VARIOUS DISHES. 513 



Thanksgiving is almost here, and how shall we celebrate the day? I for 

 one believe in the old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner, The following bill o' 

 * ire may be of use to some of your readers; 



Oyster Soup. Celery, Pepper Sauce. 



Roast Turkey, with Currant Jelly. 



Baked Potatoes. Mashed Turnips. 



least Pig. Carrots with Cream. Baked Beans. Chopped Cabbaga 



Pumpkin Pie. Plum Pudding. 



Apples. Nuts. Cheese. 



Tea and Coffee. 



For the table I prefer a white cloth with fancy border, and napkins to 

 match. A dasli of color livens up the table so, in the bleak November, when 

 flowers cannot be had in profusion. Casters in the center, of course, flanked by 

 tall celery glasses. At each end, glass fruit dishes filled with apples and nuts. 

 A bottle of pepper sauce near the casters, and a mold of jelly by the platter of 

 turkey, and small side dishes of chopped cabbage garnished with rings of cold 

 boiled eggs. The purple cabbage makes the handsomest-looking dishes. Serve 

 the soup from tureens into soup dishes, handing around to the guests. After 

 this comes the piece de resistance, "Thanksgiving turkey." A piece of dark 

 meat with a spoonful of gravy, and one of white with a bit of jelly and a 

 baked potato (I should prefer a spoonful of mashed) should be served on each 

 plate, leaving the other vegetables to be passed afterward with the roast pig. 

 After this the salad, and then the plates should be taken away and the dessert 

 served. Then come the apples and nuts, the tea and coffep. well seasoned with 

 grandpa's old-time stories, grandma's quaint sayings and kind words and merry 

 repartees from all. 



Below I give some recipes for these old-fashioned dishes, hoping they may 

 be of use to some young housekeeper, preparing, perhaps, her first Thanksgiv- 

 ing dinner: 



Oyster Soup. — Pour the liquor from 1 qt. of oysters, set over the fife with 

 1 pt. of boiling water; skim when it boils up, and add 1 qt. of sweet milk; 

 when it again boils up, stir in 2 tea-spoonfuls of butter rubbed in 1 of flour; 

 then add the oysters, and salt and pepper to your taste; let it boil onlj' a minute 

 or two, and serve in a hot tureen. See, also, that the soup dishes are well 

 warmed before sending to table. 



Roast Turkey. — Make a stuffing of moistened bread-crumbs, rubbed smooth, 

 with salt, pepper and powdered sage. Fill the breast and body, and sew it up 

 with a needle and coarse thread. Put in the oven in a pan with a little water, 

 basting it often. A turkey weighing 12 lbs. should roast at least 3 hours. 

 Having washed the heart, liver and gizzard, boil them an hour or so in a sauce- 

 pan; to make the gravy chop the giblets fine; put them back in the water in 

 which they were boiled; add flour, rubbed smooth, in a little water; boil a min- 

 ute or two, and serve in a gravy boat. 



Boast Pig. — Sprinkle inside with fine salt an hour before it is put into the 

 oven; cut off the feet at the first joint; fill it very full of stuffing, with plenty 

 of sage in it; tie the legs; rub it all over -^vith butter to keep it from blistering; 

 baste very often while roasting. It will require about 2J^ hours to roast. Make 

 gravy as for other roasts. 



Carrots with Cream. — Boil very tender with plenty of water; when done 

 slice into a saucepan with a gill of cream; let them boil up once; salt and pep 

 per to taste, and serve in hot nappies (side dishes). 



Boston Baked Beans. — Take 1 qt. of white beans, wash and soak over night 

 in 2 or 3 qts. of water; in the morning pick them over and boil vmtil they begin 

 to crack open ; put tliem in a brown pan ; pour over them enough of the water 

 in which they have been boiled to nearly cover them. Cut the rind of a pound 

 of salt pork into narrow strips; lay the pork upon the top of the beans and 

 press down nearly even with them; bake some 4 or 5 hours. 



