Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1878 — HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. [ARTICLE]

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.

Coloring Kid Gloves.—White kid may easily be colored black, purple or lilac with a solution of one part extract logwood and three parts brandy. Apply with a sponge and rub until dry. Cheap Refrigerators.—A flower-pot wrapped in a wet cloth and placed over a butter-plate will keep the contents of the plate as hard and firm as if they were set on ice; and milk will not sour if the can containing it be wrapped in a wet cloth. Good Muffins.—Most people like muffins. This is how to make them: One heaped teacupful of flour; two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder; one table-spoonful of white sugar; one beaten egg; one table-spoonful of melted butter; one teacupful of sweet milk. Drop from a spoon into muffin-rings set in pie-tins, and bake in a well-heated oven. Bread Sauce.—Put into half a pint of cold milk one small onion, three or four cloves, a small blade of mace, a few pepper-coms, and a little salt. Set the whole to boil, then strain the milk over a teacupful of fine bread crumbs. Stir well on the fire for a few minutes, adding at the time of serving either a small pat of butter or a table-spoonful of cream. Salt for Bedbugs.—To get rid of bedbugs, wash the room and the furniture of the room they frequent with salt water, filling the cracks with salt, and you may look in vain for them. Salt seems inimical to bedbugs, and they will not trail through it. Some think it preferable to all ointments, and the buyer requires no certificate as to its genuineness. Red-Pepper Catchup.—Cut up ripe peppers and place them in a preserving kettle until it is full; then cover with the best cider vinegar and boil until the peppers have dropped to pieces. After removing from the fire, as soon as the sauce is cool enough, I rub it through a wire sieve. It ist much better, in my opinion, without salt or any other condiments, and it is of a beautiful scarlet color, and so thick that it must be put up for use in large-mouthed bottles or

jars, and will keep! It should boil least four hours. * Crab-Apple Preserve.—Pick over the fruit carefully, leaving the stems on; get as many pounds of sugar as you have pounds of frnit; pnt the sugar over the fire with enough hot water to dissolve it nicely; when it comes to a boil drop in the apples, and let them boil slowly for about forty minutes, skimming all the time; heat the jars in hot water; put in the hot fruit, and seal at once; or put them in stone crocks and cover with paper. Small Talk.—A good way to make flat-irons smooth is to rub them with clean lard and rub dry. A small quantity of turpentine added to stove-black-ing will make the stove easier to polish. To remove old putty from windowframes, pass a red-hot poker slowly over it, and it will come off easily. A very fair oak stain may be produced by equal parts of potash and pearlash, say two ounces of each to about a quart of water. Keep it corked up in a bottle, and it is always ready for use. If it strikes too deep a color, add more water. Silicate of magnesia is recommended as a perfectly harmless substitute for the often dangerously-adultered violet powder. To preserve cut flowers, put a drop or two of ammonia in the water. Change the water every day and cut off half an inch or so of the stems of the flowers. Plants for winter flowering should be kept in pots all summer. They should be brought in the house and placed in their position before the winter fires are made.