Chapter 33 After the Tea

Introduction

It’s been a strenuous day for the ladies—after attending a “stiff and tiresome” tea Bettina and Mrs. Dixon can barely drag themselves home.

“Doesn’t it bore you to think of cooking when you’ve been out all afternoon?” groans Mrs. Dixon.

It would appear that Bob’s prospects for a decent are poor to non-existent. But never fear—Bettina has matters well in hand!

“I usually anticipate feeling this way,” our heroine says placidly to her friend. And, after changing into a house dress (“I can’t bear to cook in party clothes”) she proves her worth by whipping up a delicious “emergency dinner” and inviting the Dixons to join in!

Part 1

Menu

Omelet

Creamed Potatoes

Glazed Apples

Head Lettuce with Russian Dressing

Emergency Biscuit

Butter

Watermelon

Well, well—another Bettina meal dictated by the hands of a stopwatch. The vignette doesn’t exactly say how long it takes Bettina to whip together this dinner, but I estimate forty-five minutes or so should be ample time—that is, if the salad dressing and glazed apples are prepared ahead of time and the potatoes boiled and ready for creaming.

Well, we’ll see.

Preparing the Meal

Omelet

An omelet in which the whites are to be separated from the yolks and beaten until “stiff and dry”--quite a challenge without the help of modern electrical appliances and nothing something I’d expected to see at an “emergency” dinner.

Only four eggs are needed for this omelet that supposedly is meant to serve four people…

 “Beat the yolks until thick and lemon-colored”--by hand of course (after two minutes or so my arm gave out and I declared them done).

I’m not even going to try to beat this whites without a mixer (sorry Bettina).

“Stiff and dry” thanks to Mr. Mixer.

Whites folded into the yolks.

My small skillet wasn’t designed specifically for omelets, but it’s the right size and will do, I guess.

“…well done and delicately browned underneath.”

Now into the oven to finish cooking on top…

Not such a terrific idea. The omelet looks fine, but the pan is a crusted-over mess!

Creamed Potatoes

Obviously Bettina had cold boiled potatoes on hand and and so I cooked these well ahead of time.

A tad overcooked, it appears.

Now into the fridge until I’m ready for them (I’ll chop them up later).

Later

After making a white sauce I diced the potatoes directly into the saucepan.

A pimento garnish…I’ll add the parsley just before serving.

Glazed Apples

What beautiful glazed apples!—Mrs. Dixon

Well, I can’t honestly say that any of the apples I’ve ever cooked could be so-described, but I’m always willing to try again.

There’s no mention of just what type of apples are to be used for this recipe so I chose Granny Smiths.

They’re pleasantly tart and don’t discolor.

Unfortunately these apples did begin to turn brown (especially in the centers) and I had to put them in water.

The ingredients for the syrup were surprisingly simple—just brown sugar and water, boiled for six minutes.

The apples plopped into the boiling syrup—these six just barely fit in the pan.

“Cook until tender”.

Yes, these are tender. In fact, they’re beginning to disintegrate.

After removing the apples the syrup that was to cover them seemed a little thin and had to be boiled longer.

Hmm…maybe too much boiling? This stuff is now like taffy.

Not “beautiful” this time, either (darn).

Head Lettuce with Russian Dressing

The head lettuce is easy--the dressing, not so much. Of course this version of Russian dressing requires not only the dreaded Bettina chili sauce but homemade salad dressing as well—definitely not the stuff for an emergency dinner (unless of course it’s been made ahead of time).

I cut the recipe for the chili sauce down by ¾, and three tomatoes were perfectly adequate.

Water bath to help loosen the skins.

Finished skinning them with a paring knife, which made my hands very itchy.

Some chopped green pepper.

Onion…

…and a sturdy pair of goggles to keep the onion fumes away from my eyes.

All the ingredients into the pot, to be cooked until thick.

Now for the boiled salad dressing…

First separate the eggs (this dressing requires only the yolks).

Add vinegar.

Mix flour, sugar, and spices.

Then mix the wet ingredients with the dry and cook slowly.

I guess I didn’t cook this slowly enough—quite a lot of lumps here.

Thank goodness for strainers.

Once the chili sauce and the boiled dressing were prepared, actually mixing up the Russian dressing was simple.

½ cup salad dressing mixed with three tablespoons of chili sauce, and then a little sour cream to thin it out.

Finished. Thank goodness!

Emergency Biscuit

Three cheers for emergency breadstuffs—the dry ingredients need not be sifted!

Flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cut in three tablespoons of fat (here a combination of butter and lard).

Since this is what Bettina classifies as an emergency I simply dumped the milk onto the dry ingredients and stirred with a wooden spoon.

Then just drop spoonsfull of batter onto a greased cookie sheet and bake.

Watermelon

A thoroughly cold melon whacked into wedges and slapped on a plate—simplicity itself.

Except for the fact that my refrigerator was so crammed with stuff there was no room for the melon. After much rearranging I was able to get in inside, but that left only about thirty minutes for it to chill.

How It Looked