VEGETABLES.

Baked Tomatoes.

Pick out large, fair tomatoes; cut a slice from the stem end, and, placing them in a pan with the cut side up, put into each one-half teaspoonful of melted butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake until they shrivel slightly.

Raw Tomatoes.

Cut the skin from both ends; slice moderately thin, and, if you like, add a small piece of onion chopped fine. Season with salt and pepper, and pour over Durkee's or Clayton's salad dressing.

Cucumbers.

Take off a thick rind, as that portion between the seed and outer skin is the unwholesome part. Slice, rather thin, into cold, salt water, and, after half-an-hour, drain off, and dress with salt, pepper, wine vinegar, and a little Chile pepper-sauce, covering slightly with Durkee's or Clayton's salad dressing.

Boiled Cabbage.

Cut large cabbage in four; small in two pieces, and tie up in a bag or cloth. Put in boiling water, with some salt, and boil briskly for half-an-hour. A piece of charcoal in the pot will neutralize the odor given out by the cabbage, boiled in the ordinary way. Cabbage should never be cooked with corned-beef, as the fine flavor of the latter is changed to the strong odor of the cabbage.

To Cook Cauliflower.

If the cauliflower is large, divide in three, if small, in two pieces; tie up in a cloth, and put in boiling water with a little salt, and cook not more than twenty minutes. Eat with melted butter, pepper and salt, or nice drawn butter.

(Asparagus may be cooked in the same way, and eaten with similar dressing. Both cauliflower and asparagus may be spoiled with too much cooking. Care should be taken to drain the water from both as soon as they are done.)

To Cook Young Green Peas.

The best mode of cooking this most delicate and finely-flavored vegetable—put the peas in a porcelain-lined kettle, with just water sufficient to cover, and let them boil slowly until tender. Add a lump of butter, worked in a teaspoonful of flour, to the rich liquid, with half a teacupful of rich milk or cream; season with salt and pepper.

A Good Way to Cook Beets.

Take beets of a uniform size; boil until tender; slip off the skin, and slice into a dish or pan; season with salt and pepper, adding a little butter, made hot, and the juice of one lemon. Pour this over the beets, set in a hot oven for a few minutes, and send to the table hot.

Mashed Potatoes and Turnips.

Take equal quantities of boiled potatoes and turnips; mash together, adding butter, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly with a little good milk, working all together until quite smooth.

Boiled Onions.

Take small white onions, if you have them; if large, cut and boil until tender, in salted water. Pour off nearly all the water, and add a small lump of butter, worked in a little flour, and a small cup of milk; add pepper, and simmer for a few minutes.

[All the foregoing are desirable additions to roast turkey and chicken.]

Stewed Corn.

If canned corn is used, put a sufficient quantity in a stewpan, with two or three spoonfuls of hot water, and, after adding pepper and salt to taste, put in a good-sized lump of butter, into which a teaspoonful of flour has been well worked, adding, at the same time, a cup of good, sweet milk or rich cream, and let it cook three minutes. Corn cut fresh from the cob should be boiled at least twenty minutes before adding the milk and butter.

Stewed Corn and Tomatoes.

Take equal quantities of corn and tomatoes, and stew together half-an-hour, with butter, pepper and salt; and when taken up place slices of buttered toast in the dish in which it is served.

Succotash.

This is the original native American Indian name for corn and beans. In compounding this most palatable and wholesome dish, take two or three pounds of green, climbing, or pole beans—the pods of which are large, and, at the same time, tender. Break these in pieces of something like half-an-inch long, and let them lie in cold water about half-an-hour, at which time drain this off. Put them in a porcelain-lined kettle, covering them with boiling water, into which put a large tablespoonful of salt. When the beans become tender, pour off the greater portion of the water, replacing it with that which is boiling, and when the beans become entirely tender, cut from the cob about half the amount of corn you have of the beans, which boil for twenty minutes; but where canned corn is used five minutes will suffice. About five minutes before taking from the fire, take a piece of butter about the size of an egg, worked with sufficient flour or corn-starch to form a stiff paste. Season with plenty of black pepper and salt to taste, adding, at the same time, a teacupful of rich milk or cream. Then, to keep warm, set back from the fire, not allowing to boil, but simmering slowly. This will be equally good the next day, if kept in a cool place, with an open cover, which prevents all danger of souring. This is a simple, healthful, and most appetizing dish, inexpensive and at the same time easily prepared.

Saratoga Fried Potatoes.

The mode of preparing the world-renowned Saratoga fried potatoes is no longer a secret. It is as follows:

Peel eight good-sized potatoes; slice very thin; use slicing-machine, when available, as this makes the pieces of uniform thickness. Let them remain half-an-hour in a quart of cold water, in which a tablespoonful of salt has been dissolved, and lay in a sieve to drain, after which mop them over with a dry cloth. Put a pound of lard in a spider or stewpan, and when this is almost, but not quite, smoking hot, put in the potatoes, stirring constantly to prevent the slices from adhering, and when they become a light brown, dip out with a strainer ladle.

[If preferred, cut the potatoes in bits an inch in length, and of the same width, treating as above.]

Salsify or Oyster Plant.

The best way I have yet found to cook this finely flavored and highly delicious vegetable is: First, wash clean, but do not remove the skin. Put the roots in more than enough boiling water to cover them; boil until quite soft; remove the skin; mash; add butter, and season with pepper and salt; make into the size of oysters, and dip in thin egg batter; fry a light brown. If the plant is first put into cold water to boil, and the skin scraped or removed, the delicate flavor of the oyster—which constitutes its chief merit—will be entirely dissipated and lost.

Egg Plant.

There is no more delicate and finely-flavored esculent to be found in our markets than the egg plant, when cooked in the right manner. Properly prepared, it is a most toothsome dish; if badly cooked, it is anything but attractive. Of all the varieties, the long purple is decidedly the best. Cut in slices, less than one-fourth an inch in thickness; sprinkle with salt, and let the slices lie in a colander half-an-hour or longer, to drain. Next parboil for a few minutes, and drain off the water; season with salt and pepper, and dip in egg batter, or beaten egg, and fry in sweet lard mixed with a little butter, until the slices are a light brown. Serve hot.

To Boil Green Corn.

Green corn should be put in hot water, with a handful of salt, and boiled slowly for half-an-hour, or five minutes longer. The minute the corn is done, pour off the water and let it remain hot. All vegetables are injured by allowing them to remain in the water after they are cooked.

Boiled Rice.

American rice for all its preparations is decidedly preferable, the grain being much the largest and most nutritious. In boiling, use two measures of water to one of rice, and let them boil until the water is entirely evaporated. Cover tightly; set aside, and let steam until every grain is separated. When ready to serve, use a fork in removing the rice from the cooking utensil.

[The foregoing recipe was given me by a lady of South Carolina, of great experience in the preparation of this staple cereal product of the Southern Atlantic seaboard.]

Stewed Okra.

Cut into pieces one quart of okra, and put to boil in one cup of water; add a little onion and some tomatoes; salt and pepper to taste; and when all is boiled tender, add a good lump of butter, worked in with a spoonful of flour, and let stew five minutes, stirring frequently.