HOUSEWIFE’S NOTEBOOK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1938, Page 5

HOUSEWIFE’S NOTEBOOK

SERVICEABLE HINTS. A good way to cook rhubarb is by baking it in a covered dish and adding a pinch of ginger. The rhubarb can be served with cream. To keep ants and cockroaches away, sprinkle turpentine. If a teaspoon of vinegar is added to the water in which brains are put to soak, they will be made -more easy to clean and skin. An old linen shirt is a good thing for drying crystalware. No fluff is left upon the crystal, and the linen gives a wonderful polish. To remove salt-water stains from tan shoes, dissolve a teaspoon of wash-ing-soda in two tablespoons of warm milk. Then sponge the shoes dry with a clean cloth, and polish. To prevent stoppers sticking, rub a little glycerine on corks used for bottles containing glue, shoe-polish, gum, and other sticky substances. To guard against moths and silverfish amongst the linen, wrap it in blue paper. These pests will not attack anything wrapped in blue paper, and the paper - will keep the linen a good colour. Do not use tissue-paper. To make shoes black, paint them with Indian ink, which is waterproof. A large brush should be used. Paint evenly and lightly. If . paint, which has been stored, be-comes-hard, stand the tin in some hot water. Let the tin remain in the water until the paint becomes soft enough for use and then add oil and turps. When making a pudding, if short of milk, dilute with water and add a teaspoon of butter for every three helpings. Remember to stir only one way after adding the butter' so as to prevent it from streaking. Instead of troubling to make starch for large tablecloths, curtains, etc., add one tablespoon of methylated spirits to the last rinsing water. This stiffens them sufficiently, and they are easier to iron. To clean very dirty paintbrushes, heat some vinegar to boiling point, and allow the brushes to simmer in it for half an hour. Then wash well in strong soap-suds, and they will be like new. Never allow irons to become red hot. It spoils the temper, and they will not heat so well afterwards.