NOTES FOR WOMEN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 2051, 4 December 1924, Page 2

NOTES FOR WOMEN.

A warm discussion is said to have centred round some amendments to the British Marriage Act, these embodying the possibility of marriage with a niece or nephew. The amendments were brought before a conference of the National Council of Women held at Brighton. The proposer of the resolution supporting the Bill said that if a woman could not trust her husband with a nice-looking niece by marriage she could not trust him with anybody! She also remarked that the Prayer-book was made for man, and not man for the Prayerbook. The Levitical Law was discussed, and Vicountess Astor said that there was a good deal of oldfashioned superstition involved, and she hoped that a very old man-made law would not be kept longer than it was useful. In the end the proposition was agreed to, though some present were very doubtful about its wisdom.

SLEEP.

A very important thing for moth-. ers to remember is that sleep is a food (for they are very apt to deny themselves food in the bustle of preparing meals for the family). Shakespeare calls food "chief nourishment j at Life's feast." Mothers see also that your children have their full share. Remember that brain repair takes place during sleep. If you want them to do good work—especially good mental work —see that they get a full allowance of sleep.

THE MODERN WOMAN.

Miss Margaret Bondfield, a member of the late Labour Government, has (says the Times) been expressing candidly her views about "intellectual" women. She told the Independent Labour Party Summer School that she thought a very strong indictment could be drawn up against the modern woman in her attitude towards the important function of home making. The most vocal section appeared to think that to be an architect or a doctor was to something superior to the home-maker. She had entirely the contrary view. She had very little patience with the woman who wanted to leave husband and children to the care of paid labour while she herself sought outside work because it was more "intellectual." To her mind the ordering of a home, the bringing up of children, the insistence on bringing to the home the best possible help that modern achievement: could ) provide required the most sustained effort of service—that "infinite capacity for taking pains" which amountj ed to genius. The fact of the matter I was that a large number of women were not fit to be home-makers because they had never addressed their minds to it as a vocation. They had regarded it far more as merely an opportunity to satisfy instinctive cravings, to "express themselves," and to have a husband who would give them a good time.

j RECOMMENDED RECIPES.

' Gooseberry Fool.—Take lib gooseberries and prepare them carefully; stew slowly in a double saucepan if possible, adding a pinch of salt and one of soda to help neutralise the acid of the fruit. Later add sugar to taste; half a teacup of finely grated breadcrumbs, one egg, well beaten. Stir briskly for a few minutes. Dish when cold, with a grating of nutmeg if liked and a sprinkling of hundreds of thousands. A little cream or custard is delicious with this sweet. Gem Cakes. —Beat to a foam the yolk of one egg, one cup of sugar, and one cup of cold sweet cream; a little grated lemon rind may be added for flavouring. Stir in slowly, beating thoroughly, two cupfuls of flour into which a U:blespoonful of cornflour has been sifted. Beat until light and smooth; then add the wellbeaten whites of two eggs, stirring just enough to mix them in. Turn into heated gem irons, previously buttered, and bake in rather a quick oven. Chocolate Cake--Take '4lb of butter, %lb of raising flour, two eggs, 2oz grated chocolate, one teaspoonful of cocoa. Stir the butter to a cream, then add the sugar. Beat up the eggs with a few drops of vanilla, stir into the butter and sugar. Stir flour in lightly. Mix chocolate to paste with warm water, adding the cocoa to stir into the cake. Macaroons.—Half-pound of sugar, half-pound butter, three-quarters pound flour, one large teaspoonful of essence of almonds, half teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one egg, mode, rub flour, butter, and sugar, soda and cream of tartar together. Bake fen minutes. Cream Sponge Cake.—Half a cup white sugar, one cup of flour, half a cup of cream, two eggs, and three teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Break the eggs on the sugar, and well beat them; add the cream flavouring and the flour, and well mix together; lastly add the baking powder. Bake 20 minutes. Asparagus Tip Salad.— One tin of asparagus tips, one teaspoonful salt, white heart of two sticks of celery, crisp lettuce, three dessertspoonfuls gelatine, one lemon, water. Drain liquor from asparagus and add to,-it

enough water to make three cups. Add salt, celery, juice of one lemon, pepper. Bring to boiling point. Add gelatine, stir until dissolved. Line a fluted mould with tips, cut up finely a little celery and asparagus. Mix with liquid and pour into mould, and allow to set. Serve on lettuce leaves or shredded lettuce, with mayonnaise dressing.

MY SPECIAL RUSKS.

Rusks to me are a necessity, writes a correspondent in an exchange. I like them yellow, rough of surface, and so crisp that they crumble into flakes in the mouth. This is how I always make them (writes an old maid in the Daily Chronicle):— First, if I have time, I put 21b of flour to warm in a cooking bowl before the fire. If I am too busy this has to be omitted, and I set straight to work with stirring in half teaspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of baking powder. (I use the best). Next I rub in 3oz each of butter and home-tried lard; the quality of these two items is reflected in the rusks. Then I turn my attention to beating eggs. I use three, and when they are a towering collection of sparkling foam I blend in with them a breakfastcupful of milk. With this rich liquid I moisten the dry things and work them into a smooth paste. I roll it 2in thick, then cut out round with a cutter. It must have a plain ec ]g. e — a rusk with crinkled sides is an offence. With flat tins ready greased I let my rusks remain where they are for 10 minutes before I set them into a fairly brisk oven. Till they have had time to rise I refrain from peeping. After about 12 or 15 minutes have elapsed it is wise to turn the tins about. When the primrose-hued rusks are baked through and changed to pale brown in colour, I take them out and stand aside till they are cool. It is at this stage that each rusk is pulled apart with a fork and made two; then the split sections go back to dry slowly in the cooler oven and come out crisp and inviting as can be. It sounds simple enough. It is—when you know how. The novice must often ,try two or three times before perfection in making and baking rusks is achieved.

THE ONE AND ONLY SITTINGROOM.

A HOUSE MOTHER'S PROBLEM. Where the one sitting-room has to serve as family living-room as well as guest-parlour, the home-maker has no easy task to combine restfulness and space with the cosy arir of a room that is lived in. Here the family has its heterogeneous being. Hero it writes, and roads, and smokes, knits; plays bridge and takes afternoon tea. And order may so) soon become chaos. Folding Tables. Plenty of table accommodation is essential in. a family sitting-room, where ash-trays must ever be at exigeant elbows, and odd periodicals', vvorkbags and games are in constant demand. Folding tables . are a boon, for they can be p)at away in a corner ur behind a chair or couch when they have served their purpose, be it afternoon tea or a game of chess or bridge, or any one of the score of odd services that an occasional table is called upon to perform. Then a folding screen ensures privacy for the reader or writer who must go on with the job while the family pursues its divers recreations. Voices can become a faint and undisturbing murmur to the ear trained to ignore ohitside activities, but the eye is not so submissive. The screen shuts owt psychlogical intrusions. Insislt on Olearing-up. Without being too tyrannical, the house-mother must insist that the various members of the family learn to respect the first'tenets of the family creed; a nice regard for the comfort of others. Games must be cleared away when finished with; knitting or em- | broidery work replaced in, the work- | bag; books in 'their appointed places nn the shelves, at the end of the day. And the ina,le element must be reminded gently, Hal firmly, that ashtrays are for use, not for ornament, and'that mother is a little tired of the anti-moth joke in\ rospeel of her neatly swept rugs. Plain and Patterned. Another pn&lem is to achieve a sense of rest and snaeo in a tiono too largo room. It is a help' to remember that pxittenned surfaces must not be overdone. If the sitting-room has a patterned wall-paper, plain surfaced curtain fabrics should be chosen ; the vugs should be plain, or <>f very unobtrusive pattern, and safely neutral in colour. Overconspieuous cushions and pictures are a fatal error. They may be wonderful-tilings in themselves, but if they hi* the eye as one enters the room they are an oll'onoc against good taste, besides imparting tha/fc distressing overcrowded effect. Cushions, by all means. But simple, unpretentious cushions and upholsteries that must melt harmoniously into tlio colour scheme.