Pre-Game Lunch

by ALEANDER W. MOFFAT

TWENTY-SIX people were expected; thirty-three have showed up. Forty-three would have made no difference. A menu for this kind of party has to be flexible; it consists of clam chowder, tossed salad, and coffee.

On each large plate is a glass bowl from the five-and-ten filled with chowder, flanked by salad and two Crown pilot crackers. The crackers have been lightly buttered and pul in the oven until piping hot.

The clam chowder is exceptional. It is canned by the Poland Spring people who put up the bottled water. Not only does no other canned chowder approach it, but few cooks could produce a better fresh one. It is minus the fat and onions which it needs. Nobody would suspect it, once doctored, to be a canned product.

These are small cans, two of which will serve three people, including seconds. For each can, provide one small onion, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and three quarters of a can of light cream or the cream from the top of a bottlc of milk. Slice the onions small and try them out in the butter. Before the onions brown, empty them, butter and all, into the canned chowder in a large double boiler. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Give an occasional stir. When hot, if is ready to eat.

The French dressing served with the tossed salad follows an old Spanish proverb, “A Prodigal with the oil, a Miser with the vinegar, and a Philosopher with the salt.” To be more specific, keep a couple of cloves of garlic in the bottle of olive oil. This is an improvement over rubbing the salad bowl with garlic. To make this dressing for four people (one large head of lettuce — garden, not iceberg, variety) the quantities should be about as given : —

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 cup olive oil, flavored with garlic

2 tablespoons vinegar, preferably tarragon

Mix the dry ingredients. Add the oil, stirring with a fork. Only after all the oil has been added should the vinegar be introduced. Add it very slowly, stirring vigorously while the emulsion with the oil takes place. The lettuce must be picked apart, washed in cold water, and each leaf individually dried with a dish towel. Place the lettuce loosely in the salad bowl. Pour the dressing over it and then gently lift and turn over the lettuce until each leaf has been just moistened by the dressing.

The provender thus prepared vanishes as if by magic. Black coffee is served in breakfast cups. The host makes his announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please shush. The time is now 12.30. May I remind you that in fifteen minutes we shall leave for the game. I mean literally fifteen minutes because this year something new has been added. A chartered chariot awaits your pleasure, and will take us one and all to the stadium. There it will wait to bring us back after the game. No delays, no parking troubles. Ladies may powder upstairs, gentlemen on this floor and in the basement. Don’t miss the bus. It will leave at 12.45 on the dot.”

To sounds of approbation, the bus is filled. The driver is given the sign to start . . . and the cheering begins as the bus pulls away.