HOMELIKE HOMES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4467, 21 September 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

HOMELIKE HOMES

That a home should be homelike is almost the first requisite, yet this single quality, so charming and so indispensable, is often lacking in an otherwise elegant house. The house, be it alawys remem. bered, is only the scaffolding, only the shell of the home. The latter depends altogether upon the spirit and the air of the people who constitute the household. They mar or make it, and they alone.

We all knew homes to which we go with the most joyful anticipation whenever we are invited. To a simple home dinner or a stately ceremonial, the host and hostess impart the same fine flavour of cordiality, the same winsome manner, and the game sweetness of welcome. They always give the guests the best of themselves. It they have the lai’ge establishment, with the elaborate service this implies, then butler and parlour-maid, cook and coachman, share, the delight of iqinistry, and each, in bis or her degree, help to make the visit a success. But if the home be a small one, unobtrusively managed, where the mistress does much herself, and the children help, and the master of the house looks after the furnace,-and expenses are l carefully watched, the guest is just as gracefully and graciously entertained, provided the home be homelike . •The material items of the ideally beautiful home are everywhere the same. These are cleanliness,' warmth, comfort, and light. These four things are as es. sential, and fortunately as practicable, in the plain little cottage as in the sumptuous mansion. No variety of bric-a-brac, no harmony of colouring, no multiplication of curtains and screens, and-of costly furniture, can make up for the absence of a fire that warms every corner of a house. People shivering in chilly rooms, where the heat is insufficient to dissipate the frost in the atmosphere, are seldom amia,ble, and an - imperfectly-lighted living room, however artistic, is runious to the eyes and productive of gloom in the temper. In sleeping rooms the brass bedstead and the carved dressing-table, the hardwood floor and the soft rug are very satis, factory, but one can manage quite well with a cheap carpet, a white iron bedstead, and very inexpensive furniture if the mattress be of the best hair, |the blankets of pure wool, and the pillows an agreeable size and shape, with sheets which are long enough to tuck well in at the bed's foot and fold well over at the bed’s head, and with an abundance of clean towels. In the homelike home the must-haves are not necessarily in the line of extreme costliness, but they are serviceable and good of their kind, and are provided in lavish plenty. ■ We are, if of moderate means, generally too ready to sacrifice the rest of the house to the drawing-room. This should, on the contrary, he furnished last of all and considered of minor importance. A living-room where ihe family may assemble, and where the friends of the family are always certain to find a chair and a footstool, a place by the fire, and a cordial welcome, is very desirable. This room may he used, by every one; the daughters may have their piano and their violin and mandolin in one end of it, and the schoolboy his corner for his lessons and home study. By. her own little table may‘stand the mother’s and her mehding-hasket, and the father’s read, ing lamp and evening ; paper should' bo on. the ; larger table, where lie the weekly neriodioals and the monthly magazines. Every intelligent family should have hooks without stint, and if one cannot have curios and books, by all means let the former go. After everything good is said about them, _they add another care to life, as most of our luxuries do. The Teal home keeps its grasp upon its sons and daughters as they emerge from childhood to maturity. It is so pleasant that they want to stay there. Such* a home always has a mother, a loving, gentle, discreet, ana tactful woman. Sometimes it has the added benediction of a benignant grandmother whose silver hair is the token of a warm heart. It may have a large-hearted and firm-prim ripled nan, a', trifle dogmatic; but undoubtedly wise, at its head,, and it usually has a contingent of bright and clever young people; and their presence is the last touch of perfection in the ideal home.

USEFUL RECIPES . Hollandaise Sauce (enough, for eight people) —Put'.three yolks of eggs into a jar, place the jar in a saucepan of boiling water, add to the eggs threepen-ny-worth of cream, a little salt and cay« enne, and a piece .of butter about the weight of one ounce. Place the saucepan on the fire, whisking the ingredients until it becomes ae thick as cream. Take it off the fire, add about two table, spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar,, and serve hot. Tartar Sauce (enough for eight peo- ' ple).“=Boil five - eggs for twelve minutes; when quite cold -pound - the yolks to powder; mix in • a tablespoonful of salt, a ' teaspoonful of- mustard, and a quarter of a grain of cayenne. . Beat the yolks of two eggs, • apd stir (always the same way)’till quite smooth. Then add. drop by drop, seven tablespoonf Us of fine salad oil, three tablespoonfuh of . tarragon vinegar.' and three _ table* spoonfuls sof ' French vinegar. Set the mortar in a cold' place, or on ice, for one hour, then add a teaspoonful of finely chopu "d chives or shalot, and servers directed. Apricot Stone; Cream.—Half a pot of apricot jam - spread in a glass or silver dish. Mix well with two tablespoonfuls of brandy and a very little . lemon juice, then take'one pint of cream, half .an ounce of isinglass dissolved in a small quantity of milk, and sugar to taste. Stir both well together, and boil gently; when on the boil, take it off, the fire, and strain into the jug. When nearly cold, add two tablespoonfuls of brandy and a little i essence of vanilla, pour it gently over the preserve, put it in a cool place,■ and let it stand till- nexs day. Stick it over with cut almond*.•

Macaroni . Bissoleg.—Boil two ounces of macaroni, then cut small two' rupees of Parniwan .cheese, boiled in’ a little very, good white sauce,’ and highly seasoned' with cayenne.pepper,' mustard, and salt. t Spread but on a dish to 0001. "When cold, roll up. in little halU, *gg and breadcrumb, and fry the same as Kidney Toaat.—Boil. two v idn„Ts j n some very nice gravy till quite tender ;’ then chop them v*ry fin* with • BX&hu piece of onion and a little pan *y, rfP* per and salt. Put iate a sancepenwitb tiw gravy and a little flour to thicken it. Have ready two thin slices of hot buttered toaat. Spread the kidney* on this. Out the toaat in squares, and serve very hot. One kidney is enough lor two pepato^M^,Savoury Eggs.—Boil three eggs hard. Take off the sheila, and cut the egga in half. Bob the yolka “through a wire sieve, then ««them with a little butter, cream, a very little 'anchovy sauce and Worcester sauce, highly seasoned with pepper and salt, and put back into'the white. Sprinkle a* little chopped panley and yolk of egg over them. Servo cold. About three drbpa of each sauce to two eggs.