A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes (Apple Tapioca Recipe)

A little charm of a book is found and it’s called “A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes, written by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron (illustrations by Elizabeth Coulbourne) and published in 1917 by A.L. Burt Company.

This book is a collection of stories from Bettina during her first year of marriage to her husband, Bob. The book is written from the viewpoint of a new wife and her day to day challenges and musings (with all that she cooked) in the early twentieth century.

It was fun to read about kitchen appliances back then such as fireless cookers (oven/range) and icebox refrigerators. Each chapter is from a story on daily life and what Bettina made that day. Recipes featured are from special events to everyday things: Bettina Entertains Her Father and Mother; Motoring with the Dixons; Alice Tells Her Troubles; A Dinner for the Bridal Party; Supper After the Theater; A Company Dinner for Bob; and Furs to Put Away.

Below is a chapter in the day in the life of Bettina: Ruth Makes Baking Powder Biscuits.

“Oh, Ruth!” called Bettina from her door to Ruth, who was walking past. “Come in and stay to dinner!”

“My dear, I’d love to, but…”

“I’m going to have baking powder biscuits and I remember that you were longing to learn how to make them.”

“Oh, Bettina! Would you really show me? I’ll simply have to come, then. I hesitated because Aunt Martha is here, but I know she’ll excuse me for one evening. What time is it? Five? I’ll take these packages home and be back in fifteen minutes!”

When Ruth returned she found Bettina in her kitchen with all of the ingredients for the biscuits set out on the table.

“Perhaps two cups of flour will make too many for three people,” she said, “but Bob has a good-sized appetite these crisp fall days, and he’s fond of biscuits with jelly. Now, Ruth, you can get to work! Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, and then cut the lard in this way with this knife…Fine! Now add the milk very slowly – perhaps it will take a litter more than two-thirds of a cup, it all depends on the flour. There! Now pat the dough into shape on this floured board, and then you can cut the biscuits out with this little cutter. Yes, about three-fourths of an inch thick. Ruth, those look fine! We’ll wait a little while to bake them, they’re better perfectly fresh. Set them out in the cold, there, until I have fixed the macaroni, and they can pop into the oven at the same time.”‘

“That was so easy, Bettina. I do hope these biscuits will be good!”

In this chapter, the dinner consisted of (the menu): lamb chops, macaroni and cheese, sliced tomatoes, baking powder biscuits, jelly, apple tapioca pudding, and cream. The recipes included Macaroni and Cheese (baked), Baking Powder Biscuits (fifteen biscuits), and Apple Tapioca (three portions). A gem of a book, indeed. Recipe for Apple Tapioca below, and it uses applesauce.