DOMESTIC

New Zealand Tablet, 31 March 1921, Page 41

DOMESTIC

(By Maueeen.)

. £ ■ 4 ' Brown Potato Soup. Heat one tablespoonful of butter and brown carefully in it three tablespoonfuls of sifted flour. Then add one and a-half quarts of cold water, a good teaspoonful of salt, and two medium-sized potatoes peeled and sliced thin. Cook until "the potatoes are thoroughly done. The whole process will take three-quarters of an hour. It is a nice task to brown the flour evenly and' sufficiently, but not difficult if a thick-bottomed frying pan is used and the flour stirred constantly. Adding cold water to the flour and butter ensures lack of lumps in the soup. Neither this nor any brown gravy need be lumpy if made with a cold liquid. This is an inexpensive soup, pleasantly thick. Biscuits. The following is a good standard mixture;—Two good tablespoonfuls butter, two-thirds of a breakfastcupful of sugar, one level breakfast-cupful of flour, one egg, one-third teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, twothirds teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Melt the butter in a basin, and make it quite hot, but do not let it boil. Add the sugar, and beat.well for a few minutes, then add the egg and beat well again, then stir in the flour and mix to a firm dough. Any flavoring that is liked may be added. Essence of almonds makes a good flavoring. Finely grated candied orange or lemon peel, chopped almonds or cocoanut or cinnamon, may., be mixed with the flour. If cocoanut is used a little less flour is required. Drop these biscuits in rough teaspoonfuls on a cool oven shelf, and bake in a moderate oven until evenly browned. Another method. —This recipe makes a crisp biscuit, not very sweet; Half-pound flour. 2oz butter., 1 e &S’ 1 teaspoon! baking powder, 1 level tablespoonful sugar. Rub the butter into the flour. Pile it up, and make a hole in .the middle. Mix the egg thoroughlv with the sugar and baking powder, and gradually work in the flour'until the whole is a compact smooth dough. Tightly flour the baking board. Roll out the dough very thin, and cut info biscuits. - Bake in a hot oven for from 10 to 15 minutes, or until delicately browned. Essence of lemon, of almonds, or of vanilla may be added, if liked, when the egg is being mixed with the sugar. " ' ' To Destroy Flies. It is very unwholesome to allow flies about the house. They are disease-carriers, and they are always contaminating .eatables. It is .best to give the flies

some attraction in the way of food which, after eating, will quickly kill them. Poisonous . compounds should never be used in the -house, as children sometimes get hold of these. The following two mixtures are absolutely safe and. very effective, seeing that flies eat freej > —— ■ -~j - ■ - ’ o ly and soon die: —Quassia chips £oz, water one pint, treacle or any syrup. Boil the quassia chips and the water for about 10 minutes, and then add the treacle. The other mixture is:—Black pepper a teaspoonful, brown sugar two teaspoonfuls,- cream four teaspoonfuls. Either of these mixtures may be stood about a room in saucers, and the flies soon perish in large numbers. Household Hints. A morsel of sugar dipped in vinegar and placed in the mouth stops hiccoughs. Rusty screws may be easily loosened if one applies a red-hot iron to the head for a short time, and immediately afterward uses the screw-driver, while the screw is hot. When an egg has cracked, the contents may be kept in the shell by rubbing a little moistened salt over the crack and allowing it to penetrate. The egg can then be boiled as successfully as an uncracked one. This is a simple remedy for clearing the voice: Granulated sugar and enough lemon juice to dampen the sugar thoroughly. Take a teaspoonful every hour until the voice improves. The best manicure acid is made by putting a tablespoonful of lemon juice in half a cupful of hot water. It removes stains from the fingers and nails and softens the cuticle about the nails in a satisfactory way. The objectionable smell of fish which so often persists in clinging to dishes, after they are washed, may easily be removed if the dishes are put in hot soapy water to which has been added about one teaspoonful of household ammonia.