FOR A TINY ROOM.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18542, 12 April 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

FOR A TINY ROOM.

When your bedroom is so small that the dressing table must needs take up little space it is quite a good idea to enlarge the top so that all the toilet things can be spread out when required—by the addition of a flap at each side. Frequently this quite improves the design of a small dressing table, besides making it so much more useful, and when you need room space you can put away the “extras” and fold down the flaps. THE ENGLISH IN RUSSIA. The English in Russia now are treated with but scant courtesy, and men and women, however highly placed, find it impossible to engage the help of any servants, and are forced to do their own housework. TO CLEAN LINOLEUM. Place some fresh skim milk in a basin and, with a clean cloth dipped in the milk, wipe over the floor, and the linoleum will look as good as new. TO SOFTEN ROUGH HANDS A piece of butter the size of a small walnut, and a teaspoor.iul of granulated sugar are needed. Just warm this by the fire, well rub into the hands, and wash in soapy water. The hands will be clean and soft.

HEALTH AND BEAUTY. I want our girls and boys to learn that if they wish to be good-looking and strong, they must partake daily of milk and apples, or other fruit, writes an overseas authority. Scientists tell us now that diet mainly of meat, bread, butter, potatoes, and other starchy foods, such ac rice and sago, is a very imperfect one, and not adequate for the maintenance of health. Unless there is health there cannot be beauty. Most girls and boys to-day desire to excel in sport. Let them remember, then, that before Tunney met Dempsey he trained on a quart of milk a day, and that when Lindberg reached Paris after his marvellous flight the first thing he demanded was a bottle of milk. Again Freddie Welch, former lightweight boxing champion, and George Bothun, the world’s wrestling lightweight champion for fourteen years, were great consumers of prunes, and ascribed their fitness to them. An apple or even a piece of apple or an orange at the end of a meal is the best preserver of the teeth—better than all the tooth pastes or powders, while milk, fruit, wholemeal bread, and green vegetables supply the lime and phosphorus of which the teeth and also the bones are composed. The clear unblemished skin—the skin you love to touch—is not gained ; through face powders, or salves, or mud packs, but by the circulation of pure healthy blood th cough and under the skin. The foods I have named, with the exception of milk, all contain more or less iron, and it is the iron in the blood which gives the beautiful tints to cheeks anrl lips. Along with the proper diet must go regular exercise, and therefore I urge walking, running, or swimming on week days to keep fit for week-end sport. CAN YOU BOIL FISH? Oh, dear, the watery, tasteless boiled fish we’ve eaten. Blame the cooking, not the fish, if you’ve ever produced such a result. You must salt the water in which fish is boiled, or it is bound to be tasteless. You must not boil your fish too fast, or it will be tough. You must drain your fish properly. Press every atom of water out. You ought to have a sauce. Make the ordinary white sauce as for vegetables, and put in a dash of anchovy or tomato kethup, or a chopped hard-boiled egg. Here’s an idea for the children's dinner: Boil fish and egg sauce. Keep the water the fish was boiled in. boil rice in it and serve as a border. Don’t forget to take the skin off the fish, or ask for some nice fresh fillets ready prepared. CHEESE SOUP (DELICIOUS). Two cups milk, one cup stock, a level tablespoonful flour, one tablespoonful butter, pepper, salt. Put the milk and stock with butter in a saucepan, add pepper, salt, let it come to the boil, acid flour smoothly mixed, when thickened strain, add three tablespoonfuls grated cheese, and serve. BRAN BISCUITS. Half a-pound of bran, Üb. whole wheaten meal, £lb. flour, 31b. sugar, a teaspoonful baking powder. Rub together, mix with two well beaten eggs and about a cup of milk, roll out, cut into shapes, bake in moderate oven. Just a few drops of glycerine will oil a mincing machine and make it work smoothly without leaving behind any unpleasant taste to affect the food.

NEW HATS FOR OLD. Don’t throw away your old hat. You can bring it right up to date. First of all, turn it inside out—it doesn’t matter if it is a fluffy felt with a smooth brim, because it will now be a smooth felt with a fluffy brim—then put it on and pull it well down over the forehead. Next, before you cut away anything, tuck the brim inside, away from your eyes, leaving the wide part from the back to just in front of the ears. Pin the part you’ve tucked in, remove the hat and carefully cut away the pinned part. You will now have a nice wide strip; don’t destroy this strip, you will find it will make a dainty bow, not too small, mind, or a pair of “rabbit’s ears,” which you can fasten to the left side with a little gilt buckle. Rub the edge with the tips of your fingers to free it from any short pieces, and then try on your “new” hat. If yeu’ve been careful not to cut too much away and you find it is too wide for smartness, trim off a little more until it leaves just sufficient forehead showing to be becoming. If you have cut too much away, put a tiny piece of veiling around the edge of a folded piece of tulle of the same shade as the hat. I | THE VALUE OF ARROWROOT. It is well known that starch is an important food and that many of the things we eat owe their nutritive value mainly or entirely to the starch they contain, says a food expert. Potatoes are rich in starch, as are also all cereals. Cornflower is starch extracted from maize. Tapicoa is a peculiar form of starch known as cassava starch, partially gelatinised by heat. Sago is also a starch product, obtained from certain species of East ■ Indian palms. Starches differ considerably, according to the plants from which they are 1 obtained. Each has its particular use, and for dietetic purposes, especially in the case of invalids or those whose digestive powers are weas, the form of starch known as arrowroot stands unequalled. A good arrowroot food for an invalid can be made by mixing four level tablespoonfuls of arrowroot with three tablespoonfuls of cold water, so as to form a smooth paste. This is then added to a pint of boiling milk and constantly stirred until sufficiently cooled to eat. It may be flavoured and sweetened to taste. COLD CARAMEL SOUFFLE. Four eggs, one pint of milk, four j sheets of gelatine, half pint of whipped cream, juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of castor sugar. Bring milk to the boil, stir in beaten yolks of eggs till it thickens, then add while hot, the gelatine; make a caramel of the sugar and lemon, when a golden colour stir quickly into the custard, beating all the time, turn into a basin to cool. When nearly set, add stiffly beaten whites and cream, mix all lightly together, turn into a souffle dish, stand on ice. FRUIT SNAPS. One cup butter, cups sugar, one teaspoonful soda, i cup treacle, three / eggs, a cup raisins, a cup currants, a ] teaspoonful each ginger, cloves, cinnamon and allspice. Enough flour to roll out as soft as can be cut. Place on a tin and bake. These will keep several months in tight tins. A dirty clothes line can be wrapped round the washing-board and thoroughly scrubbed with a brush and hot soapsuds. When well rinsed, it will be as good as new.