And, everyone show up at my house with bread and butter next fall.

If you don’t have such a thing, you can sort of improvise. Use a can large enough to hold the pudding, and cut off both ends of it so that you have a tube. Put aluminum foil on both ends (duct tape it down, although that won’t hold for long in the steam) and perforate the aluminum foil in a lot of places. If you can punch some holes in the tube, so much the better. Put a rack or small bowl in the bottom of a large pot; put the can of pudding on it — on its side rather than on its end where the perforations would be covered up — and add water up to a point just below the perforations.

Boil (it doesn’t have to be a hard boil — simmering is fine, as long as it’s generating a lot of steam), checking every once in a while to add more water so that the pot doesn’t boil dry.

A damp towel won’t generate enough steam for this.

A little of the juice and spices runs out no matter what you do, but it sure makes your kitchen smell good. Don’t worry about it.

The idea is that steam passes through the batter and cooks the pudding, keeping it moist at the same time. If you can picture that cooking process, then you’ll be able to figure out something, even if it’s improvised.

BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES

25 or 30 medium-sized cucumbers
8 large white onions
2 large sweet green peppers
1/2 cup salt
5 cups cider vinegar
5 cups sugar
2 tblsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cloves

Slice cucumbers and onions thin. Chop peppers. Cover with salt and let stand 3 hours. Drain. Bring vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil. Add drained vegetables. Heat thoroughly, but do not boil. Put in hot, sterilized jars and seal.

Yield: 14 pints

Perhaps the original letter to the magazine was longer than the short summary given in the column, but offering medical advice like this is a dangerous business to be in.

(While you’re at it, before cucumber season comes again I want your mother’s recipe for bread and butter pickles again. I lost it and haven’t found one as good.)

“It gives me a shudder of horror and apprehension” to think what poor Sis. Dunford would think of my scout troop.

I also had to chuckle about keeping the confidence of your children, as I thought about friending them on Facebook to serve the same purpose these days. If your kids will let you.

Is it better to be ridiculously low-cut, or seriously low-cut?

As Socrates might have said, Define your terms.

My great-grandmother’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup butter to go with 1 cup grated carrots and 1 cup grated potatoes and 1-1/2 cup breadcrumbs. A full cup of fat (whether suet, shortening, or butter) seems a little richer than my recipe, but not grossly so, so that (1 cup) is probably the amount meant.

(If you want my great-grandmother’s recipe, which I can vouch for — until you try it you’ll never believe that grated vegetables can be turned into spun sugar the way this recipe does it — here it is:)

1 cup grated carrots
1 cup grated potatoes
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Dissolve baking soda in spoonful of water and stir into potatoes. Add all other ingredients and steam 3 hours. For pressure cooker, 45 minutes at 15 lbs.

Serve warm or cold with lemon or vanilla sauce.