Kitchen Corner!

Hello there and welcome to my little corner. Here you will learn some nifty cleaning tips, learn a recipe or two and maybe even find out some other fun facts. If you have a recipe you want to share feel free to send it in to the paper in care of Kitchen Corner.

Have you ever wondered just how far back the art of baking cakes and cookies goes? I recently did and I learned that they ate sweets as far back as ancient Rome! Now of course we don't have any cookbooks actually from then after all that was over 2000 years ago. However there is a collection of recipes thought to be from this time called the Apicius. The first print of this is from around 900AD in Latin. Though it's idea of what constitutes a recipe is a bit iffy once you get past the Latin part and translated into something I can read. No measurements or baking temp or time. So I did some experimenting with the ingredient list and now you can enjoy something that is if not what the ancient Romans actually ate should be close enough they would recognize it. This cake is high fiber, low fat and egg free.

Grab your blenders and your mixers fire up that oven because you are going to nosh!

Ancient Roman Honey Cakes

1 1/2 cup freshly ground wheat flour (you can either grab a pair of stones or just run it through your blender.)

3/4 tsp instant dried yeast

1/2 tsp ground rosemary

1 tsp cinnamon

2/3rd cup almonds, ground

1/2 cup passum (or other sweet white wine)

4 tbsp honey

1/2 cup Milk

To top:

Extra honey to drizzle

Chopped hazelnuts

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Tip into a baking dish or cake tin and leave in a warm place to rise. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

While still hot drizzle with honey and sprinkle on chopped hazelnuts.

now for our cleaning tip! As we are already looking back to the Ancient Romans do you think they might have a valid cleaning tip? And I do not mean some of the weird and in some cases dangerous things they did. SO I did a search for how the Ancient Romans cleaned their floors and came up with, drum roll please... Sawdust.

Yes indeed it would appear that they sprinkled sawdust on the floor then swept it clean. I don't think that would really work for us today. So instead lets get modern and consider a steam cleaner. Great for rugs and carpets. Unfortunately you can't clean wood floors with a steam cleaner, but natural stone floors should not be harmed by this method. Vinegar and water is the best way to clean stone floors.

That is all for this issue, do write in if you have any recipe or cleaning questions or requests.

R.