LADIES’ COLUMN.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 656, 5 August 1921, Page 6

LADIES’ COLUMN.

(Bv “ Ru-ru.")

As space could not be spared in last week’s issue for home-made sweets, “Ru-ni” is giving' some good and quite easily made receipts in this. The taste for sweets, which is now so universal, is of comparatively modern growth. Sugar was unknown to the ancients, who had nothing but honey to sweeten their food and drink with. As late as the reign of good Queen Bess, sugar was a rare commodity in England and what they had was of the coarsest and brownest quality. It was really only in the Victorian age that sugar plums became of common use and even then they were considered unwholesome, except when used with extreme moderation. It is really only during the lifetime of the present generation this we have become inured to seeing them partaken of in large quantities by children and grown-up people alike. When “Ru-ru” was a child

—she won’t tell you exactly how long ago that was —about half a dozen sorts only were obtainable at a sweet shop. Now the different varieties are almost countless. It is scarcely necessary to say that home-made sweets are the cheapest and the most wholesome, and below will be found a few simple recipes for making them.

Marzipan.

White of egg, icing sugar, ground almonds to taste, few drops essence almonds. Beat white of egg to stiff froth, add sugar and ground almonds and few drops essence. Work until the mixture is sufficiently pliable to roll in one’s hands. It is much better to knead the mixture until of the required texture. This maxes an ideal filling for dates and prunes, and with a little manipulation one can make quite a variety of sweets. If relied out very thin and cut into squares of about an inch it makes a nice sweet to place an almond across from one corner to another, and fold the opposite corners to the middle of the almond. Ginger Cream. 2 cups sugar, N cup milk, 44 lb preserved ginger, cut into small pieces. Bring to boil and boil five or six minutes, stirring all the time. Take off fire and stand in pan of cold water and stir till creamy. Pour into buttered dish, cut when cool. Turkish Delight. 2oz sheet gelatine, cut up and soak in breakfast cup of cold water, turning occasionally. Then place basin as it is in pan of boiling water until dissolved. Put 21bs No. 2 sugar in enamelled saucepan, pour half cup boiling water on it.- Boil two minutesutes, draw off fire and add gela■tine very slowly. Boil this three minutes take off fire and stir in a heaped teaspoonful of critic acid, which has been dissolved in lit tie hot water. Add flavouring and colouring to half. Let stand 24 hours, and cult into squares. Roll each piece in icingsugar to keep from sticking together.

Butter Caramels,

lib sugar, V pint water, 14 teaspoon c. tartar, 2oz butter, 14tin condensed milk.

Made.—Boil sugar, c. tartar and water together briskly until it snaps in water. Then add butter-and boil for two minutes. Take oft_fire and add condensed milk.

Cocoanut Ice.

lib sugar, No. IA, 1 cup milk, I2 teaspoonful cream of tartar, 1 cup desiccated cocoanut, few drops essence. red colouring. Method.—Boil sugar, milk, cream of tartar for 5 minutes, stirring. Take oft' fire and stand in pan of cold water for 5 minutes. Add cocoanut and beat till mixture becomes white and thick. Pour half into a box lined with waxed paper. Add colouring to the c ( finer half and pour on top of white. Allow to get nearly cold and mark into squares. Chocclaie Creams. Take 3 cups sugar, 1 cup milk and V> teaspoonful vanilla. Boil for eight minutes, then pour into a basin, and stir for quarter of an hour until quite thick, then roil into small balls with 'the palms of the hands. Take a cake of chocolate, grate it finely and moisten into thick paste with milk. Steam it over the kettle. Roll fine balls of cream into it and place on buttered paper or dish to harden. Malt Tablet's. (Very good.) lib sugar, 1 cup water. V teaspoonful cream of tartar, 1 desert spoonful in alt extract, .1 tablespoonful butter. Method.- —Bring water, sugar and cream of tartar to boiling point. Boil quickly until a little tried in cold •waiter cracks. Add butter and malt

extract. Boil few minutes longer. Pour oil to buttered tray. As the edges cool fold them into the centre until the whole is cool enough tQ handle. Roll into a ball, pull out into strips and cut ir.Lo squares with pair of scissors. Then roll into icing sugar and cornflour. Store into airtight tins.

Brown Betty. 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup milk, 1 /? table-spoonful butter, 1 cup chopped'; - walnuts. Boil milk and sugar for 20 minutes, stirring well. Then add walnuts, boil another 5 minutes, and beat >till stiff. Pour on to buttered dish, and cut into squares when cold. French Aimond Rock. Blanche lib almonds, dry thoroughly on a .cloth, then heat in oven till they begin' to turn yellow. Take from oven. Boil 21b ’sugar with half pint water and 1 teaspoonful vinegar, until it comes to the crack. Add almonds and pour out on to oiled dish. Nougat. IN lb sugar, lib glucose, 144 cups water, 4oz chopped almonds, 1 egg’ white beaten stiffly, 1 teaspoon mixed essences. Method.—Put sugar, glucose and water in pan and stir over fire until glucose and sugar have dissolved. Boil quickly for about 15 minutes until a little tried foimis a thread. Take off fire, let cool a little, then beat quickly. As the mixture gets very white add the almonds, essence and white of egg. Keep on beating for about ten minutes. Pour into a box or tin lined with waxed paper. Leave for ten hours or longer.. Cut into bars. ODDS AND ENDS. Never cross n bridge before you come to it. This will save you half the troubles of life. In other words, don’t borrow trouble. People talk of perseverance and courage and fortitude, but patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude—and the rarest, too. Cause and Effect.—Believe in causa and effect. Every act influences -the next; not a thought is conceived that will not leave its mark, perhaps not openly, but subtly, as in the formation of a habit of mind, which wilt go on acting and re-acting till it - becomes character, and it is by character man is known. Talent ability are as nothing in comparison they are the material character works ? upon. Therefore, look to it, and know that, whether you get kicks or half-pence, whether you call it good luck or bad, whether you asy fortune smiles or fortunte frowns, you, in all probability, get just about v/hat you deserve. What you have worked or been idle for. Do not expect quick results, effect may not follow, cause immediately, but follow it will*

ANAGRAMS. j> Anagrams, or the transposition of the letters of one word ‘to form another word, afford: good exercise for the ingenious. * Most of the famous ones have been built on the names of celebrated people.. “Flit on, cheering angel,” for Florence Nightingale (the heroic army nurse of the Crimean war) is one of the best known.. “Honour est a nilo” (my honour is from the Nile) was 3 the aragram formed on Horatio Nelson after his great nayal victory in Aboukir Bay» commonly called the battle of the Nile. Another form is where the. word or sentence reads backwards and forwards the same. Such were our original forefather’s introductory remark to Eve — “Madam, I’m_Adara,” or the one attributed to Napoleon Bounaparte: “Abie was I ere I saw Elba.” The longest and most elaborate one “Ru-Ru” has seen is “Paget saw an Irish tooth, sir, in a waste gap.” The verse below is ingenious because each of the seven vacancies iri it can be- filled by the same six letters in different order. Try if you can complete it. A sat in his grey, Watching the moonbeams (day, The trees in their answering “With the glint of thine armouiv those the Strong, Thou the foe who withstood thee so long, And to thee the of the war doth! belong. In the following one the same four letters, in different order, will fill all the .spaces :—• A old woman on bent, Put on her and away she went J Lou said she, what shall we do To - to-day.g