Cool Compartments

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 250, 12 January 1928, Page 6

Cool Compartments

BE REFRESHED AT HOME As the therometer climbs, many of us who have to spend the whole day in Queen- Street, long for the wide, green spaces of the open and are apt to become irritable and depressed on the return to small crowded quarters. A run across the harbour or a visit to an enticing beach on a summer evening has a wonderful revitalising effect, and with an effort we can do much to make our rooms appear larger and seem cooler and raise our spirits accordingly. There are various ways to secure the effect of space or actually make it in small rooms. The most obvious is not to have too much furniture. It is well to look around and see if there is an unnecessary chair or table —one that is more ornamental than useful is the kind to remove. For a space-saving table a nest of tables is useful, for when not needed they occupy only the space of one aver-age-sized table. On the table that serves for either a writing desk or general living room table more polished surface, which looks cool in summer, can be arranged if all reading matter is stacked into one pile and pens, pencils and papercutters thrust into a jar instead of the usual flat pen tray. On walls all but a few restful-look-during the summer months. Landing pictures should be taken down scapes and marine views seem the best to retain, while bright-coloured “heads” and so forth, cheerful in winter, should be resolutely banished. It is surprising how walls that are almost bare will seem to enlarge a room. For a comfortable couch that takes comparatively little room a box couch is perhaps best, for it is good looking when covered with a spread that harmonises with the general colour scheme and gives storage room within equal to a large bureau. Thin curtains and a fern or two will complete a cooler, roomier-looking apartment, where the breezes can have full play. ASPARAGUS TIME All lovers of asparagus maintain that there is only one way to eat it—piping hot with plain melted butter. To do the utmost justice to the vegetable it should be cooked upright, in water that comes only half-way up the stalks. As the season advances, however, asparagus may be welcomed in other guises. In whatever way it is cooked, care should be taken that the delicate flavour, ■which needs no enhancement, is not spoiled by the introduction of other flavours. Asparagus Soup.-—Boil a small bundle of asparagus until the green tips are tender. Cut these off and continue cooking the stalks untii tender enough to pass through a sieve. Return the puree to the stock. Cook two ounces of flour in the same quantity of butter and add slowly a pint of the stock. Add half a pint of milk, season»well and continue to cook slowly. Just before serving, add the asparagus tips, a little cream and more pepper and salt if required. Asparagus Custard. —Cook the asparagus as for soup and add the green tips, a little of the stock and an ounce of butter to a custard made by beating two eggs in g-pint of milk. Season and steam carefully or cook in a bain-marie.