How to Have Green Pea Soup in Winter.—Sow peas thickly in pots and boxes, say six weeks before the soup is wanted. Place them in a temperature of 60° or so, close to the glass in a house or pit. Cut the plants as soon as they attain a height of from three to six inches, and rub them through a sieve. The shoots alone will make a fair soup. Mixed with dry peas, also passed through a sieve, no one could scarcely distinguish color or flavor from that of real green pea soup. There is, however, considerable difference in the flavor of pea leaves, as well as of the peas themselves. The best marrows, such as Ne Plus Ultra and Veitche's Perfection, yield the most piquant cuttings. Also the more light the plants receive the higher the flavor, plants drawn up or at all blanched, being by no means comparable with those well and strongly grown.
In the spring, a few patches or rows may be sown in open quarters expressly for green cuttings. These are most perfect and full flavored when four inches high. When too long, the flavor seems to have run to wood, and the peculiar aroma of green peas is weaker.
There is yet another mode of making green pea soup at any season at very short notice. Chip the peas by steeping them in water and leaving them in a warm place for a few days. Then slightly boil or stew, chips and all, and pass them through a sieve. The flavor is full and good, though such pea soup lacks color. It is astonishing how much the mere vegetation of seeds develops their more active and predominant flavor or qualities; a fact that might often be turned to useful account in the kitchen in the flavoring of soups or dishes, with turnips, celery, parsley, etc.
Composition for Restoring Scorched Linen.—Boil, to a good consistency, in half a pint of vinegar, two ounces of fuller's earth, an ounce of hen's dung, half an ounce of cake soap, and the juice of two onions. Spread this composition over the whole of the damaged part; and if the scorching is not quite through, and the threads actually consumed, after suffering it to dry on, and letting it receive a subsequent good washing or two, the place will appear full as white and perfect as any other part of the linen.
To Remove Indelible Ink Stains.—Soak the stained spot in strong salt water, then wash it with ammonia. Salt changes the nitrate of silver into chloride of silver, and ammonia dissolves the chloride.
To Cook Cauliflower.—Choose those that are close and white and of middle size, trim off the outside leaves, cut the stalk off flat at the bottom, let them lie in salt and water an hour before you boil them. Put them into boiling water with a handful of salt in it, skim it well and let it boil slowly till done. Fifteen minutes will suffice for a small one, and twenty will be long enough for a large one. If it is boiled a minute or two after it is done the flavor will be impaired.
To Pickle String Beans.—Place them in a pan with alternate layers of salt and leave them thus for 24 hours. Drain them and place them in a jar with allspice, cloves, pepper and a little salt. Boil enough vinegar to cover them, pour over them and let them stand till the next day, boil the vinegar the second time, and pour it on again. The next day boil the vinegar for the last time, pour it over the beans, and when quite cold, cover the jar tightly and set in a cool closet.
How to Cause a Baby to Thrive and Grow.—Try the milk first drawn from a cow that is fresh, add one-quarter water, and a little sugar. If the milk constipates, sweeten it with molasses, or mix with it a small quantity of magnesia. Abjure soothing syrups, and for colic give catnip or smellage tea. Give the baby a tepid bath at night as well as in the morning, rubbing him well with the hand. After the bath, let him feed and then sleep. We find open air the best of tonics for babies. Ours takes his naps out of doors in the shade during the warm weather, and his cheeks are two roses.
To Can Gooseberries without Breaking them.—Fill the cans with berries, and partly cover with water, set the jars into a vessel of water, and raise the temperature to the boiling point. Boil eight minutes, remove from the kettle, cover with boiling water, and seal immediately. If sugar is used, let it be pure white, and allow eight ounces to a quart of berries. Make into a syrup, and use in the cans instead of water. The glass cans with glass tops, a rubber and a screw ring, we have found the simplest and most perfect of the many kinds offered for sale in the market.
Ready Mode of Mending Cracks in Stoves, Pipes and Iron Ovens.—When a crack is discovered in a stove, through which the fire or smoke penetrates, the aperture may be completely closed in a moment with a composition consisting of wood ashes and common salt made up into paste with a little water, and plastered over the crack. The good effect is equally certain, whether the stove, etc., be cold or hot.