HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 58

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

While an over-anxious study of the vitamin chart may rather bring us a reputation as a food faddist, it is up to every housewife and cook to preserve a certain balance in the ordering of her meals. Yet we still have suet puddings following heavy first courses and “airyfairy ” sweets appearing when something more substantial might well be appreciated. In providing suitable and nourishing menus it is not only necessary to study each dish but to study the meal as a whole, be it the simplest of two-course affairs. Almost unconsciously, of course, you will be bound to study the seasons because however you may wish to serve certain dishes the season or the price will keep them out of your reach. Fortunately, however, we none of us crave for so many salads in cold weather, and strawberries seem bound up irretrievably with December. Without going too much into the details of vitamins, calories, and other food values, there are some broad rules which are easy for any housewife to follow. If you. serve a steak and kidney pudding as a first course, never make the mistake of serving a jam suet pudding to follow—and this has been done—however much you wish to use up the suet! A jam suet pudding is possibly most suitable on a cold day when cold meat has to be served. Always on a cold day have a hot pudding to follow a cold meat course, and if possible have a little soup before the meat. For more elaborate dinners avoid soup before a hot meat course, serve rather a little grape fruit or a small hors d’oeuvre. After a fairly substantial course of meat and vegetables, serve a rather light sweet —such as a souffle or fruit salad. After anything rich like roast pork, avoid anything too creamy or rich. This may all seem to be mere common sense, but many a housewife does make these mistakes, mainly, one supposes, because she has not the time or does not allow herself the time to think her menus out beforehand. She serves a meat pie and a fruit tart after it, or, worse, a milk pudding. Such a meal obviously offers too big a starch element, particularly if potatoes are served with the pie. Conversely, a meal that offers too much acid is not good either.

Most such mistakes are the result of a meal being thrown together haphazardly at the last minute rather than planned with a certain amount of care. The housewife who finds she is perpetually wondering what to have will find it of greatest help to plan her menus for the week beforehand, as far as she can. It is not, of course, possible in a small household to plan down to the last detail. Left-overs must be allowed for, one knows, but broadly she can keep to these menus . and the suggestions are bound to be of help to her—even if she does not avail herself of them all—if only to keep her from that last-minute panic which is generally the cause of most illbalanced meals.

A successfully arranged room is bound to have some centre of interest which in the winter is invariably supplied by the fireplace. But, however cleverly you have arranged the hearth in summer with pine cones piled high in the grate or a great jar of bracken or beech leaves hiding the bars, the fireplace still has a rather desolate appearance.

A new centre of interest may be made in the room by placing the chesterfield with its back to the window and so make this the most important feature of the room. A table at one side of it can hold a standard lamp so that at night it is as brightly lighted as during the day.

If the other chairs in the room arty drawn round at right angles to the settee, then you have a comfortablo group which has a cheery, friendly look,and the deserted fireplace will no longer cause sighs of regret. But perhaps the windows are in the corner of the room, so that this arrangement would be impracticable. Still,°it could look just as well placed against another wall, with a handsome mirror hanging over it or a large picture. A rather symmetrical grouping of small pictures round it would concentrate the attention of anyone in the room to that wall, and a bowl of flowers placed on the little table beside the settee rather than on the mantlepiece would soon make this the most interesting spot in the room.

Glands have a nasty habit of persisting. When once they have formed this habit, the trouble involved to get rid of them is no small one. There may be a constitutional weakness which causes a little swelling, but in time this may lead to what is known as a “"breaking down,” when serious trouble may arise through the formation of an abscess which can become tuberculous.

Painting with iodine every other night is a good thing, as it .soothes the irritation from the swelling and hardens the skin to attacks of microbes, always on the look-out for easy access to the human frame.

A mild tonic, such as syrup of hypophosphites, extract of malt and cod-liver oil, or cod-liver oil and syrup of hypophosphites mixed, helps to build up the bodily health of the child and thus throw off its weakness. Additional fat, such as butter, bacon fat, cream, and good dripping, to the child’s diet is helpful, while the child should be encouraged to drink plenty of cow’s milk. One thing, however, must not be overlooked. There is a tendency among children to pander to this complaint. A little chill and a feeling of stiffness about the neck, and such children will be crying out about their glands and demanding attention. In this way the complaint can be aggravated. Children who suffer from glandular trouble must never be allowed to imagine they are any different from their stronger brothers and sisters, nor must their weakness be talked about in their hearing. A child with constitutional gland weakness should be made to rough it as much as possible in the open air, eat plenty of good plain food, and always be kindly though firmly instructed in the art of self-forgetfulness. If the glands become diseased and tuberculosis steps in, the only thing to do is to let the hospital treat them, either medically or surgically.