Before commencing to prepare any dish, be sure that all the ingredients are at hand; then read the recipe through to the end, because the way a dish is combined has a marked influence on the result. If a cake is being made, prepare the pan, stand the shortening to soften and in the meantime get together the remaining ingredients, making one trip to the ice-box for milk, eggs and butter, then sit down and quickly put the cake together. If by any chance the kitchen is inconveniently arranged, collect the ingredients together on a tray and put them within easy reach of the working table. Sift enough flour for the different dishes at once; if several are being made, prepare all the pans together at the same time, and, by the way, cut out, in some spare moments, enough cake-pan linings and little squares of paper for oiling pans to last for weeks.

Try to prepare foods which may, as far as possible, have the same cooking medium. If brown bread is to be steamed, the rest of the dinner should be steamed along with it. If a casserole is to be made, do the rest of the cooking for the meal in the same oven. If the fireless cooker is at work, use it to the limit.

One of the greatest difficulties of most young housewives is how to prepare the various dishes for a meal so that they will all be done at the same and proper time. One long-suffering young husband confided to me that it took five hours for them to eat their first dinner, there were such long waits between the courses! The meal should be planned so that there are not more than one or two dishes calling for a great deal of preparation in each menu. When the meal is planned, sit down and think out the dish which it will take the longest time to cook, get that started and then take the other dishes in rotation, remembering to allow time enough for cold dishes to become thoroughly chilled. Find out just how long it will take to set the table, and plan between the processes to do 'this so accurately that nothing will be forgotten.

The best time to prepare the evening dinner is largely in the morning when it is necessary to be in and out of the kitchen, and the time to start the luncheon is while clearing away the breakfast. It may not seem possible to carry on so many things at once, and, at first, the young housekeeper will find it difficult, but it is only by learning to do several things at a time, dove-tailing them together, that she can learn to accomplish a great deal in a given time. No woman should be a slave to her work and yet every man has the right to come home to a dainty, rested and attractive wife. The only way in which this can be done is by planning the meals ahead and by systematic work.

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A Week's Menus

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A Week's Menus

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