Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, 19 October 1916, Page 57

Domestic

Fruit Salads. Sweets in hot weather always appear to mean a certain amount of preparation in which ovens or fires , play a more or less prolonged part. Yet the housewife 4f has generally the means at her command of making dainty sweets that can be prepared in the coolest room in the house. Fruit salads are so extremely useful that it is a wonder they do not more frequently take the place of puddings when the temperature is daily mounting higher and higher and the very thought of a fire is an abomination. * Fruit salads really resolve themselves into two kinds. The sweet, pure and simple, and the salad which may be combined with lettuce, nuts, or celery, covered with ordinary salad or mayonnaise dressing. The first are, perhaps, the most popular in this country. 1«. is as well to recollect that certain fruits blend better than others, but the more varieties of fruit that are fc combined in the salad the nicer it will taste. Cherries, bananas, strawberries, oranges, and lemons are an exceedingly nice combination. To prepare an ideal fruit salad, cut the cherries in halves, removing the stones. Place a layer in the bottom of a deep salad bowl, sprinkle thickly with castor sugar and a few drops of lemon juice. Next peel the bananas, and slice across the fruit. Lay these on top of the cherries. Then, a layer of oranges, cut into cubes, sugar being sprinkled thickly between each layer. Next a layer of strawberries cut in halves, and finally a layer composed of all the fruits, cut into cubes and mixed. Take the juice of a large lemon and two oranges, and sprinkle over the mixed fruit, taking care that the whole of the top layer receives its share of the juice, as this prevents the fruit discoloring. Fruit salads should always be prepared two or three, hours before serving, as this blends the flavors

in a delicious combination not to be secured in any . other way. , . There are many other combinations which the clever housewife can find out for herself. Canned fruits blend well in a salad when combined with fresh fruit. Pineapple and peaches are nice with grapes, strawberries, or cherries; while bananas and oranges will mix with any kind of fruit, either preserved or fresh. The rind of melons, oranges, and indeed any fruit that is substantial enough to stand the necessary cutting will make pretty settings for salads. For fruit salads masked with mayonnaise, curled lettuce leaves, hollowed out tomatoes, onion cups, banana skins, all look pretty. These salads are 'all better for the addition of a small proportion of nut or chopped celery, or both may be combined in one salad. Purple grapes, cut in half, with tiny balls of cream cheese inserted instead of the seeds, are nice mixed with chopped walnuts and celery. The mayonnaise should be very thick, so that it will cover the salad; it is then decorated with halves of grapes or crimson cherries. The white heart of a lettuce is nice when mixed in a fruit salad. This salad is eaten as a separated course or with meat. It is extremely good with cold lunch. Removing Mildew Stains. Perhaps the most difficult of all stains to get rid of are mildew ones. Ordinary washing has no effect on them, but one hesitates before resorting to the use of chemicals which frequently injure the material. A method that is perfectly though a little troublesome, is to wet the stains and rub them well with soap. Cover thickly with finely powdered chalk, and press this into lie fabric. Put the article outside in the open air until practically dry, and then repeat the process. If the stains are bad ones it is often necessary to do this several times, but in the end they invariably disappear.