Stewed Cucumbers

Pare six fine fresh cucumbers. Cut each of them lengthways into four pieces; lay them for an hour in a pan of cold water. Take a clean stew-pan, and place in its bottom two table-spoonfuls of good fresh butter. Then put in the slices of cucumber, and sprinkle them slightly with a very little pepper. Add two table-spoonfuls of cold water. Set the pan over a moderate fire, and let the cucumbers stew slowly for half an hour or more, till they are well cooked. Keep the pan closely covered, except when you have to remove the lid to stir the stew. Serve them up hoi, at breakfast, or as a side dish, at dinner.

Persons who have no objection to the taste of onions, will think the cucumbers improved by the addition of the half of a moderate sized onion, sliced thin and stewed with them.

A Nice Way Of Cooking Asparagus

Where asparagus is plenty, there is no better way of cooking it than the following. Take it as nearly of a size as possible, wash it, and cut off the stalks very short, leaving them not more than half an inch in length. Two quarts of water will be sufficient to boil one quart of asparagus tops; allow a tea-spoonful of salt to this quantity of water, and set it over the fire to boil. When the water is boiling hard, put in the asparagus, and boil it fast for at least half an hour. To see if it is done, take up two or three of the largest pieces and taste them. While it is boiling, prepare two slices of bread cut half an inch thick, and (having removed the crust) toast the bread brown on both sides. Have ready a large jill of melted (or drawn) fresh butter. When the asparagus is done, take it up with a perforated skimmer, and lay it on a sieve to drain. Dip the slices of toast (one at a time) first in the hot asparagus liquor, and then in the melted butter. Lay the slices, side by side, in a deep dish, and cover it with the asparagus, laid evenly over and round the toast. Then add the remainder of the drawn butter, and send the asparagus to table hot, in a covered dish.

This is a much nicer way than that of boiling and serving it up with the long stalks left on. And where you have asparagus in abundance, (for instance in a country garden,) it may always be cooked in this manner.

This is from the receipt of Mr. N. Darling, of New Haven.

Asparagus Oysters

Take two bundles of fine full-grown asparagus. Cut off the green tops or points as far down as the white stalk. Take a sufficient quantity of fresh oysters, the finest you can get at that season. Put the asparagus tops into a stew-pan, with enough of oyster liquor (previously strained) to stew them quite tender. Stew the oysters themselves in another pan with some more of their liquor, seasoned with pepper, mace, and nutmeg, adding a large piece of fresh butter, divided into four, and each part rolled in flour. Do not let the oysters stew more than five minutes, or they will become tough and shriveled. When they are merely plumped, take them out and cut them up small, omitting the gristle or hard part. Set the mixture over the fire for about five minutes, stirring all the time. Have ready some slices of nice toast, with all the crust pared off; the slices dipped for a minute in hot water. Butter the toast, and cover with it the bottom of a deep dish, and fill it with the mixture of asparagus and oysters.