HANDY TO KNOW.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 31 January 1925, Page 14

HANDY TO KNOW.

IN THE SINK. Ail absolutely clean and hygienic .sink is the ideal of every housewife. So many household tasks are performed there that it is necessary f6r her own health’s sake as well as from the dictates of ordinary cleanliness. Theoretically, a sink pipe should never be allowed to become blocked, hut the u iif or seen will happen sometimes, and as a thorough and quick means of unstopping there is nothing to equal a rubber force cup. This useful item should be found in every scullery. Another useful appliance _is a, rubber-edged sink cleaner, which goes easily into the. corners, and is more efficient than a bristled brush. Rubber is also the material from which a new plate cleaner is made. If the plates are first of all scraped free from scraps of food, and the latter burned, washing up water and sink do not become clogged and greasy. The reason for this rise of rubber in sink accessories is not far to seek. It is more hygienic than any other material. Pieces do not adhere to it, and it is easy to keep quite clean with soap and water. Ultimately, of course, boiling water destroys rubber, but they are not expensive to buy in the first place, and, generally considered, they last as long as most other materials.

FRUIT-STAINED HAN DS.

While the fruit season lasts we naturally take the utmost advantage of its quick succession. As a consequence, the hands of the housewife are apt to become stained and discoloured through much fruit picking. AVith the deeper stains, soap and hot water are frequently ineffective. A method invariably successful is to rub on the hands a little paste made from castor sugar and salad oil. Mix it smoothly, rub well in, and let it remain for five minutes, continuing to rub during that time. Then wash in warm water and mild soap, and the hands will he quite free from disfigurement. If by chance the stains are very obstinate, a second application may he needed.

When handling very wet fruit, or in preparing walnuts, or any other operations in which juice is likely to run under the nails, fill the nails with soap before starting. Press it well down so that it cannot escape, and cling to the fruit being handled. UNWANTED WASHTA NDS.

Modern ■ bedroom furniture of the better type rarely includes a washstand. Tliis article is distinctly out of date, but is still demanded by a certain section of the public. A washstand is a survival of the time when hot water was brought to the bedrooms in cans. In some modern houses hot and cold water is laid on in the bedroom as a matter of course, and so the furniture maker finds the- washstand unwanted. Loth to he deprived of the sale of a piece, he has devised a substitute, and now bedroom suites a re obtainable with a. chest or cupboard in pla’Ce of the conventional waslistand. Quite a good idea is a handsome chest, containing three draws With two cupboards above. This has been designed for keeping hats, and should he a boon to those who find a small wardrobe inadequate. as is usually the case. Another style is a chest of drawers with a hoot cupboard below, hut it is noiicenble that many makers built these chests to the usual height, and make

" bvision for putting in glass at the hack, if need be. as though they were fearful of offending their own unwanted ..qkl friend,. ; jb.e ,w.a,s?i stand......

KEEPING FOOD- COOL. ‘‘The very best way to keep butter beautifully firm in summer,” writes a country housewife, “is to dissolve about one teaspoonful of borax in very hot water, wring a, clean cloth out in this, and shake for a, few minutes in the air; the clhth will then be icy cold. Wrap round the butter. This treatment is "also successful for meat or cold drinks.

If you wish to cool anything very quickly, take a, vessel of _ cold water and squeeze the blue bag into it until it becomes a dark hue colour. Then add a handful of salt, and in this water place your jug of lemonade, milk, jelly, etc. It is a splendid substitute for ice. •

Another effective substitute for ice is half a. pound of nitrate of amrnonia, which should be kept in store in case the ice supply fails. It can be obtained from most chemists for a few pence per lb, and is perfectly hafniless in use. One quarter of a pound of nitrate of ammonia added to half a pint of tap water will make a freezing mixture of a temperature 20 degrees below zero. Two. ounces to half a pint of water makes a cooling mixture usually sufficient- to set a jelly quickly, chill a fruit salad, cup, or white wine. One point must be borne in mind. The food or liquid to be frozen should be placed in a vessel which has the same shape as the one containing the nitrate of ammonia, "so that the vessel is surrounded by the freezing liquid. Manv failures have been accounted for by the fact that a tall, narrow vessel was placed in a- wide, shallow basin. It should also be noted that while nitrate of ammonia, is not poisonous, it has a salt taste, and cave shoidd he taken to keep it .from getting into the food. FURNISHING FABRICS.'

Describing the latest furnishing fabrics that- are being turned out on English J,oo.ms, the Manchester Guardian state's that there are some beautiful new designs in prints and cretonnes, some of which are gorgeous in their colourings, and others that somehow suggest lavender and new mown hay. Prints and cretonnes have always been more or less floral or pictorial in style, and some of the old designs now preserved in museums are really elaborate pictures printed on cotton. Many of the newer patterns are taken from the old, and even the most prejudiced lover of bygone\days would admit the improvement that has .taken place. But prints and cretonnes are hot the only, fabrics of interest; there is a satin material with a black ground on which is printed birds and figures, fruit and flowers, in silver, blue, green, red, purple, brown, orange, and mauve — a perfect blaze of harmonious colouring. This is a • fifity-ineh’ material; and the ijattern is about 30 inches long. Another beautiful furnishing fabric is printed velvet. This is now seen in hundreds of pleasing designs ■and colourings. Embossed velvet is also being shown in some very handsome patterns. Furnishing- velvets are made, .dyed, and printed to perfection in Manchester, where the trade is a very old one. Recently some important improvements ha-ve been discovered in dyeing velvets which makes them very durable in use- and not liable to lose their bloom when used for covering furniture.

BEAUTY FOR THE BROAA r N-HAIRED

Are you one of tile betwixt and between girls who cannot he classed as either blonde or brunette ? If so, _ and your hair is one of your best points, as it so often is, here is a very special hint which will greatly enhance its

beaut'v. firing but all its bright lights, and make if as soft- and glossy as spun •silk. ... Get a couple of ounces of rosemary tops —anv chemist- or herbalist sells them —and put a tablespoonful we LI piled up of the tops into a* pint of boiling water. Cover and leave to stand for half an hour. Do this before you shampoo vour hair. Then mix an egg shampoo and thoroughly shampoo the hair. ~ To make the egg shampoo beat up an egg with a tahlespObhful of warm water, a’ teaspoonful of finely shredded white Castile soap, and a tablespoonful ot bay rum. Work this well into .the roots and through the hair. Rinse oft in clear cold water, then give a second rinsing, and to this add the wafer in which the rosemary tops have steeped. Strain it off carefully so asj not to add the tops as well as the liquid to your rinsing water, then dry the hair by fapt nine-, and just before it- is quit©’ dry brush over it- a. little lavender water and arrange your water-waving combs. . Pin an old veil over your head and leave it for 20 minutes. When yon .take off the veil and remove the combs vour hair will be .beautifully wavy, soft, and glossy, and the Wave will." last much longer than when done with plain water. , . The use of the lavender water-.will also give the hair a delicate perfume whlr-lT is very fascinating.—H.E.S. iff the Daily Chronicle.

CAMPFIRE COOKS. Large numbers of holiday-makers are camping out this year, and the smokes of many fires rise on the moorland shore and river. So a word or two on the art of cooking under somewhat novel conditions will not be amiss. In the first place, before lighting your fire, remember to clear away any surrounding bracken, heather, or grass. Alanv serious fires have been caused by the lack of this elementary precaution. Do not use wood that is green or which feels clammy to the touch, but take a tip from the gipsies and search for dry, dead wood under hedges.

In laying a fire first whittle- up some detached shavings on a straight, dry stick until it resembles- a- kind of minature Christmas tree. Plant this upright in the ground, and surround with any odd hits of dry gorse, stalks of weeds, and withered grass that may be handy, making a little pyramid about six inches high. Now touch off this little pile, arid as it blazes tip feed carefully with dry wood until the fire hfis secured a good start. In wet weather it is a- good tip to light the first few sticks in the frying pan. Tile expert woodsman will have his kettle boiling in. 20 minutes in any weather. The best camp-fire cooks rely on the stew-pot as well as the frying pah, and an occasional woodpigeon or yoirrtg rabbit, gently simmered over the fire, forms a pleasing addition to the- meftu. Potatoes may be roasted .in their jackets on hot stones at the side of the fire or under plenty of red-hbt ashes. Ginsies have an ingenious method of cooking a chicken. After cleaning the inside of the bird and thoroughly wetting its feathers, they inclose it in a thick coating of wet clay, and then bury it deeply beneath a pile of hot ashes under a good fire. After several hours, when the clay is removed, the chicken comes out juicy and delicious under a black coa-fc, which peels off like: the skin of an orange.

Pish also can be cooked to perfection in this manner, and the beauty of it is that the food may he left .all tidy., if necessary, without harm.—The tYeekly Scotsman.