HOME INTERESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3214, 20 October 1915, Page 69

HOME INTERESTS.

BOILED LEG OF LAMB. Put the meat, which will be a small joint, into a largo saucepan, with enough water just to cover it; let it boil up once, add a teacupful of cold water, and then allow it to simmer, first removing the scum which the cold water has caused to be thrown up. Continue simmering until the lamb is about half-oooked, then add a teaspoonfu! of salt and cook again until done. Boil apart some new carrots, garnish the lamb with them, and serve with caper sauce. COCOANUT TART. Quarter of a pound of desiccated cocoanut, a small lump of butter, two tablespoonfuls of moist sugar, one large or two small eggs. Beat all together well. Line a deep plate with paste, cover with a layer of jam, fill with the above ingredients. Then twist a few strips of pastry over the tart, and bake a golden brown. RHUBARB SHORTCAKE. Half a pound of flour, 4oz of butter and lard mixed; 1 dessertspoonful of castor sugar, a teaspoonful of baking powder, a pinch of salt, and the right quantity of cold water to mix. Put flour, salt, powder, and sugar into a bowl, mix well, rub in the butter and lard, and mix to a stiff paste with water. Roll out thin, and divide into

three portions of a round shape. Spread ons round with butter, and put it on a buttered tin; butter the second round, and place on top of first, and then the third done in th* same way. Bake a pale brown in a quick oven. Take the rounds a.part, and spread stewed rhubarb between, sandwich fashion. Sprinkle sugar on the top, and serve hot. PEARS ‘WITH SAGO CREAM. Select eight even-sized stewing pears, peel thinly, then cut in halves, remove the core, and cook the fruit till tender in a s\ r nrp made with a gill of water and 4oz of loaf sugar; flavour the syrup with lemon-rind* clove, or whole cinnamon. When done, strain the pears on a sieve, reduce the syrup with a little lemon-juice, then strain, and let it got cold. Boil up half a pint of milk, stiy In 2oz of fine sago, and cook slowly for 28 minutes, add loz of castor sugar, and stir in a little cream. Next put the cooked sago in a souffle dish, and leave it to cool. Arrange the cooked pears neatly in the souffle dish on top of the sago cream. Decorate with halves of glace cherries and slices of angelica. STEAMED MARMALADE PUDDING. Required: Half & pound of breadcrumbs, Jib of suet, 2oz of peel, the rind and juice of one lemon, six tablespoonfuls of marmalade, one egg, half a gill of milk. If the bread is too stale to rub through a sieve pass it through a mincing machine. Chop the suet finely and peel coarsely, and grate the rind of the lemon. Put the marmalade and the strained juice of the lemon in a basin. Beat up the egg, and add it and the milk. Beat these well together; then add the crumbs, suet, and peel. Well grease a pudding basin, put in the mixture, twist a piece of greased paper round the top of the basin, put it in a saucepan with boiling] water to come half way up it, and steam tha pudding for two and a-haif hours. Then ro-

Judge (to prisoner): “How big was the stone you threw? Was it as big as my head?” Prisoner (smiling): “Yes, .your I (honor, but not so thick !” '

One single tuft is left on the shaven crown of a Mussulman for Mahomet to grasp hold of when drawing tiro deceased to paradise.

move the paper, turn the pudding on to a hot dish, sprinkle a little castor sugar over the top, and pour round some marmalade sauce. To make the sauce, add two good tablespoonfuls of marmalade to half a pint of water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for a moment; then strain, and slightly thicken with cornflour. SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH VEGETABLES. Though so few pepole serve them together, eggs really go extremely well with vegetables. Required: Three eggs, loz of butter, half a teacupful of milk, one large tablespoonful of crumbs, two or throe tablespoonfuls of cooked vegetables, such as peas, beans, flower of cauliflower, dice of potato, or tomato, salt, pepper, toast. Well beat the eggs, add the milk and crumbs, and allow to stand until the latter are thoroughly soaked. Then add the vegetables, which are best previously heated in a little butter, sauce, or milk, and then strained. Season the mixture and toast and lightly butter some slices of bread. (I never cut oil the crusts now unless I am absolutely sure that they will be used for other purposes, such as to servo in soups, or as browned crumbs, etc.) Next heat the butter in a saucepan, pour in the egg mixture, and keep it continually stirred over a low fire until the whole mass is of a soft, creamy consistency. Then pour it at once over the toasts, and servo at once. The common error in preparing this dish is to overcook it. This makes the eggs tough and leathery, and far less digestible. COLD MEAT RISSOLES. Either cold cooked meat or fish can be used for the following rissoles: —Minoe up the meat or fish, and season it to taste with mixed herbs, a little sauce, pepper and salt. Take as many cold potatoes as yon have—four or five, at least, will be wanted—and mash up with one egg to a nice stiff paste. Roll this out on a floured board to about Jin in thickness, and cut into rounds with a fair-sized cutter. Place the prepared meat upon one half of the potato round, fold the other half over, and pinch the edges together. Prepare so far overnight. Next morning fry lightly, and delicious patties will be the result. MADGE NEILL FRASER MEMORIAL FUND. A short time ago an appeal was made to the clubs affiliated to the New Zealand Ladies’ Golf Union for help in raising funds for a Scottish Hospital Unit in Serbia, as a memorial to Miss Neill Fraser, The pathetic circumstances of Miss Fraser’s death seem to have enlisted strong sympathy, and a large proportion of the L.G.U. clubs in New Zealand have sent in subscriptions to Mrs Mellsop, ffion. secretary, the total amount realised being £Bl 19s 6d. This provides for rather more than three cots, each costing £25, and the whole sum, less £1 4s, cost of cabling, has been forwarded to Mrs Marshall, Queen Mary’s School, Walsall, Staffordshire, the English secretary for the fund. Appended is a full list of subscriptions received to date (October 14). It should bo stated that in addition to the sums in this list, the Otago Ladies’ Golf Club sent £l4, and the Greymouth club £1 5s direct to England, before the list was opened in New Zealand. With these sums added, the contribution from Now Zealand lady golfers amounts to £97 4s 6d. Clubs and subscriptions:—■

Cultivate Small Talk. One sometimes wonders whether many of the awkward pauses and painful silences that spoil festivities are not the result of the old adage “Little children should be seen and not heard.” The talent for small talk, and the knack of making tactful observations at the right moments, are undoubtedly arts which are not acquired in the households where silence in the young is said to be the greatest virtue. Nothing is more disastrous to those who would create a pleasing impression than th.e miserable tongue-tied shyness which puts an end to the most valiant efforts of a conversationalist with a monosyllable. Cultivate the art of small talk. Force yourself to he responsive. Use your eyes and brain so that anything said to you produces a train of thought, and you. are never reduced to a mere “Yes” or “No.” If a tablecloth has become stained by tea or coffee, it should be removed as soon as possible, and the stained portion placed to soak in luke-warm -water. It should then be wrung out and the cloth laid flat on a deal table or other unpolished surface, the stains being then gone over with a piece of sponge dipped m glycerine. If finally washed in a cold soapy hither the damped part may be dried and the cloth used once more before sending it to the laundry, the want of gloss in the washed portion being hardly noticeable. A good scouring with salt and vinegar is quite the best way of cleaning enamellel pots, pans, plates, etc. The only danger with this ware is that of the enamel cracking and chipping. As soon as this happens, the utensils should he discarded, or they may cause serious trouble should the enamel get into the food.

£ s. d. New Plymouth 10 0 0 Christchurch 7 0 0 Mrs Roue Lewis and Guy Williams 5 5 0 Hagley 4 10 0 Wellington 3 10 0 Miramar 3 6 0 Hamilton 3 5 0 Otago 3 6 Auckland 3 0 0 Maungakiekio 3 0 0 Napier 3 0 0 Nelson 2 16 6 Karori 2 6 6 Richmond Hill 2 5 0 Timaru 2 3 0 Wanganui 2 2 0 Takapau 2 i 6 Rawer a 2 0 0 Waipukurau 2 0 0 Poverty Bay 2 0 0 Waitemata 1 10 0 Manawatu 1 7 0 Stratford 1 7 0 Hokitika 1 4 0 New Brighton 1 1 0 Miss Armstrong, Kaipara .. .. .. 1 1 0 Hastings 1 0 0 Hutt 1 0 0 Invercargill 1 0 0 Jolmsonville 0 15 6 Thames 0 12 0 Pate a 0 11 0 Grey town 0 10 0 Paeroa 0/7 £81 19 0 6