THE HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 29 October 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE HOME.

THE TABLE.

Brazilian Stew j Two pounds leg of beef, one carrot, oh© turnip, two or three peppercorns, a -sprig of parsley, a little thyme and marjoram, and a glass of port or claret. Cut the meat in small pieces, and dip them in vinegar. .Then place them in an earthenware jar in the oven for two hours. Prepare the vegetables by cleaning and cutting them up, put them in a saucepan, tying up the parsley, thyme, and marjoram in a small linen bag, and boil until- tender. Strain the liquid off and thicken, with arrowroot, and then pour over the meat. The I wine is not necessary, but it gives a nice ■ flavour to the stow, and, if used, should be added at the last moment. Serve with mashed potatoes. ' Paradise Pudding: Three eggs, three apples, 41 breadcrumbs, 3oz sugar, 3az currants, the rind of half a lemon, half a wineglassful of brandy, salt and grated nutmeg to taste. Method Pare, core, and mince the apples into small pieces and mix them with the other dry ingredients. Beat up the eggs and moisten the mixture with them, and beat all together. Stir in the brandy and put the pudding into a buttered mould and boil for one and a-half hours. Meat Pancakes Make' some small pancakes, (the pan in which they are fried should be greased with the fat side of a bacon-rind instead of butter), and spread each pancake with the following mixture: — Minced mutton or beef, or both, in fact the remains of any kind of meat, with a little ham or bacon, some drops of onion juice, salt, a little pepper, some eream, gravy, or good stock, mixed thoroughly. Roll up, and place the cakes "side by side in picdish, two rows if required. Cover with stock and bits of butter. Bake in moderate over for half an hour. Add more stock during'.baking process, if necessary. Garnish with half tomatoes, freshly grilled. Rice Cream: Ingredients One heaping tablespoonftil of ground rice, rather more than a pint of milk, sugar, and flavouring. Method the ground rice smooth with a little cold milk. Put one pint of milk in a saucepan, and when it boils add the ground rice; stir it well. Boil for 20 minutes, and then add sugar and flavouring. Serve quite cold. Cutlets With Macaroni: Take about half a pound of pipe macaroni, one ounce of butter, one pint of milk, and five ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, pepper and salt to taste, breadcrumbs;. Put the milk on the fire to boil, and then add the macaroni, and put it into a fairly deep dish; sprinkle the fop with Parmesan cheese, and lastly add the breadcrumbs; cut the butter up in pieces and place on top. Bake in a moderately quick oven. When of a nice brown turn out on a dish, and round it put about six to eight cutlets. This makes a very nice savoury dish. . Apple Custard Pie: Press a pint of stewed apples through a colander; add three wellbeaten eggs, one teaspoonful of butter (melted), half a cup of sweet milk, flavour with lemon or nutmeg. - Bake in a thin under-crust for half an hour. .'.■■■ I

HOUSEHOLD HINTS. To remove tea and fruit stains from a damask tablecloth take a lemon, squeeze the juice with so much salt as will make a thicK paste, and place it on the stains for about two hours. To clean fruit jars quickly, almost fill them with hot soapsuds, then" put an ounce of carpet tacks into them and shake them vigorously. Rinse them afterwards in clean cold water, and turn them upside down to dry. 1 For flies and other pests take equal parts of boiled linseed oil and resin. Melt together, and add half as much treacle. Soak some brown paper in a solution of alum, and dry before applying the above compound. • A lemon flavouring that will keep for an indefinite time can be made by grating off the yellow rind, squeezing on this the strained juice, and then adding as much sugar as the jnice will absorb. Cover tightly in small pars. When making cakes try greasing the tins with olive oil instead of with butter. You will find the cakes will turn out better. If silver or plated articles have been allowed to get very dirty they can be cleaned by being rubbed with paraffin oil. Salad oil will also remove dark stains from silver. When stuffing a fowl which is to be roasted the stuffing should be prepared and inserted overnight, for then the flavouring of the seasoning will penetrate through the whole bird. " .Mice have a well-grounded aversion to cayenne pepper, so to* get rid of them it is a good plan to stop all their holes thoroughly with a paste made of cement, to which a good sprinkling of cayenne pepper has been added. ;•'.•''•', : .

'When making a mustard plaster it is a good plan to use the .well-beaten white of an egg instead of water. If it is done in this,way the plaster will not blister the skin, thus saving the invalid much unnecessary pain. New boots are sometimes difficult to polish. To make them shin© easily brush off any dirt that may be on them and rub them with lemon juice. Let this dry in, then black and polish them in the usual way, and they will shine beautifully. UNSELFISHNESS IN THE HOME. Parental love is proverbially .unselfish, and seeks the welfare of the child first. Whether this unselfishness is not carried to excess at times let the records of ingratitude and the ill-treatment of those who have devoted' their lives to their children answer.

But in the wisely-managed, well-ordered home th%: does not often happen. Here every child has its duties and its responsibilities, and is taught from its earliest infancy that it owes some obligations to the family, the world, and to humanity. The family does not exist for it alone, but every member of the little community is responsible for some part of its well-being. To properly fulfil the duties falling to their share, every unit of the home circle, and especially the parents, should establish a degree of unselfishness that will prove helpful in every department of the home life; but it should not bo carried to excess in any particular instance. The main factor of victory over our own selves is to attain the faculty of sacrificing ourselves to others. This is a difficult victory, and one that should be taught the children, and not left alone to the naturally self-sacrificing mother. Too many mothers seem to take too seriously the thought of Stow ell, " Selfishness narrows the soul, and its free and longcontinued indulgence degrades its victims, and destroys all noble and generous sentiments."

Kindness and consideration for others should iK among the earliest lessons of life. The child in its mother's arms is not too young for puch lessons, and «■ thorough education in this portion of the training of our little ones will save much regret in after life, and will do much towards elevating the sentiments and raising the standard of the home. And instead of the plodding, patient:., self-sacrificing mother, with selfish, thoughtless children, we will find the hopeful,' helpful, happy family, with parents and children alike on the same footing of unselfish good comradeship. CHIVALROUS MANNERS. Contrary to the practice that prevails in, other countries, the deference shown to women in Austria increases with age. No Austrian Would ever .dream of receiving a lady's extended hand, without bowing to kiss it. Children, even when, grown up, always touch the hands of their parents with their lips before venturing to raise their faces for a kiss. Girls and young married women in Austria, no matter how lofty their station, do not consider it in any way beneath their dignity to kiss the hands of ladies who have attained a certain {■.'>'«:, and the result is that in Austria a grf.f'ter degree of sympathy prevails between youag and old women than anywhere elsti in the world. Indeed, Austria may be described as the paradise of old ladies. Nor is I his polish of manner confined to the relations that exist between men and women or among the women themselves. The men are courteous in the extreme to one another, even in cases where the closest kind of intimacy prevails. Thus a couple of officers may be "sufficiently warm friends .to have no secrets from one another, and to address one anothei with the pronoun "du" or "thou;" but this association Is never regarded as warranting the neglect of those many little courtesies and manifestations of regard, that are held in Austria i to be indispensable to social intercourse.