Mummies

Mummy of Cleopatra

In my second book,  The Underwater Pyramid In The Bermuda Triangle, the character Cliff and his son, Matt discover a glass pyramid under the ocean. There they find two mummies.

I thought today, I would just briefly touch on mummies.

We all know that the ancient Egyptians mummified people and animals too. Do you know how mummification works or why they did it?

Well, as far as the working part goes, I will spare you the sorted details but to say that the process was twofold: embalming and wrapping.

You can view the process here:

 

The reason why the Egyptians mummified was for religious reasons. In fact, it was part of a religious ceremony. The Egyptians believed that the deceased, especially pharaohs, rose again in the afterlife.
The body had to be prepared in a proper manner in order to be received and brought into the afterlife.

This meant that all the deceased king's possessions must go with him. Sometimes, that included people and animals that were still alive. I am sure you can understand what that meant for them and is why often those mummies were also in the tomb with the king.

Recipes for the ancients

In my books, the main character, Cliff has a wife who enjoys cooking. She loves to cook so much that she finds out how to make conch and marlin ceviche in my second book. I even included recipes in that book.

I thought today I would share a couple of recipes from Egypt that the character may have cooked in the first book when she and Cliff were on an archaeology dig of the Sphinx.

Melokhia
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Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 kg of fresh molokhia (or melokhia) leaves cleaned
• one tablespoon tomato paste (optional)
• one hot chilly pepper (optional)
• one bay leaf (optional)
• one small onion, finely chopped (optional)
• black pepper
• two tablespoons of butter
• several cloves of garlic, minced
• one teaspoon ground coriander
• one teaspoon salt
• one tablespoon fresh coriander leaves (also called cilantro) or fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
• juice of one lemon or a teaspoon vinegar (optional)
• ground cayenne pepper or red pepper (optional)

Steps

• Chop the molokhia leaves as finely as possible.
• Over high heat, bring the chicken stock to a near boil in a large pot. Add the molokhia, stirring well. Add the tomato paste, chile pepper, bay leaf, and onion (if desired), and black pepper, continuing to stir. Reduce heat and simmer. The molokhia will simmer for about twenty minutes.
• After the chicken stock and melokhia have simmered for about ten minutes: heat the butter in a skillet. Using either the back of a spoon in a bowl or a sharp knife on a cutting board, grind the garlic, ground coriander, and the salt together into a paste. Fry the mixture in the oil for two to four minutes, stirring constantly, until the garlic is slightly browned
• After the melokhia has been simmering for about twenty minutes and has broken down to make a thick soup, add the garlic mixture and the butter it was fried in to the simmering molokhia. Stir well
• Add any of the remaining optional ingredients. . Continue simmering and stirring occasionally for a few more minutes.
• Serve immediately, hot. Molokhia soup is often served over boiled Rice and sometimes with boiled chicken.

Spiced Prawns
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3 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ginger, fresh grated

1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, raw & shelled

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped (cilantro)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan; add the garlic and sauté gently for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the paprika, cumin and ginger; stir to combine.
3. Stir in prawns, salt and cilantro. Stir-fry for 5 minutes or until the prawns turn pink.
4. Serve over hot rice.

 

 

Hibiscus Tea

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2 -3 cups dried hibiscus flowers (often called red sorrel or roselle)

2 quarts cold water

1 -2 cup sugar

1-2 of the following optional flavorings

• 1 sprig mint (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, to be halal make sure there is no alcohol)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh gingerroot (optional)
• 1 teaspoon orange flower water (optional)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (optional)

Directions:

1. Briefly rinse the dried flowers in cool water.
2. In a saucepan heat two quarts (approximately two litres) of cold water. As soon as the water begins to boil, add the dried hibiscus. Immediately remove from heat and let the flowers steep for ten minutes.
3. Pour the water from the pot into a pitcher using a strainer (lined with a cheesecloth) to separate the flowers from the water. (Be sure not to pour any of the flower sediment into the pitcher.).
4. Stir in the sugar.
5. Add any other flavorings (if desired).
6. Add ice and chill completely.
 

 

Interview

Today I though I would share part of an interview  that I did in 2012 with The Children's Book Review. Enjoy.

 

Linda has travelled to Egypt and visited all of the historical sites discussed in her book The Hidden Chamber in the Great Sphinx. She holds a Master’s degree in technical and professional writing from Northeastern University. Her career as a Registered Respiratory Therapist and teacher prevented her from seeking a writing career in the past, however, she has always had an interest in writing and is particularly interested in writing for the juvenile market. She grew up in Plymouth, MA, and now resides in Carver, MA.

Bianca Schulze: From where did you draw the inspiration for your archeological adventure novel The Hidden Chamber in the Great Sphinx? Were you inspired by your trips visiting historical sites in Egypt?

 

Linda Cadose: I drew my inspiration for the novel from visiting Egypt. Egypt is a lovely and fascinating country. The antiquities left me spellbound.
BS: How much of your travel experience and observations impacted the way you developed the characters?
LC: My travel experiences helped me create Dr. Abdul Saad and his wife Fatima. The other characters were American and I based those characters on people I knew at home. Dr. Cliff Post is based on one of my Boston University professors.
BS: The main character, Dr. Cliff Post, is an archeologist. Which aspect of Dr. Cliff Post’s personality do you think readers will connect with most?
LC: Dr. Cliff Post is an honorable man who protects women and is kind to handicapped children. I think his dignity and humanity are his most appealing characteristics.

For the complete interview go HERE

Alien Food

 

 

Did you ever wonder what aliens eat for food? Movies such as Close Encounters have them possibly eating cows. Then other movies like E.T. have them eating things like Reese's Pieces and drinking soda. Hmmm...?

For fun, I thought I would do a little research and find out just exactly what alien food looked liked or better yet, find a recipe or two.

Here are my results.

I found this alien food pod. Is this what they eat their food out of or is it a delicacy from another planet of planets?

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Here I found a purplish, slimy food which apparently is quite loved. It is called mushroom Maggie. According to what I found out, this is not to be served to alien guest. Why in the world did they have to give it a name?

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Among the delicacies of alien food, I found something called a granadilla.  It looks nothing more than alien eye balls with tentacles. Does that mean they eat their own kind? Eww...

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Finally, I found the ultimate in alien foods but somewhat alarming. Alien feet soup. Apparently though, this soup is only liked by the adult aliens. Is there an age limit here?

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There you have it. If you find any other aliens recipes or foods that you would like me to see. Leave me a comment and I will be sure to check them out.

World Gratitude Day

Thank you to all of you that follow my blogs and buy my books. You keep my dreams alive by doing so. I am truly grateful not only on this day but everyday.

 

Amazon

 

 

 

 

Video of 25 interesting finds

This may be interesting to you. It is a video of the 25 most interesting archaeology finds.

In Remembrance

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Sunken Treasure

Last Friday, I spoke to you about marine archaeology and the sunken pirate ship Whydah.
I found this video that talks about that ship.
~Linda Cadose

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Marine Archaeology

The sunken city off the coast of Cuba which is the subject of my second book, The Underwater Pyramid in the Bermuda Triangle was explored by the marine archaeologist Kyle Wilson.

Marine archaeology is the study of submerged archaeological sites.
Submerged archaeological sites are very expensive to explore. Most marine expeditions are financed by benefactors or foundations.

photo source

When I wrote The Underwater Pyramid in the Bermuda Triangle, I created the character of the multimillionaire, Mike Pollicellli who is the CEO of the fictional fast food chain Fat Mike’s Dogs.
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, the fictional Mike has the Texas Foot Long, a chili-cheese dog.

The fictional research vessel in my book was a World War II minesweeper purchased by Mike Pollicelli. Cousteau did his research in a salvaged British WW II mine sweeper.

Marine archaeology also plays a role in exploring shipwrecks such as the Titanic. The pirate ship the Whydah was also salvaged and is on display at the pier in Provincetown, MA.
Many artifacts have been salvaged from the ocean floor.

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