HINTS FOR TH E HOUSEWIFE.

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 224, 9 June 1923, Page 15

HINTS FOR TH E HOUSEWIFE.

The Home Cook. HOLIDAY CAKE. Ingredients: 11b. of flour, lib. of Demerara sugar, ilb. of lard and margarine mixed, |lb. of seedles raisins. 4oz. of candied peel, i teasponful of mixed spice, 1 lemon, 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, 4 eggs, pinch of salt. Method: Sieve the flour, salt, spice, and baking powder into a basin, rub in the fat. Clean the raisins, shred the peel, and grate the lemon rind. Add theso ingredients to the flour with the sugar. Beat up the eggs until very light and frothy, and stir into the dry ingredients, adding a very little milk should the mixture be too dry. Put it into a greased cake tin lined with two or three thicknesses of greased paper, place the tin on a baking tin spread with salt or sand, and hake in a moderate oven till the cake feels firm and a heated skewer comes out drv and 1 clean if inserted in the top. The cake takes about hours to bako. DATE SHELLS. ' One Jib. of flour, 2oz. butter. 2oz. sugar, one egg, one half-teasponful of baking powder, whole date. Heat the butter and sugar together, beat in the egg, then sift in the flour and baking powder. Work into a firm dough. Turn out on a floured board, and roll out not too thin. Cut fnto two inch wide strips, place a stoned date on the end of a strip and roll it up till the date is well covered. Cub the roll from the strip, and pinch the ends of the roll together. Then put another date on the strip and roll up as before. Continue until all the pastry is up. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes in a fairly hot oven. / COOKIE LEEKIE. Required: Ono £»wl. two quarts of vegetable stocks or water, two onions, six leelys, two carrot::, two ounces of rice, bunch of thyme, parsley, and bay leaf, seasoning. Cut the fowl into small joints and the vegetables into dice. Well wash the leeks, remembering that there is often grit between tho 'different layers, so that it needs very thorough cleansing. Trim off all except about one and a half inches, of their green tops, saving the trimmings for flavouring soups or stows. Wash the rice. Put the fowl, stock, and a little salt in a casserole or pan. Bring to boiling point and skim well. Then add the rice, vegetables, and herbs, and simmer all until the fowl is tender but not “done to rags.” Pho time depends entirely on the age of the bird,, and may be anything from three-quarters of an hour to two hours. Should the bird bp done before the carrots and rice are cooked, lift out the joints, and then continue simmering until the vegetables are soft. To serve, skim the broth, remove the herbs, season carefully, and put the pijcea of fowl and leeks in a hot tureen. Pour in the broth; add the pardev and any seasoning needed. Serve with sippets of toast and plainly boiled or steamed potatoes, ,

Domestic Jottings. A WATCH HINT. To keep the works of a watch clean and so ensure that the watch will run smoothly, cut a piece of white paper to the size of the cover and, after soaking the paper in petrol, place it within the inner case. The paper should be periodically removed, and a fresh piece, also soaked in petrol substituted. The same plan may be adopted for small and medium-sized clocks. WHEN WOOLLEN FABRIC i SHRINKS. Although everyone is familiar with the effects of shrinking, few people can explain what happens when a garment shrinks. Woollen fabrics are made up of millions of sausage shaped cells and these when moistened undergo a considerable change. The water forces its way into the minute cells and causes them to grow broader aed shorter. The effect of this is to make all the strands of wool which run lengthways and across grow shorter and” the garment as a whole seems to be smaller. After it has shrunk the material becomes slightly thicker owing to the way in which the cells have swollen. CARE OF THE STOVE. To keep a stove clean without black-lead, the following method is used: —Take equal parts of boiled linseed oil, kerosene, and vinegar; shake well, and apply to the stove with a flat brash. Afterwards rub the stove over with a duster. If this treatment is persisted in the stove will keep in splendid order. If anything boils over on to the stove it may be washed off with a wet cloth.

SEWING MACHINE KNIFE SHARPENER.

It is quite easy to convert the hand wheel or a sewing machine into, an emery wheel on which knives, scissors and pencils may be sharpened. Get a roll of half inch adhesive tape and cut off a strip long enough to go round the hand wheel. Press this to the metal rim of the wheel until it adheres firmly. Next cut a strip of fine emery cloth and gluj> to. the tape on the wheel, winding a strip of cotton cloth, or anything similar, round the emerv to hold it in place until the glue is dry- After twenty-four hours th 0 wheel 'is ready for sharpening purposes. This does not prevent . the machine being used in the ordinary way. When the emery strin is worn, out, another may bfi put in its place.