Prepare and Serve a Meal and Interior Decoration | Page 4

vegetable dish or a small plate will do for the hard-boiled egg.
Poached eggs appear in individual shirred egg dishes, to the left of each cover, on small plates with service spoon.
Scrambled eggs are served in individual portions, as above; or distributed by the host from a large platter, and passed by the waitress.
Omelet should be served on a large platter with hot individual service plates before the host. The waitress may pass the individual portions or--it is customary with scrambled eggs--they may be passed from host to guest around the table.
COFFEE
Coffee is the favorite and logical breakfast drink, though some prefer tea, cocoa and milk. The breakfast coffee service should be placed before the hostess. In its most attractive form it comprises a large silver tray, which holds coffee (or percolator), the hot-water pot, creamer, sugar bowl with tongs, and cups and saucers. (There may also be a bowl for the water used to heat the cups.) When tea is the breakfast beverage the samovar takes the place of the percolator.
The large silver service platter may be dispensed with, if desired, in favor of a tile to hold the coffee urn, the other components of the service being grouped about it. There is a charming touch of intimacy about coffee made at the table with an electric percolator, poured by the hostess and passed at the table (or by a waitress). When the hostess pours she should at the same time ask the guest's preferences (those of members of the family are supposed to be known) as regards cream and sugar. Cream and sugar always enter the cup first! The true coffee-drinker at once notices a difference in flavor if the coffee first be poured, and the cream and sugar added.
FOR THE CHILDREN
If the children eat breakfast with the family, a regular child's service, with attractive little knives and spoons should be provided, and his whole service, preferably, should be arranged on a tray near the table's edge. Every child likes to have his own porridge bowl, his mug and little milk pitcher, and having his own table tools teaches him to be neat and self-reliant.
CHAPTER IV
LUNCHEONS
THE INFORMAL LUNCHEON
The informal luncheon or lunch--originally the light meal eaten between breakfast and dinner, but now often taking the place of dinner, the fashionable hour being one (or half after if cards are to follow)--is of two kinds. The "buffet" luncheon, at which the guests eat standing; and the luncheon served at small tables, at which the guests are seated. (In general all that is here said with regard to the "buffet" luncheon, applies to the "buffet" supper or evening "spread." The only actual difference is that lighted candles may be used at an evening luncheon, and that the daytime luncheon may offer courses more variegated and solid in character than would be suitable for evening eating.)
Plates, silver and napkins are conveniently arranged on a laid table in the case of the "buffet" lunch. One or two hot and one or two cold dishes (according to the number of guests who are to be fed), and one or two iced desserts with one cream or jelly in mold should be sufficient. The knife is tabooed at the "buffet" lunch, hence all the food must be such as can be eaten with fork or spoon. As a rule, friends of the hostess serve (host and hostess may help), though, if convenient, waitresses may see to the wants of the guests. To keep the table from looking crowded, maids may replenish the dishes from pantry or serving table as may be necessary. Plates of sandwiches or filled rolls (not too far from the table edge) olives and relishes should also be arranged on the table, though cakes, candies and salted nuts may be passed by the maids. The rolls go with the hot course, the sandwiches with the salad. When a "buffet" lunch is served at a big reception, with any number of guests coming and going, all the buffet refreshments should appear on the table at the same time.
The following dishes cover the essentials of a "buffet" luncheon. Beverages: punch, coffee, chocolate (poured from urn, or filled cups brought from pantry on tray); hot entrees of various sorts (served from chafing dish or platter) preceded by hot bouillon; cold entrees, salads, lobster, potatoes, chicken, shrimp, with heavy dressings; hot rolls, wafer-cut sandwiches (lettuce, tomato, deviled ham, etc.); small cakes, frozen creams and ices.
The informal luncheon at small tables calls for service by a number of maids, hence the "buffet" plan is preferable.
THE FORMAL LUNCHEON
A "luncheon set" (a luncheon cloth or center-piece with doilies of the same color and design) or a bare table may be used for the formal luncheon, with special luncheon napkins, in a three-cornered fold. Butter is not usually served, the