Household hints

Apple Dumplings. — Make a dough precisely as for baking-powder biscuit, roll thin, cut in pieces about the size of a small saucer. Take nice tart apples, slice them and roll up in the dough ; steam or bake them, and serve with some sauce, or cream and sugar. Apple Fritters. — These make a cheap and delicious dessert. Prepare a batter as for griddle cakes — that is, a thin batter made of flour and sweet milk and baking powder, or flour, sour milk, and soda ; then stir in apples which you have chopped fine, the quantity depending on your taste. Fry them as you. would griddle cakes, and serve with a sirup made of melted white sugar. If you wish, you may bake them in patty-pans instead of frying them. Rice Pudding. — To one cupful of boiled rice add four eggs, a cupful of sugar and one of raisins, nutmeg or lemon extract to suit your taste ; stir in milk enough to thin sufficiently. To the quantity of rice mentioned a pint and a half will do. Bake till the milk is like custard, and let it brown over the top. Corn- Starch Pudding. — To one pint of milk take two and a half table-spoonfuls of corn starch ; stir the corn starch into a little of the cold milk ; heat the remainder. When nearly boiling, pour in the cold milk and corn starch (flavor when you take it off the stove, otherwise you lose much of the strength of the flavoring extract). Boil two or three minutes, then turn into a mold, or have a number of teacups ; turn it into them. When served, turn out on pudding saucers. Eat with jelly, sweetened cream, or raspberry jam. For a delicious Roll Pudding, or "roly-poly," make a crust as for baking-powder biscuit, adding only an extra lump of butter. Roll the crust to the desired size, then spread jam or preserve over it ; put the fruit as near the edge as you can, and yet not let it run off the crust ; then roll it up and wrap it loosely in a clean, soft cloth kept for the purpose — an old napkin will answer well ; have a needle and thread at hand and baste the cloth together so that it will not fall apart, but leave plenty of room for the crust to rise in. Steam it for about an hour. Serve with sour sauce or sweetened cream, or butter and sugar beaten to a stiff froth. Cherries or gooseberries are good for the filling, but black-currant jam is far better than either. I shall never forget the flowers even on the little stone jars out of which this compound used to be taken by the dear old English lady who taught me how to make this pudding, and, though black currants do not taste now as they did then, they will do very well. Blanc-mange is k dainty dish, which is so easily made and so inviting that it is surprising to see how few know how to make it. To one pint of sweet milk take a handful of Irish moss ; look it over carefully ; if after washing it in one water any of it is dark colored, remove it ; rinse in several waters till it is perfectly clean, then put it in a wide muslin bag, and when the milk is hot put the bag into it and let it boil until it is thick ; it takes only a few minutes ; give your whole attention to it, as there is danger of PUDDINGS AND PIES, 41 the milk burning on to the basin or pail in which you cook it. The only safe way is to set the basin or pail in a kettle of hot water. Sweeten and flavor it to suit your taste. Pour it into a mold to cool and in a short time it will be ready for use. It is nourishing, easily digested, suitable for an invalid ; it is also very nice for tea served with peaches, pineapple, or jelly. ' Of course, the prettier the mold the more attractive it will appear. A very pretty design is that of an oval dish with an ear of corn in the center.