a thick slice of tart apple, both very
lightly seasoned, makes a fine stuffing for squabs. Half a banana
delicately baked, and laid on a well-browned chop adds to looks and
flavor.

_Baking Vegetables_: Paper bags taught me the ease and value of cooking
vegetables in the oven rather than on top the stove. Less care is
required, less water, rather less heat. Peas and lima beans, for
example, after shelling, should be well washed, put in a pan with salt,
seasoning and a little water, covered close, and baked in a hot oven
half an hour to an hour. Green corn is never so well cooked, outside a
paper bag, as by laying it on a rack in a covered pan, putting a little
water underneath, covering close and setting the pan for nine minutes in
a hot oven. It is sweeter and richer than even when put in cold unsalted
water, brought to a boil, cooked one minute, then taken up. But however
heat is applied, long cooking ruins it. Cook till the milk is set--not a
second longer. Green peas should have several tender mint leaves put in
with them, also sugar in proportion of a teaspoonful to half a pint of
shelled peas. Lima beans are better flavored if the butter is put with
them along with the water. Use only enough to make steam--say two
tablespoonfuls to a fair-sized pan. Spinach and beet greens also bake
well, but require more water. Leave out salt, adding it after draining
and chopping them. They take twenty to thirty minutes, according to age.

All manner of fruits, berries in especial, cook finely in the oven. Put
in earthen or agate ware, with sugar, spices and a little water, cover
close and cook half to three quarters of an hour, according to bulk.
Uncover then--if done take up, if not let cook uncovered as long as
needed. Set the baking dishes always on rack or a grid-shelf, never on
the oven bottom nor solid metal. Thus the danger of burning is
minimized, also the need of stirring.

For _cauliflower au gratin_, cut the head into florets, lay them
compactly in the baking dish, add a little water, with salt, pepper and
butter. Bake covered until tender, then shake over the grated cheese,
and set back in the oven three to five minutes. Tomatoes, peeled and
whole except for cutting out the eyes, baked in a dish with a liberal
seasoning of salt, pepper, and butter, a strewing of sugar and a little
onion juice, look and taste wholly unlike stewed tomatoes, common or
garden variety.

_Boiling with Bacon_: Get a pound of streaky ba