Once upon a time there was a little girl named Margaret, and she
wanted to cook, so she went into the kitchen and tried and tried,
but she could not understand the cook-books, and she made dreadful
messes, and spoiled her frocks and burned her fingers till she just
had to cry.
``What is a roux,\'\' she said, ``and what\'s a mousse and what\'s an
entrée? What are timbales and sautés and ingredients, and how do
you mix \'em and how long do you bake \'em? Won\'t somebody please
tell me all about it?\'\'
And her Pretty Aunt said, ``See the flour all over that new frock!\'\'
and her mother said, ``Dear child, you are not old enough to cooks
yet;\'\' and her grandmother said, ``Just wait a year or two, and
I\'ll teach you myself;\'\' and the Other Aunt said, ``Some day you
shall go to cooking-school and learn everything; you know little
girls can\'t cook.\'\'
But Margaret said, ``I don\'t want to wait till I\'m big; I want to
cook now; and I don\'t want to do cooking-school cooking, but little
girl cooking, all by myself.\'\'
So she kept on trying to learn, but she burned her fingers and
spoiled her dresses worse than ever, and her messes were so bad
they had to be thrown out, every one of them; and she cried and cried.
And then one day her grandmother said, ``It\'s a shame that child
should not learn to cook if she really wants to so much;\'\' and her
mother said ``Yes, it is a shame, and she shall learn! Let\'s get
her a small table and some tins and aprons, and make a little
cook-book all her own out of the old ones we wrote for ourselves
long ago,--just the plain, easy things anybody can make.\'\' And both
her aunts said, ``Do! We will help, and perhaps we might put in
just a few cooking-school things beside.\'\'
It was not long after this that Margaret had a birthday, and she
was taken to the kitchen to get her presents, which she thought
the funniest thing in the world. There they all were, in the
middle of the room: first her father\'s present, a little table
with a white oilcloth cover and casters, which would push right
under the big table when it was not being used. Over a chair her
grandmother\'s present, three nice gingham aprons, with sleeves and
ruffled bibs. On the little table the presents of the aunties,
shiny new tins and saucepans, and cups to measure with, and spoons,
and a toasting-fork, and ever so many things; and then on one corner
of the table, all by itself, was her mother\'s present, her own
little cook-book, with her own name on it, and that was best of all.
When Margaret had looked at everything, she set out in a row the big
bowl and the middle-sized bowl and the little wee bowl, and put the
scalloped patty-pans around them, and the real egg-beater in front of
all, just like a picture, and then she read a page in her cook-book, and
began to believe it was all true. So she danced for joy, and put on a
gingham apron and began to cook that very minute, and before another
birthday she had cooked every single thing in the book.
This is Margaret\'s cook-book.
Rice Croquettes
1 cup of milk.
Yolk of one egg.
1/4 cup of rice.
1 large tablespoonful of powdered sugar.
Small half-teaspoonful of salt.
1/2 cup of raisins and currants, mixed.
1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.
Wash the rice and put in a double boiler with the milk, salt and
sugar and cook till very thick; beat the yolks of the eggs and
stir into the rice, and beat till smooth. Sprinkle the washed
raisins and currants with flour, and roll them in it and mix these in,
and last the vanilla. Turn out on a platter, and let all get very
cold. Then make into pyramids, dip in the yolk of an egg mixed
with a tablespoonful of water, and then into sifted bread-crumbs,
and fry in a deep kettle of boiling fat, using a wire basket.
As you take these from the fat, put them on paper in the oven with
the door open. When all are d
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