A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl | Page 4

the bottom of the pan is covered. Put in the eggs and stir them, scraping them off the bottom of the pan until they begin to get a little firm; then draw the pan to the edge of the stove, and scrape up from the bottom all the time till the whole looks alike, creamy and firm, but not hard. Put them in a hot, covered dish.
Scrambled Eggs with Parsley
Chop enough parsley to make a teaspoonful, and mince half as much onion. Put the onion in the butter when you heat the pan, and cook the eggs in it; when you are nearly ready to take the eggs off the fire, put in the parsley.
After Margaret had learned to make these perfectly, she began to mix other things with the eggs.
Scrambled Eggs with Tomato
When Margaret found a cupful of tomato in the refrigerator, she would take that, add a half-teaspoonful of salt, two shakes of pepper, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and simmer it all on the fire for five minutes; then she would cook half a teaspoonful of minced onion in the butter in the hot frying-pan as before, and turn in the eggs, and when they were beginning to grow firm, put in the tomato. In summer-time she often cut up two fresh tomatoes and stewed them down to a cupful, instead of using the canned.
Scrambled Eggs with Chicken
Chop fine a cup of cold chicken, or any light-colored meat, and heat it with a tablespoonful of water, a half-teaspoonful of salt, two shakes of pepper, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Cook a half-teaspoonful of minced onion in the butter you put in the hot frying-pan, and turn in the eggs, and when they set mix in the chicken.
Sometimes Margaret used both the tomato filling and the chicken in the eggs, when she wanted to make a large dish.
Creamed Eggs
Cook six eggs twenty minutes, and while they are on the fire make a cup of white sauce, as before: one tablespoonful of butter, melted, one of flour, one cup of hot milk, a little salt; cook till smooth. Peel the eggs and cut the whites into pieces as large as the tip of your finger, and put the yolks through the potato-ricer. Mix the eggs white with the sauce, and put in a hot dish, with the yellow yolks over the top. Or, put the whites on pieces of toast, which you have dipped in part of the white sauce, and put the yolks on top, and serve on a small platter.
Another nice way to cream eggs is this: Cook them till hard, and cut them all up into bits. Make the white sauce, and into it stir the beaten yolk of one egg, just after taking it from the fire. Mix the eggs with this, and put in a hot dish or on toast.?You can sprinkle grated cheese over this sometimes, for a change.
Creamed Eggs in Baking-Dishes
Cut six hard-boiled eggs up into bits, mix with a cup of white sauce, and put in small baking-dishes which you have buttered. Cover over with fine, sifted bread-crumbs, and dot with bits of butter, about four to each dish, and brown in the oven. Stick a bit of parsley in the top of each, and put each dish on a plate, to serve.
Birds' Nests
Sometimes when she wanted something very pretty for breakfast, Margaret used this rule:
Open six eggs, putting the whites together in one large bowl, and the yolks in six cups on the kitchen table. Beat the whites till they are stiff, putting in half a teaspoonful of salt just at the last. Divide the whites, putting them into six patty-pans, or small baking-dishes. Make a little hole or nest in the middle of each, and slip one yolk carefully from the cup into the place. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them, and put a bit of butter on top, and put the dishes into a pan and set in the oven till the egg-whites are a little brown.
Omelette
Making an omelette seems rather a difficult thing for a little girl, but Margaret made hers in a very easy way. Her rule said:
Break four eggs separately. Beat the whites till they are stiff, and then wash and wipe dry the egg-beater, and beat the yolks till they foam, and then put in half a teaspoonful of salt. Pour the yolks over the whites, and mix gently with a large spoon. Have a cake-griddle hot, with a piece of butter melted on it and spread over the whole surface; pour the eggs on and let them cook for a moment. The take a cake-turner and slip under an edge, and look to see if the middle is getting brown, because the color comes there first. When it is