Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1879 — USEFUL AND SUGGESTIVE. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL AND SUGGESTIVE.

It may not be generally known that apple wed, sown in the fall where a hedge is desired, in four or five yean form an impregnable hedge. They should be clipped back two or three times with a knife or hedge shears, to grow low and stocky.— Potato Roses.—Pare carefully with a thin penknife some peeled potatoes round and round until all of each potato is pared to the center. Do not try to cut the slices too thin or they will break. Place in a wire basket and dip in boiling lard. They are a handsome garnish. Salt or beefs gall in the water helps to set black. A tablespoonful of spirits of turpentine to a gallon of water sets most blues, and alum is very efficacious insetting green. Black or’very dark calicoes should be stiffened with gumarabic—five cents’ worth is enough for a dress. If, however, starch is used, the garment should be turned wrong r ide out. A balky driver makes a balky horse. In breaking in colts the trainer should never lose his temper. A firm hand and gentle manner will bring any colt however spirited it may be into subservience to the driver. The animal must be made to rely entirely upon its master. It cannot be made to do so by brute force. The same means should be used as with a child.— lowa Slate Register. Saratoga Onions.—Skin and sJ'ce the onions thin, and lay them in cold water and salt for an hour or more. Dry them thoroughly. Separate the layers into rings, throw them into smoking hot fat, and fry them brown. Take them out of the fat with a skimmer, and put them into a collender. Scatter over them a teaspoonful of salt, shake them well about, and put them on a platter. Scotch Short Bread.—Four pounds flour, two pounds shortening (half lard and half butter), one egg, and as much milk as would fill an egg-shell; beat well together, and add to the flour and butter, one pound fine sugar; then with your hands work the whole until it is soft enough to roll out on your bakingboard about half an inch thick; cut into any form you may wish; pinch the edge with your finger and thumb and bake. To Make Caramel.—One ounce of brown sugar. Put one ounce of brown sugar over the fire in a frying-pan and stir it until it turns very dark brown, but do not let it burn. When it is the proper color pour into the pan half a pint of boiling Water, and stir it until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved. Let the caramel cool, and then strain and bottle it. It is a good and harmless coloring for soups, sauces and stews of various kinds.

Home Pudding.—One quart mill four eggs beaten separately; eight tablespoonfuls flour, wet with milk; little salt, four teaspoonfuls baking-powder, one-half cupful sugar. Bake in greased !>an thirty-five minutes. Sauce for mme pudding: One-half pint milk, three tablespoonfuls sugar, one tablespoonful butter, one small tablespoonful flour; heat milk boiling hot and mix sugar, butter and flour, previously well beaten together, into it. Flavor with vanilla. Quince Jelly.—Quarter and core, but do not peel the fruit; cover with cold water and let cook till “ mushy;” let drip through fine hair sieve, then put in a flannel bag, and allow to drip all night into an earthen bowl; boil hard twenty minutes, (be careful to skim,) add white granulated sugar, almost pound for pound, then boil gently for ten minutes longer. Have tumblers standing on wet cloth to prevent cracking. After putting the jelly in tumblers, let stand in sun till it jellies; then dip writing-paper in white of egg and cover jelly. Liver and lemon sauce for fowls. —Wash the liver of the fowl quite cican, and boil it for five minutes; -then pound it in a mortar with a spoonful of the liquor in which it has been boiled, and rub it through a sieve. Take the thin outer rind oi a lemon and mince half a teaspoonful very fine; remove the white inner skin of the lemon; cut into thin slices; take out the seeds, and then cut up the whole into small squares; mix the lemon, the rind and the pounded liver into half a pint of good melted butter, of white sauce, and serve with the fowl.