or when one has company. The ingredients that are purely Oriental in character can be purchased at any of the Chinese or Japanese importing shops. For this recipe take one pound of fresh mushrooms, a few stalks of celery, a dozen water chestnuts, a pound and a half of the white meat of a chicken, a tablespoonful of the chicken fat, two white onions, and half a can of bamboo shoots, two pounds of bean sprouts and a half teaspoonful of syou, a Chinese sauce. Cut the chicken into small pieces and put into a deep frying pan and let brown, being careful that it does not burn. Have all the vegetables ready sliced and the onions chopped fine, and put into the pan and mix with the chicken. Then add a little cayenne pepper, and, finally, the bamboo shoots and fry, the bean sprouts being added last; serve with rice.

Liquid rice soup is recommended for sick folk and children. Wash four ounces of rice and throw into a quart of boiling water. Cook slowly for an hour, or until the liquid is glutenous; add a little butter and salt before serving.

Another rice dish is called rice with sabayon, the latter a Chinese sauce that may be purchased. The rice is cooked in the ordinary way and a boiled custard is poured over it; it is served with the sabayon sauce.

Lai Yut or Moon Tarts are mighty good and are made with rice flour. A tablespoonful of butter is worked into the rice flour and iced water is added to make a pastry dough. This dough is then rolled out and brushed with the whites of two beaten eggs, being folded over several times, each time being brushed with the eggs. The dough is then rolled out like cooky dough and cut into rounds. The filling, made of two cups of lychee nuts, stoned and mashed to a pulp, one and a half cups of sugar, a teaspoonful of mixed spices and a cup of cystallized limes, all mixed well, is put in and the tarts are baked. Dates, pineapple, blanched-andchopped almonds with sugar and spices. are also used for filling.

Chee Yuk is another kind of chop suey, that is made from pork, chicken and lotus seeds; and plain chop suey is made from pork and veal with onions, Chinese potatoes, celery and water chestnuts, much after the same manner as the white chop suey.

A Noodle dish, called Chow Main, is made of a quarter of a pound of noodles, a quart of peanut oil, a half dozen water chestnuts, half a pound of pork, half a pound of veal, a half bunch of celery, and an onion, half a pound of dried mushrooms, two eggs and a quarter of a pound of ham. The noodles are first cooked in the peanut oil and drained. The meat is cut into small pieces and fried for five minutes, after which it is allowed to simmer in butter gravy; the vegetables, well chopped, are added. The noodles are placed in the bottom of a flat dish, and the meat and vegetable mixture poured over them, the top being garnished with the bits of cooked ham and the yolks of two hard-cooked eggs. This same dish is sometimes made by using lobster and chicken instead of the meats.

Bird's nest soup, or Gai Grun Yung Waa, as the Chinese call it, is a gelatinous substance like Irish moss or seaweed, and is bought in the Chinese shops by the pound. Half a pound of this is combined with a pint of chicken stock, half a pound of cooked breast of the chicken, a boiled egg, a small portion of minced ham, and salt for seasoning. The seaweed is boiled for half an hour, or until it is very soft, and is then drained and put into cold water. The chicken meat is then pounded into a pulp and a cup of the cold stock, in which the bird's nest has been boiled, is added. The bird's nest is then taken from the cold water and drained and put into a saucepan to cook for half an hour, being covered with water; the chicken meat and the egg are added. When the soup begins to boil the minced ham is sprinkled on top and it is ready for serving.

Lo makes a delightful salad he calls Yildiz, which he got in Constantinople.

It is made of endive leaves, which form a fringe about the entire side of the bowl. In the centre, in a little mound, are sections of grapefruit, sliced bananas, pineapple and cherries; the dressing is one part of mayonnaise with a few drops of mushroom catsup and one part cream. Another sort of Oriental-like salad he

makes is of sections of oranges with celery and dates sliced very thin, sprinkled over the top and finished with a border of romaine leaves and dressed with a light mayonnaise dressing.

Lo has promised to teach me, some day, how to make some of the little sweet cakes that are served with tea in Japan.

A

BSOLUTELY pure and delicious bread, of high grade and of great nutritive value, was made with the old process of making yeast. Nothing can take the place of it in our modern yeast preparations, although that of the dry yeast comes nearer to producing the quality of "the kind of bread mother used to make."

In the early day we had no tinfoilwrapped, dainty cakes of compressed yeast, nor the neatly-boxed, dry yeast cakes of today. Each housewife brewed her own yeast in the fashion her mother had taught her.

The process was simple, and with proper care, as to measurements of the ingredients, the results were most gratifying.

How well I remember the making of the hop bag with the draw strings! the little iron kettle, in which the hop water was made by placing a quantity of the hops in the bag and allowing a couple of quarts of water for the boiling!

When the strength was sufficiently drawn from the hops, potatoes were boiled in the hop water until mealy, then taken out, mashed, replaced in the hop water, and then thickened with cornmeal; into this was put the leavening agent, the yeast left from a previous making. Enough cornmeal was added so that the mash could be easily rolled on the baking board and cut into small cakes. These little cakes, by next morning, had risen, and looked good enough to eat. When

thoroughly dried, they were well dusted with buckwheat flour, placed in a snowwhite muslin bag, and hung near the kitchen stove. With one of these little cakes for a leavening agent, two quarts of yeast could be made. Soaked in warm water until soft, it was added to a mash made of potatoes, white flour, small portions of sugar, lard and ginger, and the water in which the potatoes were boiled. This mixture was allowed to rise until large bubbles of air formed, then placed in a jug, corked and put in a cool place in the cellar. If the temperature of the cellar varied, and the yeast became too warm, we used to hear a loud report, as "pop" went the cork from the jug against the floor.

I remember it was quite a common thing to hear people say, "there goes the yeast cork." If the yeast became too sour for good bread-making, a quantity of soda was added.

A big yellow bowl, snowy white flour, sweet-smelling yeast, what more tempting to the old-fashioned housewife! Not so easy to provide the family with "the staff of life" in those days as telephoning the grocer for the bread supply, now, and although the new food laws require cleanliness in every form, in the making and handling, the present loaf of bread of the best make gives only a small amount of nourishment, as compared with the loaves of "ye olden time."

"The larger the loaves, the better the bread" was the oft quoted saying in the early day. More time is required in the baking, but the results give recompense when the bread is tasted.

How often large fortunes are made with only little things for a nucleus! When I think of those little yeast cakes tied in a bag, hanging near the old stove, with its four high legs, in my mother's kitchen, and remember the many cakes that were handed out generously to the neighbors. when their yeast "ran to vinegar," I realize, in this modern day, the great use to which those yeast cakes could have been put in the early day, for now great wealth is produced from the modern dry yeast factories, where the hops, the corn, the ginger, are bought by the train-load. Machinery is used to grind the corn in the yeast factory, also the ginger. The hop water is prepared in great kettles. Great vats brew the yeast. Vast machinery is used in forming the cakes, and carloads of buckwheat are used n the dusting.

Cleanliness is the watchword in the great yeast factory of which I have some knowledge. The young girls who handle the yeast are dainty in their attire, and hundreds of them are at work. Professional bakers test each batch of yeast, and the bread they make must be perfect in shape, in color, in size and in taste. The loaves are sold, without profit, to the employees of the factory.

This dry yeast is now as easily softened as the compressed yeast, by some new process, and although the development of the yeast germs requires longer time, the bread made with it has that delicious nutty flavor which repays the extra time required in the process of making.

The dry yeast is shipped into far countries where the time required in transit would be too long for the safe-keeping of other forms of yeast.

A good bread maker is a jewel in a household, every member of which is greatly benefited by delicious bread, physically and mentally. No accomplishment is so attended by good results.

MORER

ORE and more every year am I convinced of the great delight and enjoyment of elderly people of trifling birthday remembrances.

I hereby desire to file an objection to the view taken by many in ignoring birthdays.

If there is any one day in all the year, among the many holidays celebrated which everyone should have a right to celebrate in his or her own peculiar way, it is one's birthday.

If a child in the enthusiasm of childhood is made happy by simple and trifling gifts, an old person is made even more so, and yet so many people's birthdays, especially when they grow old, go unnoticed and unremembered.

It is never the money value of a present that makes it worth while to real people, but the kindly thoughtfulness back of the gift.

A postal card shower sent by every member of her family (children and grandchildren) made one dear woman very happy one birthday.

Another time one very thoughtful business friend of one of her sons sent her seventy-two beautiful roses for her seventy-second birthday, which delighted her beyond expression.

A blossoming plant, a bunch of fragrant blossoms, a current magazine, a new book, a basket of fruit, or some little inexpensive trifle, is all that is needed to make a perfect day for some dear souls who have begun (and perhaps with reason) to think they are past their usefulness.

A birthday cake (nothing is more appetizing than a sunshine or angel's food) is always a delight, especially if it has candles on to mark the years.

My plea is for the old people.

Keep a little record book and a box of trifles (pretty birthday cards, little booklets, etc.) which can be used at the last minute for the dear old friends. C. A. J.

IN

HOME-MADE DECORATIONS
AND FAVORS

N decorating a house prettily and providing guests with attractive party souvenirs, thought and ingenuity actually go farther than money. Homemade favors and decorations possess more originality, and if care is used, may be quite as artistic as those sold in expensive specialty shops.

Among the inexpensive materials available are flowers, popcorn, pine cones, ribbon, tissue and crepe paper.

To make a room or table both striking and pretty it is usually best to try and decorate everything with one color. For instance, if the hostess' best china is pink and gold it is wise to let pink form the motif for the decorations. Carnations, roses, geraniums, verbena, peach and apple blossoms, lilies, phlox, wigelia, stocks and hawthorn are among the blossoms from a home garden that might be used, according to the season, for a centerpiece. Failing real flowers of any kind, a dish of ferns, paper flowers, candlesticks with pink candles and shades, or a kewpie dressed in pink

might occupy the center of the table. Tissue paper favors and decorations that may be made in any desired color, as well as pink, are streamers, baskets, covered boxes and little wearables for fun making, such as aprons, dunce caps and bonnets with strings.

Little boxes or baskets to fill with nuts, popcorn or candy and place at each plate or hand out at the end of some game, or as the guests say goodbye, may be made by covering little pill boxes with strips of curled tissue

paper.

Stiff paper, such as comes on advertising booklets, or may be purchased in large sheets for a few cents, also makes numerous party "trimmings." Place cards, and calendars for prizes, be contrived from this paper. Paper hearts, diamonds and pennants strung with thread, wire, colored string or ribbon are best made from stiff paper of this sort.

can

Streamers of either tissue or crepe paper, cut from one to three inches wide, are effective looped from the chandelier to the corners of the room, draped from the centerpiece to the corners of the table, festooned in loops around the edge of the table cloth, on the edge of a mantelpiece or wound around the balusters of a staircase.

Strings of popcorn, cranberries and evergreen are appropriate and easily obtainable during the holidays. Pine cones of all sizes, from the little ones the size of a large walnut, to those as large as cabbages, look well tied with bright red baby ribbon and hung in graduated lengths from a wide doorway. Combined with greenery of any sort, pine cones give a woodsy effect.

If there is a hanging lamp over the dining table strings of popcorn in graduated lengths look pretty hanging from it. Bits of tissue paper about one inch long, taken double, and given a twist in the middle, look quite flowery in strings. Those made of violet tissue paper give a wisteria effect,. while those

of pink suggest peach blossoms. By alternating bits of green and white tissue paper on the string, another dainty effect, similar to locust blossoms and leaves, may be secured.

All these tissue paper decorations look pretty draped over, and down from a lamp, when the light is lit. However, electric light is the only safe one that can be used, so if the lamp is of any other kind, these decorations must be used only in the daytime.

An evening may be very pleasantly spent in making party decorations. With the men of the family, and perhaps a best friend to help, the time may be as enjoyable as the real party itself, especially if there is some popcorn to pass.

THE

Turnip Salad

M. B.

HERE is probably no greater delicacy in the way of a salad than