Introduction

Who is this Bettina anyway?

Bettina (AKA Betty) sprang from the combined pens of Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron in 1917. Featured in A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, Bettina is housewife extraordinaire with a mastery of the domestic arts no mortal can hope to match.

As a new bride Bettina’s skills in the kitchen are beyond reproach. Her richly detailed attempts (inevitably successful) to produce economical but scrumptious meals are interspersed with seasonal menus, recipes, and household tips.

Something of a precursor to Martha Steward and her notions of Gracious Living, Bettina’s efforts never fail to dazzle her husband Bob, impress her new in-laws, and inspire every disorganized and overwhelmed housewife on the block.

So successful was A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband that its creators spun out a sequel (titled, logically enough, A Thousand Ways to Please a Family) in 1922. In a soap opera-style time warp Bettina, wife of a scant five years, now has a seven-year old daughter and five-year old son to further challenge her domestic routine. No longer a mere goddess of the kitchen, Bettina’s expertise now extends to all aspect of child rearing. Advice is freely given (and always gratefully received) by various beleaguered mothers bewildered by their children’s various issues.

Why would anyone want to cook this way?

As evidenced by the cult of Martha Stewart, even in the 21^st century we are fascinated by the prospect of a household that runs like clockwork. Every overworked parent is familiar with that dank feeling of failure when the household descends into chaos—the cell phone filling with unanswered messages, bills to be paid, and children to shepherded through the homework/dinner/bedtime routine while dinner burns to a crisp in the oven.

It’s human nature to long want a simple set of instructions that will help tame our households and keep disorder at bay, and over the years various “domestic experts” have expounded most profitably on just how to do so.

Who among us hasn’t tried to follow Good Housekeeping’s tips on organizing clutter—the pull-out menu for a month’s worth of nutritious and easy-to-prepare menus—for rekindling married bliss with date nights and scented body lotions?

“And after all, romance is really in everything we do lovingly, and intelligently. I find it in planning and cooking the best and most economical meals that I can, and in getting the mending done on time, and in keeping the house clean and beautiful,” Bettina says on her first wedding anniversary.

Who could resist? Maybe it really is that simple!