USEFUL HINTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2200, 9 November 1920, Page 1

USEFUL HINTS.

Potato peelings put into a stained decanter will make it clean and bright.

Boiled-rice rubbed over black inkstains helps to remove them. Cayenne pepper is excellent for ridding a cupboard of mice. Ground rice, rubbed on with a soft rag, will clean velour hats. To clean flat irons, rub them when hot on a damp rag that has been rubbed over with soap. A few drops of hot vinegar will remove the most obstinate whitewash or distemper splashes. Ammonia and whitening made into a paste are excellent for cleaning silverplated articles. Pink cotton materials keep their colour better if a few drops of red ink are added to the rinsing water.

Stockings are less liable to shrink when soaked overnight in cold water before being washed for the first time.

The lightness of batter puddings is much improved if two tcaspoonfuls of ground rice arc added to the flour before mixing. Paraffin rubbed on a shiny coat collar will make it look new again. The flannel used should be frequently fumed.

If clolhes-pegs are dipped in white enamel painl and dried in Ihe sun, they can then be kept perfectly clean.

Makeshift Utensils : —(1) Side of box nibbed smooth with coarse glass paper as pastry hoard. (2) 'Long-shaped glass bottle as rol-ling-pin. (3) Skewer given away with meat as fork, and for piercing holes in tins (or a nail and hammer can be used for piercing). (4) Stoneware jam jars of different sizes, for stewing meat, fruit, making beef tea. (5) Biscuit tin as caketin; lid as Hat sponge or jam fart tin. ((>) Lids of-round tins'as cullers. (7) Tongue tin pierced with good-sized holes in bottom as strainer, steamer, or colander could be used. (8) Mustard or other small tins pierced with small holes as dredges. (9) a home-made meat safe can be made from butter-mus-lin, a tin plate, cane hoop, and a. hook. (10) It is very: wasteful to use a gas oven with a lot of burners to cook a single dish. A good oven can be made of a biscuit tin lined at the bottom with a sheet of asbestos. This will bake a piece of meat or a pudding very well on cither a single gas ring or on a small oil-stove. The best kind of tin is the sort with a hinged glass top (as used by grocers for showing biscuits), if procurable. A few small holes should be pierced near the top for ventilation.

You might (rv washing varnished paper with tea that is left in the teapots. If no lea is left, pour a little more water on the leaves, strain, and use that, and afterwards polish the paper with a little furniture polish. Try rubbing your hands with just a little salt and then rinsing them under the cold water tap if you want to remove the smell of onions after you have been peeling them. If you suffer from perspiring feet bathe them every morning in water in which just a little permanganate of potash has been added. Then dry very thoroughly, and, before putting on your stockings, powder the feef with boraeic powder, giving particular attention to the part between the toes.

Try warming your lea in the oven before using it. If put on a saucer and allowed to stand in the oven till the chill is well off, it will make much stronger tea than if put into the teapot when cold. Wash and wipe all saucepans while they are still hot. They are far easier to do than when they get cold. Try this, and you will soon realise what a difference it makes.