HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17710, 3 December 1925, Page 3

HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION.

IF WE COULD. Oh, if we only could Blot out. the bitter thought. Make thing we should, And shape it as we ought. Turn back the brooding eyes From things long, long gone by; And, looking upward, rise Toward a clearer sky. Hold fast each other’s handsNor loosely let them go— Until each understands. And, loving, learns to know. -rMARY GILMORE. Miss Beck’s demonstration of sweetmaking on the evening of Friday, November 20. was watched by a large and attentive audience. There was a dainty display of beautiful bonbons, the centre-piece being a vase of natural •looking marzipan roses. This masterpiece was flanked by two smaller vases containing various delic&tely hued flowers. In the course of the evening, Miss Beck gave clear and minute instructions how to make each kind of the many different sweets included in the display. At the conclusion of the demonstration a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Miss Beck. By request recipes for three of the sweetmeats made by Miss Beck on that evening are given here. Tutti Frutti Caramels—Sugar lib, butter 2ozs, water pint. Boil to 240 degrees or soft ball. Remove from fire. Add 4ozs chopped nuts, two tablespoonfuls grated chocolate, 2ozs raisins, 2ozs preserved ginger, 2ozs citron peel, 2ozs dates or figs. I teaspoonful vanilla. (Before adding to sugar solution, fruits as well as nuts must be chopped small). Beat all together tiil mixture begins to thicken. Pour into greased tin. Cut into squares when cold. Marshmallows. Two cups sugar. II cups water, ge atine 2 level tablespoonfuls, vanilla 1 tcaspoonf ( ul. a pinch of salt. Soak gelatine in Half the water, put the rest of water and sugar to boil to 240 degrees. Add gelatine. Let mixture cool. Add flavouring and salt. Beat until mixture becomes white. Pour in tin well dusted wifJi icing sugar. Leave till set. Cut in piece. Roll in dessicated cocorlnut.

Butter Scotch—Sugar 21bs, cream of tartar A teaspoonful. Moisten the sugar and cream of tartar with water, to boil 315 degrees or hard crack. When ready add 1 teaspoonful of essence of lemon and 2ozs butter. Pour into greased tin. \\ hen set, but not hard, cut into squares.

The Otago Home Economics Association has recently published an interesting booklet on “ Food Preservation and Care.’ It is limited almost entirely to the preservation of fruit and vegetables as. apart from them, only three short paragraphs are devoted to the canning of rabbit and chicken. The method described for the bottling of fruit in water and syrup is excellent, as is also that for the preservation of vegetables by salting and fermentation. The principles that govern both these, methods are simply and lucidly described, and the book will be particularly valuable in stimulating the preserving of green vegetables, as the methods given are at present little known and less practised by the great majority of housekeepers. These methods have the great advantage of being not in any way dependent on chemical preservati\ es or bleaching agents now so much used in commercial fruit preserving, but it seems a pity that the blanching process, with its resultant loss of valuable extractives, should be recommended.

The principles of jelly making given arc much more scientific than those described in ordinary cookery books. This branch o) the subject might be carried further so as to deal with temperature and density tests for the end point in cooking, and more fully with amounts of sugar, addition of acid, pectin rich fruits, etc. The drying of fruits is merely touched upon, no details are given. 3 he book contains nothing new to the scientific worker but much of immense value to the ordinary housewife, and it much more than justifies its production by its thoroughness, clearness, and excellent explanatory account of the principles involved. Ihe following correspondents are thanked lor their contributions:

Sweet Pea.—The following recipe for a fruitarian plum pudding, without suet or alcohol, I found in a recent number of the English “ Queen.” Figs Alb, breadcrumbs slb. stoned raisins Mb, currants Mb, candied peel Mb, sweet almonds Alb. butter Mb, shelled Brazil nuts Mb, grated rind of one and juice of two lemons, 3 eggs, 1 tea-* spoonful of spice, pinch of salt, brown or moist sugar Mb, 2 apples, honey Mb. Mince figs, peel, core and chop apples, chop almonds and Brazil nuts, clean fruit and chop or shred candied peel. Put all dry ingredients into basin, and add honey and lemon juice. Beat eggs thoroughly and stir into other ingredients. When well mixed, put into one or two buttered moulds, tie buttered cloth over, and boil for three hours. Keep on Smiling.—To those who have not read D. B. Knox’s “ Children’s Funny Savings," I pass on tjie two following delicious stories from it; “ A Bishop had been sitting in a park and had experienced some difficulty in rising from his chair, being an old man. An observant little girl who saw this came up to him and said: ‘Shall I help vou sir?" “ ‘ It is very kind of you, my dear,’ said he, much touched and a little amused, ‘but do you think you are. strong enough?’ Oh, yes,’ she replied. ‘ I have often helped my daddy when he was much drunker than you are.’ ’’ “ A rumour had gone about that the Queen would be driving in Hyde Park on a certain day, and among the folk in Rotten Row sat a little girl extremely anxious to see the Queen if the. Queen should drive that way. While she watched, she asked her mother: “ ' If the Queen sees me, will she speak to me?’ “ ‘ Oh, no, dear, I am afraid not,’ was the reply. “Why not, mother? Is the Queen so shy?'" Home Bird.—The following poem by Lilian Gard in the “ Ladies' Home Journal ’’ pleases me so much that I pass it on to your readers:— TIIE LITTLE CORNERCUPBOARD. They brought it from the Homeland just a-fifty-ycars ago, Dear flotsam of the wreckage when the told folk died, you know: It's like a homely spinster in some fashionable place. That little corner-cupboard with its aged polished face. It used to hold the tea-things for a family of boys; The lower shelf was kept, sometimes, for Baby's “ bestest.” toys; And mother stowed her knitting in some little oddment space Within that corner-cupboard with its smiling oaken face. sc%iehow all the furniture, so modern and so “ good,” Feels rather “ nouveau riche ” beside that battered bit of wood; “ ’Tis worth its weight in love's own gold!’’ I’ve heard big daddy say—

That little corner-cupboard from the Homeland far away. Ruthie.—l came across a beautiful thought of Evangeline Booth’s the other day:—“ I believe that our bodies are as much the temples of God as our souls. They are not ours; we have them to hold in trust.”