For the Housewife

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 27, 1906

For the Housewife

Do not make a bugbear of company. Treat your chance guest as you would wish to be treated in like emergency. The “dish of welcome” is better than the most elaborate menu without it, and an embarrassed hostess seldom makes a satisfied guest. One is not supposed to visit you for the sake of the food set before her. Give the best you have, cordially, cheerfully, and if your guest is worth the trouble, she will appreciate the situation.

“A feast or a famine” describes some housekeeping failures; too much of one thing with too little of another; and this is generally due to the lack of harmony between the views of the one who plans to provide the table and the one who pays the bills. A certain amount should be appropriated for table expenses, be it little or much, and by this means, the housewife will always know how to proportion her buying.

During the hot months try all the laboring-saving appliances you can manage. Try to get the heaviest cooking done early in the morning, and arrange matters so that the house will not have to be heated up for the dinner preparation, whether the dinner is at twelve or at six. Many things are just as good cold or reheated as though just out of the oven, and these can be prepared in the cool of the morning. Do not have pies or puddings, if you can have fresh fruits. Salads can, in many instances, take the place of the accustomed meats, and it would be better for both the health and the pocketbook to ignore the butcher.

For hot weather drinks there is nothing better than those made of cold water and fruit juices. Acid fruit juices are best with which to quench thirst. Fruit punches are easily made, if the housewife remembers to bottle plenty of fruit juices when canning the fruits.—Selected.