Household Hints.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 October 1908, Page 3

Household Hints.

Some Complexion Hints. —For washing the face select a pure choice soap (the best is none too good) and a soft wash cloth. When the skin is very dry, use a cold cream for cleansing the pores, but if the skin is inclined to be oily, this- is not necessary. Have the water as hot as the hands can bear it. Get the cloth well saturated, and covered with a generous supply of soap, and apply several times to the face, always moving the cloth upwards. While the face is still wet use a massage with the finger tips. The chin should be rubbed with a rotary motion, the lines about the mouth upward and outward. The forehead should be rubbed from the middle towards the temples. Press the fingers at the back of the neck, having the thumbs meet under the chin. Now draw the thumbs backward „to the nape of the neck. This exercise will remove the wrinkles caused by high After massaging the face, wash again with hot water and then spray the face with cold water.

To Wash Dress Skirts.- -A. lady writes giving the following directions for washing tweed or black skirts - Take some very hot, not boiling, suds, add one tablespoon of strong ammonia and two of spirits of turpentine, soak the skirts in this, let them remain till cool, and then wash, without any more soap, and then rinse two or three times through warm water and ammonia, and hang out, without wringing. I have washed navy blue as well as tweed skirts, and they look as good as new. This process will remove every bit of grease and dirt. I find it much better than cleaning them, as in cleaning light grey tweeds one can never quite take the spots out.

Cocoaunt Custard.- Warm half a pint of milk with half an ounce of butter, and pour it over three ounces of desiccated cocoaunt; leave till cold, and then add the beaten yolks of two eggs, with sugar to taste. Lino the sides of a greased pie-dish with pastry, ornament with edges and pour in the custard. Bake in a steady oven till set. probably about twenty minutes. Whip the whites of the eggs to a still froth, sweeten and flavour, and pile roughly on the custard. Put in the oven to colour lightly, strew grated cocoanut over and serve either hot or cold.

FishPatties.--Fish patties are very tasty if made as follows, and. moreover, they make a nice change lor supper: Take the remains of any cold iish, a little butter, white sauce, and a seasoning of cayenne and salt. Flake the fish, and pound it till it is of soft consistency. Line some natty pans with pastry fill with raw rice and bake. Heat the iish in a covered basin, placed in at pan of boiling water. When the pastry is cooked, empty out the rice and fill with the fish. Scatter a little grated cheese over and set in the oven to brown. Serve on a d'ovley, garnished with parsley.

Sweet Scones. —Put one tablespoonful and a half of baking powder into a pound of flour, rub in lightly two ounces of butter, and two ounces of caster spar. Make into a dough with milk. Roll out an inch thick, and cut into small rounds. Brush over with sweetened milk and bake for twenty minutes. Split open either hot or cold, and spread with butter.

French Pancakes. —Beat to a cream two ounces of fresh butter with three ounces of sugar, then work the yolk of two well-beaten eggs and their whites whipped to a stiff froth in alternate spoonfuls with two ounces of Hour, moisten with half a pint of milk, and divide into four saucers, baking these for fifteen to twenty minutes. Have ready some nice .jam heated till nearly liquid, cover one cake with this then lay the other over it, then more jam, and so on till the. cakes are all used, sifting sugar over the last. If this method is followed you will tind the pancakes so made perfectly light.

A Cake Hint.—-If a handful of salt is put on the bottom of the oven under pans when baking gingerbread or any cake easily burned it will prevent it burning.

Breakfast In Bed. -The habit of breakfasting in bed, notes an exchange, should be condemned for more reasons than the common ones that it leads to laziness in the individual and to extra work for the servant.

Salt in Coffee. —Putting a pinch of salt in coffee improves (he flavour.

Unless one is to spend the whole morning in bed the breakfast taken hefore risinir means (hat (he morning hath must he taken \\ hj• •11 the system is least able to stand the slioek : in oilier words, when all the blood js drawn to the stoniaeb vessels. Within a few minutes -of the «:•!% mi;of food the process of di;:e:4ie.n bee.ms and a full supply of blood is needed by all the organs of die'ci t ion. To em-ure this full supply the- skin vessels are partially depleted of their usual amount of blood. ,lust in the middle of this process the morninj: tub is taken, and whether hot or cold, (lie skin must react to the rubbim: down (hat. follows if one is to escape a chill. If the proper reaction lakes place a portion of the blood needed by the abdominal vessels must forsake those rejnons and flow to the skin. 'J his means that the process of digestion is interrupted. resultim? in flatulency, headaches, and dyspepsia. It makes little diiferenee whether the brealcfast taken is a hearty British one or simply toast and tea: the slightest amount, of food in the stomach will set the organism at work, and the bath, following immediately after a breakfast, no mat tm' how slight, is simply an invitation to symptoms of dyspepsia to appear.