HINTS AND RECIPES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 3

HINTS AND RECIPES

SOMETHING TO INTEREST THE HOUSEWIFE,

Apply floor polish on a brush, and you will find it puts an even spread over the floor, and when polished, the shine will last much longer, and floor polish need only be applied occasionally. Knitting into the backs of stitches to produce a firm edge is a slow and tedi- I ous job. If you put your needle between the stitches instead of through the loops it is quicker and has the same effect. To keep chamios leather soft it should never be washed in hot water. Wash well in cold water and soap, then rinse in cold water, wring it out dry and leave in a cool place. If the waste pipe of the bath has become choked with soap, take a handful each of salt and soda, force them into the pipe, and pour a kettle- ' Cui of boiling water down it. Between them they will deal with the obstruction. If your hair looks greasy and you have no time to wash it, cornflour makes a good dry shampoo. Gas stove parts should be kept perfectly clean if the greatest heat is to be obtained from the flame. Remove al loose parts regularly, and clean in hot water in which soda has been dissolved. The white of an egg mixed to a. smooth paste with flour makes an excellent cement for tiles. Excellent and durable iron holders can be made by inserting three or four , thicknesses of newspaper between two j layers of thick cotton material. Mildew marks can be taken out of "men after a paste has been applied made from unslaked lime, salt, and larch moistened with lemon juice. When You Use Dried Fruits.—Dried ' fruits should always be very thorough|ly soaked before using, to make them | tender and a good flavour. After washing them well soak them in boiled ' Water for at least tweny-four hours. ' 'Most dried fruits are improved by 1 adding lemon juice or rind, which j brings out the flavour surprisingly, j When serving prunes, crack a few of I the stones and add the kernels to the | dish. ' To Make Flowers Last.—By a little extra care it is possible to treble the life of cut blooms. If cut flowers are I bought they last longer when they 'are coming into their actual growing ’season than when they are forced. I Forced roses generally need stimuliating influence of a grain of aspirin in the water—one grain a quart— I while carnations like a pinch of borax. I When Making Pastry.—Mix with I [thumb and first finger when adding) the shortening; keep hands cool and I avoid using palm. Raise the flour hio-hpr than thn dish sn that ail’ f-ets

through it. Use a knife as much as possible to mix together and before using the hands. Bake in quick oven and do not open the door for the first ten minutes. Metalware Cleanser. —Pour half a pint of boiling water over lib. soft soap, and beat well together. Then mix in 11b. finely-powdered chalk. Put into a jar with a tightly-fitting lid, and the mixture will keep for some lime. Do not use this cleanser for cleaning copper articles. Cakes for Festive Occasions. Coffee Fruit Cake. —Sieve Sib. flour with a pinch of carbonate of soda, rub in with 6ozs. butter. Add 2ozs. shredded citron peel, Mb. well-washed sultanas, 2ozs. preserved cherries and sozs. sugar. Beat two eggs and stir in half a cupful of slightly warmed honey and two tablespoonsful of coffee essence; mix these and add to other ingredients. Beat well and turn in wellbuttered tin; bake in a moderate oven one-and-a-half to two hours. Put on a sieve to cool after taking out of tin. Iced Chocolate Cake.—Required: Mb. self-raising flour, 4ozs. castor sugar, 4ozs. butter, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons milk, 2ozs. powdered chocolate, - teaspoonful vanilla essence. Grease a cake tin and line it with greased paper. Sift the flour and chocolate together. Cream the butter and sugar together until soft, add the eggs a little at a time alternately with the flour. Beat well. Add the vanilla and milk. Cook in a moderate oven for about one hour and ice when cold. Chocolate Glace Ic’ng.—Required: lOozs. sieved icing sugar, iozs. plain chocolate, just over a gill water. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put in a saucepan containing the water and stir over low heat until it has dissolved. Add the icing sugar and mix well with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and creamy and stiff enough to coat the spoon. The icing will lose its gloss if it is too warm. Date and Nut Cake.—Beat 4ozs. butler and 3ozs. sugar to a cream. Beat 2 egg yolks well and add them to the creamed butter and sugar. Then add 4ozs. flour, stir well and add 4ozs. chopped nuts, 3ozs. cut-up dates, and, as lightly as possible, the stiffly whipped whites of two eggs. Bake in a greased and floured tin in a moderate oven for one hour. Dundee Cake.— Ingredients: 4ozs. butter, sozs. sugar, Mb. flour, 3 eggs, , 2ozs. citron peel, 4ozs. sultanas, 2ozs. 'currants, 2ozs. almonds, i teaspoonful of baking powder, a little milk. Grease land line a plain cake tin with greased I paper. * Cream the butter and sugar, 'and beat in the eggs alternately with the sieved flour to which the baking powder has been added. Pick, wash and dry the currants and sultanas and chop the peel. Add the fruit to the mixture. Mix with a little milk. Put the almonds in boiling water and slip off their skins. Place the mixture in the tin, hollow the centre slightly and sprinkle almonds on top. Bake for fifty minutes or an hour. Pineapple Cake.—Cream 3ozs butter and 4ozs. sugar together, add 2 eggs and add them with Bozs. flour, sifted with i teaspoonful baking powder. Mix well together and add 2ozs. chopped glace pineapple. Bake in a buttered tin dusted with flour and castor sugar in a moderate oven for about 35 minutes. If liked this cake can be iced with a simple white glace icing and decorated with pieces of glace or crystallised pineapple.