Spinach (epinards) is a thing that we can get in the most trying weather, and with common care no entremets de legumes are more delicate than those which we can achieve with this vegetable. Having selected two pounds of leaves carefully, wash them well, blanch them by plunging them for a couple of minutes in scalding water, drain, and chop them up. Put into a stew-pan one ounce of butter, three quarters of an ounce of flour, and a pinch of salt, and one of sugar; stir this over the fire for three minutes, then add the spinach leaves; stir round for five minutes, and moisten with a coffee-cupful of milk, gravy, or stock; stir for two minutes more, and then a breakfast-cupful of the milk or stock, stir for five minutes and take the pan from the fire. Now, mingle a little butter, with the spinach, or give it a spoonful of cream, or the yolk of an egg dissolved in a little milk, then turn it out upon a good hot dish, garnish it with sippets of fried bread, fleurons of puff pastry, or short-bread biscuits specially baked for the dish, and serve. I mix a little grated cheese with the short-bread paste which I think goes well with the spinach, and some give the least suspicion of sugar; I think that the savoury method is the better of the two.

Short-bread biscuits for spinach may be made as follows :- Put three ounces of flour into a bowl and mix into it two ounces of butter liquefied, a tea-spoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of sugar and an ounce of grated cheese, roll out the paste, cut it into heart-shapes one-third of an inch thick, and bake.

Fleurons of nice puff-pastry are often given, and nothing can be nicer - as an entremets - than little patties made of puff-pastry, or short-bread crust, filled with carefully-made spinach puree, and capped with buttered-egg.

It is not at all necessary to pass spinach through a sieve. If they are young, and tender, you should, after draining and blanching the leaves thoroughly, chop them up, and cook them as I have described. You can serve them with a poached egg or two on the top of them; or you can fry some slices of bread, butter them, and dress your minced spinach over them, with a cap, for each piece, of "buttered-egg," or a tiny pat of maitre d'hotel butter.

A nice mild anchovy toast, kept hot in the oven, and served with a layer of spinach over its surface is very nice : whilst a little mound of chopped spinach, garnished with hard boiled eggs, forms an attractive centre for an entree of cutlets. A pleasing looking entremets of spinach is made by shaping the greens in a circle, and leaving a hollow centre to be filled with "buttered-egg" coloured red with tomato-pulp.