BAKED SWEET APPLE DESSERT.—­Wash and remove the cores from a dozen medium-sized sweet apples, and one third as many sour ones, and bake until well done.  Mash through a colander to make smooth and remove the skins.  Put into a granite-ware dish, smooth the top with a knife, return to the oven and bake very slowly until dry enough to keep its shape when cut.  Add if desired a meringue made by heating the white of one egg with a tablespoonful of sugar.  Cut into squares, and serve in individual dishes.  The meringue may be flavored with lemon or dotted with bits of colored sugar.

BANANAS IN SYRUP.—­Heat in a porcelain kettle a pint of currant and red raspberry juice, equal parts, sweetened to taste.  When boiling, drop into it a dozen peeled bananas, and simmer very gently for twenty minutes.  Remove the bananas, boil the juice until thickened to the consistency of syrup, and pour over the fruit.  Serve cold.

BAKED BANANAS.—­Bake fresh, firm, yelow bananas with the skins on fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.  Serve hot.

FRESH FRUIT COMPOTE.—­Flavor three tablespoonfuls of sugar by mixing with it a little of the grated yellow rind of an orange, or by rubbing it over the orange to extract the oil.  If the latter method is used, the square lump sugar will be preferable.  Pare, quarter, and slice three medium-sized tart apples.  Peel, remove the seeds, and cut in quite fine pieces three oranges.  Put the fruit in alternate layers in a glass dish.  Sweeten a cupful of fresh or canned raspberry juice with the flavored sugar, and turn it over the fruit.  Put the dish on ice to cool for a half hour before serving.

GRAPE APPLES.—­Sweeten a pint of fresh grape juice with a pint of sugar, and simmer gently until reduced one third.  Pare and core without dividing, six or eight nice tart apples, and stew very slowly in the grape juice until tender, but not broken.  Remove the apples and boil the juice (if any remain) until thickened to the consistency of syrup.  Serve cold with a dressing of whipped cream.  Canned grape pulp or juice may be utilized for this purpose.  Sweet apples may be used instead of tart ones, and the sugar omitted.

PEACH CREAM.—­Pare and stone some nice yellow peaches, and mash with a spoon or press through a colander with a potato masher.  Allow equal quantities of the peach pulp and cream, add a little sugar to sweeten, and beat all together until the cream is light.  Serve in saucers or glasses with currant buns.  A banana cream may be prepared in the same manner.

PRUNE DESSERT.—­Prepare some prune marmalade as directed on page 191.  Put in a square granite-ware dish, which place inside another dish containing hot water, and cook it in a slow oven until the marmalade is dry enough to retain its shape when cut with a knife.  If desired add a meringue as for baked sweet apple dessert, dotting the top with pink sugar.  Serve in squares in individual dishes.