ome chocolate (the best
confectioners') in a basin set in another basin of boiling water; when
melted, and the creams are hard enough to handle, take one at a time
on a fork and drop into the melted chocolate, roll it until well
covered, then slip from the fork upon oiled or waxed paper, and set
them aside to harden.

FRUIT AND NUT CREAMS.

Raisins seeded, currants, figs and citron, chopped fine, and mixed
with the uncooked "French Cream," while soft, before the sugar is all
mixed in, makes a delicious variety. Nuts also may be mixed with this
cream, stirring into it chopped almonds, hickory nuts, butternuts, or
English walnuts, then forming them into balls, bars or squares.
Several kinds of nuts may be mixed together.

ORANGE DROPS.

Grate the rind of one orange and squeeze the juice, taking care to
reject the seeds; add to this a pinch of tartaric acid; then stir in
confectioners' sugar until it is stiff enough to form into balls the
size of a small marble. This is delicious candy.

The same process for lemon drops, using lemons in place of orange.
Color a faint yellow.

COCOANUT CREAMS.

Make the uncooked cream as in the foregoing recipe. Take the cream
while soft, add fresh grated cocoanut to taste; add sufficient
confectioners' sugar to mold into balls and then roll the balls in the
fresh grated cocoanut. These may be colored pink with a few drops of
cochineal syrup, also brown by adding a few spoonfuls of grated
chocolate; then rolling them in grated cocoanut; the three colors are
very pretty together. The coconut cream may be made into a flat cake
and cut into squares or strips.

With this uncooked cream, all the recipes given for the cooked "French
Cream," may be used: English walnut creams, variegated creams, etc.

COFFEE, TEA, BEVERAGES.

Boiling water is a very important desideratum in the making of a cup
of good coffee or tea, but the average housewife is very apt to
overlook this fact. Do not boil the water more than three or four
minutes; longer boiling ruins the water for coffee or tea making, as
most of its natural properties escape by evaporation, leaving a very
insipid liquid composed mostly of lime and iron, that would ruin the
best coffee, and give the tea a dark, dead look, which ought to be the
reverse.

Water left in the tea-kettle over night _must never be used for
preparing the breakfast coffee_; no matter how excellent your coffee
or tea may be, it will be ruined b