WOMEN'S WORLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 7 April 1934, Page 10

WOMEN'S WORLD

Mrs John Mac Gibbon, of Christchurch, is at present the guest of her daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs D. McDonald, of Elmira Avenue. Mr and Mrs N. Sliortall have returned to Colyton from a motor tour to Auckland, Taupo and Wairakei. Mr and Mrs J. M. Bennett, of Awahuri, accompanied by Miss E. Mikkelson, have left for a tour of Australia. Galina Bogatiroff, the 11-year-old Russian girl who was reunited with her parents in Now Zealand in January, thanks to the efforts of the Red Cross, has settled down at Foxton and is doing well in standard three at sohool. Her parents fled from Russia following the revolution there, when she was a few months old, and settled in New Zealand. There is another Russian girl at the school, Nina Picholoff, who has been there since 1930. This girl, who had no knowledge of English when she came to New Zealand, now acts as interpreter for Galina in her lessons.

AWAHURI WOMEN’S INSTITUTE.

The newly elected committee of the Awa.huri Women’s Institute met on Tuesday afternoon. The members are Mesdames Bond (president), Rowlands, T. Manson, H. Bennett, Goodman, Hastie, Henderson, Terry and Misses E. Henson and D. Matthews, and, by co-option, Mrs McCalluni ■ and Miss O’Farrell. Mrs Henderson was elected secretary, Miss D. Matthews treasurer (re-elected), and Mrs Rowlands and Miss E. Henson vice-presi-dents for the ensuing year. It was decided to ask Miss Grant to give a talk on the Waitangi celebrations at the next monthly meeting. The usual monthly competitions will he held each mouth. For the April meeting the competitions will be: Seniors, three varieties of preserved fruit; juniors, three varieties of biscuits (two of each).

SOCIAL FUNCTION.

The ladies’ tearoom committee of the St. Patrick’s Church bazaar held a successful euchre party and dance in the Parish Hall, Broadway, on Thursday, April 5. Euchre was played till 10 o’clock and after a splendid supper the floor was cleared and an old-time dance was held till midnight, when the evening was brought to a close with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” The euchre was in the hands of Mr Summers a.nd Mr A. Thomas. Mr Rosanoslri was an efficient M.C. and the music was played by Mr G. Luxmore. The supper . arrangements were in the capable hands of Mrs Summers, supported by a splendid band of willing helpers, and left nothing to be desired.

WOMEN’S NOTES.

HOUSEKEEPING. • [ (By Miss Mary Tallis.) About your kitchen.—Frst I want to , say something about tlie walls of your kitclien and scullery. Before you next ■ give them a new coat of distemper, t which is a very-useful finish for the walls of kitchens and sculleries, con--1 sider whether you won’t wash and l scrape off the old distemper and cover - the walls with a suitable oil paint. I Painted walls look very well and are 1 most easy to keep clean ; they also stand ; the steam and gas fumes much better i than a water distemper. I have even t found that painted walls for these pre--1 mises are the cheapest in the long run. Now for the sink.—Many good glaz- , ed sinks are spoilt during the first few , months that they are in use. Heavy l hot pans and buckets with sharp rims ■ are put roughly down on to them, and • soon ruin the surface, which can never be put right. Before your sink gets spoilt you can do much to protect it if you make a strong loosely-fitting wooden rack to fit on the bottom. Get some i lengths of wood about ljins. wide and . Jin. thick and plane them smooth. Cut i two, or, if for a largo sink, three, each to measure 4ins less than the width of , the bottom of the sink. Then cut four ; longer slats to measure 4ins shorter - than the length of the bottom of the ' sink. -Screw the four longers slats ac- ! ross the shorter ones, leaving about i Jin. between each. Be careful to sink . the heads of the screws into the wood . so that they cannot possibly scratch or . damage tlie sink or your pans. When , your work is done the rack can be ; scrubbed and hung up or placed at the [ end of the sink. A damp rag dipped l in a little salt soon cleans off stains i and grease from the surface of the ! sink. Paraffin is also good for removing stains, etc., but there is always a dan- ’ g er of this getting on to the cooking utensils and tainting the food. If care is taken to burn all potato and fruit skins, paper, bits of vegetables, etc., and to scrape off scraps and strain out tea leaves when washing up, the waste-pipe of a sink should never become blocked up. Grease in any quantity should not be put down the sink but, of course, there is always a good deni in the washing-up water which cannot be avoided. Hot water, with plenty of washing soda dissolved in it, should be poured down the pipe occasionally COOKING. Making suet puddings.—lf you can make a really light suet pudding you have at your Anger-tips the means of giving your liusb-and a great variety of - tasty meals. He may wonder how it is done and think you are a firstra.te cook to know so many different Icings, actually it is not at all difficult. There is no need to learn dozens of recipes by heart, as one good standard recipe can be varied almost indefinitely to suit your taste or your purse. For a good plain suet pudding use half as much shredded suet as selfraising flour, or for a rather lighter pudding you can _ mix breadcrumbs with the Hour, still keeping to the same proportions. Sometimes, for very rich light_ puddings, all breadcrumbs are used instead of any flour. This mixture of half as much suet as flour can be made into a suet crust or else into a pudding in a basin. If you want a crust for a roly-poly or meat or fruit pudding, add sufficient water to make a soft but not sticky dough. If you want a steamed pudding and not a crust, then add enough milk to make a stiff hatter instead of a dough. In both cases mix quickly and put the pudding on to cook at once. As I expect you know, all suet puddings are lighter steamed than baked, as there is no weight of water to press them down. Steaming can be done in any large saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid. There should be only a few inches of boiling water, just enough to come half-way up the sides of the basin. At one time everyone used pudding cloths for their puddings, but, besides being troublesome to clean, they are likely to allow the goodness to escape instead of keeping it in. The best way of covering a pudding is to use cooking parchment. When you use the parchment, make it wet, and if you like, you can flour it like a cloth to prevent sticking; it will, however, keep out the water without any flour. It is strong enough to be tied round the pudding with string, and in that way is better than greased paper, which can only he twisted under the rim of tho basin and may come undone. How to make a variety of suet puddings from one standard recipe.—lnstead of making a plain suet pudding from a standard recipe of four oz. each of breadcrumbs and flour and four oz. of shredded suet with a pinch of salt, you can vary it and make a fruit or meat pudding; or one of figs, dates, ginger, marmalade, lemon, orange or plum; or a jam pudding with any kind of jam. The following are a few useful suggestions: (1) For a cheap meat pudding add about -Jib of fresh liver, steak, ox-cheek or sausage mixed with the suet and flour and I teaspoonful salt. (2) For a fig or date pudding add 2 or 3oz. of sugar and J to Jib of figs, or dates, with 1 chopped apple. (3) For a jam or marmalade pudding mix with two good tablespoonsful of the preserve you like and J teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda; or to make a jam layer pudding, which has a very attractive appearance, line the basin with the plain dough, then put in a layer of jam, then another I aver of dough, until the dish is full. (4) For a plain plum pudding add 3ozs. of sugar and J to Jib of currants, sultanas or stoned raisins, with 1 or 2 ozs. of chopped candied peel. WOMEN’S CLUB. TALK ON “PALESTINE.” There was a good attendance at a meeting of the Mauawatu Women’s Club, held yesterday, in Messrs Collinson and Cunninghame’s rooms. Mrs A. E. Mansford presided and the following visitors were welcomed by the hostesses (Mesdames R. M. Stubbs, H. Pierard and J. J. Stevenson): Mrs F. Petersen, Mrs Plummer (Wellington!, Miss Parkes, Mrs D. T. Varcoe, Mrs L. E. Doel, Mrs F. D. Lewis, Mrs R. C. Donald, Miss M. Edwards (Christchurch), Mrs M. Sullivan, Mrs F. A. Wollerman, Mrs H. J. Bott, Mrs C. Ciochetto, Miss M. Pogden, Miss B. Free, Mrs T. Kidd, Mrs J. Mundy and Mrs A. J. Gordon (Dunedin). Mrs Mansford extended a special welcome to Mis O. S. Tyreman, an old member of the club, who had recently been ill. Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Mesdames N. V. Ballinger, E. A. Taylor, M. Aitchison, J. Mouldey, A. E. Hansel, J. Cunninghame and Miss M. Cunninghame. A musical monologue was given by Miss M. Cranston, and a song by Mr H. Pierard, both responding to encores. Mrs H. Pierard. played the accompaniments. The speaker for the afternoon. Colonel C. G. Powles, C.M.G., D. 5.0., was introduced by Mrs H. Pierard, who extended to him a welcome. Colonel Powles took for his subject “Palestine,” illustrating his talk by lantern slides, Mr H. Pierard operating the lantern. Colonel Powles prefaced his talk by explaining the geographical features of Palestine, and pointing out the places of interest. He remarked that what impressed him most about.

the country was the certainty of the Bible. “That is,” he said, “when one visits the old places spoken of in the Bible, one feels that here is the real thing. Palestine never changes, and it makes one able to picture easily the old scenes in the Bible.” In Palestine one came across different elements —the Homan, Crusader, Arab and Mohammedan elements, and Colonel Powles pointed out these different influences in the slides shown. The pictures comprised a fine selection, Colonel Powles making Biblical and historical references while he explained each one. A vote of thanks was proposed to. the speaker by Mrs R- M. Stubbs.

APPLE DUMPLINGS.

Half cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 3 apples, i cup suet (chopped), | cup breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, ’ 3 dessertspoons sugar. Prepare apples, mix flour, suet, breadcrumbs, baking powder and salt together, add water to make a paste. Place a piece of paste around each apple, put dessertspoon sugar in each, then cover the top. Put dumplings loose into pan of boiling water; when they come to surface give them half an hour.

POCKETS ARE BACK

Pockets are back again in feminine clothes. But not because women have become economically minded about their handbags. For, although autumn suits have more pockets than any man would dare to own, in nearly every case the wearer has a portmanteau-sized handbag as well. Even a few of the new evening gowns have pockets—not tucked modestly away in the petticoat and reached through a placket-hole as they would have been 50 years ago, but in full view of the public eye. Some of the velvet dresses recently shown in London had two enormous pockets, one filled with a lace handkerchief, on each side of the skirt.