FRILLS FADS & FOIBLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 113, 3 August 1927, Page 5

FRILLS FADS & FOIBLES

DON’T HAVE A “COOKING FACE”! One of the aggravating - disadvan- j tages of cooking is the effect it has : on one’s personal appearance. On I hot days, everything we do seems 1 calculated to make us red in the face: whisking eggs, beating cream, “minding” the roasting joint, looking after the steaming vegetables—even that merciless ‘‘quick” oven helps to make us hotter than ever. For one thing, we must try and avoid having to work at top speed; without actually loitering, there is a reasonable pace that will let us keep fairly cool and yet get ahead fast enough. It pays very much to get “well forward.” It is that “whisking” that is done at the last second that wrecks our appearance (and possibly our tempers). It is always worth while to get dainty little finishes well out of the way before time presses. Allow, too, enough time to dish up comfortably. When approaching the oven, don’t follow up the opening of the door too quickly so that your face gets the first blast of very hot air. Above all, try not to “think hot thoughts”—as the mind-trainers would say. To begin to fuss or feel nervous about things being a success makes one hotter than anything. Of course, one can’t hope to feel absolutely fresh, but it is possible to remain surprisingly cool, if we give ourselves a little trouble to make the . best of our chances of kitchen comfort.

MAKING THE MOST OF THE LITTLE DRESSMAKER For the girl who has only a small dress allowance, and who yet wants to look smart, my advice is to find a “little” dressmaker and go to her for everything. A VOID “bargins” in the shops, however tempting—stick to “little Miss Smith,” but—and this is where the whole art lies —do not ask too much of her! Never ask her for ideas —she will not have them, and if she has, be sure they will be wrong! And always, without fail, give her a pattern to copy. If you have not got a frock, a jumper, or a skirt you like, then beg, borrow, or steal one! Take this in one hand and the necessary length of really expensive material in the other —and you will eliminate all the failures she will otherwise create. And, what is more, you will have an excellent garment, which will wear for umpteen years, for less than the cost of a ready-made model made of inferior stuff! For this is where you score—all your clothes will look expensive because they are made of the very best repp, kasha, brocade, or crepe de chine, or whatever you invest in—for you there will be no “near” silks or cotton - mixed wools—no garments that lose their “surface,” or voiles that shrink in the wash, or velours that rub the first time you put them on. And then remember this —the verv best materials need very little fixing, draping, or making, either. With them it is a case of the simpler the better —when it comes to cutting them out. But always give her something to copy, and never a single garment to create! JUST THE DIFFERENCE The clever hostess is not she who pays most for her parties, but she who gets the best results. And so the ingenious poor woman can score her small success as well as the rich one. For instance, a fillet of fish is a fillet of fish; it is sole, if one can afford it, plaice, if one cannot. But, in either case, each fillet can have a juicy, fat, French plum, cooked previously with a little cheap sherry, laid duskily and deliciously on it. And the guests of the poor woman will look on her with increased respect; hers that have been the fillets that are different.

FLUENZOL FOR SMOKERS The cigarette habit is more general than ever, especially since so many womenfolk adopted the practice. No smoker can afford to be without FLUENZOL as a healthful and cleansing mouthwash. especially first thing in the morning. FLUENZOL is also a certain means of checking that cigarette cough or that “smoker’s throat.” 1

No doubt, “Why on earth did I marry you?” has always been a popular question for married women to ask when they are feeling somewhat Mondayish, as the saying goes; but it seems to be growing still more popular. In fact, one hears it demanded on every hand —by everyone and every day! And when the person most concerned is absent, they change it to “My dear —why on earth did I marry him?” In fact, in one recent week five of my friends asked me this. The last was typical of them all. She was thirty. Had she known all she now knows when she was twenty, she would not have married Bob, said she. “Who would you have married?” I inquired. And she sighed. “Oh, a quite, quite different type.’” Well, that feeling is easy to understand. Most women have it when they glance at last year’s frock in the light of this years’ fashions; it seems so hopelessly out of date —or when they contemplate the house which seemed such a very “desirable residence” indeed when first they bought it, but which now leaves them somewhat cold. The frock, of course, is all wrong, and the colour was not half as becoming as hoped, and the house might have been much better. There is nowhere to put the cabinet Aunt Maria left, and the stairs are too high, and they really do badly need a third sit-ting-room. . . And if it is maddening when the shop windows are full of exquisite frocks, and the roads are full or charming houses to let, to have to go on wearing the same wine-col-oured gabardine or living in “The Cedars” any longer—how much more maddening to have to go on being married to Charlie, who is not a tenth as thrilling as one once imagined him, and who can in no way be called one’s soul mate now, whatever he might once have seemed? They feel really it is almost too bad to bear, and, that being so, why bear it? And it is only natural to feel like this when the way of escape has been made so very easy. Why not be brave and take it, get a nice quiet divorce and start all over again? Why not find someone, as my friend put it, quite, quite different, in fact / Well, the chief reason against it is the reason that prevents the new frock or the new house continuing to entrance when once they are ours, and that is that they do not unfortunately stay new. The new’ frock in less than a year ceases to please, and the new' house stops being too heavenly for words, and proves itself the same old house everyone else is living in with certain advantages but also with many defects. And the new husband does likewise. In a word, romance fades and monotony once more sets in. And the wise woman knows this, and however often she may ask “"Why did I marry you?” she stays married. She does not seek perfection, for she is well aware that perfection does not exist —also, in her heart of hearts, she is conscious that if it did there is no reason she should obtain it. It is only the female idiot who overrates her charms, and fondly imagines that if she were free dozens of men would be falling at her feet. ALWAYS ALLOW FOR— Swelling, when cooking a steamed or boiled pudding, and make a pleat in the cloth or paper covering it. Shrinking, when cooking greenstuff; a large pan full will boil down to a very small quantity. Spinach is the worst offender in this way. The difference it makes to the taste of sauce when it is added to meat, fish, vegetables and so on. It won’t taste nearly so highly seasoned as it did when you tried it by itself, so add an extra dash of seasoning to compensate : for this. : The cooling effect on hot water of i adding cold vegetables, and make sure • that the water is at the bubbling, fast- : boiling stage before putting anything in, and not just simmering. The same thing when frying. If you add too many potatoes, rissols or what , not to the boiling fat at one time the , heat will decrease until the fat is too cool to crisp its contents properly. So ; add one or two at a time, letting the : fat boil up again before adding the L next instalment. [ > To clean an enamel dish that has • been burnt, fill it with cold water, add • a large tablespoon of salt and allow to l stand an hour or so. An apple added to sage-and-onion i stuffing for pork or poultry both adds , to the flavour and prevents the onion • repeating. r Keep candles loosely in a large jar 3 and the air will get around them, l hardening them; they will then last 3 much longer in use.

Mundane Musings Why Did She Mar ry Him?