The Home Circle.

Southern Cross, Volume 12, Issue 43, 21 January 1905, Page 3

The Home Circle.

HOUSEHOLD RECIPES

Asparagus Salad. —Trim neatly one bunch of asparagus; stand it in a kettle of boiling water, cover, and cook for forty-five minutes. Drain and cool. Arrange neatly upon a flat disk, and serve very cold, with French dressing. Brain Cakes.—Soak the brains carefully (sheep’s or pigs’ brains may be used, though calves’ brains are, supposed to be “the thing”), and boil them for a quarter of an hour. Then pound them to a paste with a little chopped sage, a pinch of powdered mace, some salt and pepper, and bind all with a well-beaten egg. Make into small balls, and flatten into cakes the size of half a crown, dip in breadcrumbs, and fry brown. They are supposed to be served only as a garnish for calves’ head, but make an excellent dish for lunch or breakfast if necessary. . . , Devilled Bloaters.—Take a fairly large bloater, pour boiling water on it, remove the skin, and split the fish down the back, so that it forms two fillets; dry them, fry in hot fat, then place each fillet on a slice of buttered toast (hot), sprinkle with cayenne and lemon-juice and a dash of grated cheese, and serve very hot. Sauce to Bat with Cold Boded Pork or Brawn. —Mix together two tablespoonfuls . of moist sugar with one of mustard. Then stir in sufficient vinegar to make a smooth, rather thick sauce that will be found delicious. A tablespoonful of oil may be added by those who like it, and the sauce becomes a very excellent salad-dressing. Curried Eggs.—Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a small saucepan, add two small onions that have been finely minced, and shake them over the fir© till they begin to brown. Then stir in two dessertspoonfuls of curry powder till all is as a smooth paste. Mix well, then stir in two tablespoonfuls of cornflour, and again mix thoioughly. Add half a pint of boiling water, in which a teaspoonful of Boveril has been stirred, and let all simmer together for ten minutes. Then add three hard-boiled eggs that have been cut into neat slices. When all is again thoroughly hot, serve. Buttered Beetroot. —Boil a beetroot in the ordinary w'ay, and while it is hot peel it and cut into slices. Sprinkle each with pepper and salt, rub with a little warmed butter, and finally cover with chopped parsley. Serve as hot as possible, and you will have an appetising-looking vegetable that can be served with any meat. Peach Cup.—Pare eight large, soft, ripe peaches; cut them in halves. Put aside twelve halves, and mash the remaining quantity ; add to them the yolks of two eggs, half a cupful of milk,- a tablespoonful of butter (melted), half a teaspoonful of salt, and one cupful and a-half of flour that lias half a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of baking powder; beat for a moment, and fold in the well-beaten whites. Put a layer of the batter in the bottom of custard cups, put on top of each half a peach, cover until two tablespoonfuls of batter, dust with granulated sugar, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Turn from the cups, and serve hot, with hard sauce or a pitcher of cream. Panned Tomatoes. —Cut tomatoes into halves, dust with salt and pepper; put a bit Of blitter in the centre of each, and place in a slow oven for twenty minutes. Servfe on a heated plate. Fresh Peas Pudding.—Boil two quarts of shelled peas for fifteen minutes until tender ; press through a colander ; add two teaspoonfuls of salt, half a cupful of cream, and -a dash of pepper. Fill into custard cups, and stand in a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Serve with cream sauce. To take the place of meat for luncheon or supper. This may be made in the morning and cooked just at serving time. Bread Croquettes.—These are very nice when they are served with fricassee' of chicken, lamb, or veal, and may take the place of other starchy food. Rub stale bread in the hands until it is evenly crumbed. To one quart of crumbs add four tablespoonfuls of sugar, half a cup of dean currants, a grating N of nutmeg, and three well-beaten eggs. Work this mixture with the hands until it is moist, form in small pyramids, dip hi egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry in smoking-hot fat. Sugar may be omitted if desired, and salt, pepper, and parsley added. Hot Crayfish.—Pick the flesh out of’the crayfish, chop it up, mix with it a few grains of nutmeg, salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste, half as much breadcrumbs as you have crayfish, and a good lump of butter. Clean the shell nicely, then put back the mixture with a few bits of butter on top; put the shell either in the oven or in front of the fir© till the mixture is thoroughly hot and a nice brown on top ; then serve. _ , , , . . Hulnah Puddling.—Wash a cupful of rice and add to it a quart of milk, a cupful of sugar, and a teaspoonful of com starch dissolved: in a little cold milk. Flavor with the quarter of a nutmeg grated. Bake an hour and a-half, stirring down occasionally, but do not stir down the skin which forms on top; then let it brown. When done take from the oven, remove the brown skin, and when the pudding is cool lay over the top preserved cherries or strawberries. Make a meringue with the whites of three eggs and three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and heap over the top of the fruit. Set in an oven a moment to brown a delicate color. Eat with cream. An Apple Dainty. —Peel and: core as

many large apples as required. Make a nice syrup, throwing in a few lumps of whole ginger, and simmer gently for an hour or two in an enamelled stewpan. Put in the apples whole, taking care that they do not touch each other, and stew, them gently till tender. Lift them out with a fish slice, and put them on a flat dish till cool; then remove them to a glass or silver dish, and fill the space in each apple left by the core with whipped cream colored with vegetable carmine. Creamed Parsnips.—Boil tender, scrape, and slice lengthwise. Put over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of butter, pepper, and salt, and a little minced parsley. Shake until the mixture boils. Dish the parsnips, add to the sauce three tablespoonfuls 6f cream or milk in which has been stirred a quarter of a spoonful of flour. Boil once and ponr over the parsnips. Macaroni a la Italienne.—Divide a quarter of a pound of macaroni into 4in pieces. Simmer fifteen minutes in plenty of boiling water, salted. Drain. Put the macaroni into a saucepan and turn over it a strong soup stock, enough to prevent burning. Strew over it an ounce of grated cheese; when the cheese is melted, dish. Put alternate layers of macaroni and cheese, then turn over the soup stock, and bake Half an hour.

Eggs in Oases. —Make little paper cases of buttered! writing paper; put a small piece of butter in each, and a little chopped parsley or onion, pepper, and salt. Place the cases upon a gridiron over a moderate fire of bright coals, and when the butter melts break a fresh egg into each case. Strew in upon them a few seasoned breadcrumbs, and when nearly done glaze the tops with a hot shovel. Serve in the paper cases.

Mock Cream Pie.—Take three eggs, one pint of milk, a cupful of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of corn starch or three of flour; beat the sugar, corn starch, and yolks of eggs together; after the milk has come to the boil stir in the mixture and add a pinch of salt and about a teaspoonful of butter. Make crust the sarnie as any pie; then fill with the custard, grate over a little nutmeg, and hake again. Take the whites of the eggs and beat to a stiff froth with two tablespoonfuls of sugar, spread over the top and brown in a quick oven. HINTS. When making porridge don’t add the salt until the oatmeal is nearly cooked. Don’t close the oven door with a bang when a cake is baking; the jar will make the cake heavy. Shabby curtain rods and Tings, if enamelled to match the woodwork of the room, look as good as new. Ping-pong balls, if they become dented, should be left for isome little time in warm water, and the dents will disappear. When ironing, stand on a soft, thick rug, and you will notice that your feet do not become nearly so quickly tired. Old stockings make excellent floor polishers. Cut off the feet, cut the legs down the seam, and sew two or three together. When cooking, never leave a spoon in anything that you want to boil quickly. A spoon conducts the heat away from the liquid.

When cleaning windows use paraffin instead of water, and they will look better and keep cleaner longer. Very little paraffin will be needed.

To Prevent the Saucepan Burning.—When milk has to be boiled, put into it just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat to boiling point, and pour the milk into the boiling water. To Take Out a Screw.—lf you want to take out a screw that is difficult to loosen, heat a poker red-hot, and hold it on the head of the screw for a short time; then, while it is still hot, apply the screwdriver, and it will come out quite easily. For whitening hearths the following is excellent. Mix together equal parts of ale and water, and heat to boiling point. Mix with enough whiting to make a thin paste. Paint over hearth after washing. Loose knife-handles can be firmly fixed on again. Put a little powdered resin into the handle, and heat the part of the knife above the blade until it is red hot. Push at once into the handle, and when the resin has cooled it will hold firmly in place. Do not forget to clean out the cistern periodically. To do this, tie up the ballvalve to a stick placed across the top of the cistern, scour it out thoroughly with diluted disinfectants, and wipe out all impurities. When cutting fruit for fruit salad always use a silver knife. A steel knife spoils the flavor.

To prevent the dry heat of gas fires, always place a vessel of cold water near the stove. It also removes any gas fumes that may arise.

When storing silver, if you wrap the articles in tin-foil or silver-paper, you will find that they will not tarnish. A teapot lid should always be left open. If shut, it is liable to get mouldy. Pieces of old, soft silk axe the best for dusting china and ornaments. To whiten doorsteps whiten a litle quicklime with milk, and after well washing paint this over the steps. To clean very dirty brass, scrub with a nail brush-dipped in powdered bathbrick and paraffin. Even the most tarnished brass can be cleaned in this way. Polish with dry dust and a soft duster. A frying-pan, to be kept really nice, needs to be well rubbed with brown paper every time after using. If this ia done it will very seldom need washing. \ Shabby carpets, if well washed with carpet soap, are wonderfully improved in appearance. Choose a fine, bright day, and

have all the windows open. Don’t make wetter than is absolutely necessary, and rub as dry as possible after wetting. A zinc bucket that leaks can be temporarily mended with putty. Plaster it over the hole on the outside, and let it thoroughly harden before using. The crambe tataria, an umbelliferous plant resembling seakale, is put forward by an ex-president of the Academic de Cuisine at Paris as a promising new vegetable with a flavor recalling, but-still finer than, asparagus and cauliflower. Tartars and Cossacks eat the sweet roots, both raw and cooked, but it is also for the sprouts that its cultivation is recommended. The root is boiled in salt water and seasoned with butter. A salad of the young leaves and slices of roots are other dainties. J

DON’T MARRY THE GIRL

Who cannot control her temper. Who is deceitful, and in not true to her friends.

Who fuses, fumes, and fidgets about everything. Whose highest aspiration has never soared above self. Who is amiable to suitors and “horrid” to her family.

Whose chief interests in life are dress and amusements.

Who lacks thrift, and has no idea of the value of money. • Who never thinks that her mother needs an outing, amusement, or a change.

PERSONAL AND GENERAL

An interesting experiment is now being tried in New York, where a'little more than a year ago a hotel exclusively for the residence of business and professional women, or for unattended women occasionally visiting the city, was opened. The Martha Washington Hotel, as it is called, can accommodate over 400 guests, at prices varying from a dollar a day upwards. Special terms are also arranged for permanent residents, who can have furnished or unfurnished rooms. /

Courtship, as conducted in Thibet, would scarcely arouse the enthusiasm of the Western girl. Bargaining between the suitor and the father of the girl goes on for weeks ■without any reference to the wishes of the woman. The requisite price having been paid, she. is led to the house of her husband, where she is subjected to a severe beating in order properly to humble her spirit, and made to run round the village loudly proclaiming the merits and valor of her husbandr'Tneanwhile touching those objects which are supposed to have a potent influence over her welfare. An eccentric millionaire, who has just died-at Des Moines, lowa (U.S.), has left £IO,OOO to found a home for the’ wives of drunkards.

Helen Keller, the blind typist, intends devoting her attention to literature, and has engaged to edit a high-class periodical for the blind. It has long been her ardent desire to see the blind people of the United States provided with a magazine of high quality and varied interest, equal in most respects to the best journals published for those who can see.

PERSONAL AND GENERAL

The Princess J of Monaco, who bas just surprised the Paris police authorities by telling them that she never counts her money or examines her jewels, may truly claim to be a cosmopolitan. Born the daughter of a Paris banker, of German, Jewish, and American origin, she married as quite a girl the Due De Richelieu. Left a widow with two children, she then became the wife of the Prince of Monaco. Her married life has not been a happy one, and she and her husband, finding their tastes very dissimilar, spend much >f their time apart. The Princess, who is known to her intimates as Princess Alice, often stays quietly in England. A man who for twenty years has masqueraded as a woman has just been detected. He was- employed as a female cook in many rich families, and although he came in contact with corps of female servants, bis disguise was never suspected. A sudden illness, however, during which he became unconscious, led to the betrayal of his secret. “When I was a young man,” he explained, “I had a tenor voice, and used to sing in the choir. The boys used to poke fun at< me on account of my voice, and made life almost unbearable. Whereever I went the boys used to call me girls’ names. I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I decided to dress as a woman, and pass as such. That was twenty years ago.” The International Society of Dressmakers, assembled at New York, have condemned the growing practice of padding ladies’ dresses as unhygienic. They declared that American women generally Lave the best figures in the world, but when too Inin at the bust or hips, Mr Francis, diess expert, recommended the placing of ruffles of silk between the lining and material of the clothes. The growing tendency to wear tight-fitting skirts without underskirts in the hot weather was condemned as indecent. Japanese women, for all their pretty listlessness of carriage and manner, are beginning to take an interest in athletic spotts. An American woman tells how she played tennis in Japan with native women. “It is wonderful how agile they are,” she said, “and it certainly is a most extraordinary eight to see them playing in the regular Japanese dress, the pretty soft eilk robe so associated with reclining ease, and the thicksoled sandals. You can imagine the effect of the sunlight on the sheen and gorgeous

hues of the silken dress. Of course, the serve and return of the balls send the gayly-costumed ladies into the prettiest o t posturing. They look like flowers lightly blowing about the court. The thick-soled sandals are not hard to run in. ' Indeed, I was assured they were most comfortable for the sport. Some of the Japanese ladies I met set up a strong enough gam© to play with their husbands, who enjoyed the imported gam© immensely.” The dislike entertained in Servia to fair hair is so great that, according to a writer in the ‘ Boudoir,’ it extends even to the white hair of old age. No Servian matron who respects herself would appear in public with white hair. Nor does she hide the fact that she dyes it periodically. This custom has come down to her from her mother and grandmother, and it is not the outcome of vanity, but of decency, she will tell you. The employment of girls in banks is no new experiment. According to/a writer in ‘T.P.’s Weekly,’ the Bank of Franc© took women into its employment as long ago as 1852. This beginning only consisted of four girls in very minor positions, but before a year was finished the four had become twelve. Twenty years later the number was 100 ; and to-day 300 women work Bank, of whom three are among the principal cashiers.

A great change (says the London ‘Daily Despatch ’) was noticeable in the garb worn by the servants soliciting Hire at Carlisle hiring fair. A few years ago the women and girls came flaunting into the city on a hiring day in tawdry finery of a frequently ridiculous type, but on Saturday there was none of this. In fact, in their smart tailor-made costumes it was difficult to distinguish them at times from the ordinary city girl. Mrs Humphry, writing in the December ‘Boudoir,’ remarks that the custom nowadays at smart weddings is to have the jewels shown on tables, with glass covers that fasten down with lock and key; otherwise two or three detectives have to be engaged. It is curious how easily some pieces of jewellery manage to catch in a handkerchief or muff, or eyen in a sleeve, on such occasions ; and not only to catch, but to get fastened on. As things are at present, the owners of valuable garments are afraid to leave them in the cloak room for fear of some mischance. This is, indeed, so well recognised that the attendants are surprised when someone of inexperience hands over a sable trimmed garment or a lace evening coat to be hung up with the rest.