Asparagus Soup

Cut the tops from about thirty heads of asparagus, about half an inch long, and boil the rest; cut off all the tender portions and rub through a sieve, adding a little salt; warm three pints soup stock, add a small lump of butter and a tea-spoon of flour previously cooked by heating the butter and slowly stirring in the flour; then add the asparagus pulp. Boil slowly a quarter of an hour, stirring in two or three table-spoons cream; color the soup with a tea-spoon of prepared spinach, made by pounding the spinach well, adding a few drops of water, squeezing the juice through a cloth and putting it over a good fire. As soon as it looks curdy, take it off, and strain the liquor through a sieve. What remains on the sieve is to be used for coloring the soup. Just before serving soup, add the asparagus tops which have been separately boiled.

Saturday Bean Soup

Baked beans and brown bread form a Sunday breakfast for so many that the following will be a useful and economical soup for Saturday dinner. Put on the pot with more beans than enough for Sunday's breakfast, with water, and slice of salt pork; parboil till beans are ready to be put in oven. Take out pork and part of beans, leaving enough for a bean soup; place the pot on back of stove and keep hot. Three-quarters of an hour before dinner heat soup, add more water and vegetables as in "Bean Soup."

Beef Soup

Take bones and trimmings from a sirloin steak, put over fire after breakfast in three quarts water, boil steadily until about an hour before dinner, when add two onions, one carrot, three common-sized potatoes, all sliced, some parsley cut fine, a red pepper, and salt to taste. This makes a delicious soup, sufficient for three persons. All soups are more palatable seasoned with onions and red pepper, using the seeds of the latter with care, as they are very strong.