DOMESTIC REALM

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10473, 31 December 1927, Page 4

DOMESTIC REALM

. TESTED RECIPES

Three Nice. Biscuit Recipes.—Luncheon Biscuits :21b flour (all white or lib white and lib wholemeal), ,11b sugar, butter, 3 eggs, 1‘ cupful milk, loz cream of Tartar, Joz baking soda, -flavoring, to taste (grated lemon peel is very good). Mix soda and cream'of "tartar with flour and butter, rubbing till quite smooth, then adcl milk in which sugar ana, eggs have been mixed. Knead, roll and cut. Bake in a fairly quick oven. Munchiea: i cupful sugar, 3 cupful flour, 1 tablespoonful treacm, 2 cupfuls rolled oats, -h cupful butter, i teaspobnful baking soda dissolved in, two tablespoonfuls boiling water. Mix dry ingredients, melt butter and treacle, pour soda and water in, then add flour, oats, etc. Rut in .little lumps on a tray, and bake in a slow oven. Bed , Cross Biscuits: 1 cupful flour, 2 cupfuls rolled oats, J-ll> hronvn sugar, ilb clarified dripping, 1 teaspoonful baking soda dissolved in 2 tahlespoonfuls boiling water. Mix dry ingredients, add melted dripping, and soda and stand to cool. Roll into small balls, put half an almond on each, and bake in a slow oven.

Savory Tripe.—Boil lib of tripe (in one piece) in salted water till tender. . Take it out carefully, and put on a plate to cool, then dry with a cloth. Mix together 4oz of breadcrumbs, loz chopped suet, 1 teaspoonful of sweet herbs, salt- and pepper, 1 well-beaten egg, and, if too stiff, add a little milk. Spread this mixture on the tripe and form into a roll, which must he secured by two or three pieces of tape. Place the roll - in a baking tin with a gooa supply of dripping, and hake it lor half-an-hour, basting frequently. Orange and Lemon Iceberg.—lngredients: A sponge sandwich, 3a worth of cream, two oranges, two lemons, half a pound of granulated sugar, a. level tahlespoon.riil of caster sugar. Whip- the cream until quite stiff. Mix with it the caster sugar, and one orange, freed from peel, pith and pips, and cut in small pieces. Put this, mixture into the sandwich. Pile the ice. on top and serve at once. To make the ice. boil the granulated sugar with a pint of water for 10 minutes, coo!, then add the grated rind of one lemon and one orange. Stir in the strained juice of the lemons, and orange, and when quite cold, freeze. Orange Custard. —Ingredients : 4 oranges, 4ozs loaf sugar, 4 eggs, -J----pint, cream, candied orange peel, Method: Place the sugar, very thinly out rinds and juice of oranges, in a basin, and add 1 i pints of boiling water. Let these ingredients remain covered for 2 hours, then strain into a stewpan, and bring nearly to boiling point. Add the lienten eggs, and stir by the side of the fire until they thicken. When cool, pour into custard glasses, and when quite cold pile the stiffly whipped cream on the top, and garnish with fine strips of candied orange peel. Time, from 3 to 3,) hours; average cost, Is 6d; sufficient for 6 or 7 persons. Home-made Pork Pie.-—For the pastry, allow 111 b of good, dry. Hour, ilb lard, a pinch of salt, l pint of milk and water. Chop up fine 21bs of pork, fat and lean mixed. When you have chopped it. season with salt and pepper, with a little powdered sage. To make the jelly: 2 pig’s feet must be stewed gently for throe hours in sufficient water to cover the liquid to be used for pouring over the pie meat. To make pastry, rub one-third of the lard into the flour first, put the. rest of it into a pan with the milk and water, and when this is boiling pour into the flour, mix well, and knead thoroughly. Cut a piece of the paste enough for the lid of the pie, and mould the rest into shape with the help of a large jar. Place the moulded shape on a tin with several pieces of greased paper underneath. Put in the meat, pour in a little of the. liquid, put on the lid, decorate the edges, make a hole in the top for the steam to escape, and hake, in a slow oven ly hours. - Liquid may be added by pouring through the funnel. •Strawberrv Jam—6lb. strawberries, 4lb of sugar. Stalk the fruit and do not use any unsound berries. Put a layer of strawberries at the bottom of a large bowl, then a layer of sugar, and repeat this until all is used. Leave twelve, or even 24 hours if more convenient. Stain alt the syrup into, a very clean stewpan and boil gently for about a quarter of an hour, ’ skimming carefully. Slip in the shrunken fruit, and boil gently for about a quarter of an hour, skimming carefully. Slip in the shrunken fruit, and boil again, hours if more convenient. Strain all hut not too fast, for another twenty or thirty minutes, stirring constantly. Try a little, on a plate- as usual, and as* soon as it sets into jar, and tie. down when cold. Fat Rascals—Mix ylb flour, 3oz butter, 4oz granulated sugar, 4oz sultanas, 1 saltspoonful of mixed spice, and one teaspoonful baking-powder. Rub blitter into flour. Mix well; add one beaten egg and a little milk, and bake in little fluted patty pans about ten to fifteen minutes.

HOUSEHOLD KNOWLEDGE

* SOME HANDY HINTS.

Try artist’s white oil for mending dishes. Let them dry six weeks before using, and exercise care for some time when very hot- water is used for washing them. When sweeping dusty carpets, fii-st apply a sprinkling of salt and Indian meal. This will take up the dust and make the carpet clean and bright. .... 'Silverware does not become tarnished when a piece of gum camphor is placed in the cabinet or drawer where the silver is kept. , Try dipping the bristles, of hairbrushes hr a. basin of boiling water in which a good sized piece of baking soda has been dissolved., being careful not to let the woo’d 1 touch the water. Shake well and dry with bristles down. A little alcohol rubbed on quickly will clean a dirty window better than soap-suds. Do not scrape the frying pan, as it is liable afterwards to burn. Instead rub well with a hard Ciuist of bread and wash iu hot wataInk stains, can be nioie quickly je, moved from white govds by suit-,-it" vinegar is used with it. Pm a fresh supply. on until the stain disappears, then rinse, in clear water, •To make bread rise more quickly iu cold weather, take two brides and heat them, wrap them rip in paper and put-under bread-pan. When ironing, boat a brick and' use it for a,flat-iron stand. -If will help to retain the heat in the flatiron, and save many step®. If lemons ,be warmed before squeezing, about double the -quantity of juice.’will fee obtained. It is am excellent plan to prepare everything for the fruit-cake, then mix it and place In a refrigerator’.or some Other cool place, and lot stand overnight. The. fruit swells and flavors the dough, and the cake will he much lighter, l ' • ‘

Household Hints

hy “MARIE."

BRIGHTENING UP THE HOME.

CHEAPLY AND EFFECTIVELY

Thriftiness is a worthy trait, hut. saving money is now everything; wise spending is the newest definition of this word that for so long has uncompromisingly suggested bare boards arid “bread and scrape” (says a writer in an exchange). The habit of wise spending admits that there is a, present as well as a future, and that it is just as foolish to. stint that present for the, sake of a shadowy future, as it is to spend lavishly with no thought of the morrow. . One of the favorite methods of economising is to spend no money on home comforts. There are people who will tolerate uncomfortable chairs, a bad light, and ugly surroundings for a lifetime because they have got used to it; they have settled in to the point of view that, because their purse is small, an unattractive home is to be endured. The same people will buy many yards of material because it is going cheaply at a bargain sale in the hope that “it may come in useful, for something some time.” They will buy groceries in small quantities, forgetting that this is more, expensive, and they will keep their money in a. hank at 4 per cent., when secure, investments are asking to be taken up which would yield them six.

UGLINESS IN THE HOME.

Is your home ugly ? Have you been putting up with unsightliness because you must, or from sheer force of habit? Are the walls drab and shabby because you simply cannot afford to have a new coat of cold water paint over them? Or is it just because you have put the idea, into a cupboard of your brain, shut the door, and forgotten about it? If the walls, need attention there is no need to neglect them because paper is so expensive and the decorator talks largelv of dados, friezes, and panels. A plain wall is an infinitely more artistic background for you and your furnishings than the horrifying enthusiasms of- the wallpaper* designers that mar so many walls—and far more economical. First of all take the trouble to think up a scheme that would make the most of what you already hav.e. If you have a blue carpet that is getting a little grey about the temples, but” is still “good” for two or three years, humor it; consider the carpet while coloring the wall, and it will repay you handsomely for the flattery- by entering into the spirit of the scheme; as a suggestion, the blue floor would get on splendidly with fawn walls.

PINCHING AND SCRAPING

Quito a lot of pinching and scraping is permissible if it has for its object the purchase of a comfortable Chesterfield and easy chairs to take the place of the ugly, nobbly hard, old-fashioned seats that are still to he found in some houses whore guests are few, , Cushions, soft, big, happy, companionable ones that like being punched and arc not rearranged carefully by the hostess when the guests arise, add to the liveahlenoss of a room. These are not to lie confused with the hard, stiff, gold-braided and brocaded creatures that porch monaoingly on the arms of “drawing-room” chairs, terrifying simple folk with their unapproachable splendour. The beautifying of a drab room need not be neglected because of economy—in most cases it is neglected because the inhabitants are so used to their surroundings that they do not notice the joy that they are missing by them lack of pretty things. Look at your home with opened eyes if you fear you have been one of those careless people—think a little more of the. present, of the gaiety- ot now color the attractiveness of a new lampshade, and the charm of gleeful cretonne flowing where plush once glowered. Having thought well, take your slender purse to town and spend just a little of its contents on making the home a spot where the present may be enjoyed.