RECIPES

_Cookies_

1 c. fat 1 c. sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c. milk 3 c. flour 3 tsp. baking-powder 1 tbsp. cinnamon 1/2 c. sugar

Cream the b.u.t.ter and add the sugar and well-beaten eggs. Then add the milk alternately with the sifted dry flour (sifted with baking-powder).

Mix to the consistency of a soft dough, adding more milk if necessary.

Roll lightly, cut in shapes, and dip in the one-half cup of sugar and cinnamon that have been sifted together. Place on b.u.t.tered sheets and bake in a hot oven for about 10 minutes. Slip from the pan and lay on the cake cooler. To make a softer cookie, use only one-half cup of b.u.t.ter. (Three to four dozen.)

_Peanut Cookies_

2 tbsp. b.u.t.ter 1/4 c. sugar 1 egg 1 tsp. baking-powder 1/8 tsp. salt 1/2 c. flour 2 tsp. milk 1/2 c. finely chopped peanuts 1/2 tsp. lemon juice 2 doz. whole peanuts sh.e.l.led

Cream the b.u.t.ter and add the sugar and the egg well beaten. Add the milk and sifted dry ingredients, alternately, to the first mixture, then the peanuts and lemon juice. Drop from a teaspoon on a baking sheet an inch apart and place 1/2 peanut on top of each. Bake from 12 to 15 minutes in a moderate oven. (Two and a half to three dozen.)

_Peanut Brittle_

1 c. sugar 1 c. peanuts in the sh.e.l.l

Stir the sugar over the heat, constantly, until it becomes a clear liquid. Take at once from the heat, add the prepared peanuts, and pour on a warm, b.u.t.tered tin. Mark in squares and cool. Serves ten.

_Mola.s.ses Candy_

2 c. mola.s.ses 2/3 c. sugar 1 tbsp. vinegar 1/4 tsp. soda 2 tbsp. b.u.t.ter

Put the mola.s.ses, sugar, and b.u.t.ter into a thick sauce-pan or kettle and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Boil until the mixture becomes brittle when tried in cold water. Stir constantly at the last to prevent burning. Add vinegar and soda just before removing from the fire. Pour into a well-greased pan and let it stand until cool enough to handle.

Then pull until light and porous and cut in small pieces with scissors, arranging on b.u.t.tered plates. Serves sixteen to twenty.

_Fudge_

2 c. sugar 1 c. milk 1 tbsp. b.u.t.ter 1/2 c. nuts, broken up

Put the sugar and the milk in a sauce-pan and stir over the heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the b.u.t.ter and boil to the "soft ball"

stage. Take from the heat and beat until creamy. Add the nuts and pour on b.u.t.tered pans. When cool, cut in squares. Serves sixteen to eighteen.

METHOD OF WORK

Devote, if possible, a separate period to the discussion of the food value and cooking of sugar; then a.s.sign two recipes for the practical work, allowing the pupils to work in groups. a.s.sign only as much work as can be carefully supervised. Do not undertake both the cookies and the candy.

TWENTY LESSONS IN SEWING

SUGGESTIONS TO THE TEACHER

The teacher should be familiar with the conditions in which the pupils live, should know how much money they can afford to pay for materials, what materials are available, what previous experience in hand work they have had, whether they can afford to have sewing-machines in their own homes, and to what extent they make their own clothes or buy them ready-made.

The lessons should be planned to furnish hand training, to give pupils practical instruction in the care of their own clothes, and to provide an opportunity for preparing the ap.r.o.n for the cooking lessons. The lesson course should tend to develop habits of thrift, industry, and neatness. The pupils should be encouraged to learn to sew, both to improve their own home conditions and to give them suggestions as to a possible means of livelihood. If sewing-machines are available and are in use in the homes, it is well to have lessons given in machine sewing and to have the long seams run by machine. If the pupils cannot have sewing-machines in their own homes, the lessons given should be limited to sewing by hand. In some schools, it may be necessary to simplify the lessons; in others, an increased number of articles may be prepared in the time allotted. Should the ap.r.o.n and cap not be needed for the cooking cla.s.s, an undergarment (corset cover) may well be subst.i.tuted.[A]

[A] Should the teacher feel that an ap.r.o.n or corset-cover is too large a piece for her pupils to undertake, and should she desire to have more time spent on the first ten lessons. Lessons XI to XVIII may be omitted, two periods each devoted to both Lessons XIX and XX, and three lessons used for the making of a simple needle-book or other small piece.

For each lesson the teacher should have in mind a definite plan of procedure. The lesson should be opened with a brief and concrete cla.s.s discussion of the new work that is to be taken up or the special stage that has been reached in work that is already under way. Though individual instruction is necessary, it should not take the place of this general presentation of the subject-matter, which economizes time and develops the real thought content of the work. Whenever possible, the teacher should endeavour to correlate this work with the other subjects on the curriculum.

New st.i.tches may be demonstrated on large pieces of scrim, with long darning-needles and coa.r.s.e red or black yarn. The scrim should be pinned to the black-board with thumb tacks, and the st.i.tches made large enough for all to see without difficulty. A variety of completed articles should be kept on hand, in order to show additional application of points brought out in the lesson. Each cla.s.s may be given the privilege of preparing one article to add to this collection, and a spirit of cla.s.s pride and valuable team work may be thereby developed.

During the lesson, posture, neatness, and order should be emphasized.

Application can be secured by making the problems of interest. Care must be taken that none of the work demands unnecessary eye strain. Each lesson should be closed in time to have one of the members of the cla.s.s give a brief summary of the steps that have been covered.

Since the cla.s.s period for sewing in the rural school will necessarily be brief, the pupils should be encouraged to continue their work at some other period. However, no work outside of the cla.s.s period should be permitted until the pupil has mastered the st.i.tch and can be trusted to do the work in the right way. The privilege of sewing may be made the reward for lessons quickly learned, home practice may be a.s.signed, or the cla.s.s may meet out of school hours. All outside practice must be carefully supervised, the pupil bringing her work to the teacher for frequent inspection.

If it is possible to keep on hand a permanent equipment for sewing, the following should be provided for a cla.s.s of twelve:

Approximate cost Scissors, 1 dozen $3.00 Thimbles, 1 dozen .50 Tape-measures, 1 dozen .60 Emery, 1 dozen .50 Boxes for work, 1 dozen 1.00 ------ $5.60

_Note._--Shoe or candy boxes may be used, but an effort should be made to have them uniform.

The teacher who is to give lessons in sewing should secure a helpful elementary text-book or some bulletin that deals with the teaching of sewing.

REFERENCE BOOKS.

_School Sewing, Based on Home Problems._ Burton, I. R.

and M. G. Vocational Supply Co., Indianapolis $1.00

_Handbook of Elementary Sewing._ Flagg, E. P. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. (McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, Toronto) .50

_Constructive Sewing, Book I._ (paper) Industrial Book & Equipment Co., Indianapolis .60

_School Needlework._ Hapgood, O. C. Ginn & Co., Boston .50

_Clothing and Health._ Kinne, H., and Cooley, A. M. Macmillan's, Toronto .65

_Handicraft for Girls._ McGlauflin, I. Manual Arts Press, Peoria. Ill. 1.00

_Home and School Sewing._ Patton, F. Newson & Co., New York .60

_A Sewing Course._ Woolman, M. S. Frederick A. Fernald, Washington 1.50

_Sewing._ Department of Education of Ontario .20