Household Hints.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 5 June 1914, Page 2

Household Hints.

Pastry to which baking-powder has been added should be placed in the oven as quickly as possible, otherwise the effect of the bakingpowder will be wasted. Before frying your bacon for breakfast cover each side with a thin layer of made mustard, and fry as usual. The mustard does not cause the bacon to eat hot, but gives it a nice flavour. Add a little baking-powder—one half teaspoonful, if six persons are to be served—to mashed potatoes just before serving, and they will be so deliciously white and light you will mever serve them without. Oil of cedar sprinkled freely inside the wood of wardrobes will keep away moths without giving the clothes an unpleasant odour. Sprinkle well into the corners, but be careful that it does not touch the clothing, or it may leave a stain. Save tea-leaves for a few days, then steep them in a pail for half an hour ; strain, and use the tea to clean varnished wood. It requires very little polish, as the tea acts as a strong detergent, cleaning the paint from all impurities and making it equal to new. To remove mud stains from black silk or woollen dresses, first let the material become perfectly dry, and then brush off the mud. Any stain that remains should be washed with a piece of flannel dipped in hot coffee to which a little ammonia has been added. It is much better to use cold water than hot for scrubbing floor*, as it does not soak into the wood so readily, and consequently dries sooner. The scrubbing brush should always be moved up and down the boards with the grain of the wood and not across it. „>Very often when paint-brushes have been laid aside for some time they become very hard and dry. To remedy this, heat some vinegar to boiling point, immerse the brushes, and allow them to simmer about fifteen minutes. Then wash them in strong soap-suds, and they will be as good as new. * j To prevent knives not in daily use getting rusty, rub them over after cleaning with a little sweet oil. Then wrap in tissue paper and afterwards in thick brown paper, tyinjr the parcel tightly up so that as little air as possible may get to the knives. Keep them in the driest storing place you have. If wanted for use, put th«m in hot soapy water, dry, and give a slight rub on the knifeboard to restore the polish. The. following recipe will be found preferable to salts of lemon, oxalic acid, etc., for cleaning straw hats and Panamas. Procure from your chemist a small quantity of peroxide of hydrogen. To clean the strawuse an old tooth-brush and rub the peroxide well in; rinse the strawhat with cold Water, and dry it in the open. The straw will become beautifully white, and w U I n Q t turn