aka Meals for the business girl
Recipes for Two (pages 862 to 868)
At the beginning of many of the chapters in this book we have given special directions for reducing recipes to serve a family of 2. The “For 2” directions appearing at the end of many recipes throughout the book can be followed with confidence, since all have been very carefully checked.
A WEEK OF QUICK AND EASY DINNERS FOR TWO
Here is a week of dinners for 2, easy to prepare, thrifty, good to eat. Each dinner supplies about 1/3 of day’s nutritional needs. But remember, breakfast and lunch must make up the rest.
Saturday Platter Dinner
Vegetable Juice Cocktail
Meatloaf for 2
Orange Sweet Potatoes (1/2 recipe)
Broccoli
Lettuce with French Dressing
Sliced Bananas with Custard Sauce III
Coffee
How to manage: Make sauce night before; chill. Bake potatoes with meat at 400F 45 minutes; uncover last 20 minutes. Use leftover meat Monday. By 1 1/4 lbs broccoli; use leftover in soup on Sunday.
Meat Loaf (Beef Loaf)
Basic recipe-Step by step
1 cup soft bread crumbs
6 Tbsp minced onion
2 Tbsp minced green pepper
1 egg
1 lb ground chuck, round or rump beef, ground
1 Tbsp bottled horseradish
1/2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp catchup
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup catchup
1. Heat oven to 400F. For a meat loaf with a browned exterior, grease a shallow baking pan. (Or use glass ovenware platter.)
2. Prepare bread crumbs. (Remove crusts if desired.) Mince onion and green pepper.
3. Break egg into large bowl; beat slightly with fork. Add meat; toss very lightly until just blended. (Overmixing tends to toughen loaf.) Add bread crumbs, green pepper and onion; measure horse-radish and next 4 ingredients into meat; combine lightly but well with fork.
4. Shape meat into an oval loaf right in the bowl; then turn on greased pan and smooth into shape. Spread meat with 1/4 cup catchup. Bake in a moderate oven (400F) for 35 minutes.
5. To serve hot, lift out and transfer meat loaf with two spatulas to a heated platter. Or cool, chill and serve sliced cold. Makes 3 servings.
Sunday Oven Dinner
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Celery Hearts
Roast Loin Pork (about 3 lbs)
Pan Roasted Potatoes
Green Beans
Apple Brown Betty for 2
Coffee (Instant)
How to Manage: Bake pan roasted potatoes and apple betty with pork at 325F last hour. Leftover pork served Tuesday.
Cream of Broccoli Soup
1 1/2 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp minced onion
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable water
About 2 cups finely chopped or sieved leftover cooked or canned vegetables (broccoli)
About 1 tsp salt
Speck of pepper
1/4 tsp bottled thick meat sauce (see below)
Speck paprika
1. Fill base of double boiler with about 1 ” of water; bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in top of double boiler over direct heat. Add onion; cook until tender when tried with a fork. Stir in flour.
3. Now place double boiler top in place over boiling water. SLOWLY stir in milk. Next stir in 1 cup cooking water left from one or more vegetables, OR part vegetable water and part milk, or all milk.
4. While stirring constantly, cook sauce until smooth and thickened.
5. Add finely chopped or sieved vegetable, salt to taste (about 1 tsp), and rest of ingredients. Heat up. Makes 3 servings.
Roast Pork Loin
1. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then rub surface with cut clove of garlic, or tuck small pieces of garlic into small gashes on surface of meat.
2. Arrange, fat side up, on rack in open, shallow roasting pan. If a loin, place with ribs down.
3. Insert meat thermometer through fat side of pork, so bulb reaches middle of thickest lean part. Don’t let bulb touch the bone, fat or gristle.
4. Add no water or flour.
Roast 35-40 min per lb. The roast is done when thermometer reads 185F.
Pan Roasted Potatoes
About 1 1/4 hrs before the roast is done, boil 4 pared medium white potatoes 10 minutes. Drain; arrange around roast in roasting pan. Bake 40-60 minutes or until tender, turning occasionally; baste with roast loin fat in pan. Plan so that roast and potatoes come out at the same time.
When done, remove roast to heated platter. Place potatoes, if not brown enough, in pan under broiler, turning them as they brown.
To serve: Sprinkle potatoes with paprika, minced parsley, or dried thyme. Arrange around the roast. Makes 2-3 servings.
To vary: If no roast is available, bake potatoes in a shallow pan, with 1/2 Tbsp butter or margarine or salad oil for each potato, in a moderately hot oven of 400F for 35 minutes, or until tender and brown, turning often.
Apple Brown Betty
(Basic Recipe)
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp butter or margarine, melted
1 cup soft bread crumbs
3 cups sliced, pared, cored apples (about 1 lb)
1/4 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg or mace
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp grated lemon rind
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8 cup water
Heat oven to 375F. Toss butter with crumbs. Arrange 1/3 crumbs in greased 1 qt casserole. Cover with 1/2 apples and 1/2 combined sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, rind. Cover with 1/3 crumbs, rest of apples, rest of sugar mixture. Spoon over combined lemon juice and water. Top with rest of crumbs. Cover. Bake in moderately hot oven of 350F 1/2 hr. Uncover; bake 1/2 hr, or until apples are done.
Serve warm, with cream, whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon or grated cheese ice cream or one the below sauces:
Hard Sauce
(Basic Recipe)
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp butter or margarine
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring
pinch salt
Work butter with spoon or beater until light and creamy. Then add sugar gradually, while continuing to work until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, a little at a time, and salt.
To serve: Pile in serving dish; chill. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired. Serve with Apple Brown Betty, Steamed Puddings, Custard Bread Pudding, etc. Makes 3 servings.
Sterling Sauce
Make the hard sauce, increasing butter to 1/4 cup and substituting brown sugar, firmly packed, for confectioners’ sugar. Add 1/8 cup top milk very slowly, after blending butter and brown sugar. If desired, add rum to taste. Serve as in the Hard Sauce.
Monday Spaghetti Dinner
Meat Loaf Spaghetti
Buttered Swiss Chard
Slivered Raw Carrot and Celery Salad
Broiler Toasted Packaged Rolls
Grapefruit Halves (with grape juice in center)
Tea
How to manage: While spaghetti cooks, prepare rest of dinner. Pickle 1/2 of 1 lb jar beets for Tuesday. Chill rest for Friday.
Meat Loaf Spaghetti:
1 minced, peeled clove garlic
2 sliced, peeled medium onions
1 minced, seeded green pepper
1 cup slivered, cooked tongue
1/8 cup fat
1 No 2 can tomatoes (1 3/4 cups)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp powdered cloves
1 Tbsp flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
4 oz thin spaghetti
grated Parmesan cheese
Saute first 4 ingredients in fat in skillet until onions are tender. Add tomatoes and next 4 ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, 10 min. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti tender in boiling salted water. Arrange drained spaghetti on deep platter; pour sauce over it. Sprinkle with cheese. Serves 2-3.
Meat Loaf Spaghetti:
Substitute left over meat loaf for tongue. Serves 2-3.
Tuesday Oven Dinner
Cold Sliced Roast Pork (from Sunday)
Scalloped Potatoes for 2
Baked Carrots
Cole Slaw with pickled beets
Dutch Apple Cake for 2
Coffee
How to manage: Make apple cake; prepare vegetables in covered casseroles; bake all in 400F oven 25 minutes. Remove cake. Uncover potatoes; bake potatoes and carrots 20 min. more or until tender. Use 1/2 small cabbage for slaw (use the rest for Thursday). Arrange with pickled beets on platter. After dinner, make Wednesday’s Coffee Whip.
Scalloped Potatoes for 2:
2 cups thinly sliced pared raw potatoes
1/3 cup minced onion
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
3/4 cups scalded milk
Heat over to 375F. Arrange layer of potatoes in a greased 1 qt casserole. Cover with some onion; sprinkle some of combined flour, salt and pepper on top. Dot with some of butter. Repeat layers until all are used, ending with butter. Pour milk over all; sprinkle with paprika. Cover; bake in moderately hot oven of 375 for 45 minutes. Uncover; bake 15 min or longer until tender. Serves 2.
Baked Carrots
Arrange 1/2 lb scraped, medium carrots, halved lengthwise, or shredded, medium coarse, in 1 qt casserole. Add 1/8 cup minced onion, 1/8 cup hot water, 1 Tbsp butter, 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp celery seed or 1/8 tsp dried basil. Cover; bake in moderately hot oven of 375F 45 minutes or until tender. Makes 2 servings.
Cole Slaw
Combine finely shredded green, or green and red cabbage with:
Enough Quick Sour Dressing:
1 cup thick sour cream
2 Tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp prepared mustard
1 Tbsp minced onion
1/4 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
speck freshly ground pepper
Mix ingredients. Serve on vegetable salad, or coleslaw. Makes 1 1/8 cups. To vary, add 2 3/4 tsp sugar, 1 1/4 tsp salt, pinch herbs.
Add salt & pepper to taste.
2. Or mix with desired amount of mayonnaise or cooked salad dressing, then add lemon juice, prepared mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Or mix with French dressing.
To vary add some of the following items:
minced onion, chives or scallions
shredded raw carrots
diced celery
strips of green pepper
diced tomatoes
minced parsley or water cress
diced cucumber
chopped pickled beets
diced oranges, pineapple, pared apples, or canned jellied cranberry sauce
coarsely chopped walnuts
salted peanuts
raisins
grapes
sliced radishes
Pickled Beets
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp powdered cloves
1/4 cut peeled clove garlic
3 Tbsp vinegar
1/8 cup water
1 cup sliced cooked or canned, drained beets
Combine first 5 ingredients. Stir in vinegar and water slowly. When smooth, pour on beets. Chill; remove garlic. Serve with meat or fish. Makes 3 servings. Add pinch of fennel, if desired.
Dutch Apple Cake
(Basic Recipe)
1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour
3/1 3/44 baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/8 cup shortening
1 egg
1/8 cup milk
1 3/4 cup sliced, pared, cored tart apples (about 1/2 or more lbs)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter or margarine
1/4 cup currant jelly or apricot jam
Heat oven to 400F. Sift together first 4 ingredients. Cut in shortening with 2 knives or pastry blender until like coarse corn meal. Stir in combined egg and milk with fork. Spread in greased baking dish 12x8x2. Arrange apples, slightly overlapping, in parallel rows, on top, with straight edge pushed half way into dough. Sprinkle on combined cinnamon, nutmeg, 1 Tbsp sugar. Top with butter. Bake in moderately hot oven of 400F 40-45 min, or until apples are tender. Remove from oven; beat jelly with fork; spread on top.
Serve warm, cut in squares, alone or with foamy sauce, vanilla sauce or ice cream sauce. Makes 3 servings.
Foamy Sauce
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
Work butter with spoon, or beat with electric beater until light and creamy. Then add sugar gradually while beating until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Heat over boiling water, stirring about 2 min. Serve with hot steamed or baked pudding, gingerbread. Makes 6 servings.
Ice Cream Sauce
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch salt
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla flavoring or brandy
1 cup heavy cream
Beat egg light; add sugar and salt, and beat well; beat in butter gradually; add vanilla. Whip cream until stiff; fold in egg mixture. Serve chilled. Makes 10-12 servings.
Vanilla Sauce
(Basic Recipe)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 tsp vanilla flavoring
dash nutmeg, mace or cloves
Combine first 3 ingredients in saucepan. Slowly add boiling water; stir constantly to avoid lumps. Simmer, while stirring, about 5 minutes or until clear and thickened. Remove; stir in rest of ingredients. Makes 2 cups.
Wednesday Chicken Dinner
Chilled Tomato Juice
Quick Chicken Pie for two
Parsleyed Yellow Turnips
Tossed Grapefruit and Apple Salad
Marshmallow Coffee Whip
Tea
How to Manage: Make and bake chicken pie. (Save rest of peas for Thursday.) Pare, sliver, cook and season turnips; add minced parsley. Meanwhile, fix grapefruit; slice unpared apple; toss both with greens.
Quick Chicken Pie for Two
3 pared white potatoes
5 peeled, small, white onions
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 Tbsp butter
5 tsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
speck pepper
1/4 cup milk
1/2 pkg frozen peas
1 Tbsp sherry (optional)
1 6oz can boned chicken (about 1 cup)
Quarter potatoes. Cook with onions in 1″ boiling, salted water, covered, 15 min. or until tender. Drain, saving 1/2 cup liquid, in which dissolve cube. Melt butter in saucepan; add flour, salt, pepper. Stir in milk and bouillon. Add peas; cook tender, covered, stirring. Add sherry. Arrange chicken and onions in 1 qt casserole, in layers with peas. Mash potatoes; add enough hot milk to whip; season. Spoon around edge of casserole. Bake at 375F , 25 minutes.
Marshmallow Coffee Whip
Melt 20 marshmallows in 1 cup strong, hot coffee, while stirring; chill until beginning to stiffen; then beat until foamy. Fold in 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped; pour into dessert glasses. Chill. Top with cherry or walnut half. Makes 6 servings.
Thursday Cheese Dinner
Scalloped Cheese and Deviled Ham for 2
Buttered Cauliflower with Peas
Stewed Tomatoes
Cole Slaw (see above)
Diced Canned Pineapple with Grapes
Coffee (Instant)
How to Manage: Bake cheese dish. Meanwhile, season, then heat tomatoes, left from Monday. Start cooking cauliflower, in flowerets; 5 min. before it’s tender, add peas from Wednesday. Cole slaw is made from rest of Tuesday’s cabbage.
Scalloped Cheese and Deviled Ham
1 cup bread cubes, spread with deviled ham
1 oz process American Cheddar cheese, cut in small pieces (1/4 cup)
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 Tbsp minced onion
1/4 tsp salt
speck pepper
1 cup bottled milk or 1/2 cup evaporated milk and 1/2 cup water
Spread bread slices with deviled ham; cut into cubes; measure 1 cup. Alternate layers of cubes and cheese in greased 2 individual casseroles, with bread as top layer Combine rest of ingredients; pour over bread mixture. Place in pan of warm water; bake in moderate oven of 350F for 75 minutes. Makes 3 servings.
Friday Casserole Dinner
Tuna Noodle Casserole Bake
Frozen Spinach
Tossed Beet Salad
Heated Packaged Rolls
Sherry Creme
Tea or Coffee
Tuna Casserole
1 7 oz cans tuna, coarsely flaked (2 cups)
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
speck pepper
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp sherry or 1 tsp Worcestershire
1/2 cup potato chips, broken up (about 1 1/4 oz)
Measure 2 Tbsp oil from tuna into double boiler. Gradually stir in flour, salt, pepper, milk. Cook over boiling water until smooth and thickened, stirring. Add sherry. Cover bottom of greased 1 qt casserole with 1/8 cup potato chips. Top with1/6 flaked tuna, then 1/6 sauce. Repeat, making 3 layers; top with rest of potato chips. Bake, covered, in moderately hot oven of 375F for 20 min. Uncover; bake 10 min or until brown. Makes 2 servings.
To vary: Add 1/4 cup sauteed, sliced fresh mushrooms to sauce.
Eight Busy Day Dinners for Two
(From a Kitchenette)
If you are living, kitchenette style, with nothing to cook on but a two unit stove and perhaps a small top of stove oven, try these dinners for two. Of course they are just as well suited to a full-size range and oven – if you’re lucky enough to have them
Starring Fish Fillets
Canned Vegetable Juice Cocktail
Curried Fish Fillets with Olive Rice
Frozen Spinach
Lemon Wedges
Hearts of Lettuce Salad
Canned Pears in Port Wine for 2
Coffee
How to Manage: Prepare, chill pears. Boil rice; meanwhile mince onions, chop parsley, slice olives; make salad. When done, drain rice through sieve. Set sieve of rice in saucepan in which cooked. Pour some hot water through rice; cover to keep warm. Poach fish, in covered skillet, over one unit; make curry sauce in top of double boiler; cook spinach, broken up, in bottom of it, over other unit.
Canned Pears in Port Wine
1 No 2 1/2 can pear halves
1/4 cup port wine
Drain pears. Boil syrup until evaporated to 1/2 cup. Remove from heat; add wine. Pour over pears; chill until ready to serve. Makes 4-5 servings.
For a Warm Night
Platter of Cold Cuts, Sliced Cheese, Hard Cooked Eggs, and Tomatoes with Lettuce
Scalloped Potatoes, Quick
Frozen Broccoli
Rye Bread
Coffee Ice Cream with Butterscotch Sauce
How to Manage: Buy ice cream the night before; store in freezing tray of refrigerator or freezer. Hard cooked eggs in morning; chill. At mealtime, make Butterscotch sauce, boiling it 1 1/2 min. Cool slightly. Now start potatoes over one unit. Set table; cold meat platter. Cook broccoli over unit
Scalloped Potatoes – Quick
Cook 2 cups diced, raw white potatoes, 1/2 cup minced onion, and 1 tsp salt in 1/4 cup boiling water, in covered saucepan, for 10 minutes. Uncover; simmer, stirring occasionally, until water is almost evaporated. Add 1/4 cup each of top milk and grated cheese, and a few grains of pepper. Heat; add 2 Tbsp chopped parsley. Makes 2-3 servings.
Butterscotch Sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/8 cup top milk
1 Tbsp white corn syrup
1 1/2 Tbsp butter or margarine
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Heat to boiling, while stirring, then boil to 220F on candy thermometer; or boil 1 1/2 min. Serve over ice cream, cream puffs, cottage pudding, etc. Makes 3 servings.
Starring Hamburgers
Barbecued Hamburgers
Boiled New Potatoes in Jackets
Canned Corn
Cole Slaw (with sliced radishes)
Bread
Chocolate Cream
Milk
Coffee
How to Manage: When you get home, make dessert; chill in 2 dishes. Set table. Next, start boiling unpared, small new potatoes in bottom of double boiler, over one unit. Make, chill slaw. Turn corn into top of double boiler; add butter, salt, pepper; cover; heat. Cook hamburgers in skillet over other unit.
Barbecued Hamburgers:
Make burgers without seasonings on both sides on skillet. Meanwhile, combine 1/4 cup catchup, 3 Tbsp vinegar, 1 1/2 Tbsp minced onion, 3/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce. Drain fat from patties, add sauce to them, cover and simmer 5-10 minutes or to desired rareness, basting occasionally.
Chocolate Cream
1/3- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 Tbsp water
3 eggs, separated
Heavy cream
Melt chocolate in water, over hot water, stirring smooth. Remove from heat and add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat egg whites stiff. Fold gently into chocolate mixture. Spoon lightly into sherbet glasses; chill.
Serve with cream or whipped cream, flavored with rum or almond flavoring. Makes 4 servings.
Starring Corned Beef Hash
Canned corned beef has with poached eggs
Fried tomatoes with cream gravy
Cucumber salad
Hard rolls
Sliced peaches on sponge cake
Quick custard sauce
How to manage:
When you get home, make sauce; chill. Set table. Slice 1/2 can corned beef hash into 2 patties (see note). Arrange with tomato halves in fat in deep skillet on one unit. While both saute to a golden brown, prepare and chill salad. When done, remove hash and all but 1 tomato halves to heated platter; (complete tomato gravy in skillet). Poach 2 eggs on other unit. Serve eggs on hash.
Note: Save rest of hash and use with pickle relish as spread for toasted sandwiches for lunch or as an hors d’oeurvre.
Starring Fried Chicken
Fried Chicken (3 1/2 lb fryer)
Double boiler limas and squash (frozen)
Tossed green salad
French bread
Strawberry Pineapple Delight
Coffee
How to manage: First make dessert; chill. Next, start heating squash for 45 min in double boiler top over boiling water. Then fry chicken in deep skillet on other unit. Meanwhile, make salad. Twenty minutes before squash is done, start boiling limas, broken up, in boiling salted water, in bottom of double boiler, about 18 min. When done, drain, season. While doing dishes, start next day’s Chicken Medley.
Strawberry Pineapple Delight
Whip /4 cup heavy cream stiff. Add 1 12 tsp vanilla flavoring or 1 Tbsp sherry, and 3 Tbsp granulated sugar. Fold into 3/4 cup sliced strawberries and 1 cup diced pineapple combined. Chill thoroughly. Spoon lightly into 3 or 4 sherbet glasses.
Chicken Leftovers, a new way
Chicken and vegetable medley
Skillet toasted hamburger buns
Fruit salad
Cheeses
Crackers
Milk
How to manage:
to heat and use with pickle relish as spread for toasted sandwiches for lunch or as an hors d’oeurvre.
Church Lady Recipes 