AUNT DAISY'S MAIL—BAG

Radio Record, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 21 August 1939, Page 22

AUNT DAISY'S MAIL—BAG

is at least one male member of the family who excels in the making of one special dish, Among gatherings of women, in clubs and institutes, one very often hears how ‘my hubby can make far better scones than I can," or "my eldest boy is a real expert at pilkelets." Then, too, when comparing notes on the various dishes produced by our men, one nearly always finds that they have one fixed idea about serving .their tasty concoctions ~ that these must be served straight from the saucepan or frying pan, and on to very hot plates.-: No "dishing up" for them, they will tell you. Flavour is lost thereby, they say, and never is the food hot enough, either. They are all for rushing the food from the stove to the table-and it is certainly a N almost every home, there

fact that it does taste betier that way! Often a man is absolutely famous for one recipe. A doctor friend of mine was called "Oyster-Stew Herbert," He was a New Yorker, and used to make his glorious dish late at night,in his office on a spirit gtove, and have his cronies cail in to share it. My own husband used to be especially famous for "ham and eggs," and when the shooting season was in full swing in Hawke’s Bay, and the men were getting out into the "hides" before daybreak, their breakfast used to be in our big kitchen, where "dad" served this appetising dish to his friends, "Scrim‘s" Special WELL, all this is to lead up to a request for special dishes made by our own menfolk. I

should like to print one or two every week, To start off with, here is ‘Uncle Scrim’s Special." He, too, emphasised the "serve straight from the pan, without previous dishing up." Peel and cut up lots of onions, and fry them nice and brown, Then put in sume good tomatoes, eut in slices. It doesn’t matter about peeling the tomatoes first. Then add some cooked cold potatoes, and in fact, any cold cooked vegetables, except cabbage, which is definitely barred. Kumaras are most important-there certainly should be some cold kumaras avail-abie-as well as some cold cooked rice. Then add "stacks" of good gravy jeft over from a hot joint. It is as well to make extra gravy when a joint of meat is cooked, on purpose. Serve this "splosh" very i from the pan.

Uncle Scrim says it is delicious, and economical too, and the children just love it, Next week I will give you a recipe from "Porridge Horace."

Coal And Cake

EAR AUNT DAISY,-About the "Coalie Flowers’; well, Aunt Daisy, my high-school daughter and myself were intrigued with the idea, so set to work straight away and followed all instructions, and watched anxiously for budding fiowers. You should have seen the way we coddled that "pot of coal" -it was taken from one fire to another, put out in the sun (when it deigned to shine!) brought in again to the fire, and kept as warm as any new-born babe-all to no avail! Nothing ever happened! It is three weeks now since we set it, and we are getting discouraged, so Id love to know if you hear of. anyone who has had the desired result; and if so, can they suggest ality reason why we have not. When discussing the merits of wheatmeal, many folk have said, "But you cau’t sift it and make things light, like you can with white flour’-but you can, for f sift it (sometimes twice) and then, for the rough bran-ny lot that is left in the sifter-just tip that in with the other; and I get scones and cakes alike just as light as with white flour, . But I have discovered that you need a Hittle more baking powder, and a little longer cooking. Still, I use it practically for anything, and I always ned my head when I hear you change your recipes, and say, "Yes, I think you could use wheatmeal." oo Here is a very simple and easy recipe for a‘chocolate cake which I "invented" myself, and which has

proved good, aS witnessed by requests from my friends for the recipe. Chocolate Cake. Have made and cooled, one tablespoon of cocoa mixed with four good tablespoons of boiling water, and a few drops of vanilla. Then sift twice, into the mixing bowl, one breakfast cup of flour and one teacup of sngar, Stir into these dry ingredients, one tablespoon of melted butter, and one well-beaten egg, then the cocoa mixture, and beat all well. Then lastly add one teaspoon of baking powder, and bake about twenty minutes ina moderate oven-about $50deg, Ice with chocolate icing, and sprinkle with wainuts- = "Dorothy Anne," Linwood, Christchurch, About the "Conlie Flowers." As a matter of fact, we are all putting our heads together and comparing notes on this matter, which had promised to be so fascinating, and we find that nobody is having much success. Yet, I have had several newspaper cut~ tings from English and Scottish papers, telling how interesting and successful it has been there. . "Scotch Heather’s" father, who lives in the Huntly district and understands coal, says that New Zeajand coal is so different from that found at Home, that he does not think the same recipe will work out here. Here is what ‘Scotch Heather" writes:

Here’s How

DEAR AUNT DAISY,-Hearing your SOS to me, here I am. Apout the "Coal flowers’"-1 told, you it came to me from a W.R.1\-~ friend of mine at Home, who raved about it; and since then I have seen the same instructions as f sent to you, published in an English paper, It was also mentioned in the W.R.I. page of another paper there. So you see it is all well vouched for. When I wrote to you, mine had just started to show little pink bits; but sad to say, since then it has done no more than this. Dad has been very sceptical alf along about it working with New Zealand coal, You see, this Waikato coal is very different from Einglish coal in various ways. For one thing this is a soft gas coal, and breaks easily; and this, I find, has happened in my dish of "flowers." The British coal is what Dad calls "a hard steam coal," and he certainly thinks the chemicals would bring up a design of flowers on it. By the way, West Coast coai is much harder than our Waikate coal-so I wonder if anyone tried it out with that coal? Perhaps some West Coaster may be able to tell us of some success,