The menus given below do not follow the conventional lines which ordain that a menu shall include, at least, soup, savoury and sweet dishes.  The hardworking housewife can afford neither the time nor the material to serve up so many dishes at one meal; and the wise woman does not desire to spend any more time and material on the needs of the body than will suffice to keep it strong and healthy.  Lack of space will not allow me to include many menus.  I have only attempted to give the barest suggestions for two weeks.  But a study of the rest of the book will enable anyone to extend and elaborate them.  Three meals a day are the most that are necessary, and no woman desires to cook more than once a day.  If possible the cooked meal should be the mid-day one.  Late dinners may be fashionable, but they are not wholesome.  If the exigencies of work make the evening meal the principal one, let it be taken as early as possible.

WARMING UP.

It often happens that while the father of a family needs his dinner when he comes home in the evening, it is necessary to provide a mid-day dinner for the others, especially if children are included.  Many housewives thus go to the labour of preparing a hot dinner twice a day, but this may be avoided if the following directions are carefully carried out:—­Prepare the mid-day meal as if the father were at home, and serve him first.  Put his portion—­savoury, vegetables and gravy—­in one soup plate, and cover it immediately with another.  Do the same with the pudding, and put both dishes away in the pantry.  A good hour before they are wanted put into a warm oven. (If a gas oven is used, see that there is plenty of hot water in the floor pan.)

When quite hot the food should not be in the least dried up.  This is ensured by having the oven warm, but not hot, warming up the food slowly, and, in the first place, covering closely with the soup plate while still hot, so that the steam does not escape.  I have eaten many dinners saved for me in this way, and should never have known they were not just cooked if I had not been told.  Of course, a boiled plain pudding or plum pudding can be returned to its basin and steamed and extra gravy saved and reheated in the tureen.

SUNDAY AND MONDAY.

The cook needs a day of rest once a week as well as other people.  And this should be on a Sunday if possible, so that she may participate in the recreations of the other members of her family.  This is more easily attainable in summer than in winter, for in hot weather many persons prefer a cold dinner.  But even in winter, soups, vegetable stews, nut roasts, baked fruit pies, and boiled puddings can all be made the day before.  They will all reheat without spoiling in the least.

Monday is the washing-day in many households, and no housewife wants to cook on that day.  In flesh-eating households cold meat forms the staple article of diet.  The vegetarian housewife cannot do better than prepare a large plain pudding on the Saturday, boil it for two hours, put it away in its basin, and boil it two hours again on Monday; with what is left over from Sunday, this will probably be sufficient for Monday’s dinner.