571 



with skimmed milk and without butter, this dish has a food value 

 slightly in excess of a pound of beef and a pound of potatoes. 



Nut and Cheese Roast. One cupful of grated cheese, 1 cupful of 

 chopped English walnuts, 1 cupful of bread crumbs, 2 tablespoonf uls 

 of chopped onion, 1 tablespoonful of butter, juice of half a lemon, 

 salt and pepper. 



Cook the onion in the butter and a little water until it is tender. 

 Mix the other ingredients and moisten with water, using the water 

 in which the onion has been cooked. Pour into a shallow baking 

 dish and brown in the oven. 



Cheese and Spinach Roll. Two quarts of spinach, 1 cupful of 

 grated cheese, 1 tablespoonful of butter, salt, bread crumbs. 



Cook the spinach in water for 10 minutes. Drain off the water, 

 add the butter, cook until tender, and chop. Add the cheese and the 

 eggs and bread crumbs enough to make a mixture sufficiently stiff to 

 form into a roll, or leave more moist and cook in a baking dish. 



Vegetable and Cheese Rolls. For the spinach of the above 

 recipe there may be substituted beet tops, Swiss chard, or the outer 

 leaves of lettuce. 



STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF VEGETABLES. 



Plants are made up of innumerable cells, each consisting of a 

 thin membranous w r all inclosing a semifluid mass, in which lies the 

 nucleus or center of cell activity and minute grains of starch or other 

 material which the plant has elaborated (manufactured). 



The whole framework of the very young plants is made up of 

 these cell walls, commonly called cellular tissue or cellulose. How- 

 ever, early in the growth of the plant wood cells begin to develop. 

 The wood cells grow into a fibrous substance that may be torn apart 

 like threads, which is called woody fiber. It is this woody fiber and 

 the thickening and hardening of the cellular tissue that make poorly 

 grown or stale vegetables hard and indigestible. 



Practically all green plants contain a large percentage of water 

 with a larger or smaller percentage of starch and some nitrogenous 

 material (protein), sugar, gum, crude fiber, and other carbohydrate 

 and mineral matter. The fruits and seeds of some plants are rich in 

 fat, but the plant itself rarely contains any appreciable amount of this 

 constituent. If green plants are covered so that light can not reach 

 them, changes take place in the cells, and the chlorophyll (green col- 

 oring matter) is bleached out. It is commonly believed that strong 

 flavors diminish, and this is one reason for covering salad plants from 

 the light in order that they may become blanched. The growth made 

 without light is more tender than the normal growth. This is another 

 reason why such salad plants as endive and celery are blanched before 

 they are used. In the household the term blanching has other mean- 

 ings. Thus, nuts, like almonds, are blanched when the brown outer 

 skin is removed by treatment with hot water, and vegetables are 

 blanched in cooking, as described a few paragraphs below. Most 

 vegetables contain small amounts of volatile essential oils or other 

 bodies of pronounced flavor and owe their characteristic taste to such 

 constituents; sugars and acids when present, as they often are, and 



