Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1910 — FOR SUNDAY SUPPER [ARTICLE]

FOR SUNDAY SUPPER

HINTS ON PREPARING THIS INFORMAL MEAL. One Hot Dish and the Rest Cold So It May Be Served at Any Time and Guests Help Themselves. Informal suppers on Sunday evenings are the entertainments provided by one country hostess for her friends, and so successful have these affairs become that never Is she without several visitors, and, as the meal is of a kind that can be served at any hour, guests have no feeling of being too late.

The hostess has but one servant, and allows her to go out every Sunday. It is easier to do without any service than to have that which is bad, the employer sensibly maintains, and declares that it would be demoralizing to work at other times, did she allow too much latitude to the maid in the dining room on Sundays. So, after the formal midday dinner is over and the dishes washed, the maid lays the supper table and then departs. . ’ Supper is either cold or there is but one hot dish, this being made in the chafing dish, and chosen with a view to not spoiling by standing in the hot water jacket. Curried eggs, creamed chicken or salmon, or something similar, is usually prepared, and incidentally, should any be left over, it is excellent for luncheon next day. Besides this hot food there is always a vegetable salad and mayonnaise, selecting either cucumber or tomato. There is bread and butter and Iced tea or coffee. The dessert is either berries, other fruit, or a kind that will keep for many hours without looking left over.

All these are on the table at once. There is no tablecloth, but a centerpiece, a dish of flowers, and candies. Plates are not placed at regular intervale, but left in a pile, one at either end of the table. Knives are also together, and so are forks, two sets being at either side of the table to save unnecessary reaching. The jug of iced tea and glasses for it are on a side table, and the dessert may be kept there also.

The usual time for going into the dining room is 7 o’clock, but as the supper cannot be harmed by standing, and there is no maid to be delayed, the hostess goes when she feels like it, and from then on to 8:30 friends drop in. Each person helps himself as at any buffet supper, and there is never an evening when all is not gayety and fun. Such entertaining, is no tax on the hostess, and she sees her friends far more often than she would under other circumstances. Sinqe automobiling has become more general, her home is more or less of a meeting place and Sunday night suppers have become an institution in the household.