USEFUL RECIPES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2191, 24 July 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

USEFUL RECIPES.

In furnishing our rooms, we, as a general ! thin&, go at it in a haphazard way, and the result is not always as satisfactory as we would like. We go to a store and look over the carpets, and select one that looks pretty.. We .go to tho dealer in wall-paper, and, without a thought of the carpet it is to sro with, we select a pleasing pattern. When the paper is on, and the carpet down, they may harmonise, and they may not. You will see a great many rooms in the houses of your neighbours that leave an unpleasant impression on you, and if you seek the cause of this, you will generally find it is on account of lack of harmony. A woman wearing conflicting colours never appears well-dressed, though her attire may have cost a great deal of money, while another woman, wearing far less expensive, but tastefully chosen materials, will have an air of elegance. It is the same with rooms. The room is not made attractive because of expensive furniture, but because taste has been brought into excuse. We do not nufficientlj study effects. Before furnishing a room we ought to know precisely the effects we desire to produce, and then study how to produce them. If we have no definite plan, we cannot work intelligently. In buying carpets nnd paper, and other things to go into one room, never select each independently of the other, but always consider how they will harmonise. Let one general idea of colour and design run through all. This giveß a unity of effect, and the result will be highly pleasing. Remember that a carpet is not bought to be admired for the beauty of its pattern merely, but because it is a sort of back-ground for the room, and select it because of its appropriateness for that purpose. A wall-paper may be very pretty in the place, but upon the wall the effect may be intensely disagreeable. Always bear in mind that it is for a back-ground to the pictures and ornaments you hang upon your walls, and let it be of such a colour as not to destroy this idea. If the colour and the pattern is very decided, the walls will always assert a greater claim to attention than the pictures. There should always be beauty in carpets and paper, but it should be of that quiet, subdued sort that does not make them of primary importance when the room is occupied. They should always be secondary. The pictures, the flowers, and the various other things of ornament should stand out in relief against them, and this they cannotdo unless the colour and design of the coverings for the floor and wails ate less bright and self-assertive than themselves. A room tastefully furnished, always pioduces much the same impression as a picture in harmonious colours, and we should study more than we do to make pictures of our rooms. — Press. Among the things against which I wish to protest is the wearing or the nonwearing of floral emblems because of their fancied political signification. That the violet should be made to remind us of Napoleon, or the primrose be associated with Toryism, is nothing less than an outrage upon nature. In the Utter case Wordsworth'n lines upon the flower would have a utrange significance indeed, for they might be made to imply that while to the simpleton it was but a primrose, to the person of political culture it was teeming with political principles. Mr Chamberlain is just now very popular with the Conservative party, but I hope I shall not. be compelled to put orchids in my buttonhole to express my sympathy with him. Politico are very well in their way, but they are strange kind of cattle, "tearing down ro<>e and ranunculus," while tbe> "Tommy make room for your uncle" us " to be let into the garden." — Exchange.

The blooming and beautiful young lady, rose-cheeked and bright-eyed, who can darn a stocking mend her own frocks, command a regiment of pots and kettles, feed the pigs, milk the cows and be a lady nil the time, is the girl that sensible young men are in quest of for a wife. But you pining, waspwaisted, dolldressed, consumption-mortgaged, inusicmurdaring.and novel-devouring daughters of fashion and idleness, you are no more fit for matrimony than a pullet to look after a brood of fourteen children. The truth is, my dear girls, you want less of restraint and more liberty of action, more kitchen and less parlour, more exercise and less sofa, more pudding and less piano, more frankness and less mock modesty. Loosen your corsets, and breathe in the p'ire atmosphere, and become something as good and beautiful as nature designed.

Currant Tea Cake. — Two pounds of flour, nix ounces of sugar, six ounces of butter, and one quarter pounl of ourrants ; baking powder. Rick Cake — One pound of flour, one quarter pound of ground rice, one quarter pound of flour or rice, ten e<?gs, one pound of loaf-sugar (powdered), and one pound of butter. Sugar Cakes. — One pound of flour ; three-quarters of a pound of butter; threequarters of a pound of sugar ; the yolks of four eggs, a little cinnamon and nutmeg ; tw o tablespoonf uls of brandy, and a little rose-water. Bird's - Nest Pudding. — Pare and quarter tart apples, and place them in a buttered dish or tim. Then make a batter of three eggs, a cupful of sugar, half a cupful of sour cream or milk, a little carbonate of soda, and a little salt. Pour in the batter, and bake thirty-five minutes. Bebfsteak with Tomato Sauce.— Take one and a half dozen ripe tomatoes ; skin and scald them, put them in a saucepan, with half-a-pint of good beef gravy ; season with salt and pepper, and put them to stew for one hour. When the steak is nicely broiled pour this sauce upon it and send it to thetable. Haricot Beans, Boiled. — Put the beans in plenty of cold water ; when they boil, throw in a little salt ; let them boil about two hours, and, when the skin begins to crack, strain away all the water, which put aside to help make soup, and put a thick cloth over the beans. Put the saucepan on the hob for the beans to steam ; by this time the little water left with them will have dried up, and the beans will be thoroughly cooked and mealy.