The record-union., 1899-12-24

AL
AS the guest room is likely to be oc-
cupied during the coming holiday it
may not be amiss at this time to pre-
sent a brief consideration of it from a
mans point of view. 1.-The one place."
says he, where find the things want
in the guest room is when 1 go to stay
with a bachelor who is keeping house.
Almost every woman housekeeper'
makes a sort of uncomfortable parlor
of her guest room, and then puts a bed
and bureau in it. What / always want
in one of these rooms is a hassock and
q straight back chair, and 1 don't often
find either. 1 am speaking now of the
average spare room, not, of course, of
the extra bed rooms in large houses
where entertaining is reduced to SCI
ence. In this average spare room, too,
there is usually one double bed. This
should never be. The guest room, if
none other in the house, should be pro-
vided with a pair of single beds. Then
if, as occasionally happens, two men
must share the room, at least the COM
fort of a separate bed is secured. An
other appreciated convenience absent
from most guest rooms is a bath robe.
These are always to be found in the
bed rooms of mems clubs, yet few men
suggest to their wives their necessity in
the home guest room. One of Turkish
toweling, that can be easily Numbered,
can be bought for $1.5O-a trifiing OFT
lay compared with it's comfort to the
visiting stranger in search of his morn
ing tub. Books writing materials and
bed candle are other things that read
lily suggest themselves as further Access
sories not always provided. If every
hostess would send her husband to the
guest room for the final criticism of it's
convenience, the male visitors to that
house would have great cause for re-
joicing."
The housekeeper who finds herself
obliged to resort to the use of dried
pumpkin or pumpkin flour for her
Christmas pies will find her effort most
successful if she will brown either the
dried vegetable or the flour. Spread on
a plate and set in the oven to take ON
a decided color. This process has been
found to add greatly to the richness and
flavor of the pies.
A coffee lover who enjoys his bever-
age without abusing his fondness for it
had this to say recently concerning it's
successful making: Coffee is undoubt-
eddy a poison If it is taken too freely.
but well made and used in moderation
by healthy person, it should do no
harm. I have experimental with my
coffee until think have perfected the
process. To begin with, the French
drip coffee is the only healthful and
proper way to make the drink. Any
kind of a coffee pot that embodies this
principle will make the coffee perfectly,
If used with one or two of my inven-
tons They are not patented. The
most essential part of the whole pro-
ceeding is the fineness of the coffee.
Any grocer will give you double ground
coffee. but that is not enough; Won must
ask for and insist upon. pulverized
coffee. It can be had, and your gro
Ger will get it for you if you bring pres
sure enough to bear. Unless the coffee
is pulverized the choice flavor cannot
be extracted by the drip process. But
with the coffee so fine, q new difficulty
presents itself. Through many CT the
drip coffee pots the fine dust will pass,
making the liquid cloudy. This may
be remedied in one or two ways. One
way, and a good one, is to put layer
of absorbent cotton in the perforated
vessel with the raw coffee. Other cot
ton contains a little grease that gets
into the coffee liquid unpleasantiy. Bet
ter, however, than the cotton pad is a
piece of ordinary blotting paper A
circle is cut to fit just above the perfo-
ration, the coffee placed on it. and the
boiling water poured over. When this
process of percolating is gone through
with, a clear. delicious and wholesome
drink is assured
TIL last word concerning turkey stuff
fing seems never to be said The mod
ern cooking frown both on the
flavor and wholesomeness of soaked
bread. which, seasoned highly with
herbs and rich with butter, is still the
form which much of the stuffing offered
with fowls takes. Some cooking teach
ers advise so strongly against any
bread stuffing that they will give a re-
ceipt for it only under protest. If bread
is to be used, at least it should not be
soaked, though in many a kitchen
throughout the country Tomorrow this
will be done. cupful of bread crumbs
over which a tablespoonful of melted
butter has been poured Is the founda-
ton of a stuffing that will not be soggy
and which will hold the various fiavors
of herb and onion for which it exists.
1t is always better to add onion juice
rather than pieces of chopped or sliced
onion to the dressing, or the onion may
be sauted in the butter before the latter
is used. Chestnut, sweet potato, or
oyster stuffing is. either one of them.
to be preferred to that of the bread
alone.
The general homework cook will hes
itate if chestnut stufiing is said to her.
In point of fact, it is simpler than a
bread stuffing and not nearly so uncer-
tain. The large French chestnuts
should be used and should only be
partly boiled before the water is poured
off and the skins removed They are
then put into water a second time and
boiled until soft. They are easily
mashed through a colander or coarse
sieve while hot. No herbs are needed
as seasoning, merely butter, salt and
pepper. If the stuffing should be found
to be very dry, it may be moistened
with a little stock.