HINTS AND RECIPES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 145, 20 June 1936, Page 3

HINTS AND RECIPES

Potato peelings after being dried in the oven are excellent fire liguters. Dissolve a lump of sugar in the water when washing linoleum or oilcloth. A brilliant polish, will result. Lemon rind boiled with the clothes on washing day will whiten them. When drying woollens shake them from time to time. This helps to keep them fluffy and soft. Scatter unslaked lime round the dark corners o ’ your cellar to absorb any dampness and kill insects. Dry coffee grounds make an excellent filling for pincushions. The pins will never rust. Discoloured gas fires, if sprinkled with salt when they are cold, will burn quite clean when next they are lit. Good eggs have dull shells; remember this when choosing eggs for the table. Wash, chamois leather gloves in a warm soapy solution in wnich a little olive oil has been dissolved. The oil keeps the gloves soft and pliable. Powdered bath-brick cleans pans and saucepans well, and also removes marks from china that has been badly

burnt. To remove rust from knives, take a little paraffin and some emery powder, rub this on the knives, and after a couple of hours scour them with a raw potato cut in half. After a few cleanings the rust marks should have quite disappeared. Yolks of eggs which have been separated from the whites and cannot b? used at once, will keep fresh if placed in a cup aud covered with cold water. Clothes lines should always be boiled for half an hour before they are first used. This process makes them tougher and also prevents tangling. If butler is too hard to spread, heat a tablespoonful of milk and mash with it. The butter becomes creamy, with no oily taste as when over-heated, and any superfluous milk can be poured off’. Meat in pies is often tough, although the crust is attractively browned. A good way to avoid this is to cut up the meat, put it in a saucepan, just cover it with water, and stew gently until tender. Strain off the gravy. Put meat through mincer, and then place in pie-dish with slices of hard-boiled eggs. Pour gravy over this. Make a good pastry crust, cover, and make for half an hour. To Save Floor Polish.—Keep the polish rag in an airtight tin and it will always be moist, and will need very little extra polish each time it is used. Use a good white polish and use spar- I ingly, and the same polish will serve for paint and furniture, as well as linoleum. Tp Clean Rubbers.—Rubber shoes and gum boots which have become dull and shabby-looking can be brightened up by washing with water containing a few drops of ammonia, afterwards giving a thin coat of liquid shoe dressing. Porridge with Variations.—Porridge can be varied by serving a few stoned and halved dates, or seedless raisins, instead of sugar. Or, when cooking, use half milk and half water, and add - a few raisins. Serve hot or cold with milk Or cream. Washing Artificial Silk.—Artificial silk that has lost its gloss through | bad rinsing should be rinsed again in | warm water, using two tablespoonsful , of ' .egar to one quart of warm , water. Squeeze in this very thorough- | ly, then place in a dry cloth and press ' till the bulk of the moisture is re- | moved. Place flat on a board, and ; when almost dry press on the right ' side with a very moderate iron. Cleaning Suede Gloves.—lf suede i frloves are not allowed to become too ' dirty they can be cleaned at home. Put them on the hands and have a saucer of fuller’s earth and a small , clean brush. Well brush the earth into the gloves till they are c ;red, then rub lightly with each other, and finally rub with a clean dry cloth. Making the Best of Winter | Vegetables. Stewed Celery.—Boil three heads of celery in milk and water till they are tender, but not soft; divide them lengthwise. lut the pieces of cooked celery into a pan with half a pint of milk, thicken with a little flour and a little piece of butter, some add an I onion chopped tine. Stir the whole together, but do not let it boil. Baked Onions.—Choose some large « onions, bake them in the oven in their ! skins, turning occasionally so that they I are thoroughly cooked through. Before i serving, remove the outer skin, split them open, add a piece of butter, pepper and salt to each. Stuffed On’ons. —Onions make excellent supper dishes when stuffed with any kind of chopped meat. They should be parboiled and then have the centre removed with a cutter. The chopped meat should be mixed with a little chopped bacon, breadcrumbs, parsley and thyme or sage, some chopped onion and an egg, with seasoning to taste; then put into the middle of the onions, and the whole baked in buttered dish until the onions are quite tender. Vegetable Curry.—Cut into dice I some cooked potatoes, carrots and i turnips, in equal proportions. Fry a minced onion in butter until light brown, add curry powder to taste and continue cooking for five minutes. Add half a pint stock and bring to the boil; then put in the vegetables and simmer gently for about I’o minutes. Puree of Turnips.—Peel the turnips and cook them with a pinch of sugar, a little piece of butter, and just enough water to cover them till they are sofe enough to be mashed. Mash them, season with salt and pepper, and pass them through a sieve. Put this puree back into the saucepan, add over the fire a little cream or creamy milk and slices of hard-boiled egg. This puree should not be too thick. To a poufrd and a-half of turnips allow two hardboiled eggs, and a quarter of a pint of . cream or milk. Stir until a smooth I , mixture is obtained