Cooking a la Bettina: A Thousand Ways To Please A Husband Revisited: Chapter 34 Bettina Gives A Porch Breakfast

Introduction

It’s just seven o’ clock in the morning in the honeymoon bungalow—but such hustle and bustle! Such hurrying and scurrying! It’s quite obvious there’s a crisis. Is a challenging guest or three (Cousin Matilda, Harry Harrison, the Reverend Henry Clinkersmith) threatening a return visit?

Worse. Bob’s “beautiful and distinguished-looking” Aunt Elizabeth is coming to visit with the leading suffragettes in the city, and the prospect of feeding this crew has thrown Bettina into a panic.

“Sure, sure, sure” she might be of every dish on the breakfast, but still there is “fear and trepidation” in her heart as she ushers them to the table—

—where they feast and shower our heroine with praises until she confessed to Ruth that she “forgot to be frightened!”

Part 1

The Menu

Molded Cereal on Bananas

Whipped Cream

Codfish Balls

Egg Soufflé

Green Peas

Twin Mountain Muffins

Jelly

Spice Cookies

Coffee

Bettina’s spread may have been a show stopper for Aunt Elizabeth, but I can’t help having some reservations. It’s simply too elaborate a meal for eleven in the morning (or at night, or any time in between), and most of the dishes--the cereal and codfish balls in particular—cannot be used as leftovers.

So after some thought I decided to divide the meal in two and serve half in the morning and the other half in the (late) afternoon. A major departure from Bettina’s ways, but do I really have any choice?

Molded Cereal on Bananas

An archaic dish to be sure but not completely unfamiliar to me—I’ve already made a version of this some weeks ago (Chapter 28 Polly and the Children).

On the previous occasion it was (supposedly) the height of summer and Bettina served this cold, over raspberries.

But now it’s fall and I’d rather serve this dish warm—15 minutes in the refrigerator should allow it to set without sacrificing all of its warmth.

Stolid Cream of Wheat, the same sort (in fact, the same box) I used the first time around.

The wheat can be cooked with either boiling water or milk…pretty obvious from the snap which I chose!

The wheat is to be added to the milk and stirred thoroughly…

…and then boiled until thick. Since the cereal is to be molded it requires twice as much cooking time as the package instructions direct.

The mold (really a large cereal bowl) lined with bananas.

And then the cereal is simply spooned on top, covered with plastic wrap, and placed in the refrigerator to set.

Whipped Cream

Whipped cream (without any added sugar, apparently) seems an odd dish to find on a breakfast/brunch table. I can only assume it’s meant to be spooned over the cereal and/or the coffee.

Codfish Balls

Fortunately I already have some dried, salted cod in my pantry and am delighted for the opportunity to use it up (the stuff smells to high heaven—even when wrapped in multiple layers of plastic).

From past experience I know I’d have to soak the stuff for at least forty-eight hours to get the salt out.

The basket from my long-defunct deep fryer is perfect for the job.

Lower the basket into the pan, fill with water, cover, refrigerate (and prepare to change the water 6-10x over the course of the next two days.

Forty-Eight Hours Later

Now thoroughly and relatively salt-free the cod goes into a pot along with pared, quartered potatoes…

…and is boiled for about twenty minutes.

Ready for mashing.

Looks appetizing (not).

The recipe has two suggestions for preparing the cod/potato mixture: 1. Mold into balls, dip in eggs and crumbs, and deep fry, or 2. Shape into patties, dredge in flour, and sauté in hot fat.

Since I’m not a huge fan of deep-fried anything I went with the second option.

My fat of choice. I doubt there was solid vegetable shortening in Bettina’s time, but at least there’s little danger of it smoking or splattering.

After the fuss of soaking and mashing the cod this last step is surprising easy: just fry until brown on the bottom, flip, and fry the other side.

A parsley garnish.

Egg Soufflé

An egg is an egg…unless you cover with green peas. Ouch.

Actually the green peas are added to a sauce meant to be poured over and around the soufflé—not your typical breakfast fare, certainly (but apparently to knock Aunt Elizabeth's socks off).

I’ll begin by making the white sauce…

The Jolly Green Giant’s finest.

I’m not sure that these really need to be cooked—after all, they and their can were heated after sealing to kill any bacteria. But adding cold peas to a hot soufflé would probably collapse it, so into the pan they go.

Melt some butter (good Lord, how many times have I gone through these sauce-making steps?)

Flour and salt.

And then add a cup of milk and cook until thickened.

Last and most important step--the peas!

Now for the soufflé:

Melted butter, flour, milk, and egg.

Add egg yolks and cook three minutes.

Folding in the beaten whites of the eggs.

Then pour the mixture into custard cups…

…and set in a water-filled pan in the oven.

Twin Mountain Muffins

I believe this is the third time I’ve made these—should be a snap.

Ingredients (of course the dry have to be sifted).

For some silly reason (didn’t take time to read the recipe carefully, I suppose) I thought the eggs had to be separated and the whites whipped. Wrong.

I certainly goofed with the eggs have no choice now but to proceed…

Despite the snafu with the batter looks OK.

Fill the greased muffin cups and then into the oven. Bang. [sound of the oven door closing].

Jelly

Muffins with jelly—what could be nicer? I wish I had some of that homemade currant jelly on hand, but we ate it all...the commercial stuff will have to do.

Spice Cookies

Children always want cookies—Bettina to Ruth (Chapter 28 Bettina Has A Baking Day)

Maybe—but not those indistinguishable from dog biscuits. The last batch of Bettina cookies I made were so ghastly I’m almost afraid to try again!

Well, if the these new cookies fail I certainly can’t lay blame on the ingredients. Everything I need to make a decent batch seem to be here.