IDEAL SUMMER BREAKFAST.

Evening Star, Issue 19002, 25 July 1925, Page 20

IDEAL SUMMER BREAKFAST.

CEREALS AS A BOON TO THE HARASSED HOT)SEWIFE.

[By Mary Power, in the ‘ Sunday

Chronicle.’]

Our American cousins, with tlicir passion for eliminating drudgery from housework, were tho hrst to introduce that boon to the harassed housewife, tho ready-cooked breakfast cereal. New varieties of delicious breakfast foods, some, of American origin, others British made, are constantly appearing in the shops. They are palatiblo aline at all seasons, but they certainly make the ideal summer breakfast. With Stowed Fruit.—Pulled and shredded wheat, puffed rice and barley, and the various other patent breakfast foods will be eaten greedily with cream or milk and sugar by ail members of the family on allot morning when the mere sight of bacon and eggs would be sufficient to take away the appetite. • But it is when they are served accompanied by fresh or stewed fruit that they are tasted at their best. Stewed rhubarb, gooseberries, raspberries, plums, or blackberries are all more enjoyable if tasted together with a crisp, ready-cooked cereal. Those in search of more variety than that prpvided by their own gardens may prefer to concoct an orange salad or melange of tinned fruits. Dried

I apricots and prunes, as well as tinned peaches and the delicious tinned —and skinned—grapes, make a pleasant change, while a ready-cooked cereal, combined with fresh strawberries or raspberries and cream, is a feast for the gods. Variety.—Housewives _ who have trained their families iu tho daily ccfeal habit get a packet each of several different sorts at a time, and serve a different variety every day. They find it a good plan to alternate the uncooked sorts with the cooked. Here are some new recipes for the latter: — Butter some small moulds—old handleless ■ cups do very well —place some cooked, lukewarm oatmeal porridge in the bottom and lino the sides, leaving space in the middle. Into this space pack fresh strawberries or raspberries, or bottled or stowed fruits, with sugar to taste. Cover the top with a thick layer of porridge, and stand overnight in a cool larder. Tip out of tho mould and serve very cold for breakfast with cream and sugar. Oatmeal porridge is most delicious if cooked with milk as follows:—Soak the oatmeal overnight in twice its quantity of water. Strain off the water in the morning, and boil it for half an hour. Thicken some milk—quantity three-quarters that of the water—with a little flour, bring it nearly to tho boil, add tiio water, the oatmeal, and salt to taste, and boil in a double saucepan until the oatmeal is cooked. Barley Porridge.—Barley porridge is good for invalids. It takes a long time to cook, so should be made over-

night and reheated. Wash the barley well, and boil it for two hours in a double saucepan with a little cinnamon. Strain it, add a little sugar and some port wine— to a cupful of barley four wineglasses. This may also form the sweet course for a convalescent’s luncheon menu. As a change from the cereal eaten with cream and sugar, try hasty pudding. Mix cornmeal or Polenta, as the Italians call it, with an equal quantity of cold water. Stir it into twice the quantity of boiling water, to which salt has been added. Cook in a double saucepan for several hours; then pour it into a flab baking tin which has been rinsed in cold water; lot it stand all night. In the morning cut the mixture into slices, coat in flour or egg and breadcrumbs, and fry. Cold porridge may bo used up the same way. Cereals’ cooked in this manner make a useful substitute for, or addition to, fried bacon.