File:Mrs. Seely's cook book; a manual of French and American cookery, with chapters on domestic servants, their rights and duties and many other details of household management (1902) (14580709508).jpg

Identifier: mrsseelyscookboo00seel (find matches)
Title: Mrs. Seely's cook book; a manual of French and American cookery, with chapters on domestic servants, their rights and duties and many other details of household management
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Seely, Lida, 1854-1928
Subjects: Cookery, American Domestics cbk
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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f the table isless important than the enjoyment of the dinners, any high orna-ment or decoration should be avoided at a little dinner. If yourguests have to dodge a plant or peer round an urn, in order tosee their opposite neighbors, they will soon be discouraged, andlimit themselves to those on their own side. So in preparingthe table it is a good plan for two persons to take seats onopposite sides of the table and move the candles or vases untilthe right position is determined. If candles are used, theyshould be made secure in the sticks and the shade-holders soplaced that they will slip down steadily as the candle burns.The wicks should be lighted for a few moments and then ex-tinguished before being placed on the table, so that they may beeasily relighted just before the guests enter the dining room. A favorite decoration for a large table is a centerpiece offlowers. But those who prefer to enable guests to see oneanother across the table often prefer a piece of silver of graceful
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DINNERS AND DINNER-GIVING 49 shape, but not too tall in the middle, and slender vases of silveror glass, each holding a few flowers. The little dishes holdingcandied fruits, peppermints, nuts, or things of that sort (whichthe French call ^ the four beggars, probably because they appearso persistently) stand among these vases. If there are candleson a small table, in order to avoid crowding it is better to havemerely a bowl of flowers in the middle. The bowl should not bepacked full, nor be flat, squat, and ungraceful in effect. Theflowers may be stuck into wet sand or moss, or fitted in betweentwigs twisted together in the bottom of the dish, and thus heldthe stems will stand upright and slightly apart, instead of lollingover on each other. The custom of laying flowers and leaves,or ferns, directly on the tablecloth is not wholly to be recom-mended. In the first place, unless they are arranged with greattaste and skill, they look messy, and then there may be some oneat the table who c

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