WOMEN’S INTERESTS

Grey River Argus, 7 August 1937, Page 6

WOMEN’S INTERESTS

HINTS FOR THE HOME

[BY

“TOHEROA”]

In the Kitchen Chocolate Cake: Take lib butter, 1 teacup of sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 1 small teaspoon carbonate of soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 tablespoons golden -syrup, 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Cream uutter and sugar, add egg, beaten, next add flour, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon, which have been sifted together; next the golden syrup, and soda dissolved in cup of milk. Bake in moderate oven and when cold ice and decorate.

Dried Apricot Jam: Take 11b. dried apricots, 4 oranges, 1 piece preserved ginger, 14 cups water, about 61b sugar. Squeeze juice from oranges and add to water, put all fruit, oranges (pips and all), ginger and apricots through a mincer and boil until soft; then add sugar and boil until it sets. Always pour boiling water over apricots, letting it stand for 3 min., then run cold water over before using. *******

Orange Cake: Required: 3 cup butter, 1- cups sugar, 3 eggs, grated rind of one orange, juice of one orange, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, salt, - cup water. Beat butter, sugar and eggs until light, fold in fruit juice and find. Add dry ingredients alternately with water. Blend well. Bake in three sandwich tins 20 minutes. Cool. Spread layers and outside with sevenminute icing: Put 14 cups sugar, - egg whites, and 1 cup water to cook over boiling water. Beat 7 min. until frosting is thick. Remove from hot water. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Continue beating until cool. Ice cake. Sprinkle with J cup shredded cocoanut.

Oyster Pie: Place in the bottom of a well-greas-ed piedish, about two dozen oysters with a little of the liquid, a dash of lemon juice, the same of paprika and finely-chopped parsley. Mix well together, one cup breadcrumbs, cne peeled and grated apple, one grated onion, a cup of finely-chopped cooked spinach, a dash of chopped parsley, two tablespoons melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Spread this mixture over the oysters, then'beat one egg, adding half a small cup milk, and pour over the top, and bake in a slow oven about half an hour. This makes a very nice luncheon dish.

Sweet Orange Jams: Take three oranges, 31b sugar, three pints water (boiling.) Cut the oranges very thinly, pour the boiling water over. Allow to stand till next day. Put the orange and liquid into a preserving pan and boil until the rind is tender, add the sugar, and boil again till it will jelly when tested. *******

Lemon Marmalade: Take 12 lemons (31b in weight), 75 pints water, allow lib sugar to lib pulp. Wipe the lemons and cut them in quarters. Take out the pips and put them into a basin with one pint of the water and leave to soak for a few hours. Slice the lemon quarters very thinly. Put them into a preserving' pan with the remainder of the water. Add also the strained water from the pips. Let' this stand for about 24 hours. Then boil it gently for about one hour and a-half vnti’ the rinds are quite tender. Leave it to stand until next day, then weigh il and add the sugar in proportion.. Bring to the boil, and boil for about one hour, or until it will jelly.

Lemon Jelly: Take 12 lemons, 4 oranges, water sugar. Wash, dry, and cut up the fruit roughly. Remove all the pips. Cover with 10 pints of water (cold) and stand for 24 hours. Boil for two hours. Stain. Add sugar, allowine 11b of sugar to each pint of juice. Boil i rapidly for 10 minutes. Soak the pips , in some of the water, and add the water to juice. Strain through muslin. Boil till the jelly sets when tested on a cold plate. Pot and cover at once. ******* Grapefruit Marmalade: To 1 grapefruit, add 1 lemon and 1 orange; slice all very finely. To every pint of pulp add 3 pints of water soak all night, next day boil for 15 minutes, then take off, leave again till next day; then add 11b of sugar to each pint of pulp. Boil till syrup jells when tested. ******* Old English Style Marmalade: Take 21b Seville oranges. 4 pints water 61b sugar, juice 2 lemons. Remove orange pips and place in a musi lin bag. Tie with string. Squeeze i juice from oranges and lemons into I a saucepan. Shred and put orangepeel into the saucepan with the juice. Add water, and bag of pips. Now add sugar. When sugar is dissolved, boil till a little sets when tested on a cold saucer. Leave standing in the saucepan for live minutes. Put into dry, warm jars and cover. * * « -« « « Seville Orange Maramalade: Seville oranges as required. Allow 1 lemon to 9 oranges, allow 2 pints of water to lib of fruit. Remove the peel from the oranges and lemons and cut it into fine shreds. Slice the fruit thinly, removing the pips. Cut the slices into four and put them into a basin with the'peel and water to soak overnight. Next day, turn the fruit into a preserving pan and boil until it is tender. Leave it until it is cold, then weigh it and allow an equal quantify of sugar. Let the sugar dissolve slowly, then bring the marmalade to the boil and boil it until it will jell when tested. Note: If the preserving pan is weighed before any cooking is done, the weight of the cooked fruit and water can be obtained quite easily. ******* Tropical Delight: Peel four ripe bananas and cut lengthways in half. Arrange in layers in a greased baking-dish._ Mix half cunful of orange juice with four tablespoons brown sugar: pour over bananas, and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Sprinkle thickly with one cupful shredded coconut, and continue baking for 10 minutes. Serve hot. ’ T •' , ******* . flaked Steak Sago: Cut 141 b of beef steak in square

pieces, put in casserole or meat tin, cover with cut-up onions, pepper and salt and two tablespoons of sago. Cover all with cold water and bake with lid on for two hours a nice brown. Ready to dish up and the gravy is just the right consistency. A ehopped-up sheep’s kidney is very nice with the steak. Tasty Rice: Needed, 4oz, whole rice well washed, 11 pints milk, 3 oz sugar, grated rind and juice of half a lemon. Boil all except lemon juice together until soft. When cool add one or two wellbeaten eggs and a knob of butter. Mix all together with lemon juice. Line a well-buttered basin with 1 cup of seeded raisins and chopped d&tes and a little stewed apple to moisten frtiit, then pour over the rice mixture and steam 1 hour. Serve with a sweet sauce sweetened with golden syrup, and a little essence of lemon. PLUGGING WALLS Many odd jobs about the house call for fixing with plugs such as shelves, mirrors, pictures, a glass shelf for the bathroom, brackets, and so on. Some hesitate to spoil the wall surfaces by knocking holes in them. Yet there is •very little difficulty when care is taken. Always start with light taps, and see that the hole is at right angles to the wall. Go softly until sure that the wall is solid, because heavy hammer blows may cause much damage, and even loosen a brick. After every blow, a slight turn with the drill or screw-driver will bring out the dusty particles. Two kinds of plugs are used such as the round drill-hole, which goes right into the brick, and the flat plugs put into a joint which is located oy piercing the plater with a bradawl or a thin sharptool that causes little damage. The best wood to use is good, dry deal such as flooring-board or an old deal packing case. Cut the plug so that it is just thick enough to fit tightly into the hole, and taper a little at one end to give it a start. Wedgeshaped plugs may cause damage if too thick. . When the plug has been driven as far as it will comfortably go, cut it off level with the plaster, either with a small saw or a sharp knife. If care has been taken, there will be no broken plaster around the plug; but, if there is, fill around the plug with plaster of paris. Softwood plugs can be used, but there are fibre plugs available, and with these a special tool for boring the holes is obtained with the kit. The fibre plugs are much easier to use. The screw goes into the plug, and the effect is to expand the substance m the hole and cause it to hold fast. If there is any doubt that the plug will hold it can be made more secure if coated with liquid glue first. _ Such plugs are made to fit any kind- of screw and the new kits certainly .remove most of the difficulties associated with plugging walls. Anyone can use them, and be sure of a neat job.

Household Hints Peel rubber gloves off gently, and if they are not completely inside-out when the process is finished, blow into each glove until it is, for it is important I hat the whole inner surface be thoroughly aired before they are put away. x ***** * Medicine stains on spoons can be removed by lemon juice. ****** To turn out a jelly whole, slightly grease the mould before pouring in the liquid. If this has not been done, and the jelly sticks, plunge the mould into hot water, arid you will have no more trouble. ******* When mangling sheets and tablecloths, fold them by hem or selvedge alternate weeks; this wifi make them wear much longer. ******* Hot. vinegar will remove! paint stains from windows. Heavy hands make heavy pastry, so use the rolling-pin lightly always one way, forwards, not backwards. ******* There will never be any creases in soft collars if they are ironed from the centre towards one end, and then from the centre towards the other end. ******* When a. cake sticks to the tin dampen a cloth in boiling water and rub it on the bottom of the tin. The cake will quickly come out. ******* Clean glass with salt and water. Let the salt water dry on the glass, and then rub it with a chamois leather. . The glass will remain clean for a long time.