184 MORE POT-POURRI 



January 28th. There is nothing like a date and a 

 detailed account of the weather for accentuating a gar- 

 den fact. We have had lately several days of frost, and 

 we had to-day for luncheon so excellent a green vegeta- 

 ble that both gardener and cook had immediately to be 

 interrogated as to details. The gardener said it was 

 grown from Button's hardy -sprouting Kale called 

 ' Thousand -headed,' and I see in a note to the catalogue 

 that 'the Borecoles thrive better in poor soil than most 

 vegetables.' This naturally accounts for their being 

 good-tasting here. In Vilmorin's list, they are 

 described as a cattle -feeding plant of large size, and 

 bearing frost extremely well. The cook informed me 

 that she had cut the green of the leaf carefully off the 

 stalk, and then cooked it exactly like Spinach. I give 

 my cook the credit for cutting it off the stalk, as I had 

 never suggested it. The result was most satisfactory. 



RECEIPTS 



An excellent way to improve northern or frozen 

 game, of which a great deal is now sold, is to lay the 

 birds in a bath of milk for twenty-four hours, changing 

 the milk twice. They are then roasted in the ordinary 

 way, and are excellent. 



A good way of cooking potatoes in winter is to steam 

 them without their skins. Then melt some very good 

 fresh butter in a small iron saucepan, and to this add 

 a good lot of onions shredded very fine, and fry till a 

 good mahogany brown, not black. Put the potatoes in 

 a very hot fireproof dish, and pour the hot butter and 

 onions over them just before serving. 



Parsnips. Everybody grows parsnips, so far as I 

 can make out, and hardly anyone ever eats them ; except 

 now and then with boiled pork and with salt cod on 



