LADIES' COLUMN.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 372, 26 November 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS. A HINT on cooking fruit.—There h no doubt that stewed fruit is a most wholesome additiou to ordinary diet. There are, however, many persons who cannot eat it; either on account of the acidity of the truit; or of the large quantity of sugar to make it palatable. It should be remembered that sugar does not counteract the acidity of the fruit, it ■imply disguises it; and if much is used it in apt to iuterfere with the digestive organs. Before cooking the fruit spriukle over it a small pinoh of carbonate of soda, this renders the dish more wholesome, and certainly more tasty. To clean white or light coloured felt hats.—Rub well with common chalk, and brush off with a moderately hard brush. ♦ A useful cement is made by melting common alum in an old spoon over the fire. It is especially useful for uniting glass and metal. When tea is spilt on a white tablecloth pour boiling water through the stains immediately. Soda is an excellent article for cleaning tinware. Apply with a damp cloth and rub dry. To turn out a boiled pudding which has been boiled simply in the cloth dip it into cold water for a minute, place it in a basin which will just hold it, until the strings, and fold the cloth back so that when the basin is turned upside down on the dish the pudding will be free. To make a stale loaf fresh dip it quickly into hot milk, and then bake till dry in a quick oven. RECIPES. Chops and Gbekn Pbas.—Choose some loiD chops ; trim them neatly, dip them in flour, and pat in a stewpan with a aprig of mint and water to cover them. When they come to the boil draw the pan to the aide of the fire, add 1 pt of shelled peas, 1 onion, and a teatpoonful of salt, and a salt spoonful of pepper. Simmer them gently for about twenty minutes, or till the chops are tender ; dish carefully, with the peas heaped in tha centre and the chops round. Apricot Omblet.—-Beat the yolks of (our eggs with 2J oz of sugar, till light and frothy, beat the whites to a stiff froth, and mix them with the yolks. Melt l£oz of butter (fresh not salt) in a pan pour the mixture, stir till the edges of the omelet be«in to set, and then put the pan in a hot oven for about 3 minutes. Slide omelet on to a very hot dish, put some heated apricot jam in the centre, turn the omelet over, sprinkle with sugar, and serve at once. SoET Icing.—The following is suitable for almost any cake, rich or plain, and it is well nigh impossible to fail in making it. For every halt' lb of icing sugar used, two tablespoonfuls of cold water will fce required. Put the sugar and water into a clean saucepan, let it melt and dissolve until it looks smooth and shiny. It must not boil and as soon as it is ready must be used at once, by pouring it over the cake or cakes to be iced. It will very soon dry. DO CLEVER WOMEN MAKE THE BEST WIVES ? What is meant by cleverness P Is it cleverness of heart, of brain, or both ? Then, unless we wish to raise a psean to dulness and stupidity, of course clever women make the best wives. Cleverness is not the sole monopoly of " sweet girlgraduates ;" it belongs, or should do so, to every mother's daughter. The veriest peasant woman, ignorant of the three R's, can show cleverness in management, in thrift, in shrewdness. A clever woman is one who looks well to the ways of hei household ; and if she only shows her cleverness in managing her husband, she may lay claims to no mean ability. The idea that only a blue-stocking, delightful (!) ienorant of all housewifely accomplishments, can be a clever woman is surely exploded by now ; and although the poet says poetically, if not logically— " It is the heart and not the brain That to the highest doth attain." a stupid woman could not attain the highest. Fancy ! trying to get sense of reason into a stupid woman's brain ! (if such a thing as a stupid woman exists). A woman must be clever to rise to any and all occasions; to make the best of things, even if it is only " gar ring auld claithes look amaist like new ;" and. goodness only knows ! making two ends meet is not an easy task. David may love his Dora, and enjoy playing at housekeeping; but the days of doll housewives are gone. In mature years David may feel sentimental towards Dora and underdone veal, but his comfort and his happiness lie in the hands of clever Agnes. A man may marry a fool with the idea "None of your clever women for ine; they know too much ; give me a dear little confiding creature," and not find his happiness enhanced thereby; for of all people of either sex, a fool is the hardest to deal with. Even if we do not go in for the higher mathematics, or " musical glasses," Mrs Malaprop was convinced that a little " geometry" was good for girls ; and it is not a dignified sight to seethe mistress of a house adding and balancing the household accounts by the aid of her fingers. That a woman will darn stocking worse because she can draw curved lines, or make uneatabla puddings because she can write the menu in French, cannot be entertained for a moment; and it must be a very small-souled man that would not like his wife to be able to converse on the leading topics of the day. A man with brains likes his wife to have her share. A SHAMROCK PHOTOGRAPH FRAME. Take a large piece of millboard and cut it into the shape of a shamrock. Cut oval-shaped apertures in each section tf the leaf, and then cover each one with Velvet, green being the most impropriate. The covering is done by glueing tho velvet on the wrong side, snipping pieces here and there out of the edge so that they may not make thick folds. Across the hole you must slit the velvet lengthways and these edges in, straining them well over the board as you do so, and glue tbem into place. At the back of this glue glass which you can get at any glazier's, and then place your photograph or picture behind it; glue brown paper over the back. This kind of frame is extremely effective. Another way of employing this shamrock design is to cover pieces of board with velvet and use them for placing old china on. Many people have tbe shields and rounds, so that a shamrock will be a very nice change. For hanging china upon, cardboard is hardly strong enough. It would be far better to get a carpenter to cut you a board, shamrock ihaped, and then for you to cover it yourself with velvet. _________