Home Haven Homemaking Lesson

Welcome to my Home page at Home Haven.  I had a wonderful week-end with family in St. Louis.  WONDERFUL!!!  Family is doing very well and we ate like royalty.  Pictures soon.  The road trip went so well.  The tree lined roads got our attention as we noticed the leaves are changing color.  There is a hint of other shades of green beginning to show and soon the yellows and oranges will be displayed.  Gorgeous Autumn hues.  Watching our Grandson quickly army crawl across the floor was exciting to see.  He's a very happy baby and squeals with delight with his progress as he reaches his point of destination.


His parents are very good with him.  A true blessing.  He's a fine boy and they are fine parents.  Delightful to be a Grandma.      


My Mondays seem to roll around sooner than I want.  Squeezing in some reading is almost a MIRACLE.  Monday with my Sarah Field Splint 1926 copy of The Art Of COOKING and SERVING waits for me to look over.  Perhaps today's Homemaking Lesson will help me be more organized!  This would be a stress reliever for sure.  

Looking forward to reading what Sarah has to say about ENTERTAINING AT LUNCHEON.

~ENTERTAINING AT LUNCHEON~ 

There is no happier way of entertaining one's women friends than at luncheon.  (Men, as a rule, are not devotees of this pleasant indoor sport.)

Naturally if one has no maid one does not attempt a luncheon on a very large scale, although in nearly every community it is possible to draft for the occasional gala meal a helper who will either stay in the kitchen or help out as a waitress.  But let us suppose the worst;  no "accommodator" is available, and you, in your one person, must perform in the triple role of cook~waitress~hostess.

The first consideration is to choose a menu that will be as delightful as possible without presenting undue complications in serving.  Dishes with "trailers" or sauces, gravies and condiments must be sternly foregone, but a simplified service does not mean that the food cannot be both delicious and interesting.  When you next contemplate a luncheon you will find the menu on page 232 helpful, since it purposely avoids the pitfalls not foreseen by the unwary.

It goes without saying that you will do all your marketing and as much preparation of the food as is possible on the day before the party.

For a formal luncheon the table is spread with the handsomest luncheon cloth, or runners and place mats, or centerpiece and doilies that the hostesses possesses.  (A large white damask cloth is suitable for dinner.)  A handsome bowl or vase in the center holds some of the more delicate varieties of garden or hothouse flowers arranged loosely, their stems cut at uneven lengths, the effects is of grace and fragility rather than of the profuse costliness which fairly shrieks at one's guests: "count-me-there-are two-dozen-of-me."

If the table is long and narrow it may be necessary to place two smaller bowls of the same flowers between the central bowl and the ends of the table.  Or if the table is large and square you may want as many as four small vases ranged around the bigger one.  Small dishes, or compotes, of salted nuts and candy complete the table decorations and it is needless to say that these compotes must be placed on the table in positions symmetrically related to the centerpiece and to each other, not plumped down anywhere with irregular intervals between them.

For a small luncheon there is no real need of place cards, but you may choose to have them because of the festive touch they give.  Where to put them depends upon the type of card you choose.  The most conservative card is a small plain white oblong which is placed on top of the folded napkin at the left side of each place.  But there are others which are designed to cling to the edge of the water glass or to the individual container for salted nuts.  The most important point to remember in the choice of your place cards is that if decorated they must harmonize with your general color scheme.

In entertaining either at lunch or dinner it is the better part of wisdom not to string out the silver in a bewildering row at each place but to have the dessert spoons brought on when the last course is served.  Put all extra silver on the serving table or tea-wagon in advance of luncheon.

When your guest come into the dining-room they find the first course on the service plates, half a grapefruit, melon, a cocktail or bouillon.  When they are ready for the next course you will rise quietly, remove the used plates but not the service plates and carry them two at a time into the kitchen or pantry.  

From the last trip you will return with hot plates for the main course.  Long before the luncheon you will have arranged with one of your guest, probably an intimate friend, to be sort of assistant hostess, and so you have given her a place opposite your own at the other end of the table.  Now you take away her service plate and put hot plates in front of her.  Then you bring on the main dish and place it before her to serve.

While she is performing this duty you are free to refill the glasses and gather up each service plate as it is replaced by the hot plate.  If there are vegetables to be passed, try to have one of the two compartment dishes which may be bought either in china or Sheffield Plate.  They make serving wonderfully expeditious.

When your guest have been supplied with meat and vegetables you will be free to sit down.  A plate or small basket of bread may be passed from hand to hand around the table as it is needed, and jelly, nuts and relish may fare likewise.

At the end of this course you will remove the used plates, taking one in each hand, but never piling them.  Strict etiquette demands that you replace the used plate with fresh service plate which would give way in a moment to the salad plate.  But in a servantless house such a plan is not practical and, therefore, the place in front of each guest will be bereft of a plate for a few moments until you can fill it again with the salad plate.

If tea or chocolate is to be served it is probably more successful for the hostess to pour it at the table from the prettiest service she can beg, borrow or buy, rather than bring it in from the kitchen in cups.

Finger bowls with a doily beneath are brought in on dessert plates.  Each guest lifts the finger bowl, together with the doily, and places it on the table at her left, leaving the plate ready for dessert.  This may be ice cream in sherbet glasses brought in from the kitchen on a small tray, or it may be a delicate custard of some sort served by the hostess in glass saucers at the table, or an especially delicious tart or cake may be the ending to the luncheon- this last would be served on the dessert plates of course.

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Next week I hope to type on and see what Sarah has to say about 

THE FAMILY DINNER.  Hint...she says something about Dinner should be a relaxing meal.  I will try to remember to post the menus she mentions on page 232.  This could be interesting. 

I have NEVER and I mean NEVER supplied finger bowls with a doily before the dessert is served!!!!  

I am truly a KANSAS HECK. 

~Deanna~