the dishes to be passed, the fewer the hands needed
to pass them. And yet many housekeepers thoughtlessly order dishes within
the list above, and then wonder why the dinner is so hopelessly slow, when
their waitress is usually so good!

The following suggestions are merely offered in illustration; each
housekeeper can easily devise further for herself. It is not necessary to
pass anything whatever with melon or grapefruit, or a macedoine of fruit,
or a canape. Oysters, on the other hand, have to be followed by tabasco
and buttered brown bread. Soup needs nothing with it (if you do not choose
split pea which needs croutons, or petite marmite which needs grated
cheese). Fish dishes which are "made" with sauce in the dish, such as sole
au vin blanc, lobster Newburg, crab ravigote, fish mousse, especially if
in a ring filled with plenty of sauce, do not need anything more. Tartar
sauce for fried fish can be put in baskets made of hollowed-out lemon
rind--a basket for each person--and used as a garnishing around the dish.

Filet mignon, or fillet of beef, both of them surrounded by little clumps
of vegetables share with chicken casserole in being the life-savers of the
hostess who has one waitress in her dining-room. Another dish, but more
appropriate to lunch than to dinner, is of French chops banked against
mashed potatoes, or puree of chestnuts, and surrounded by string beans or
peas. None of these dishes requires any following dish whatever, not even
a vegetable.

Fried chicken with corn fritters on the platter is almost as good as the
two beef dishes, since the one green vegetable which should go with it,
can be served leisurely, because fried chicken is not quickly eaten. And a
ring of aspic with salad in the center does not require accompanying
crackers as immediately as plain lettuce.

Steak and broiled chicken are fairly practical since neither needs gravy,
condiment, or sauce--especially if you have a divided vegetable dish so
that two vegetables can be passed at the same time.

If a hostess chooses not necessarily the above dishes but others which
approximately take their places, she need have no fear of a slow dinner,
if her one butler or waitress is at all competent.

=THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE PLAIN COOK=

In giving informal or little dinners, you need never worry because you
cannot set the dishes of a "professional" dinner-party cook before your
friends or even strangers; so long as the food that you ar