Lady Bledisloe.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

Lady Bledisloe.

Lady Bledisloe, to succeed Lady Alice Fergusson as Her Excellency of New Zealand, was born to the very ordinary surname, of Jenkins and christened Alina Kate Elaine. Her lather was the wealthy Welsh business magnate, Lord Giantawe, whose children were all daughters. After his death the Hout Elahie (Mrs. Cooper-Smith from 1920 to. 1926) succeeded to some of her father’s directorships much as Lady Rhondda followed her father, Lady Bledisloe thus became the first woman chairman of directors of a railway company, the Swan-sea-Mumbles, one" of the oldest lines in the world. She is also director of a colliery. Lord Bledisloe is an expert in agriculture, and Lady Bledisloe (his second wife, married in 1928) shares his tastes in this.respect.

Foreign Beds. In one of the most famous and most comfortable hotels in Germany, guests are consulted about their beds before the beds are made up. A list of questions is provided, and if after answering these the giiest does not sleep well, it°is not the fault of ‘‘mine host.” If one likes a feather bed, he may have it; if he prefers the healthier hair mattress, it is at hand. If he likes a bolster and a dozen pillows, he will not be given one pillow less. If he abhors bolsters they will be spirited away. If he wishes to sleep in blankets he will not be given - sheets. Excluding Gelmans, the Swiss are probably the most thorough bed-makers in the world. Certainly the beds in Switzerland are verj r comfortable, but .the atmosphere there is also very clean, and it is possible to hang bedclothes -and.-mattresses out of windows, for thorough airing. An Author* and a Cook.

Mrs. Conrad, wife of Joseph Conrad, the author,' has produced a' cookery book, entitled “Cooking- in a Small House,” and some of the hints are most useful and probably will interestmany. “Cooking,”:she writes, “ought not to take too much of one s time. For my part I never went into the kitchen before half-past eleven for a halfpast one lunch of. three dishes. But once the cooking is begun one must give all one’s attention and care to it. No dish, however - simple, will cook itself. You must not leave : the. kitchen while the cooking is going on—unless of iieccssity, ..and only for a very few min■tdes at a time.'’ Her practical . hints go straight to the -heart of a trouble. “The bane of life in a small, house, she writes, "is the smell of cooking. Very few are free from it. : And vet it' need not be . endured at all. . this evil yields to nothing- more heioic than a simple but scrupulous care in all the processes -in making- food ready foi consumption. '• That is why your constant presence in the kitchen is recommended.” To prevent this nuisance she advises: (1) "No saucepan should be allowed to boil over; (-) no fryingpan should ever be put ou the fire without the butter or lard being- first placed in it, and that not before the pan is required for use; (3) no joint should be placed in the oven so high as to allow the fat to splutter against the roof of the oven; . (4) no joint should be baked in a tin too small for it; (5) no vegetables should be cooked without a sufficient amount of water, and no green vegetables should be cooked with the lid on; (6) no frying-pan while in use should be allowed to remain on the fire with only the fat in it. A piece of whatever you are frying—bacon, fish or fritters —should be left in until another .piece is played in the fat. The pan must be removed directly it is finished with; (7) no fat once used for -shallow frying should be kept for further use. The economy is not worth making. The fat, for instance, in which potatoes have been fried will always contain a certain amount of moisture, and the next lot of potatoes fried in it will turn out greasy and flabby. Fried potatoes should be crisp and melting in the mouth.. In the same way fat used for fish, however finely strained, will contain particles of fish or breadcrumbs, which will be certain to catch and cause an. offensive snielL