Gala-Day Luncheons: A Little Book of Suggestions

April

April brings many other good things beside the showers typical of the month; summer now begins to declare itself, and flowers, fruits, and fresh vegetables are in season. Easter usually comes in April, and brings not only a religious festival but a gala day as well, for Easter Monday is holiday time the world over. To keep it hospitably, let us have an

EASTER LUNCHEON

For this, no flowers are so appropriate as jonquils, for they are the colour of spring sunshine, and have a suggestion of gaiety all their own. They do not lend themselves to any arrangement other than the massing of them in a bowl, but they do blend well with violets; and if your luncheon is very elaborate, the two may be used, the jonquils in the centre and the violets in a wreath around the bowl, or in smaller bowls about the table. A mahogany table is at its best with yellow flowers, each setting off the other; but whatever the table, lay it with doilies; if you have a yellow and white centrepiece, use it, but if not, choose a white one. Candles are not to be used in summer weather, unless, as one sometimes sees them by way of decoration, they are unlighted.

In addition to your little dishes of radishes, almonds, candied ginger, and other relishes on the table, have some filled with Easter eggs in candy. Each guest may have a tiny, downy chicken at her plate, such as fill the shops at this season, or if you prefer, a box in the shape of an egg, filled with bonbons, or rather candy eggs. These boxes come in all prices, ranging from a few cents for those of plain cardboard to the expensive ones in satin which are imported and cost an alarming sum; one will have no trouble in finding something pretty within her means.

The ice cream for an Easter luncheon may be very attractive; it comes in various egg forms from the caterer, but the prettiest is that which is in small eggs of ice and cream, in different sizes, served in a nest of spun sugar of a straw colour. There is also a large form in which a hen sits on a larger nest of the same sort with little chickens peeping from under her wings, but this is rather too elaborate for a luncheon. If all caterers' forms are out of reach, the best substitute is made by serving rounded spoonfuls of a very yellow cream as nearly like eggs as possible. The menu for the luncheon should consist principally of chicken and eggs in different styles.

MENUClams on the Half-ShellCream of Chicken SoupGreen Peppers Filled with Creamed SalmonPatties of Sweetbreads and MushroomsChicken in Rice Border. New PotatoesLemon and Peppermint IceEgg Salad. Cheese StrawsIce Cream in Egg Forms. CakeCoffee. Bonbons

The peppers are prepared by cutting off the small end and filling them with creamed salmon, heating them in the oven before serving. The patties are to be purchased at the bakery and filled with a mixture of sweetbreads and canned mushrooms. The chicken in rice is a delicious dish, and one easily prepared, but seldom seen. The white meat of two or if necessary three chickens is stewed until tender, then cut into pieces about four inches by two, and put in the centre of a border of boiled rice which has been turned out on a round platter; a sauce made of the strained chicken stock, thickened and with cream added until it is white in colour, is then poured over the whole. If sherry is used it should be added the last thing.

The sherbet is odd; make a lemon ice and divide it; colour one half light green and flavour with essence of peppermint; serve the two ices together in glass cups, one layer of each.

The salad is made by cutting a head of lettuce into strips with the scissors, until it looks like grass, and putting this in a sort of nest shape on the plate with the yolks of hard-boiled eggs in a group in the centre and mayonnaise in a stiff spoonful on top. The cake served with the cream should be what is called sunshine cake, an angels' food to which the yolks of the eggs has been added.

Another Easter luncheon may be arranged in green and white, which is even more beautiful and stately than this in yellow. For this, have a centrepiece of Easter lilies in a tall slender glass vase, or have three such vases down the table, if it is an oblong one, or several grouped around one larger one in the middle if it is round. Have guest cards painted with Easter lilies, and use only white and green decorations of bonbons on the table, – ribbon candies are pretty, or candy baskets in green filled with white candies. If you use candles on the table, have the shades represent lilies, inverted. The little cakes may be iced in green, and the colours carried out in the ice cream, which may be purchased in beautiful forms of lilies, the flower being of lemon ice and the leaves of pistache cream. Or, if the cream must be home-made, you may have it of the pistache and serve it in a bed of whipped cream in rounded spoonfuls. Or, by way of still another method, have a plain white cream and serve it with a spray of maiden-hair fern on each plate.

A SHAKESPEARIAN LUNCHEON

By a curious coincidence, Shakespeare's birthday and the day on which he died are the same, – the twenty-third of April; so this date is peculiarly appropriate for a luncheon to a literary club, or a group of literary friends. There is ample scope here for all sorts of Shakespearian suggestions, from views of his home, or sketches of Anne Hathaway's cottage on the cards, to quotations taken from one play, or from many; for reminders of some one heroine, or suggestions of some historic event. One might have a Rosalind or Juliet luncheon, or carry out in one of half a dozen ways some play which a class has been studying.

The flowers should certainly be English, either roses or primroses, and the decorations should be rather simple, as in keeping with the classic nature of the presiding genius of the day. The cards might bear a cut of his head, or each guest might have a small plaster bust, preferably one of the odd coloured ones which are sold in Stratford; the plain plaster ones are easily coloured; or, if these little busts are not easily procured, get the small Japanese masks which are so artistic; they cost but a few cents each, and the expressions will convey the idea of comedy and tragedy.

Strawberries will be in market in cities by the latter part of April, and these will make a first course.

MENUStrawberriesBouillonSoft-Shell CrabsBroiled Mushrooms on ToastChops. Peas. French Fried PotatoesChocolate. Lemon and Peppermint IceTomato and Lettuce Salad. French DressingCheese StrawsCoffee Mousse. Cakes. Bonbons

The strawberries should be served with their hulls on, with a spoonful of powdered sugar on each plate; this may be moulded in a pyramid by pressing it into a little paper horn Of course finger bowls should be placed on the table at each plate.

The mousse may be either in a melon form or in slices, as is more convenient, but a little whipped cream served with it is an improvement in either case. Having this dessert, coffee is not offered at the close of the meal, as is usually done, but a cup of chocolate is passed with the chop course. The mousse is made by whipping sweetened cream, strongly flavoured with black coffee, until it is perfectly stiff, and packing it in a mould and burying it in ice and salt for at least four hours before it is needed.

If a breakfast is desired for this Shakespeare celebration, as possibly may be if given for a club or class, this luncheon may be easily transformed into one. Breakfasts and luncheons differ principally in the hour at which the meal is served, a breakfast being at twelve and a luncheon at one or half after one. It is also customary to begin a breakfast with fruit, and often, though not always, the meal concludes with cheese and coffee rather than with a sweet. This menu might be altered to cover these requirements, for as it begins with strawberries there need be no change until the final course, except that the chocolate should be omitted. Instead of the mousse serve crême Gervaise; that is, a slice of cream cheese about one inch by three, with a spoonful of whipped cream on it and a spoonful of gooseberry jam by its side. There is a variety of French preserved gooseberries called Bar-le-Duc which is particularly delicious. Sometimes before serving this dish the cheese is beaten with a little olive oil or cream to make it soft and light, and then it is pressed into shape again before it is cut into pieces for serving. If this is the final course at breakfast, serve coffee with it.

There are an unlimited number of Shakespearian quotations for the cards, but for a woman's meal they might be taken either from the words of Juliet, Katharine, Portia, Rosalind, Hermione, Ophelia, Hero, Celia, Imogen, and Helena, or else the familiar ones which are given below; in case this luncheon or breakfast is given for those interested in study, a guessing contest might be introduced, with or without prizes, as to the context of these quotations: —

"Daffodils, that come before the swallow does."

"Thou shalt not lack the flower that's like the face,

Pale primrose."

"I could wish my best friend at such a feast."

"Things won, are done. Joy's soul lies in the doing."

"I have been so well brought up that I can write my name."

"You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful;

I never was nor never will be false."

"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

"My heart unto yours is knit

So that but one heart we can make of it."

"Loving goes by haps;

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps."

"Of good discourse, an excellent musician."

"My affection hath an unknown bottom."

Still another menu may be given for those who cannot obtain some of the articles suggested, such as strawberries, crabs, or fresh mushrooms.

MENUGrape FruitBouillonSardines on ToastMushroom PattiesChops. Peas. French Fried PotatoesChocolateLettuce Salad with Shredded BananasFrench DressingCoffee Mousse. Cakes. Bonbons

In this menu the patties are to be filled with canned mushrooms, cut in bits and creamed. The salad is made by cutting bananas in halves, and then cutting each half into strips no larger than a knitting needle; these are to be arranged on lettuce with French dressing poured over the last thing before serving.

A beautiful decoration for an April luncheon may be arranged with crocuses, flowers seldom or never seen on our tables, and therefore especially desirable by way of novelty. Have a large flat basket in the centre of the table filled with moss, and in this stick crocuses of all colours with their leaves, crowding as closely as possible. Repeat the colours in your candle-shades, if you use candles, having them delicate lilac with yellow touches on the edges, and use ribbon candy in lilac, yellow, and white. Serve yellow ices, or white ones in lilac baskets, and lay some of the crocuses on the plates with the finger bowls which appear with the coffee.

May

The first of May is not always a gala day; to many it means the coming and going of moving vans, and meals eaten in cold comfort from the traditional window-sill. But where one has a permanent home, especially in the country, no day is pleasanter on which to give a luncheon than on May Day, with its charming associations of Spring. There are several fancies which may serve for suggestions; one of these is the use of the "Mayflower" of our early history, and the flowers which bear the same name as the ship, the trailing arbutus of our Northern States. The two have no connection, really, but one suggests the other.

A MAY-DAY LUNCHEON

The table may be laid with a cloth, by way of a change, one with an open border preferably. The centrepiece may be of lace over pale pink silk, and rows of baby ribbon may be drawn across the table, three or four strands each way, with a bunch of the ribbon where they cross. In the centre may be a large toy ship, all in white, with the word "Mayflower" in gilt on the prow. The deck should be heaped with mayflowers, if this loveliest of our spring blossoms is to be had, and around the table at irregular intervals may be shallow bowls of the same flower. The cards may have the monogram of the hostess at the top, and a cluster of the arbutus painted below, if that is fancied. Care should be taken to keep all the decorations of the table in a very pale shade of pink, or the effect of the flowers will be spoiled.

MENUCalifornia CherriesClam Bouillon. Hot CrackersSalmon Croquettes. Sauce TartareCrown Roast of Lamb. Mashed PotatoesPeas. Hot RollsMint SherbetAsparagus Salad. Cheese Crackers. Pim-olasStrawberry Ice Cream. CakesCoffee. Bonbons

The first course of cherries may be made very pretty by arranging the fruit in clusters of red and white with a few leaves and fastening them with invisible wire to bits of stem, and arranging them in baskets of rough green straw tied with green ribbons.

Crown roast of lamb is a rather unusual dish at a luncheon, but it is an attractive one and not too heavy for the meal. It is the whole saddle of lamb, cut down the back, with the two sides carefully trimmed of the meat until the chop bones stand up alone as in French chops. The sides are then put together, bent in a circle, and fastened with skewers to form a crown with the bones standing up. The centre is filled either with mashed potato or with peas before it is served; it should be carved on the table, on a round platter, or, if it is carefully cut between the chops before it is brought in, it may be passed to the guests for each to cut for herself.

The sherbet to follow this course is made by adding a handful of crushed mint to boiling hot lemonade, letting it stand till cool, straining, adding a little sherry or rum if you use them, and freezing. A few drops of green colouring improve its appearance. Sometimes a sprig of mint is put in the sherbet glass with the ice, a very pretty idea.

The salad is made by cooking asparagus until it is tender, and when cold sprinkling with French dressing and allowing it to stand an hour before serving on lettuce with mayonnaise.

With this luncheon the ices may be served in beautiful little ships of silver paper with delicate paper sails, or the ingenious caterer has a form for reproducing Plymouth Rock in caramel cream, so lifelike that even the fissure in the side appears. Either of these shapes are certainly delightfully appropriate for a May-Day luncheon if they are attainable. If not, the cream may be served in little fluted paper cases decorated with the arbutus, tied on in small bunches with narrow ribbon.

AN APPLE-BLOSSOM LUNCHEON

A hostess living in the country may offer a group of city guests a real delight in May-time by inviting them to luncheon when the orchards are all in bloom. The invitations should bear the word "Apple-Blossoms" in one corner, and the implied promise should be fulfilled by having the flowers in evidence everywhere in the house and out of it. The rooms should be decorated with bowls of the flowers on the mantels and on the top of the book-cases and on the tables in the halls. The luncheon table should have a bowl of the blossoms in the centre, and the cloth, or rather the table itself, should be strewn with the flowers picked from the stems and showered over it. The same small ribbons suggested for the May-Day luncheon may also be used for this one, as the colour should again be pale. The bonbons used might be tiny candy apples.

MENUStrawberriesCream of Beet SoupFrogs' Legs. Potato BallsChicken Croquettes with Asparagus TipsPeas. Hot RollsGinger SherbetCheese SouffléCherry Salad. Sandwiches. OlivesIce Cream in Angels' FoodCoffee. Bonbons

The soup is made by stewing chopped beets until they are tender and adding them to hot cream, seasoning, thickening, and straining, and pouring into the bouillon cups onto a spoonful of whipped cream. The beets should be the dark red ones, and only enough should be used to give a pretty pink colour to the soup. Frogs' legs, fried and served with a bit of lemon make a very good course for luncheon, and one liked by almost every one. The salad is made by stoning California cherries and covering them with French dressing to which a little chopped parsley has been added, and laying them on a leaf of lettuce.

The sherbet is a lemon ice flavoured with the syrup of preserved ginger, with a few bits of the root added. The cheese soufflé, which may be placed before the sherbet, if desired, is made by grating a quarter of a pound of cheese and mixing it with two tablespoonfuls of flour, butter the size of a walnut, salt, and a little red pepper, and the beaten yolks of three eggs. Just before putting in the oven add the stiff whites of two eggs, and bake in buttered paper cases, or in small tin moulds. They must be eaten as soon as they are taken from the fire or they will fall.

The ice cream is a plain white one, served in a large cake of angels' food which has had the top carefully cut off, the inside scooped out, and the cream packed firmly in. The cover is then put back and the whole iced, or covered with powdered sugar, and decorated on top with candied cherries. It is to be cut exactly as though it were simply an ordinary cake, and served in slices.

A SCHOOL-GIRL LUNCHEON

A luncheon for a young girl should be of the simplest character, both in decorations and menu, but there is no reason why it should not be pretty. The most appropriate flower to use is the primrose; pots of these may stand on the table, one in front of each guest, tied up with crêpe paper and ribbons. If these are of two or more shades of pink, the effect will be more elaborate than if they are all of the same shade. In the centre may be a large pot with a number of the plants closely planted in it. If candles are used, the shades may be of plain cardboard with a wreath of the same flowers on the edge, either artificial ones sewed on, or painted in a simple pattern. Or, hyacinths may be used for the flowers, either pink ones or pink and white alternating. If the school-girls are beyond the time when the gift of a pot of flowers gives pleasure, – and there is a period when they would scorn such an offering as undignified, – let the decoration be a long, narrow box of the growing hyacinths in the centre of the table, which will make a beautiful window-box after the luncheon is past. The menu given above might be modified for this meal, as it is unnecessarily elaborate.

MENUStrawberriesCream of Beet SoupFrogs' Legs. Potato BallsChicken Croquettes with Asparagus TipsCherry Salad. SandwichesIce Cream in Angels' FoodChocolate. Bonbons

Memorial Day is anything but an occasion for festivities, but the fact that it is one of our holidays suggests that somewhere about that time one might have

A MILITARY LUNCHEON

Or one with both military and naval accompaniments. There are so many pretty little decorations nowadays for such a meal that the table may be very pretty. One of the guests may happen to have some special interest in the protectors of our country, and she will especially appreciate a table set with a small encampment of tents made of small napkins folded into the desired shape, or little battalions of toy soldiers presenting arms in companies around the central point of interest, which in this case might be a larger tent, draped with vines. The sherbet or ices might be served in military hats of felt or paper, and the favours might be knapsacks filled with candies. One course should be coffee and hard-tack, suggestive of the frugal fare of the soldier on duty. Otherwise the menu would better take its regular course, since bacon and beans and other army rations are not especially appetising.

MENUMock Bisque SoupShad with Roe. Potato Balls. CucumbersChicken Timbales. PeasKidneys and Mushrooms in CasesPotato PuffString Bean Salad with MayonnaiseNeapolitan Ice Cream. CakesCoffee with Hard-Tack

As the course of shad with roe is rather a solid one, the meat course is lighter than usual. The kidneys are cleaned, cut in pieces and stewed until tender, when they are browned in butter to which seasoning and a dash of sherry have been added and mixed with the mushrooms; after a thorough heating they are served in cases either of paste or of paper. A few olives cut into small pieces may be mixed with the whole, if one likes the several flavours.

The string bean salad is simply made of cold boiled string beans, young and tender, which have lain in French dressing for a half hour before they are put on lettuce and mayonnaise added; one who has not tried this has no idea how good a salad it is. The Neapolitan ice cream is made of alternate layers of cream and ice in contrasting colours; it is too much trouble to make this at home, but another cream can be substituted if desired, such as a rich vanilla with a hot chocolate sauce, or a white cream in which chopped candied fruit has been mixed.

The hard-tack is of course a very large thin cracker, perhaps six inches in diameter; it is much better heated in the oven before serving, and if it is wished a cheese, either a cream, or one of the imported ones, such as Camembert, may be passed with it.

A DELFT LUNCHEON

This is a pretty luncheon to give in a country dining-room furnished in dull blue and white. Plaques of real or imitation Delft may hang on the walls of the room, and bowls of blue cornflowers and white carnations may stand in window-seats and on shelves as well as on the dining-table. The china should be blue and white or plain white, and the cards squares of pasteboard with sketches of Dutch scenes, or blue prints of some native spot of interest. The souvenirs may be small Delft plaques, or toy windmills; or they may be little Dutch maidens in quaint dresses, which will serve as penwipers after the day of the luncheon. The bonbons may be white ones in little wooden shoes placed in pairs around the table. The small cakes served with the ice cream may each have a tiny windmill cut from white paper standing in the white icing on top, and the cream itself may be a white one in meringue shells tied with blue ribbon. Any one of the menus suggested will do to serve, as Dutch food alone would hardly seem attractive; however, a course of doughnuts and coffee may take the place of ice cream and cake, if you fancy the idea.

June

With this month of roses come many gala days; it is the favourite month for weddings, and weddings always bring other festivities in their train. Perhaps the bride gives a luncheon for her bridesmaids, or one of the bridal party gives a luncheon for the rest. Besides these days of rejoicing, there are those other days when the graduates give parting entertainments of various sorts to each other; and since this is the month of Commencements, it is also the time for fraternity meetings and all those delightful reminders of school-days. June luncheons with such backgrounds of interest as these may well be memorable.

A BRIDAL LUNCHEON

On the wedding-day itself, white should be the colour of the decorations, especially if the day is a warm one, for nothing gives such a sense of coolness as a roomful of white flowers and ferns. Even if pink roses are used in the drawing-room and the halls, the dining-room is most attractive all in white. A beautiful background for the table is made by removing all the pictures and hangings, and covering the walls with asparagus fern hung lightly from the ceiling to the floor; where the lines are broken at door and window the vines are to be drawn back and tied at the side with white satin ribbon.

The table should be covered with a white cloth, as elaborate as one possesses, and the centrepiece should be of lace. On this should be a large mound of white roses and asparagus fern; and if you choose, a canopy of vines from the centre of the ceiling to the edges of the table, fastened wherever they touch the cloth with a white rose. If candles are used they should be white with shades of white rose petals, or else silver openwork. The table should be set with silver and glass as far as possible, and the small dishes which ornament it should be filled with small cakes with white icing, white candies, strawberries covered with white icing, white candied rose petals, and all the other pretty things to be found, such as large white candy baskets filled with crystallised fruits, – those made to represent broad-brimmed hats, bent into odd shapes, are very graceful, – or the simpler mounds of charlotte russe, tied with wide white ribbon.