HOME CHAT

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 6 October 1934, Page 7

HOME CHAT

OF INTEREST TO WOMEN Things Worth Knowing— Hang uncooked meat from hooks in the larder; do not let it lie on a dish. Stale rolls become crisp and delicious if put for five minutes in a hot oven before serving. A small quantity of ground rice added to the flour used for making cakes helps to give a lighter mixture. To prevent tinware from rusting, rub it before it is used with pure lard and thoroughly heat in the oven.

Keep a bottle of olive oil handy whilst you are redecorating, and use it for removing paint stains from the hands. It is just as effective as turpentine or paraffin, and better for sensitive skins.

Cut a tiny piece from the end of a potato that is to be baked in its skin. This will allow the steam to escape, and render the potato dry and floury. When an invalid tires of plain milk, try whisking up an egg in warm milk, and add a good teaspoonful of meat extract and a few grains of celery salt.

Alirrors can be cleaned of marks if rubbed with a piece of flannel dampened with spirits of camphor. Fingermarks on paint are quickly removed with a piece of chamois leather dipped in paraffin. Doorsteps which have been stained with milk or other liquid can be cleaned by covering the stain with a mixture of Fuller’s Earth and water. Leave this on overnight, then wash the steps in the usual way.

However damp shoes may be, a good polish may be obtained by adding a drop of paraffin oil to the blacking. This will also prevent the leather from cracking.

When peeling apples have at hand a pan of cold water to which a few drops of lemon juice have been added. As they are prepared drop the apples one by one into the pan, and they will- not turn brown. TONICS FOR TIRED EYES Tired eyes can add years to an otherwise youthful face and discount tlio beauty or good' features or white skin. But it is no use spending time and energy on trying to improve them until the cause of their tired appearance has been discovered. Very often it is lack of sleep, and so for a time it is essential to take eight or nine hours’ sleep each uight. Or the bedroom may be insufficiently darkened, causing the eyes to screw up against the early morning light. Perhaps you are neglecting to bathe the eyes night and morning with some simple lotion such as weak boracie or rose ivater, though if the eyes are very tired a tonic made of equal parts of water and witch-hazel is best.

Yellow, too, has charm. There is something about a yellow chiffon dress all tucked by hand, trimmed with yellow flowers and green leaves, and worn by a dark-haired girl with amber eyes or a fair-haired girl -with grey eyes, which is unforgettable once seen in a ballroom. Don’t Throw Away—

Stale cheese, no matter how hard it is. for it will grate well and be useful for flavouring soups and savouries on toast.- A milk pudding flavoured with grated cheese is delicious.

Odds and ends of biscuits and cake which can be used for making trifles and custard puddings. Sour milk, which makes delicious scones..

Bits of material, however small, which are useful as filling for polishing pads for furniture or household use.

Tissue paper that comes with cleaned dresses or in hat boxes, and is so useful to clean windows and tumblers beautifully.

IDEAS ABOUT CURTAINS Curtains play a large part in home decoration. They can affect the appearance, the lightness, and even the apparent sie of a room. Small windows can be made to look larger if the curtain-rods are fixed beyond th.e window-frames on each side, the curtains being of sufficiently opaque material to hide the deception. Curtain-pins will pierce chintz, cretonne and other fabrics much more readily if the curtain-pins arc first soaped. This has the additional, advantage that it will also prevent rust and iron-mould. USED TEA LEAVES Very few people know the manifold uses to which tea can he put, nor how invaluable the used leaves are as a cleaning agent. For instance, they will clean glass and crystal flower vases which fail to respond to all the usual methods. Take the leaves straight out of the tea-pot, put them into the vases, and fill these up with hot water. Leave overnight, and when the leaves are removed the stains will wash off easily. Tea leaves boiled up in pans used for cooking fish will remove all fishy odour. PRIDE IN YOUR HANDS Before starting on a dirty job, till the nails Avith peroxide paste or some soap, or use face powder for the purpose. Wear strong leather or chamois gloves for outdoor Avork, and cotton or rubber gloves indoors but to avoid keeping your nails in a perpetual Turkish bath, don’t wear rubber glo\ r es all day. Don’t leave grime on tli.e hands; wash it off immediately with wamr water. Water for washing the hands should be neither hot nor cold, but a comfortable Avarmtb. It should be softened, and the soap used should l be of the