December, 1919 
OUT OF THE PARLOR 
47 
COME 
And Go into the Kitchen for a New Field of Christinas 
Giving. A Romantic and Practical Idea for Everybody 
ETHEL R. PEYSER 
Bread and cake mixers open up a field of Christmas 
giving that has only been scratched so Jar. The 
housewife will appreciate such practical accessions 
to her kitchen, for they save labor as well as doing 
good work 
Good kitchen scales are indispensable to the carcfid house¬ 
keeper. The balance type, which is the more accurate, comes 
from $8 up 
Among household gifts the vacuum cleaner 
is a popular and practical choice 
Nothing cuts down the antagonism between lime 
and service in such quick order as the rotary fruit 
purer, the meat chopper and the knife sharpener. 
Gifts such as these save energy, much time and 
unlimited patience 
I F I were a cook (of course, being a 
democrat, I aspire to no such pluto¬ 
cratic eminence, but were I a cook), I 
should want to have for my use a 
number of culinary accessories to 
make life more rosy, more serene and 
even more delightful than it naturally 
must be. 
If I were even a wife I should wel¬ 
come gifts that would make the work I 
had to do in the kitchen more saving 
in time, effort and labor. 
But being neither of these, and 
therefore free to roam through manu¬ 
factories, laboratories, and shops, I 
will suggest from the myriads of fasci¬ 
nating kitchen articles and appliances 
some that will make captivating and 
useful gifts. When you once have made 
a present of any of them you will automati¬ 
cally become entablatured in the recipient’s 
memory, and maybe you will be saved the 
expense of many a meal! 
If I were that cook— I would hanker after 
the ice pick that doesn’t slide—the spring 
pick (25 to 35 cents). You just jab it into 
the ice and slide the handle up and down, and 
you waste neither ice, food, nor temper in 
the process. It is a gem of comfort. 
The Small Equipment 
The cream bag, with all the alluring little 
tubes for making fascinating designs on the 
birthday or Christmas cake, saves the cook 
time in rigging up paper tubes for spreading 
cream and sugar. 
If it were only to obviate the unpatriotic 
cry against our thick bread in comparison to 
the British gossamer slice, it would ease one’s 
life to have some one of the bread slicers on 
the American market which cost very little. 
(About $4.) 
Nothing saves more energy than the food 
chopper (from $2 up), the nut-cracker (from 
$1 up), the cherry stoner (75 cents up). These 
processes of stoning, chopping and taking out 
nuts whole are all tedious by hand. 
The coffee mill, too, is a pleasure, the kind 
that has the glass top to keep you cog¬ 
nizant of how much work there is be¬ 
fore you. Some of these screw on the 
wall and are about $1.35 and upwards. 
The beef press ($1.50 to $5) for invalid 
or baby is also a boon. 
The prices of all these things are 
very low as prices go these days. In 
some of the realms, however, the prices 
vary so from day to day that one is 
afraid to mention them. But, whatever 
the prices are, the devices are worth 
the cost in helpfulness and service. 
And, strange as it may seem, the 
kitchen denizen, imperial though she 
be, rarely dowers herself with the 
time-saving, step-saving apparatus. 
Scales and Sharpeners 
Kitchen scales, good ones, are really indis¬ 
pensable to the careful housekeeper. The 
balance type is the most accurate and costs 
from about $8 up. Very often you can test 
your purchases and if under weight you 
can scold the grocer (what fun!) and if over 
weight—but what’s the good of dream stuff 
here? 
“Oh for a sharp knife!” A feminine and 
hopeless cry often . . . but the carburundum 
knife sharpener (30 to 50 cents) would obviate 
the humiliation and let the lady cut a big 
swathe with her menfolk—if they found sharp 
carving knives set before them. There are 
many types of sharpeners on the market. 
Some of them, of course, are quite expensive. 
Buy the best in this case as in every other case. 
The best is an investment; less than the best an 
expenditure. 
Nothing can cut down the antagonism be¬ 
tween time and service like vegetable slicers. 
They slice any vegetable and cost about 
$2.50 up. Do you realize what such a donation 
could mean? Could any little fluffy-ruffle pin¬ 
cushion mean so much to anybody, be she 
cook or pauper? 
If you want to give something in the realm 
of the Christmas or birthday card, why not 
send some of the silencers for kitchen chair 
The knife sharpener, that really sharpens, the cream 
bag and the ice pick that does not slide are small 
kitchen boons 
