Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

Cut half a dozen white stalks of celery about two inches long ; boil them until tender in boiling water and salt, dip them in the following batter, and then fry them a golden brown in smoking-hot fat. To make the batter, mix together smoothly the yolk of a raw egg, a tablespoonful of salad-oil, a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg, a quarter of a pound of flour, and enough cold water to make a batter stiff enough to hold the drops from a spoon; just before using the batter, stir into it the white of the egg beaten to a stiff froth. Fry the fritters just before they are required for use, laying them on brown paper for a moment after taking them from the hot fat, in order to free them from the grease, and sprinkling them lightly with salt. FRIED PARSLEY. Choose full stalks of parsley, carefully remove all imperfect or decayed leaves, wash it well in plenty of salted cold water, and spread it on a clean towel to dry. When it is quite free from water, gather the stalks in the right hand, and quickly dip the leaves into smoking-hot fat for a moment to crisp them. If the parsley is put into the fat with any moisture on it, a cloud of steam will arise, and there will be great danger of burning the hand seriously ; but if it is carefully dried the operation can be performed with perfect safety. Fried parsley is used as a garnish for fritters, croquettes, or any fried dish. OKRA. Cut the stems from a quart of young okra, wash the pods in cold water, put them over the fire in enough -salted boil- ing water to cover them, and boil them for twenty minutes, or longer, until tender ; then drain them, add to them two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter, a high seasoning of salt and pepper, and heat them thoroughly; after the okra is hot, serve as a vegetable. Tomatoes and corn, or Lima beans, are frequently stewed with okra ; the seasoning being salt, pepper, and butter. Fried or broiled ham is often served with okra, as is also fried chicken. GBEEN PEPPERS, STUFFED AND BAKED. Wash half a dozen large green peppers, put them into boiling water, and boil them for five minutes; then take them from the water, and rub off the skins with a wet cloth ; cut off the stem ends, remove the seeds with a small spoon, and stuff the peppers with any kind of cold meat minced fine, mixed with an equal quantity of stale bread softened with cold water, and seasoned with salt ; replace the stems, set the peppers in a deep earthen plate or dish, pour in as much cold gravy as the dish will hold, and bake the peppers in a moderate oven for half an hour. They may be stuffed with sausage-meat and bread. Serve them in the dish in which they were baked. Cheese is grated and mixed with bread-crumbs for stuffing peppers ; and they are subsequently fried instead of being baked. STUFFED TOMATOES. Fry a quarter of a pound of sausages or sausage-meat ; wash a dozen ripe, firm tomatoes of medium size ; cut a small slice from the stem end of each one, and scoop out the interior with a teaspoon ; chop this part of the tomatoes fine, mix it thoroughly with the fried sausage, season the force-meat thus made highly with salt and pepper, and then use it to stuff the tomatoes ; set the stuffed tomatoes in a