HINTS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 18

HINTS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

HOME COOKING

SOME SALADS. Orange Salad.—Orange salad is served with any form of duck, and consists of slices of ripe, juicy orange, free from all skin, pith, and pips, arranged in a salad bowl and dressed with a very little lemon juice, oil, salt, and freshly-ground black pepper. A more fanciful form of orange salad consists of orange free from skin, pith, and pips, cut into pieces and mixed with chopped walnut or Brazil nut, a little shred celery, and a few skinned and pipped grapes.

Roval Salad.—Take 4oz. of blanched almonds and cut them coarsely, the same quantity of a mixture of wellwashed and stoned raisins, chopped figs and capers, and twice the quantity of stoned olives. Dress with cream. Place on prepared lettuce, and serve. Mirabeau Salad.—Take some artichokes, and be sure that all the choke has been removed, which is not always the case when using tinner or preserved artichokes. Fill with a pyramid of chopped shrimps, freshly picked, chopped celery, and a very little chopped apple; dress with mayonnaise sauce. Serve on lettuce leaves and dust the top of each pyramid with coralline pepper. Rostock Salad.—Take equal quantities of apples, beetroot, and cold boiled potatoes, two hard-boiled eggs, two anchovies, a dessertspoonful of capers, a little onion, and a little cucumber sliced verv fine. Chop all the ingredients very small, and mix well together. Season with pepper and salt, and add oil and vinegar to taste.

Tomato and Caper Salad.—Dip some sound tomatoes for a minute or two into boiling water, then peel carefully. Arrange them neatly in a glass dish or bowl, and add some shred celery. Pour some mayonnaise sauce over and sprinkle over’ three teaspoonfuls of capers. Chicorv and Pineapple Salad.—Wash, drv, and divide the chicory, .and arrange in a salad bowl with a pile of small cubes of pine in the centre. Dress with thick cream and freshly-ground pepper. Endive and Peach Salad.—Wash and dry the endive carefully and pull it apart with the fingers. Take some tinned peaches, drain them free of the syrup, and cut into small cubes, allowing four or five per person; sprinkle the endive very lightly with salt and cayenne, arrange both endive and peaches in a bowl, and dress with plain thick cream. Prune Salad.—Simmer some large prunes for a few minutes and then let them cool Stone them and put a blanched almond in each prune. Arrange on lettuce leaves dressed with mayonnaise cream. Banana Salad.—Cut up with a silver knife the required number of bananas, and add half the quantity of chopped nuts and celery Mix them together, and sprinkle at once with lemon juice. Pour mayonnaise sauce over and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

DOMESTIC JOTTINGS

To Keep Your Spools of Thread in Order. Use a heavy strip of wood a good size to fit in your machine drawer. Hammer into it long nails about one and a half inch apart. Place your spools on these nails. This will help to keep threads and drawer tidy, and save time when looking for a wanted colour. Cleansing the Gas-Cooker,

Cleaning the stove is not a very wearisome task if it is done regularly and the stove not allowed to get verydirty. An occasional, thorough cleaning inside and out is necessary, and very hot soda-water should be used. This will remove all grease splashes. But a daily rubbing down with a wad of paper while the stove is still warm will do a deal to make these periodical cleanings easier and only necessary at fairly long intervals. How to Keep Brasses Bright.

Beautifully polished brasses do look nice, and all good housewives love to see ’them shine, but in these days of verv limited elbow-grease it is a great problem how to keep “brights” as they should be kept. You will save much time and temper bv adopting the following plan: ’Keep out and polish a few ornaments if you like, but paint over all the other odd brasses such as taps, stair-rods, finger-plates, and door-handles, so that they will need no cleaning at. all. You can buy a bronze paint which gives a good surface and which really looks nice when properly applied. The article to be treated must be well washed with strong, hot soda water first, so that no particle of grease is left on. When thoroughly dry the paint must be verv thinly applied with a flat brush, and, if necessary, a second coat can be put on after twentyfour hours.

You can also buv a lacquer paint which should be used in the same way and which keeps a bright appearance. There is a special white paint for taps which looks very neat when properly done. The taps should be well washed, and when dry apply a very thin coat of paint (quite evenly) .and leave for two days, then re-coat, and a smooth white surface should then be obtained.

These three forms of paint require care in use but it is quite worth while to try them, as the saving of labour is so great. ■ As for vour brass bowls and candlesticks that you simplv cannot bear to put away in cupboards, try cleaning them this way. Once a month wash them in strong soda water and soap, getting every bit of dirt and old polish out of the chinks. When dry rub in a little metal polish on a very turpentinv flannel Rub hard, for- that is what pavs, and finish off with an old silk handkerchief. Thev will look wonderful and last a long time before needing another rub-up.