136 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



So many delicious things, not only delicious to the pal- 

 ate, but deliciously nourishing to the whole system, can 

 be placed upon our dining-room tables without slaughter- 

 ing anything ! ay, and without diving down into the 

 unlovely recesses of the PORK BARREL that "household 

 god " of the country which I would like to demolish, 

 no, not demolish, but cause to step down several steps 

 to its proper place below bread, fruit, milk, eggs, beef, 

 mutton, fish, and vegetables ! 



"Pork is a coarse food fit only for coarse people," 

 snaps our good Dr. Nichols. But he lives in a large city 

 where the antecedents of his pork are unknown, and he 

 has unavoidable thoughts about the insidious trichina, a 

 touch of measles, or the questionable diet on which so 

 much fatness has been achieved. 



A clean pig and such a thing is possible if the animal 

 is given a decent place to live in fattened on one's own 

 corn, and slain and cured by one's own hands, is always 

 a good item to have among one's provision stores. But 

 even this perfection of pork should form an occasional 

 and not an every-clay article of food. 



With wheat, corn, oatmeal, milk, fruit, eggs, and veg- 

 etables to draw from, country people can live on the finest 

 foods that the world affords ; and that, too, without de- 

 voting too much time to the art of cooking. Generally, 

 the simplest things are the best, and it is just as easy to 

 prepare palatable and nourishing food as the reverse. 



OMELETS. 



Cream Omelet. Mix smoothly with a cupful of sweet 

 cream, a tablespoonful of ilour, and add five well-beaten 

 eggs and a pinch of salt. Have ready an omelet pan or a 

 thick-bottomed "spider, "in which place a small lump 

 of sweet suet-fat, which is better tlian butter, beeauso 

 less liable to burn. Have the pan hot enough to bake, 



