HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4066, 16 February 1932, Page 58

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

If you are storing anything in tins

that you wish to keep perfectly airtight, fix a piece of narrow adhesive tope round the tin so that it covers the edge of the lid. Air cannot possibly enter if this simple precaution is taken.

Rich fruit cakes are often spoilt in appearance by all the fruit settling at the bottom. It is quite easy to prevent this by shaking the fruit in a little flour and adding it to the cake mixture at the last minute.

If the blades of the mincing machine lose their sharpness, break up a little bathbrick into small pieces, put these inside it, and turn the handle for a minute or two. You will find the blades as sharp as ever again. Wash the machine before putting any food through.

Should wine be spilt on a tablecloth or napkin, little damage will be done if dealt with at once. While the stain is wet, sprinkle powdered starch thickly over it and leave it on for an hour or two. Shake out the powder and wash it in the ordinary way, and the stain should disappear.

It is impossible sometimes to prevent odours from strong-smelling foods, such as caultliowers, cabbages, onions, fish, and so on, pervading the house when cooking is in progress. A spoonful of ground coffee or some dried lemon or orange peel burnt on a few red cinders on a shovel, or even burnt string, will soon dispel these, however.

Lemon-juice mixed with salt is excellent for cleaning articles of lacquered brass that have become dull or stained. Squeeze a little of the juice on a soft cloth, dip this into salt and rub gently all over the surface. Wash afterwards in warm, soapy water and polish with a chamois leather.

Scent spilt on a highly polished dress-ing-table will take out the polish and leave a bad stain. To prevent this, wipe up the perfume immediately and rub the part well with a cloth which has been wrung out in paraffin. Leave for a day, then polish with furniture polish, and the mark will have disappeared.

If your skin is at all sensitive your hands soon show it during the cold weather. If there is much housework or washing to be done, matters grow even worse.

Still, there are precautions to be taken. If you are going to have your liands in water for very long, or are going to do a good deal of rough and dirty work, rub vaseline well into the cuticles and round the nails, or dig the nails into soap and rub more soap round the tops of your fingers, then if you are washing, cold cream the hands well before you start. Add a little vinegar to your rinsing water when you finally wash your hands after all the work is done. This will prevent roughness and chapping. Lemon will help to make your hands white and keep them white, and an occasional massage with olive oil will do much towards keeping them soft.

Tomato juice with a few drops of lemon juice, is a good astringent for greasy skins, also enlarged pores. Dab on with the fingers, round the nostrils, and the cheek bones wcH.

Your cakes will not taste of dripping if you add two drops of essence of lemon to the dripping and beat well before adding the sugar.

When marking linen, take a rather blunt lead pencil, write the name or initials, and follow over the pencil mark with ink. The lead prevents the ink from running.

Bathrobes for babies and small children can be made from Turkish towels. They are very neat, substantial and inexpensive. Take an ordinary Turkish towel, fold once, so that both border edges form the bottom edge, slit up centre of one side, fold over about Ilin, on each side of slit and sew down. This forms the front and neck. Sew the edges together, leaving openings big enough for armholes. Sew two large buttons on front. For babies I use a white curtain tie-back for the cord. But for older children it is advisable to buy a longer cord, and sometimes two towels are necessary.

When the bacon is thoroughly dry, sprinkle the fleshy side with boraeic acid, then sew up in a cloth and put into a box. Sprinkle wood ashes thickly over and around and among the bacon, and cover the box.

A sure preventative of fermentation in jam is to add a small teaspoonful of vinegar to the top of each jar when the contents are quite cold, just before covering it. Any kind of jam may be treated thus, and will keep for a very much longer time.

It has been proved that if a quarter of a cup of skimmed milk is added to the blueing water it will help to prevent the clothes streaking.

Add a little borax to your bath water; it softens it as well as any bath salts, and is very invigorating. Add a little to the water in which you bathe cuts and wounds; it is a good antiseptic. Add a little to the water in which you wash clothes—especially flannels. " It keeps them beautifully soft. Use some in the water in which you boil clothes; you will then need to use far less soap. Add some to the rinsing water; it will prevent coloured articles fading and restore yellow articles to their pristine whiteness. A little added to the starch water will impart a beautiful glow and stiffness to tablecloths and collars. Added to the water in which you wash kitchen towels it will help to remove grease and dirt, and will save a lot of hard rubbing.