Evening star., 1950-11-14
REBUTTAL;
FINISHING FLOORS.

tFfOm Mrs. II. ~. L., ALeTGnGTtG.)
This is a sort of rebuttal on
the chicken backs recommended
as an economy dish and which
elected two comments. Evidently
my brief mention of them needs
clarifying. First. may I quote from
the original RICH clipping to
which I referred in my letter. II
don't know the date. but it was
from G. B. r., jr., Arlington. II
buy chicken backs and necks, g.
pounds go long way, make soup,
which usually served for two
meals. strip the meat off the bones
and have enough to make chow
mein, or to cream with some
mushrooms, or use in any num-
Der of other ways"
Here is my most recent expert
ence with chicken backs. bought
2 pounds (37 cents, prepared
them as usual by simmering in a
quantity Of seasoned water. Il
stripped the meat from the bones,
and made a casserole of the meat
(about two cups, elbow macaroni,
some leftover vegetables and al
cream sauce made with the broth.
Buttered crumbs over the top,
and heated piping hot in the oven.
With a relish tray of carrot strips,
celery, sliced tomatoes, bread and
butter. beverages and a dessert
we had a good dinner. There was
enough of the casserole left over
to stuff four tomatoes, which /
topped with bread crumbs and
cheese. baked and which became
the backbone of another meal. I
still had quite a bit of broth left
over.
Some I served as soup, some
more creamed and used as the
binder in other caseroles, one very
good one was tuna and potato
chips. Surely, that is stretching
it for at least three meals! And,
as you see. do not serve the chill
dren backs "as is" The appear
ance of the meat is not as attrac-
tive as neatly diced breast or
thigh, but it is sweet and flavor
able. and for my money, q good
buy!
incidentally, I noted the eau
ton note about cats and chicken
bones. think this does apply to
dogs. but cats seem to be able to
handle them safely. 7 know that
we have had cats for years, and
they have always eaten chicken
bones without i'll effects.
I also note the query from Mrs.
r. r. H.. Washington, asking how
I reflnished my floors. Our floors
were not bad, and a cleaning
with floor cleaner and steel wool
was sufficient to freshen them. I
then applied a wood seal with a
rag, and after this had dried
thoroughly. applied paste wax
and buffed them. Our floors are
oak, and I bought the wood seal
at a hardware store. The whole
house took less than a gallon. I
did only a portion of room at a
time. pushing the furniture back
until that portion was completely
finished. I applied the wax in a
very thin coat. and did not buff
until 1t had dried half a day or
overnight.
You'd best wait until a warm,
low humidity day or it will seem
that the floor never dries. A
little morale hint, when you are
tackling big job like this. don't
look ahead and sigh over how
much you have to do but look
back and see how nice what you
have done looks. I don't know
the type Of flooring Mrs. r. r. H.
has, nor its condition and would
suggest that she write the United
States Department Of Agriculture
for any publication they have on
refinishing wood floors. They are
experts, and I am not.
Ruth Crane, in her new tele-
vision show at 3 pm. last week
featured hints from Margaret
Gaddis's book How to Save 81 900
a Year at Home" It may be
bought locally or ordered from
the purchaser, Cummings Enter
prises, The keystone State Build
ing, Philadelphia, Pa. It is we'll
worth the purchase price of dol
lar.
ANT VILLAGE?
(Fron E. c. M, Arlinoton.)
Is there any place in Washing