Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

The bavianas, dark-blue with crimson centres, and lightyellow, and at Tulbagh bright crimson ones, grow in all the moist parts. Ixia local name, Calossie — is another lovely wild flower of which there are endless varieties in South Africa. One of the prettiest is the green ixia j it would take too long to tell all the shades of colour in which they are found. As a friend of ours just arrived from England said, "One cannot believe that all these flowers are wild, but think they must have strayed out of some one's conservatory."” As I write I am sitting by my bedroom window at Wynberg, and before me is my sweet little flowergarden, with its borders of violets and beds of stock so fragrant , and all the lovely oaks with their fresh green leaves, and bloomdng peach and pear trees, so pretty ! Truly this spring-time is a glorious season full of promise and hope. September 5.— Kitcheii-garden.—Vegetables.— This month peas, broad beans, potatoes, parsnips, cabbages, spinach, and lettuce are plentiful. Braised Lettuces. — We have so many lettuces now in the garden that it is difficult to keep ahead of them and find use for them before they run to seed. Wash the lettuces well and boil them two minutes, then take them up and place in a pan of cold water. Drain off all the v/ater and place them in a Yorkshire-pudding tin, with bacon top and bottom, onions and carrots, and a bay leaf. Sept. FRUIT. PISH. BREAKFAST DISHES Cover with paper and bake one hour. Dish up with good gravy. Fruits. — Of fruits we have oranges, naartjes (like Tangerine or Malta oranges with a loose skin), guavas, and still there come pineapples and bananas plentifully from Natal. Pineapples can be made into jam just as you would peaches or any other fruit. It would be too expensive to make it in our Cape Colony, but in Natal, where they grow in quantities, it is a delicious jam. September 6.— Fish.— The best fish now is “Steen brass” {Lithognathiis capensis), a very large fish, excellent when not full-grown either boiled, fried, baked, or made into pickled fish. “ Stockfish ” is also in season, and “ Roman,” “Hottentot fish” {^Sargus capensis), and “ Elft.” How curious the names must sound to new-comers ! To do up Cold Fish for Breakfast.— One has often to find some nice way of doing up remains of cold fish or cold meat. The following (Miss Capper’s recipe) makes a very nice breakfast dish. There was part of a fish left over from yesterday’s dinner, so we cut it in neat pieces and steeped them for an hour or two in a mixture of lemon-juice, salad oil, pepper, and salt. They were then dipped in batter and fried a rich brown in plenty of boiling lard (ox-marrow would do as well), and served up very hot. Another Breakfast Dish. — Here is another breakfast dish. This time it was some slices of cold boiled bacon that would otherwise have been wasted. These were sprinkled with bread-crumbs and fried, and served hot. September 7. — I find in the larder we now have the remains of a ham — not enough left to look well at table, so I shall divide it and use it for two different dishes, as TO USB UP HAM. RICE BALLS Sept. follows : — The first will be nice for luncheon, and is done so —