Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Wash the heart leaves of four heads of lettuce. Place them in a dish, and sprinkle with cracked ice. At serving-time stir half a pint of Mayonnaise into the dish of lobster. Shake the ice and water from the lettuce. Place two leaves together in the form of a shell, and arrange them on a flat dish. Put a table-spoonful of lobster in each shell, and a teaspoonful of dressing on top of the lobster. Oyster Salad. For a two-pound can or a solid quart of oysters use dressing made as follows : Beat well four eggs. Add to them a gill each of cream and vinegar, one teaspoonful of mustard, one of celery seed, one of salt, one-fifth of a teaspoonful of cayenne, and two table-spoonfuls of butter. Place in the double-boiler, and cook until as thick as soft custard. It will take about five or six minutes. The dressing must be stirred from the time it is put on the fire until it is taken off; and when that time comes, add two table-spoonfuls of powdered and sifted crackers. Heat the oysters to the boiling-point, in their own liquor. Drain them, and add the dressing. Stir lightly, and set away in a cold place for an hour or more. The cracker and celery seed may be omitted, and at serving-time a pint of celery, sliced thin, may be added. Shrimp Salad. For this salad there will be required a can of shrimps, the heart leaves of four small heads of lettuce, and a generous half-pint of Mayonnaise dressing. Remove the shrimps from the can to a large bowl full of ice-water, and after rinsing them, drain off all the water. Place the shrimps in another bowl, and after sprinkling upon them a marinade made of a table-spoonful of oil, two of vinegar, half a teaspoonf ul of salt, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper, let them stand in the ice-chest for two hours. Arrange the leaves of lettuce in the form of shells on a flat dish. Mix half the dressing with the shrimp, and put a spoonful of the mixture into each shell. Drop into each shell, also, a teaspoonful of the remaining dressing ; and then serve the salad without delay. The lettuce must, of course, be perfectly clean and crisp. If you cannot get the head lettuce, take the larger leaves of cabbage lettuce, and arrange them around the border of the dish. Cut up the crisp white leaves, and spread them lightly in the centre of the dish. On this bed arrange the dressed shrimps, and drop white heart leaves and teaspoonfuls of dressing here and there. If you prefer, you may break the shrimps into two or three pieces as the first step in making the salad. * VEGETABLE SALADS. A salad can be made of almost any kind of cooked vegetables, but certain combinations are desirable. Peas, string and shell beans, asparagus, cauliflower, and young carrots all combine well, and potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, and cauliflower make another combination. Any two of the cooked vegetables may be used together. When a variety is used the dish is called « Salade Macedoine," If possible, when combining vegetables, have those which are of delicate flavor form the body of the salad, using only a small proportion of those with strong flavor. Remember that beets are sweet, and use them sparingly.