HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5409, 9 November 1895, Page 3

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Black Stockings should be rinßed in blue water, and they will always keep a perfectly good colour.

Eaw Potatoes are good cleansing agents for etained vessels, brass or steel. The potato should be cut off in slices as it becomes soiled from tabbing.

Fob the Hands.— Glycerine and lemon juice, in equal proportions, iB a moat useful article for whitening the hands. It should be applied at nighfc, and loose glorea put on immediately. . . '

Bancid Butteb.— This should be washed and kneaded well in new milk to sweeten it. The acid causing the rancidity is soluble in milk. Afterwards the batter should be washed in cold spring water.

Feathee Beds should be placed in the shade to air, and be well beaten during dry summer weather, but they should never be set in the sun, for it draws put the oil and gives the feathers an unpleasant smell. ..••■•■■ A Sweeping Hint. — When brushing a carpet, work round the room towards the fireplace; the fender should be removed, and the dust may easily be taken up cleanly from the hearth, whilst a good deal disappears up the chimney.

Dainty Puddings.— Take the weight of two eggß in butter, caster sugar and flour. Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs well beaten, and lastly the flour. Pour into buttered cups, and bake. Turn out to serve, and pour sweet sauce round.

Oatmeal Cakes.— Mil a dessertspoonful of EUgar, ditto baking-powder, with one pound of oatmeal and a pinch of salt. When well mixed make the oatmeal into a light batter with skim milk. Beat up well with a wooden spoon, and 'bake oo a greased .griddle, a spoonful a'j a time.

Lemonade.— Boil together one quart of boiling water, one sliced lemon, and one pound and a quarter of lump BUgar for a few xnomentSi When nearly cold add half an ounce of citric acid and one teaspoonful of essence of ginger. Two tablespoonfuls of this added to a tumblerful of soda-water will make a deliciously cooling drink.

To Clean a Macintosh.— Spread the cloak on a large deal table, and with soft water and Boap, using a scrubbing brush, go carefully over it, and by degrees all the mud stains -will be removed. Rinse by passing through clear soft water, and hang on a lin <in the shade to dry. The stains on the cloth may be rnbbed with spirits of turpentine or ammonia. .

How to Use up Cold Potatoes. — Place the potatoes in the OTen juafc to warm through, and then mash with a little butter, pepper and salt, and form into balls the size of an orange. 801 l in breadcrumbs, put a little dripping in each ball, and bake for about three-quarters of an hour, or till a nice brown. It is a great improvement to beat up an egg with the potato.A Good Tooth Wash.— Dissolve two ounces of borax in three pints of boiling water ; before quite cold add a teaspoonful of tincture of myrrh and a tableßpoonful o? good eau de cologne, or spirits of camphor. Half fill a tumbler with this solution, and add sufficient water to fill it up. Use this wash daily after each meal, and you will find your teeth are preserved and whitened.

A Savottbt Dish. — Take two good rashers of bacon, which should weigh about four ounces, and place in a saucepan. On the baoon set four Spanish onions of medium size, add pepper and salt: Cover the saucepan closely, and leave on the stove to stew slowly for about three hours. The onions will then be in a brown gravy ; add a little thiokemng and boil up. Serve in a small tureen with brown breadcrumbs scattered over. Those who like the onions to be very mild should parboil them first.

Substitutes fob Plants.— Wet a coarse sponge, choosing a flat one it possible, scatter canary and grass seed into the holes. Keep the sponge moist on a glass dish in the dark till you see blades of grass appearing. Then stand the dish in the light, .keeping the sponge moiit, and you will speedily have a pretty bowl of grass. Another way to grow grass is to get common pine cones, and aprinkle over them as much soil aa they will hold? Next scatter various grass seeds over the cones and sprinkle all constantly with water. Arrange 'the cones in a hanging basket in a moderately warm spot, taking care to sprinkle all constantly with water, and the seeds will shoot up in pretty green points.