HINTS TO YOUNG HOUSEKEEPERS.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 522, 22 December 1888, Page 4

HINTS TO YOUNG HOUSEKEEPERS.

BY LITTLE DOEBIT. I have now been keeping house a little over a year. A year which, notwithstanding trials, shade and sunshine, has been one of the happiest in my life. Sickness visited our little home, and at the beginning of the year I lay prostrate, very near death's door, but the love and prayers of my dear ones held me back. I am just as devoted to my cozy little home as ever, and am constantly on the alert to make any needed imptoveinents. I want to say one word to the young housekeepers— save. If you have a servant ! do not think it beneath your dignity to keep an eye, in fact both eyes, on your provisions. There are few servants who will be as carefu! when the mistress is away as when she is around. When j you have roast beef or beef soup for dinner, do not throw away the remnants of meat. When the meal is over, take all the large bones and carefully cut off all portions of meat remaining. Then, when supper is over, bring out your plate of beef, chop fine, peel three or four white potatoes, one onion, and chop all fine together. In the morning put on the frying pan ; put in a small lump of lard, and when hot, add the chopped onions, potatoes and beef ; fry until brown and you will have a nice breakfast dish. Add to this a few ega. cakes made this way : A teacup of meal, one egg well beaten, a pinch of salt, small lump of lard and sufficient water to make a thin batter ; have your griddle hot, and pour on enough batter to cover it ; cook quickly, turn over on a plate and send to the table steaming hot. Your husband will want them again the next morning. I wish I could impress on the young housekeepers the time saved by planning and preparing the meals a day ahead. It lightens cares so much when a little forethought is expended. In the cool months one can buy enough to last several days, and breakfast should always be planned the night previous, and everything laid convenient for the morning's work. Don't think it is time wasted to prepare a few kindlings and lay them hebind the. stove with paper every night, then if ,. .any one is taken ill during the night, and*^, fire is needed, it is only a moment's work to get it. It is terrible to pass a great numbfir of kitchens in the early morning and catch the fumes of burning keroj sene. Housekeepers or servants, in a hurry to light the fire, resort to the oil can, when a few minutes expended the night previous might save a life and greatly decrease the number of kerosene horrors. Don't wash your lamp chimneys. A long experience has taught me that washed chimneys break quicker than unwashed. When you want to clean them take a very soft old newspaper, hold one hand over the top of the chimney and gently breathe in the other end. Then insert the paper and rub briskly. You will be surprised at the clear glass. There is nothing so j sensitive as butter, and yet you may see it any \ time placed near to meat or vegetables, and, by the way, when. the butter is on the table, take a tiny piece of bread and insert ib in the middle of the butter. Not a single fly will go near that butter. You will laugh, I know ; so did I when 1 first saw it, but it is true.