garden flowers are all the rage, either one kind or several kinds mixed. Coreopsis, mignonette, featherfew, nasturtiums, lilies, sweet peas, geraniums, all the simple garden flowers are used now in place of the hothouse products.

Happy is the bride whom the sun shines on,
And happy today are you;
May all of the glad dreams you have dreamed
In all of your life come true;
May every good there is in life
Step down from the years to you.
There's nothing so sweet as a maid is sweet,
On the day she becomes a bride;
Oh, the paths that ope to the dancing feet!
Oh, the true love by her side!
Oh, the gray old world looks a glad old world,
And it's fields of pleasure, wide.

A breakfast for a bride-elect can be made very dainty and pretty by following out a pink color scheme, unless one prefers the more common scheme of white. Cover the table with the prettiest, whitest damask, and over this lay lace-trimmed or openwork doilies, with a foundation of pink satin underneath. For flowers have pink begonias (very pretty and effective), carnations, roses, azaleas or cyclamens. Arrange the flowers in a center basket with a large pink butterfly bow on the handle. Light the table with pink candles and shades in silver or china candlesticks. Have the place cards in heart shapes with pen and ink sketches or watercolors of brides, or tiny cupids.

Mark the bride-elect's chair by a large bow of ribbon or a bouquet of pink flowers matching those on the table. If white flowers are used, lilies of the valley and hyacinths make a pretty bouquet, tied with white gauze ribbon.

Serve this menu:

Grape Fruit with Rum and Cherries

Turkey Cutlets

Stuffed Peppers (Serve on Heart-Shaped Pieces of Bread)

Tiny Heart-Shaped Hot Rolls

Peach Mangoes

Sweetbread Salad in Tomato Cups on Lettuce Leaf

Cheese Straws

Ice Cream in Shape of Wedding Bells Filled with Candied Fruits

Cocoanut Cake and Angel Food in Heart Shape

Coffee

A tiny bouquet of violets tied with gauze ribbon at each plate makes the table pretty and is a dainty souvenir for the guest. Sometimes the individual favors are tiny wicker hampers filled with fine flowers tied with white silk cord.

A white breakfast is the daintiest and prettiest for the bride-elect. Have the table decorations in white. For the center have a large round basket of bride roses, and at each plate tiny French baskets filled with maidenhair fern and white pansies, or apple blossoms, for individual favors. Tie the handle of each basket with white gauze ribbon, looping the baskets together with the ribbon forming a garland for the table. Serve strawberries in large white tulips or bride roses, and have the ices in form of wedding bells. For name cards have two wedding bells tied with white satin ribbons.

For the breakfast the table is crossed by a broad band of white carnations, sprinkled with diamond dust. Arranged in billows over the table is silver gauze, silver candelabra, and all the handsome silver, which the hostess possesses. The menu is:

Bouillon

Lobster Cutlets

Tartar Sauce

Cucumber Sandwiches

Breast of Turkey, larded and broiled

Green Peas

Current Jelly

Hot Rolls

Pear and Celery Salad, with German Cherries served in Hearts of Lettuce

Caramel Ice Cream, with Pecan Meringue

Old Madeira is served with the meat course, then Sauterne.

Grape Fruit with Cherries and Pineapple

Creamed Fish

New Potatoes with Sauce of Parsley and Drawn Butter

Sliced Cucumbers

Hot Biscuits

Fried Chicken

Asparagus on Toast

Sweetbreads

Waffles and Maple Syrup

Strawberry Shortcake, with Frozen Whipped Cream

Coffee

First serve a fluffy egg omelet with Saratoga potatoes, and fish and cheese sandwiches cut in hearts and rings. Next cucumber boats filled with cucumber and tomato salad mixed with sour cream dressing, resting on lettuce leaves. With this an innovation in the shape of square ginger wafers. Place by each plate salted almonds and bread and butter on bread and butter plates. The last course is a popular New England combination, warm apple sauce and huckleberry muffins. Tea is the beverage.

"I take my leave of you
Shall not be long but I'll be here again."

Use the national colors for decorations for a bon voyage breakfast. This will remind the guest of honor that "East, West, Hame's Best." Use blue and white hyacinths and red tulips, carnations or roses and tiny silk flags can be used for place cards. Carry out the same idea in the ices, candies, etc. One pretty floral decoration for a bon voyage breakfast is a ship and the place cards can have a tiny ocean steamer for decoration. Ask each guest to bring some little gift. Tie these with tissue paper and baby ribbon, leaving a long end of the ribbon. Make a little bag of flowered chintz or silk and place the gifts inside. Have cards labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., one for each day of the voyage. Slip the end of the ribbon through a card and leave the labeled ends of the ribbons sticking out of the top of the bag. This will give a little remembrance for each day on shipboard, a very pleasant remembrance too. A packet of ship letters each labeled a certain day, is another gift much prized by travelers.

Have three tables, with six guests at a table with La France roses for decorations, and silver for all the courses laid at each cover.

The guest cards are little circular marine water color sketches, no two alike. The menu is as follows:

Grape Fruit with strawberries

Salmon Croquettes

Fried Mush

Jelly

Steamed Chicken

Hot Rolls

Shoestring Potatoes

Coffee

Vegetable Salad

Wafers with Melted Cheese

Molded Cherry Jelly with English Walnuts, served with Whipped Cream

Sponge Cakes

The grape fruit is served in halves with one large strawberry in the center of the fruit. The salmon croquettes are molded in pyramidal form, a bit of cress laid on the top, and the mush which has been made the night before is cut in cubes an inch square, dipped in eggs and cracker dust, then dropped in deep fat, the only way to fry mush a delicate brown and preserve its softness. A spoonful of current jelly completes a color scheme.

Grind with a food chopper the meat of two raw chickens and half a pound of pickled pork. Add a cup of sifted bread crumbs, half a cup of thick sweet cream, half a cup of butter, half a can of chopped mushrooms, a little minced parsley, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with the hands and put into well greased timbale cups and steam three hours.

Make a sauce for this by mixing the liquor of the mushrooms, half a cup of cream, the rest of the mushrooms, chopped; heat and thicken with half a cup of cracker dust. Serve very hot.

With the smallest sized potato scoop, cut out a pint of potato balls about the size of common marbles and boil in salted water until tender. Let them cool, and add a pint of the largest peas, three stalks of minced celery, a good sized cucumber cut fine, ten drops of onion juice. Salt and pepper any good cooked dressing, to which add two large spoonfuls of thick cream and two of olive oil. Serve on a lettuce leaf, pour over the dressing, and last of all put on the top of the salad three little balls of red pickled beet cut with the potato scoop, and half embedded in the dressing.

Make a gelatine jelly, flavored with juice of two lemons and cherries. Serve with whipped cream, into which beat finely sifted crumbs of three macaroons.

"Who takes the cake?" is a most merry-making scheme to assist in entertaining at a breakfast. The hostess provides upon slips of paper, what may be termed cake-conundrums. These are neatly written and wound upon coarse steel knitting needles into little rolls and tied with baby-ribbon to match the color scheme of the table.

These are brought in just after serving the coffee and passed to the guests. The hostess announces that each is to guess the name of the cake suggested on her slip; adding, the one who gives the most correct answers wins the prize of a delicious cake. This should be exhibited. The hostess has a list of the answers, and when one misses the "hit," she reads it aloud to the merriment of the crowd. For instance, one slip reads: Name the President's cake. The answer is (Election). The parenthesis must not appear on the slips. A list recently used, and very wittily selected, is given for suggestion: