LETS GO GOSSIPING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3804, 4 September 1936, Page 4

LETS GO GOSSIPING

WOMEN’S INTERESTS: THE HOME.

(By

MISS MARY TALLIS.

-Special Service to Te Awamutu Courier.)

FASHIONS. THE NEW STYLES. First, the new outline. This ds still square-shouldered in effect for your tailored suits, while many frocks have the wide-topped sleeves, with the fullness taken up by gathers, tucks and pleats arranged horizontally, for the movement is from shoulder to shoulder. This makes for the required wide effect, while chests are flat, hips small, and skirts narrower and, for day wear, a trifle shorter. Skirt fullness, when it does appear, is below the knee, while many skirts are slit. There is, of course, the full-skirted dress in chiffon or muslin for the garden party or race meeting, but these are in the minority. Sportswear gets a great deal of attention in the spring showings, and the divided skirt, for golf or country walking, really looks as though it has come to stay. There are plus fours for golf, some very summery in white pique, with a short coat and blue jersey, others in plain jersey. Shorts, with skirts or dresses to button over them, for beach wear are now preferred to trousers and low backs. For tailored suits the season’s success is the loose-back or sac coat of hip length, while the threequarter swagger coat in big checks is favoured, also the woollen top coat, ' belted, double-breasted, with wide lapels. Boleros are worn with flat ' Spanish sailors, side-tilted; Eton , coats, like a mess jacket are popular; one example being in white hatfelt with a blue-felt waistcoat, blue satin trousers and red belt. Many short sac coats are in bright contrasting prints worn with dark dresses. BEAUTY. BEAUTY AT FORTY. Prettiness belongs to the young girl, but loveliness is the special possession of the older woman. It includes graciousness, all those little arts of pleasing that a clever woman is learning all her life; it implies being suitably dressed, perfectly groomed—“ Well produced” in the dramatic sense. (Women who write to me often say: “I suppose I am really too old to bother about these things,” or “I suppose I must expect it at my age.” But when a woman is older she owes it to herself and her family, even mere than when she was young, to be as attractive as possible. She doesn’t need to compete with younger Women; she must be herself—poised, immaculate, lovely. ! Like beauty at all the seven ages of woman, loveliness over forty has to be worked for, just a bit. First, and perhaps most important of all, is the question of figure. No woman need resign herself to that ungraceful “middle-aged spread.” She may not have sapling lines that were hers at eighteen, but neither need she have the bulging hipline that so many people seem to consider inevitable. This is a healthy era; everywhere, all over the country, are physical culture classes where older women are welcome. Then there is the all-im-portant “daily-dozen” at homeland half-an-hour’s walk every afternoon. THE HOME. MORNING DISHES. In most houses there is little time to spare in the morning, before breakfast; therefore a few dishes which can be prepared overnight are always welcome. LAMB OR MUTTON CAKE. For this dish oddments of lamb or mutton which are in the larder, or can be obtained from' the butcher, will be found quite good. Put them in a pan with 1 turnip, 1 onion, 1 carrot, all cut up, then add cold water to cover and add salt to taste.

Bring to the boil, remove the scum, then simmer until the meat is just half-cooked. Line a greased baking dish with J lb. lean ham, pack in the lean parts of the mutton or lamb, season, add one onion, chopped evenly. When packed neatly, put a weight on the meat and stand it in a moderate oven to bake slowly for 1 hour. After removing from the oven let it get cold before taking off the weight. If carefully done the meat can be ftirned out and cut in thin slices, or if preferred, it may be served from the baking dish. POTTED PORK. Cut 1 lb pork and 4 lb ham into neat i-inch cubes and place in a jar with a gill of stock, 2 teaspoonsful chopped parsley, a little grated lemon rind, salt and a pinch of cayenne. Cover with a piece of greased paper and cook very gently until tender. Dissolve i oz. leaf-gelatine in ’ gill stock and add it to the liquid covering the meat. Decorate the sides and bottom of a mould with slices of two hard boiled eggs. Arrange in an attractive pattern, then sprinkle on the bottom some chopped parsley. Add the meat and liquid from the stewing jar, also slices of another hard-boiled egg and some more parsley. Leave to cool and set. When required turn out on a dish and garnish with sprays of parsley. The stock can be made ready from the trimmings of pork and ham with a bit of carrot, turnip and onion boiled in it. CHICKEN PIE. Cut 1 chicken (or 1 old fowl first steamed) into joints and trim 1 lb veal (which may be from the neck) free from bones, and cut into pieces. Divide 1 lb rashers of fat bacon into strips and slice 2 hard boiled eggs. Place the veal and bacon at the bottom of a pie-dish, sprinkle with a little evenly chopped parsley, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cover with the small joints of chicken and sliced boiled eggs. Add 1 cupful of stock, or water; put a crust of flaky pastry ever and brush the top with beaten egg (be careful to avoid putting the egg over the edges of the pastry) Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes, then for 1 hour and 10 minutes in a cooler part of the oven. Have 4 sheets of gelatine dissolved in 2 cupfuls of stock or water made warm, and when the pie is removed from the oven, lift the decoration from the middle of the crust and insert a funnel in the hole. Strain the liquid containing the dissolved gelatine and pour it gradually through the funnel into the pie until it is full. Remove the funnel replace the pastry decoration and let the pie get cold before serving. LAUNDRY. WASHING PILLOWS. W’hen you are washing bedding you may like to know how to wash the leathers in your pillows. First of all, get a strong calico bag and into it tip about half of the feathers in your pillow. Do not try to wash too many at a time, for they take so long to dry. Tie up the end of the bag tightly, then make a good lather with warm soapy water to which a little ammonia has been added, put the bag of feathers into this and press down. Leave in the lather for about 20 minutes, pressing down from time to time, then prepare a fresh bath of lather and repat the process again. Rinse in several changes of clear, warm water, adding a little odourless disinfectant to the last water in order to make sure that the feathers are thoroughly sweet and clean, and also as a preventative against insects. The bag should then be hung on the line to dry. Shake and beat it occasionally until you are quite satisfied that the feathers are quite dry. It will probably take two or three

days in the sunshine. With another calico bag treat the remainder of the feathers in the same way. In the meantime wash the tick, dry and iron it, then well wax the inside to make it featherproof. Some people soap the tick and it is just as effective, but there is the drawback of having to damp the ticking first, so be careful to air it thoroughly afterwards. A very little powdered camphor mixed in with the feathers when replacing them will help to preserve them. HOUSEKEEPING. STORING LINEN. The problem of storing household linen perplexes every housewife at some time or another. Most houses have suitable accomodation for the storing of linen, and this is usually in the cupboard containing the hot-water tank. To be really efficient it should have slatted shelves to allow a free passage of air, and the cupboard itself should be ventilated with two or three holes ‘bored through the top of the door. In arranging your "linen cupboard, try to divide it into separate sections containing bed-linen, table linen, and so on. Any that is not in constant use should be wrapped in muslin or pieces of old sheeting, and a piece of tape labelled with a description of the article and sewn on the outer cover will help. Keep real linen apart from cotton goods, and large sheets apart from small sheets, etc. Many wives will admit to having had to turn their beautifully laundered linen upside down because they wtere not able to find the article required in a hurry. In order to prevent dust getting to the linen, place a strip of muslin on the shelf before arranging the linen, the strip being large enough to wrap right over the top of the stack of linen and tuck in at the back. A few tihy bags of arris root tucked between the piles will add to the fragrance of your sheets and pillow slips. And, last but not least, see that every article is perfectly aired before storing away. This is so important that I cannot let you riin the risk of overlooking it. GENERAL. A BOTTLE OF VINEGAR. How often is the bottle of vinegar allowed to repose on the shelf of the store cupboard until it is required for mint sauce or for ordinary pickling purposes? Yet vinegar has proved to be a most valuable help to the housewife in other branches of cooking, and also in cleaning. When eggs are scarce and expensive, try using a dessertspoonful of vinegar and 1 egg for a cake which without the vinegar would require three eggs. A few drops added to the water in which fish is being boiled will keep the flesh firm and white. If an egg has a thin shell or a slight crack, a few drops of vinegar added to the water in which it is to be boiled will prevent any further damage. A cloth dipped in vinegar and water is excellent for wiping meat in muggy weather—it preserves the freshness of the meat. If you have bought one of the cheaper cuts of meat and fear that it may be tough, soak it in vinegar and water before cooking. If sour milk is wanted in a hurry for scones or crumpets, quarter of a teaspoonful of vinegar added to half a cupful of milk will curdle it and provide the necessary sour milk in a very short time. For removing the smell of cabbage, fish or onions from pans, vinegar is invaluable. For a tarnished ashtray, rub hard with methylated spirit, then with hot vinegar and salt, brushing well with an old toothbrush. The ashtray will become as new. Blacklead mixed with vinegar gives a lasting shine and added brilliancy to stoves. Vinegar is also very useful for removing greasy fingermarks from doors and from furniture. Wash and rub well with a cloth wrung out from vinegar and water, mixed in ■equal proportions. Rub well afterwards, and it will be found that all traces of grease have disappeared.

For both varnished and painted surfaces this treatment is equally successful. For a leather reviver and general polisher, mix 1/3 of a pint of vinegar with 2/3 of a pint of linseed oil. Shake well together until it becomes the consistency of cream. Rub well into the leather or furniture and polish with a soft duster. In the laundry, vinegar is useful for reviving faded colours; add 1 teaspoonful of vinegar to every quart of cold water, wring lightly and dry quickly. ■ HINTS. A large piece of perforated zinc placed at the bottom of the copper will drive the boiling water to the top and the clothes will be boiled in half the time. Be sure all edges of the zinc are turned in and hammered flat. When picot edging is required on material that is cut on the cross, to prevent it from stretching, cut a narrow strip of the same material on the straight, and tack along the bais edge, on the wrong side. Hava the picoting done on the double material. When the hem-stitching is cut through, this extra piece of material can be cut and gently pulled away. The handles of aluminium saucepans are usually too hot to touch when in use. A spring clothes peg clipped on to the handle will enable you to lift the lid, when you want to look in the saucepan, without any fear of burning your fingers Ari inexpensive way of providing frieze for one’s walls is to buy a roll of striped wallpaper and then cut out the stripes and use these for your frieze. It is really most effective, and any amount of frieze can be cut from a single roll of wallpaper. Of course, in choosing the paper you must see that the colour is right for the wall on which you propose using it. Tarnished electroplate may be cleaned with hot water in which there is a little ammonia and yellow soap. Afterwards use ordinary good plate powder, allowing it to dry before polishing.