Chapter 10 (Ruth Inspects Bettina’s Kitchen)

Introduction

Bettina’s heart is going pitty-pat this fine summer morning—but why? Has Bob promised her a fur coat? Is there a baby on the way?

No—even better! a chance for Bettina to show off the kitchen to her friend Ruth and provide some much-needed advice.

And of course this behind-the-scenes tour includes such important info as where to place the kitchen sink (“a very important piece of furniture”)-- what supplies to purchase (“this roll of paper towels by the sink is very convenient!”)--the quickest way to break a man to kitchen duty (“Let him help fix things up!”)—plus a recipe to boot!

Part 1

The Menu

Pinwheel biscuits

Gingerale Salad (1932 edition)

China Chews (1932 edition)

An odd Bettina vignette in which no real meal is prepared or served. The 1918 edition of the book offers only a recipe for pinwheel biscuits, and in 1932 recipes for gingerale salad and China Chews were added.

Well, as far as I’m concerned less is more where Bettina is concerned. After struggling through so many elaborate meals I’m looking forward to preparing just a few simple snacks.

Preparing The Meal

Pinwheel Biscuits

This recipe brings back some less-than-pleasant memories of that disastrous Ladies’ Luncheon (Chapter 4) and a seemingly unsolvable puzzle in connection with these biscuits:

The cutter worked like a charm, and with minimal effort I got the dough mixed and onto a floured board. It was only after I’d patted it down to the required height that I realized there was a problem: a 6 X 4 X 1 rectangle that was supposed to be rolled up lengthwise and somehow cut into 16 one-inch slices.

Chalking this weird dilemma up to a typo in the book I cut the dough into six pieces, popped them in the oven, and made a mental note to try to figure it out later.

Now “later” has arrived, and I still don’t have a solution. So I’ll take it step by step and hope the old Bettina magic kicks in at some point.

My trusty pastry cutter

One of my smartest purchases ever and so much better than slashing the flour and lard in the traditional way with two knives.

As the dough was so crumbly I added slightly more milk than the recipes called for.

Time to apply the rolling pin—I’ve decided that rolling out the dough ½ inch thick is my only option.

Not the tidiest rectangle of dough I’ve ever seen, but OK…

Spread with melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins…

Even rolling out the dough to ½ inch didn’t produce 16 one inch slices, but this is a lot better than the six doughy clods I eked out last time.

And into the oven. We’ll see (fingers crossed)

Gingerale Salad

I’m going to be diplomatic here and say that this salad sound interesting—certainly better than those cream cheese/olive/gelatin monstrosities that came into vogue in the 50s. How can gelatin mixed with canned fruit ever really fail?

One interesting note: the recipe calls for pineapple but doesn’t specify anywhere that it must canned. I’m no kitchen whiz, but even I know the enzymes in fresh or frozen pineapple will prevent Jello from congealing (as the box clearly states).

The salad proved simple to mix, but I did wonder if the pineapple and cherries would sink straight to the bottom of the mixture.

No need to be concerned. This dessert is so cram-jammed with fruit that there’s barely room for the gelatin.

Topping gelatin with salad dressing (thinned with sour cream) seems a bit odd—wouldn’t whipped cream be more appropriate? But some ten meals into Bettina’s book I’ve learned to make her recipes exactly as written, at least the first time. You never know…

China Chews

Added in the 1932 edition, the ingredients in this cookie recipe—dates, nuts, brown sugar--lead me to believe it might be unusually good. My cookies generally come out too hard, but here the dried fruit added to the dough is practically a guarantee that the end product will be soft and chewy.

I never realized how sticky chopped dates are...

After twenty minutes of baking time these looked good and smelled even better. It’s too soon to be sure, but these appear be a real winner. All they need now  is a dusting of powdered sugar.