Recipe from Cookery and Dining in Ancient Rome

I know that since reading about the Romans' habit of eating stuffed dormice a few years ago y'all have all been dying to try it for yourselves. Well, today I came across an authentic Roman recipe.

STUFFED DORMOUSE

IS STUFFED WITH A FORCEMEAT OF PORK AND SMALL PIECES OF DORMOUSE MEAT TRIMMINGS, ALL POUNDED WITH PEPPER, NUTS, LASER, BROTH. PUT THE DORMOUSE THUS STUFFED IN AN EARTHEN CASSEROLE, ROAST IT IN THE OVEN, OR BOIL IT IN THE STOCK POT.

From the aforementioned cookbook by Apicius, Book VIII, Chapter IX.

The translator adds this helpful note:

Glis, dormouse, a special favorite of the ancients, has nothing to do with mice. The fat dormouse of the South of Europe is the size of a rat, arboreal rodent, living in trees.

Galen, III, de Alim.; Plinius, VIII, 57/82; Varro, III, describing the glirarium, place where the dormouse was raised for the table.

Petronius, Cap. 31, describes another way of preparing dormouse. Nonnus, Diæteticon, p. 194/5, says that Fluvius Hirpinus was the first man to raise dormouse in the glirarium.

Dormouse, as an article of diet, should not astonish Americans who relish squirrel, opossum, muskrat, “coon,” etc.

You're welcome.

:-D

Recipe for homemade sunscreen

We actually don't wear sunscreen much.  I'm sure y'all already know that a daily dose of sunshine is good for you.  I burn pretty easily so when I'm doing yard work I'll wear a hat and long sleeves, and I'll dress this way to social occasions where that's appropriate, which is just about everything except swimming, and I don't get to do that very often at all.

My kids, on the other hand, get to swim a lot when they're visiting my mom, and I have one child in particular who burns as easily as I do, and who, also like me, not only burns easily but has a worse reaction to wearing most sunscreens -- sunburn and welts. I've found one brand of sunscreen that doesn't do this to us, but it's over $30 for about 4 ounces.  And that's not even addressing the concern that these products might actually be carcinogenic or hormone disruptors or otherwise harmful to your health in the long run.

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with Vitamin D insufficiency and my doctor put me on a high dosage for several months to correct this.  I later learned that one of the effects of low vitamin D is burning too easily, so I've been giving D to my easily-burned child since last fall.  It helped me last summer, so hopefully it will help him, too.

But still, for those occasions when we're going to be out in the sun for a long time, I want everyone to use sunscreen, so I spent a few years looking for a homemade variety that addresses my concerns and that works reasonably well.

This is what I made last year.  #1 Son can vouch for it -- last summer he spent several days in Mexico and Guatemala, mostly out in the sun, and didn't get burned.  We have some left over from last year, and it's still effective.  A couple of weeks ago his group had a fund-raiser, and they were standing in full sun from 10 in the morning till 7 that evening.  He only put on one coat of the sunscreen and was just a bit pink on the side that faced the sun all afternoon.  Now that wouldn't have worked for me -- I would have had to reapply it two or three times because I burn a lot easier than he does.  But it hasn't lost efficacy over time, which is nice to know.

Time to make a new batch

I've included links to the harder-to-find products I bought, but coconut oil is pretty easy to find in stores nowadays.  I bought the beeswax from a local beekeeper a couple of years ago and paid $5 for one pound.

Homemade Sunscreen 

Ingredients:

4 ounces coconut oil
2 ounces shea butter
2 ounces cocoa butter
4 ounces beeswax
1 heaping Tablespoon zinc oxide


Directions:

Melt the first four ingredients in the top of a double boiler, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and add the zinc oxide powder stirring well to mix (or use beaters or an immersion blender).  Wear a mask (I used a bandana over my face like a cowboy) so you don't inhale the dust.  It's bad for your lungs.

If you like, you can add essential oils to make a nice fragrance.  I used lavender and rosemary, and possibly rose absolute, enough to mask the chocolate smell of the cocoa butter.  Just don't use citrus oils because they increase sensitivity to the sun.

You can also add Vitamin E oil as a preservative.  I used a few capsules of Wheat Germ oil (which is what I had on hand and is high in Vitamin E), poking a hole in each and squeezing the oil into the mix.

Pour into mold and let cool.  I used a 9 x 13 pan, lined with waxed paper.  After cooling I cut it into bars.  Later, because this stuff melts when it's gets over about 80° I put some of it into small, lidded containers to make it easier to deal with.  You can store the bars in the fridge and then keep them in your cooler if you're going to the beach or on a picnic.

It's nice and thick . . .

 . . . and spreads pretty easily . . .

He looks burned, but he isn't.  It's just the light.  Really!

. . . and doesn't whiten too much, in spite of not using nano-sized ZnO.

Sunscreen on the left arm.  Right arm is bare for comparison.

Other info:

This sunscreen isn't waterproof, so you'll have to reapply it regularly.  I'm going to try adding more beeswax when I make a new batch this year and see if that helps.

Update, 26 May 2014 -- Yesterday I made a new batch using an extra half ounce of beeswax.  It's definitely more waterproof and the bars didn't start getting soft until they'd been sitting on my porch, inside a closed container, in sunny in 85° weather for a couple of hours, which is great for a bar you'll be using while swimming.  I set aside about half of it for that purpose, but the rest I'm going to melt down again and add a little jojoba oil so it'll be more spreadable, like last year's batch.

It's also a really nice after-sun lotion if you forgot to use it in the first place, or didn't reapply it often enough and got burned after all.  It's soothing and helps you heal faster.  Zinc oxide is used in diaper rash ointment for its healing properties.

We've also discovered that it's a decent bug repellent.  I don't know whether it's the essential oils, or what, but gnats and mosquitoes are less likely to hang around when you're wearing this sunscreen.

I've recently learned that you can determine the SPF if you know how much zinc oxide is in the formula as a percentage of total weight.  If the amount of ZnO is 20% of the total weight, that will give you an SPF of 30, which blocks about 97% of the sun's UVB rays, and is generally considered to be adequate protection. 

That said, I've never had this stuff tested in a lab, so I'm not making medical claims about the lotion -- I'm just telling y'all what has worked for us.

Source:

I read several different recipes for homemade sunscreen before deciding what to make for myself, but this recipe at Wellness Mama was my main inspiration.

Recipe: Buttermilk Cornbread

1 stick butter*
2 cups self-rising cornmeal mix**
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs

This looks deceptively simple, but like all good Southern cooking it absolutely depends on having the right tools and using the right technique.  I'm not even sure it can be made well just from reading a recipe -- it's probably one of those things you have to see done at least once, and try yourself several times, tweaking things until it comes out just right.

First, put the stick of butter in an 8" iron skillet, put into the oven, and turn on to 425°.

Next, using a one-cup scoop*** put two scoops of cornmeal mix into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.

Then, pour two cups of buttermilk into a glass four-cup measure or small mixing bowl.  Crack the two eggs into the buttermilk and beat well with a wire whisk or a fork.

Add the liquid to the dry, pouring it into the well, and stir a little, just until moistened.  There will still be lumps and that's okay -- just don't overmix it.  Let it rest while the oven finishes preheating.

When the oven's hot and the butter is just starting to turn brown, pour the batter into the middle of the skillet all at once, and put it back in the oven.  Cook until it's golden brown on top and crispy around the edges, oh, twenty or thirty minutes.

If your skillet is well seasoned, you can invert it over a plate when it's done and the cornbread will fall right out.

Cut into wedges and serve with  more butter and honey if it's for dessert, or butter and cheese (or just butter) if it's for supper.  Or crumble it up and sprinkle over chili or soup, or crumble it into a goblet, pour buttermilk over it and eat it with a spoon.  The latter was my daddy's favorite dessert.

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Notes:

* It really has to be real butter, and yes, a whole stick of it.

** I like Aunt Jemima and White Lily the best.  I only use white cornmeal, and I think the buttermilk mix turns out better than the plain one.  Where I live right now, I can only find one-pound bags of mix, so I usually make my own.  Here's how:  1 cup of white cornmeal, 1 cup of plain, unbleached flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.  I mix up several cups of it at a time -- enough to fill a large Rubbermaid canister about 3/4 of the way to the top, so that there's some room at the top to make scooping it out easier.

*** On using a measuring scoop:  With a dry-measure cup, you fill it lightly with flour, tap the side to make the flour settle, then scrape off the top with the back side of a knife.  This gives you exactly one cup.  To use a scoop, you dig into the mix a time or two to fluff it up a little, then you dig in and bring up a fill, overflowing scoop of the mix.  Shake the scoop a little so that the excess falls off, but it should still be mounded above the top of the scoop -- just not so high that it's going to spill while transferring it to the mixing bowl.  I have no idea what the exact measure is.  I just know that once you've got the technique down, it's a lot easier than using a cup.

As it turns out, this wasn't quite full enough and I had to add a smidgen more when mixing the batter.

Foodness

This afternoon my son made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but it was too hot to turn on the oven, so we just ate the dough raw. :-)

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Owing to a late spring and an even later start with the garden, we just got our first tomatoes today. I'm telling you, I bit into one and thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

If you ask me, the only reason even to have summer is so you can eat fresh, warm-from-the-garden, home-grown tomatoes. Without growing your own tomatoes you're just getting hot and sweaty for nothing.

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This morning Mike and I went to an Amish grocery store we'd heard about. They have spices in large quantities for really good prices, so I stocked up on a few things I was out of -- celery seed, turmeric, paprika -- and bought a quarter pound of parsley, because you can never have too much parsley.

I also bought, for the first time ever, a tub of lard. I used it to cook our salmon patties for supper tonight and they turned out well. I'm glad to have another fat to add to my inventory. I've read that animal fats are the best for frying in since they can take the heat.

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We're raising ducks for the first time and several of them have turned out to be males, so we should have plenty of duck fat this winter. Sally Fallon says duck fat is the best thing in the world to cook potatoes in.

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My two oldest are in town tonight and they're going to go by the big grocery store while they're there to see if they can buy some things that I'm not able to get in the stores in our rural county: cream of coconut, macadamia nuts, instant espresso powder, plus a couple of other things. Tomorrow I'm going to make either Mystie's Intense Coffee Ice Cream or Coconut Macadamia Ice Cream for our Sunday treat, depending on which ingredients they're able to find. We bought the cream this morning from the man who butchered our pig a few years ago.

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While we were in Amish country we also bought a gallon of milk from pastured cows from a man we get milk from when our goats aren't producing enough, or when I want cow milk. (We would have bought the cream from him too, but he was out, and sent us to the butcher.) I'm going to try making yogurt with it because I don't like the way our goat-milk yogurt turns out.

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My sous chef and I have been in a food rut for the last year -- kind of bored with everything, not interested in coming up with meal plans, wondering why we have to eat every day anyway, let alone three times every day. Today, I'm loving food again.

I like it better this way. :-)

Red Beans and Rice

1 16-ounce package red kidney beans
water
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 leftover ham bone, 1 1/2 cups meat left on
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or 2 or more tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
6 cups hot cooked rice

1. Rinse beans in running cold water; discard any stones or shriveled beans. Put into large bowl and cover with 2” water; let soak overnight, at least 8 hours.
2. Three or four hours before serving, drain beans and rinse; place in 8-quart Dutch oven, cover with water, and heat to boiling, uncovered. Skim all the foam that rises to the top. Add bay leaf.
3. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan over medium heat, in hot olive oil, cook onion and garlic until tender, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Stir onion and garlic into beans with all the remaining ingredients, except rice.
5. Return to boil then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender and mixture is slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove ham bone to cutting board; cut meat into bite-size chunks. Return cut-up ham to beans, discard bone. Serve spooned over rice.

Serve with greens, cornbread, and slices of sharp cheese. Also goes well with grilled fish.

Recipe says it makes 8 main dish servings, but for us it’s only about six, probably because I don’t ever have a hambone.

Pre-soaking the beans, discarding the soak-water, and skimming the foam are absolutely necessary if you don’t want unpleasant side-effects from eating dried beans.

If you don’t have a hambone, you can use a quart of chicken stock for part of the cooking water. If you don’t have real stock made from bones, add a packet of unflavored gelatin to a cup of cold water, stir, and add to cooking water. The gelatin from the bones makes more protein available, and really does make the meal stick to your ribs longer than it would without it.

The veggies and seasonings except the bay leaf can be added to the last half-hour of cooking – I prefer it that way, but adding them at the beginning means you don’t have to remember to do anything else to them later on.

I like to add a generous spoonful of gumbo filé after putting the beans into a serving dish. It helps thicken it and adds a little je ne sais quoi.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Creamy Spinach

We had this last week from the spinach Valerie M. brought me from her garden when she came for a visit last Sunday. It’s my favorite way to eat spinach — I could eat it all day long!

Fresh spinach
butter
prepared horseradish*
cream or half and half
salt
pepper

Wash the spinach leaves and place in a large covered pot. If you’re using prewashed leaves, you’ll need to rinse them so they’ll be moist. Place the pot over a medium flame and heat until simmering; reduce heat and cook just until wilted. Drain the water; press the leaves with the back of a spoon in order to squeeze out any more liquid, and drain that, too. Add the rest of the ingredients and transfer to a heated serving bowl.

Spinach is high in oxalic acid which can irritate the linings of your mouth and stomach and prevents the absorption of calcium, so if you shouldn’t eat it raw often, but cooking neutralizes it. Don’t skimp on the butter and cream, and don’t use vegetable oil-based substitutes. Spinach is high in carotnoids from which your body makes Vitamin A, but it can only do that if you have animal fat along with the carotenoids.

*Note that “prepared horseradish” isn’t the same thing as the creamy horseradish sauce that looks like mayonnaise and goes on a rueben.

Favorite summer salad

Chop one medium tomato into chunks and put into bowl.
Add an equivalent amount of black olives and one or two ounces of crumbled feta cheese.
Sprinkle on a tablespoon or two or minced onions and some basil, then drizzle on a little cold-pressed flaxseed oil and extra virgin olive oil.

Toss and enjoy! Makes one main dish serving.

Father's Day dinner

My hubby is a meat and potatoes lover, but we don't often eat that way, so as my gift to him today I made a meaty dinner especially the way he likes it.

Flank steak
mashed potatoes and gravy
green beans
Vidalia onion pie
zucchini salad
biscuits
fresh strawberries and whipped cream for dessert

I was a little nervous about making this steak because my steaks always turn out tough, but I followed the directions for flank steak in my circa 1950s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and it was perfect!

Score flank steak; dip into flour; brown in hot fat. Season. Add 1/2 cup hot water; cover; cook over low heat or in moderate oven (350°) till tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

I browned the steak in butter in my iron skillet, sprinkled a little salt and pepper on it, then covered it tightly with foil and put it in the oven for a little less than two hours, since it was so thick.

The gravy was made from the all the pan drippings plus the water from cooking the potatoes.

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Here's my Vidalia onion pie recipe:

4 medium Vidalia onions
1 stick of butter
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp of freshly ground pepper (I use McCormick's peppercorn medley)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided

Preheat over to 450°. Thinly slice onions and cut into quarters, then sauté in butter until soft. Mix together eggs, sour cream, salt, and pepper. Pour 1/2 of sautéed onions into each of two pie pans, the pour half of the egg mixture over each. Top each with 1/4 cup of Parmesan (or more if preferred). Bake in 450° oven for 15 minutes, then turn down to 350° and bake till golden brown and set - about 15 minutes. Makes 16 side servings, but in our family, some of us eat about three servings. ;-)

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The zucchini salad was modified from one found in Nourishing Traditions since I didn't have all the ingredients. Put 2 Tblsps of Lemon Pepper seasoning into a bowl and cover with 2 Tblsps white wine and 1/4 cup water; set aside. Quarter four zucchinis and slice thin. Add to seasoning mix: 1/2 extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1 Tblsp flaxseed oil. Mix well, then place zucchini into a bowl, pour dressing over all, stir gently, and let sit at room temperature for a few hours before serving.

Chicken quesadillas for lunch today
We favor Tex-Mex foods around here and today when trying to figure out how to use some leftovers for lunch, I came up with this, which turned out pretty good, so I'm sharing it.
:-)

-leftover roast chicken, cut up into tidbits
-leftover chili con queso, a tasty concoction Mike came up with trying to imitate the chili con queso sold at Mexico Chicito, a restaurant in Little Rock (it's cream cheese, chili powder, cumin, and I don't know what else, with a little milk added to make it softer)
-whole wheat tortillas

Mix chicken and cheese together. Melt a pat of butter in an iron skillet. Place in one tortilla, spread some of the chicken/cheese mix on it and cover with another tortilla. Cook till it starts browning on the bottom, then flip and cook on the other side. Remove, add more butter and make another one. Keep warm on a preheated plate in the oven if needed. Heat a can of black beans, and serve with sour cream and salsa on the side.

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When I first married I always needed to follow a recipe, make a shopping list, and buy all the ingredients in order to do meals. It's taken me a long time to get to the point of being able to use what I have on hand. I guess the first step was to learn how to make soups using leftovers - after making lots of soups following recipes I began to figure out what foods and seasonings work well together, but it took years, really. There's probably some way to teach young ladies how to cook like this, but I don't really know what it is.

Kelly M. told me once that sometimes her mom (maybe on the day before grocery shopping?) will point out that they have a little bit of this and can of that and dab of something else, and will tell Kelly to make a meal out of it. Sounds like a pretty good practice for full-time homemaking to me.