HOME HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 490, 10 August 1912, Page 6

HOME HINTS.

Green peas should not be shelled for more than half an hour before being placed in the saucepan for cooking otherwise their colour will be spoilt when cooked.

Decanters can be cleaned by filling them with strips of brown paper and adding cold water. When a corkscrew is not available an ordinary screw with a string attache will remove a cork from a bottle quite easily. New baking tins should be placed in the oven for an hour to become properly seasoned before being used for ordinary bak ng purposes. The oven should be of moderate heat. By treating them in this way the tins will last twice as long.

When copper ketles become dull and black looking, try cleaning them in the following way: Cut a lemon In half, dip it in salt, and rub it all over the surface of the kettle. Aferwarda wash well in warm water to prevent the acid eating into the metal, and polish with dry powdered bath brick. ' Lamps should be filled every day, and the chimneys washed once a week. If you want to have a good light let every lamp have a new wick once a month, and just before lighting rub the stand of the lamp over with a dry cloth to remove'any traces"of oil.

- To make a cornice pole, procure a penny broomhandle, a penny tin of white enamel, and twelve brass rings large enough to slip easily along the pole. Give the pole two coats of enamel allowing two hours to elapse between each coat. When dry it is ready for use. Two brackets at a penny each form the support. The curtains are suspended from the rings in the usual way. To remove grease apots from wall paper, sprinkle a piece of blotting paper with carbonate of soda, and press it against the wall with - a moderately warm iron. The blotting paper will absorb the grease, while the soda preserves the colour of the papsr. Blanket Washing. For blanket washing choose a bright dry day when a'gentle wind is blowing, rattier than a day which is hot and still, since strong sunlight turns ' woollen materials yellow. Shake the blankets before they are wetted to remove the dust, which if left in gives the blankets a dingy look, and shake them again before they are hung on the line so as to raise any nap and restore the new appearance.

Improving the Hearth. —Tp improve the heart, try the following:— Procure a 21b jam pot, half fill with whiting, a penny block of tin ed dye, and a penny paint brush. Dissolve the tint in a basin with about half a pint of boiling water, stir witn a stick, then add to the whiting gradually until quite smooth (it must be about as thick as cream). Clean the hearth well and paint thickly with the mixture. To renew scrape the old off with a knife, well brush (don't wet), then paint again. Turquoise blue and apple green will suit a brass curb and irons pink with a little cream colour added to make samon will go beautifully with copper fittings; red with steel; and yellow with all black. Fomentations.—Fomentations are a quick and simple method of easing pain, and if they are changed fre-' quently they do the work of a poultice. A fomentation is really a- thickly folded piece of flannel wrung out of boiling water. As it is impossible to place the hands in boiling water to accomplish the wringing, the best plan is to place the flannel between the folds ofa roller towel, to insert a stick at each folded end of the towel and twist the sticks in contrary directions until the flannel is wrung dry. It is well to give the flannel a little shake before applying it to the painful part, as this helps it to retain its heat longer. A fomentation should be covered with a piece uf water proof to protect the clothing from dampness, and by several folds of dry flannel to help it to retain its heat. Fomentation should be changed every fifteen minutes, and when the pain has abated, the part should be kept covered with soft flannel or cotton wool to avoid all risk of colds an chilsl.

Black Penper and White.—Many people do not know how infinitely superior black pepper is to white. It grows in long, small clusters of from twenty to fifty grains. When ripe, it is of a bright red colour. After being gathered, it is spread on' mats inthe sun, when it loses its red colour and becomes black and shrivelled as we see it in use. There are two kinds of white pepper, common and genuine. The former is made by blanching the grains of the black kind. With the coat goes the chief strength, which accounts for the comparative mildness of white pepper. That which is called genuine is merely the blighted or imperfect grains picked from among the heaps of black pepper. The name is misleading. SOME USEFUL RECIPES.

Rhubarb and Apple Jelly.—Wipe, peel and cut up a bundle of *hubarb peel, core, and quarter three pounds of apples. Take the thin rind of half a dozen lemons and put it into u preserving pan with half a pint of water and the iuice of the lemons. Boil until reduced to a pulp. Strain the jujee through the strong muslin, pressing the fruit well. Weigh the juice and allow one pound of loaf sugar to every pound of juice. Boil again and add the sugar. Boil, skim well, and when it jellies on the skimmer pour into pots.

Spinach and Pried Bananas. —Two pounds of spinach, one ounce of butter, one egg, breadcrumbs, three bananas, seasoning, and a little flour. Pick and wash the spinach, put into saucepan, with very little water, and salt to taste. Cook with the lid on until tender. Peel the bananas, cut into quarters, season with coralin pepper, egg, and crumb; fry in deep fat to a golden brown. Keep hot. When the spinach is cooked, drain well, melt the butter in a saucepan, add spinach, with seasoning, a little nutmeg, dust over a little flour, cook a few minutes then serve on a hot dish with the fried bananas.