Notes For Women

Wairarapa Daily Times, 17 April 1935, Page 6

Notes For Women

Fashions, Recipes and Hints

FOR THE BISCUIT TIN, Hermits. Cream together 1 cup butter with 14 cups sugar. Add 1 cup chopped and seeded raisins and 3 eggs well beaten. Sieve 3 cups flour with a teaspoonful baking soda, Yi teaspoonful ground cloves and 4 teaspoonful grated nutmeg. Mix with the other ingredients, adding a little more flour if necessary. Roll out into a thin sheet, cut into rounds of fancy shapes and bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. * * * * Cherry Biscuits. Sift Boz. flour with -1 teaspoonful baking powder. Rub in 4oz. margarine, then add 3oz. sugar, loz. crystallised cherries,, chopped very finely, and a saltspoonful powdered cinnamon. Mix to a stiff pa'ste with a beaten egg. Roll out thin, cut into rounds and bake for 20 minutes. These biscuits can be used plain or, when cold, they can be made into sandwiches with a little -jam in between and the tops iced. To make the icing mix 3oz. icing sugar to a pasto with lemon juice. * * • * Swedish Macaroon Balls. Mix lib. white sugar with 4oz. cornflour, 4oz. ground almonds, Boz. finely chopped almonds and the grated' rind of two oranges. Mixf together with two eggs, well beaten. Then with the hands shape into balls the size of walnuts, put on tins, cover with buttered paper and bake in a slow oven. * * * * German Crisps. Cream a cup of butter with two cups sugar, add the juice and grated rind of a lemon, two eggs, the yolks and whites beaten separately, and sufficient flour to enable the mixture to be rolled out. Roll out into a thin sheet, cut into hearts, diamonds or other shapes, brush over with beaten white of egg and sprinkle with chopped nuts and candied fruits. Bake to a delicate straw colour.

Meringue Biscuits. These are very dainty little biscuits and are extremely useful for decorating trifles, jellies and other sweets. Beat the white of an egg to a firm froth, adding slowly 41b. castor sugar and a few drops vanilla essence. Beat until all is a thick paste. Put a piece of buttered paper on to a baking tin and drop on little spoonfuls of the mixture—about half an inch apart. Place in a very cool oven till they are a pale biscuit colour. Leave to cool, then remove from the paper with a knife. To make variety half the mixture can bo coloured pale pink by using a few drops of cochineal before baking. FASHION POINTS. Do not stop knitting. Sweaters, suits, coats, hats and blouses are better than ever. The knitted Feodora and Tyrolean hats have become world used. Evening gloves, above the elbow, suede gloves are the current rage. They should be the same colour as your dress, and wrinkled just to cover the elbow joint. Where are we going to put our big! clips—now that necks are so high? Why, at the base of the coat, or at the back of the neck.

Oth er jewellery notes: Better than one bulky barbaric bracelet, are two identical bulky barbaric bracelets —one to be worn on each arm. Yellow-gold jewellery looks newest for dav and sports. But platinum rules by night.

Parisiennes are mad about box-calf. They have immense box-calf bags, literally elephantine. And there are wide belts of it on everything. It is used for clips, and even bows are made of it for blouses. The calf belts are dyed green, red and fuchsia for choice. New evening slippers are seen with low, but exceedingly bright heels. They come up high over the instep in front. Paris dressmakers continue splitting our clothes. Some of us wear long, narrow skirts split to the knees on one side, and some of us have blouses split to the waist at the centre back.

Capelets and intricate scarves of silver or blue fox, continue to be worn by the most fashionable women. Capelets of shaded fur dyed blue are also coming.

Marzipan Dates. These are a great favourite, and neqd no cooking. Boxed dates are really best, as they are cleaner and more fruity than loose ones. Use as many dates as are required. Cut into halves, lengthways, and stone. Filling for dates: Half a pound of .ground almonds, 1 egg, -jib castor sugar and a little almond essence. Knead all well together. Fill one half of the dates and cover over with the other half and leave for six hours for the filling to set. * * * * Delicious Chocolate. Ingredients: Half a pound of good cocoa or chocolate powder, 3oz butter, 4oz castor sugar, 1 dessertspoonful water, a few drops of vanilla essence, and some chopped nuts if liked. Put water, butter and sugar into a jar and place in boiling water. When these are dissolved, stir cocoa gently and boil for five minutes. Add nuts (if desired) two minutes before cooking is finished. Add the vanilla essence at the last minute, turn on to a greased plate, and mark in squares. * » * • “Cheerful” Umbrellas. This season, Parisiennes are using the most practical and serviceable umbrellas possible. Instead of fine silks, the latest vogue is for umbrellas made to match raincoats in oilskins. Gaily coloured and transparent, off which the heaviest rain will run “as easily as from a duck’s back,” there is something very “sporty” about these umbrellas, which have rather short handles, generally finished with the carving of a dog’s head.

.Rome of the shades of red and green will lend gaiety to a street on the dullest day, and it is now smart to carry an umbrella which is a colourful contrast to a dark costume, instead of the carefulb* matched browns or black silk ones which have been the rule for so manv years.

When Making Batter. Batter should stand for some hours, if convenient, before eggs are beaten in, as this gives plenty of time for the

grains of flour to swell and burst. Add the liquid in very small quantities at a time if you would have it smooth. As you mix press out any little lumps with the back of the spoon, and don’t forget a pinch of salt.