LETS GO GOSSIPING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3822, 16 October 1936, Page 4

LETS GO GOSSIPING

WOMEN’S INTERESTS: THE HOME.

(By MISS MARY TALLlS.—Special Service to Te Awamutu Courier.)

BEAUTY. PRESERVING YOUR TEETH. Don’t smoke too much or your teeth will discolour. The dentist may make them white and as good as new for you by a thorough cleansing, but dentist-cleansing should not be indulged in more than twice a year. It’s a strain on the enamel if done oftener. But twice a year—and one of these times should always be before your holiday—the dentist should clean your teeth, remove all the tartar which is separating the gum from the tooth, eventually causing loose teeth and irritation, and give you just that dazzling smile you’ll be needing on your holiday. Toothache while on holiday often leads to second-rate treatment, and the loss of a tooth. Most certainly you have to be a brave woman to possess a dazzling smile if you haven’t always lived up to these home-rules. If you have, a visit to the dentist should never mean toitture, because in six months nothing drastic can happen. But if you’re the wait-for-the-pain-to-be-come-intolerable> type, the visit to the dentist does take courage. However, when you’ve walked around the building twice, taken an aspirin, sighed, and wiped away a surreptitious tdar, and slowly oh, so slowly walked up the interminable flight of stairs to his residence, then don’t do things by halves. Confess all pains, Jet him examine all your teeth and go through the treatment to the bitter end. If you have lost a tooth, even where it doesn’t show, have it replaced as soon as you can. If you leave the gap too long, the teeth on each side will loosen, and will not be able to stand the strain of supporting the new tooth when you eventually have it fitted. If a filling drops out, see a dentist at once. Even if the tooth doesn’t hurt it s °on will. If the tooth still has a nerve, all the more important. Losing the nerve of a tooth means that before long it will darken and spoil your smile irrevocably, because this is where no dentistcleansing will help you. THE HOME. THE NEW TABLE CHINA. It is difficult to resist the charms of the latest table china, and the special exhibits arranged during the just past winter have evoked considerable interest. One very noticeable feature is the increasing popularity of service plates. These take the place of heat-resisting mats and a black under-plate, rectangular in shape, is very pleasingly covered with a round plate, as well as being really practical, and will not strike a discordant note whatever the colour and the design of the dinner service itself. Square and rectangular dinner plates themselves are also becoming popular and many decorated with modem designs, generally of a geometrical pattern are available. Prices vary according to the quality of china and the design selected. Few people have any difficulty in recognising really good china for its semi-translucent quality in itself is, as a rule, sufficient indication of its quality. Not everyone, however, can afford the highest priced ware, for there is, unfortunately, not only the initial cost of the dinner or tea service to be considered, but replacements are almost certain to be required from time to time. Still, even should one’s purse fail to run to the more delicate and expensive tableware, there are medium quality china and earthenware sets available in great variety in most delightful colours and designs. Some of the new type chinaware is indicative of the present trend for simple, bold .designs. One service has rectangular-shaped plates, with a creamish ground and neat black design. Placed over a modern green damask cloth of artificial silk and either cotton or linen, a delightful

effect is achieved. Low, semi-circu-lar groughs for flowers pan be assembled together to form a circle, or can be arranged in any other design required. Filled with violets, primroses, and other low-growing flowers, the dining-table is at once decorated without affording any impediment to conversation around the table. Fresh flowers certainly make the most attractive decoration to a table, but during certain months it is often found somewhat of a tax on one’s purse to keep several rooms regularly supplied with fresh blooms. A little ingenuity will, however, provide cheerful decorations at little cost. Fir cones, for instance, can be dabbed with gold or (silver paint, wired and mounted on suitable twigs, a few sprays of/natural coral, even, can be used with success. Attractive and colourful decorations made of glass, fine china or even shells and fish bones, may be purchased, many of which have the advantage of beingwashable. With the green scheme, described above, black candles in low rectangular holders would make an original dinner-table scheme. COOKING. MORE EGG RECIPES. Egg-recipes appear to be popular and I continually receive requests for new dishes of which eggs are to be the basic part. Here are a few attractive dishes. BOSTON EGGS. Grease an au gratin dish, chop half a small onion and fry it in butter until cooked and golden 'brown. Stir in 1 teaspoonful of butter, add i gill milk and continue cooking for a few minutes. Then add 1 oz. haiji (chopped). Separate the yolks and whites of three eggs; stir the yolks and stiffly whisked whites before folding into the mixture. Season this with pepper and salt and pour into the au gratin dish, sprinkling i oz. chopped ham over the top. Bake this in a fairly hot oven for about 20 minutes and serve immediately. VENETIAN EGGS. Chop up a small piece of onion and fry it in 1 oz. butter. Then add 1 pt. tomato soup. Bring to the boil and add i lb grated cheese, pepper and salt, 2 beaten eggs and 1 tablespoonful of milk. Stir everything until the mixture thickens and then serve very hot on slices of toast. Banana Omelette. First of all peel 4 bananas and cut them into slices. Melt 1 oz. butter and toss the banana slices over the heat for a few minutes, then season with salt and pepper. Next beat up 4 eggs, 1 tablespoonful of milk and pepper and salt thoroughly. Melt another ounce of butter in an omelette pan and stir the eggs until they begin to set, then put in the banana filling, fold over the omelette, let it brown slightly and then turn it out on to a hot dish and serve immediately. EGGS IN AMBUSH. Cut a slice off each of 6 tomatoes and scoop out some of the pulp. Break an egg into each tomato, cover the top with a mixture of breadcrumbss butter and chopped parsley, add a little pepper and salt and bake in a moderate oven. HOUSEKEEPING. KEEPING FOOD COOL. One of the biggest problems the housewife has to meet is the storage of food during the hot weather, and those who live in upstairs flats are the greatest sufferers in this respect. Those who have a larder on ground-floor level are fortunate because heat always rises. It is well, therefore, to remember that the floor is the coolest place of all in your larder.

If the larder is cocreted, or tiled then you are more fortunatei still, for this is ideal for storing perishable foods during the hot weather. If it only has a wooden floor, then it would be Worth-while to buy one or two tile squares—or, better still, if you can obtain one of those oldfashioned marble wash-stand tops, you are indeed in luck. Place the tiles or slab of marble on the floor and stand your meat, milk and butter, etc., on this. The upstairs dweller, however, has a little more trouble during the summer, and she will have to take extra precautions. Often she does not even possess a properly built larder, having to make do with a cupboard. If this is the case, she must, on every account, see that it is properly ventilated. By this I mean that a current of air must be able to pass through it in some way. This may mean that half-a-dozen holes will have to be bored in the cupboard door and covered at the back with performated zinc, but this alone is not sufficient, for- air must be able to reach it from outside. The only way to do this is to get a builder to remove a brick from the outside wall of your food cupboard as nsiar floor level as possible. This cavity must then be covered with perforated zinc or filled in with a proper ventilation brick, which can be bought quite cheaply at most builders’ merchants. Should it be altogether out of question to make these alterations to the larder, then the only satisfactory storage of food is to have a cage fixed on the outer wall, facing south or east, if possible. This cage can be like an ordinary meat safe, with perforated zinc sides and should be fixed with hooks so that it can be hung in position when required, and removed at those times of the day when the sun is at its strongest at that side of the house. GENERAL. MINT AND PARSLEY. Mint Julep: Is a very pleasant hotweather beverage. To make it, strain the juice from 5 lemons into a basin and add li teacupsful of sugar, 2 teacupsful of hot water and a handful of bruised mint leaves. Stilwell, strain, and set aside to cool. Before serving, add 3 pints ginger ale, iced, if possible. Serve in glass jugs with mint leaves floating on top. Rhubarb Mint Jelly: This makes a delightful accompanymdnt to roast lamb instead of the more ordinary mint sauce. Wipe the rhubarb, and cook_untd it becomes a pulp, then strain through a sieve. When all the juice is extracted, measure it, and to each pint of liquid allow 1 lb sugar. Put juice and sugar into the preserving pan, and add a bundle of fresh mint, well washed. Boil until the jelly will set when a little is poured on a cold plate—it should be stirred frequently while boiling. Remove the mint before pouring into jars. Parsley Honey: This is delicious, eithqr eaten with bread and butter or as an accompaniment to coid meat. It is also good for invalids? especially those suffering from nervous complaints. Use young freeh parsley. Wash it well, and fill your jelly-pan nearly to the top with the leaves. Add sufficient water to scarcely covei- them. Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for half an hour. Then add the- juice of one lemon to each pint of liquid in the pan. Put in the lemon rinds, then strain through a jelly-bag that has just been dipped in boiling water. Measure, and to each pint of juice allow 1 lb of loaf sugar. Return to the preserving pan, boil until it sets when tested —about 15 to 20 minutes should be long enough—then pour into glass jars. HINTS. When making jam, instead of using a wooden spoon, use a fish slice. When stirring the jam, the bottom edge of the slice scrapes any jam that is inclined to settle on the bottom of the saucepan and prevents the jam from burning. Tomatoes are easily skinned if placed in hot water for a few minutes. Always add a small quantity of sugar to tomatoes, either raw or cooked. A hanger which will not stretch