THE FRIENDLY EXCHANGE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 4

THE FRIENDLY EXCHANGE.

In this column we propose to have pleasant chats and interchange of ideas with our readers upon passing matters of domestic and social interest; and that it may be made an instructive and profitable feature we invite correspondence of inquiry and information on all subjects that can possibly be of service to the home and our common humanity, and the Editress hopes that her appeal will meet with a hearty and generous response. Letters must be written on one side of the paper only, and addressed to “ Elise, ’ New Zealand Mail. , Correspondents will please give real name and address in addition to their nom-de-plume, not for publication but editorial introduction. For the present the Exchange will be published fortnightly, but we hope that sufficient pabulum will soon come in to enable us to make it a weekly issue. Contributions for the ‘ Exchange ’ must be sent in not later than Monday. Deae Elise.—l send you the following recipes : Apple Charlotte. —Butter a dish, then sprinkle in the bottom a layer of breadcrumbs, on these a thin layer of suet chopped fine, next a layer of apples with sugar, begin with the breadcrumbs again, and so on in the same order, till the dish is full. Put a fiat dish on the top and bake about threequarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Remove the flat dish before the pudding is quite ready, and let the top crumbs brown and crisp. Gingerbread Pudding. —6oz suit, 6oz breadcrumbs, 2oz flour, Jib treacle, a teaspoonful of ground ginger; grate the bread and mix it with the suet chopped very fine, add flour and ginger, and mix all well together with the treacle, put in a mould, tie a cloth over it and boil for three hours. Yours, &c., Maud, New Plymouth. Dear Madame Elise,— Could you kindly inform me the best way to serve asparagus. I should like to know whether it ought to be tied in small bundles, or left loose on the dish; or perhaps yon could suggest a better way. Yours sincerely, Electra. Waverley, Sept. 24, 1888. P.S. I have read M.’s letter on wives. Do you not think someone might say something on the other side of the question 1 It would only be fair to do so.—D. ■. ' ANSWER. ■ / Scrape the asparagus at the white part and throw into oold water ; then tie in bundles of about 20, keeping the heads one way; cut the stalks evenly and stand them, in a srucepan of boiling water salted, and keep boiling for from 15 to 18 minutes without the lid on; serve on toast previously dippod in the asparagus water. Melted butter in a sauce-boat. This is the usual way, but I give another which is more delicate still.

Asparagus, No. 2. —Wash and cut the tender stalks in inch-long pieces ; put to cook in jinit enough salted boiling water to cover. When tender, add a cup of orcaru or milk, (if you use milk, a good sized piece of butter), and a little white pepper. Have some Blic?s of buttered toast in a tureen, pour the, asparagus over it, and serve in sma’l dishes, giving to each person apiece of the toast, upon whioh put the sliced ao paragus with a spoonful or two of the liquor. If preferred, the toast can be omitted, but it is a decided improvement to the dish.— Ed. Dear Elise. — You will greatly oblige me by inserting again a good receipe for Marrow Jam, as the last did not state the quantity of marrow. Another reader will be very glad of ‘ Dorcas ’ pattern for spiderweb shawl. Housewife. ‘ Housewife ’ will find the following recipe for marrow preserve excellent. The Spider pattern requested, is also given. The postcard was mislaid, whioh accounts for the delay in replying. Cast on any number desirable by 4, allow ing a few extra stitches for the edges. K 3 together. In the next stitoh kl, pl,k 1 ; repeat. 2nd row.—Purl. 3rd row.—k 1, pl, k 1, all in one stitch ; k 3 together ; repeat 4th row. —Purl.— Ed. Vegetable Marrow (to preserve).— To each pound of marrow allow from fib. to lib of sugar, 3oz to 4oz ginger, three-quarters of the rind of a lemon, and half-pint of water to each Gib of marrow. Take the weight of the marrow, then peel and out it into pieces an inch square. Put it in salt ond water for three days, then into fresh, changing it every day, till you are ready to preserve it. .Make a syrup with slb sugar, all the water, ginger, and lemon, the latter cut into small pieces. Add the marrow while the syrup is boiling, then lot it boil three-quarters of an hour. It must remain in the syrup for two days. Then strain, add the rest of the sugar, and when it boils add the marrow by degrees and boil an hour.

MORE WIVES.—THE LAST. Dear Elise. —Dare I hint at the wife who ha 3 the terrible failing of love of drink ? I have known such a one, and I can only say, may God help the unfortunate husband and family. I think medical men have a most dreadful responsibility who order stimulants to the extent some .do, and only those who have known the craving for ‘ something ’ to relieve the sinking from extreme weakness, can tell what a temptation it is to tako a little and a little more, till the habit becomes formed, and the poor victim finds herself bound by a chain which she is utterly power, less to break, and sees nothing before her but to sink lower and lower, till who can say what the end-Bhallbe? I might tell you something about the slatternly wife, who is always in a muddle, and never has a decent room to go into, or a tidy article on herself, and who is always * worked to death ’; or the motherly wife, who fusses round her husband like a hen with one chick, She is generally a scrap of a womanj married to some six-footer, and she will stand on her tiptoe to arrange his tie and put on his comforter, and insist on his changing his socks, and worse thanall,(forthepoor man) will interfere to prevent his eating just what he likes best, as it is * not good ’-for him, and if ho disobey and partake of some dainty his soul loveth, any attack he. may have for the next five years will be distinctly traced back to that fatal act of folly. Perhaps you will think I ought to say something about good wives, but those two words comprise so much that' if ever I do attempt to tell you about some really good wives I have been privileged to know, I must leave it till some other time, as I have far exceeded the space I meant to occupy already, but if at some future time you would like mo to tell you of some women whom to know was to love and admire, and long to copy, I will gladly do so. Hoping I have not quite tired out your patience,

I am, Yours sincerely, M.