In fact, there’s some doubt as to whether there are one or three of them. And if there are three, why are two immortal (Sthenno and Euryale) and poor Medusa the only mortal?

The tales of one Gorgo come from the oldest myths, told by the poet Homer. The head of the Gorgo was taken to form the aegis of the shield of Athena. Even Euripides believed in only one monster. It’s Hesiod who transformed the tale to include three sisters, the daughters of Phorkys and Keta. He portrayed them with snakes and fangs, but Aeschylus gave them wings.

The early Classical poets agreed on one thing. The Gorgons were horrible to observe. Some of the images were incredibly creepy. It wasn’t until the later Classical period that poets and artists humanized Medusa from a monster to a beautiful, but cursed woman.

So back to my original question. How do you end up with two out of three immortal daughters? Wicked bad luck, is what I’m thinking.

Mortal Medusa was a beauty, the stories say. Some believe that she compared her beauty to that of Athena. We’ve already seen how that works out. *cough*Arachne*cough* But others feel that her fate can be laid at the feet of another god. One who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Medusa was a servant of Athena, but the great sea god Poseidon was enchanted by her beauty, so he seduced her in Athena’s temple. The virgin goddess turned her eyes away in horror, then punished Medusa by turning her lovely hair to snakes.

WTH?!? Girl has sex, so you turn her into a monster? Wow. That’s some seriously messed up logic (as well as a seriously uptight and repressed goddess), but Medusa’s tragedy doesn’t end there.

Now she’s even more super special than just being the gorgeous daughter of gods. No. Now she can turn men to stone with a glance because they’re so filled with dread at her hideous appearance.

See, now she’s a weapon, and we know how gods and warriors and heroes get all excited about new weapons. King Polydektes had challenged Perseus to bring him the head of the Gorgon, so he set off on his heroic quest, aided by Hermes, Athena (traitor!) and Hades.

The Graiaie guarded the cave where the Gorgons slept, but they had only one eye between them. Perseus stole the eye and bargained it for entrance to the cave. He used the reflection of his polished shield to find Medusa and cut off her head with one stroke.

However, in her death, Medusa gave birth to new life. The winged horse Pegasus and the giant Khrysaor sprang from her death-wound.

Perseus then brought her head back to his enemies, flying over Libya to get home. As he flew, drops of the Gorgon’s blood fell to the sand, creating fatally poisonous vipers in the desert there.

Medusa’s head was used to vanquish armies as well as the odious Polydektes, then turned over to Athena as the centerpiece for her aegis.

The End. *sniffle* She picked the wrong guy and died for it. No HEA for our girl Medusa.

But…could there be? I’ll let you know when I finish writing my current story, inspired by Medusa’s tale.

This article is reprinted from my original posting at Beyond the Veil on May 15, 2009.

Recently, I was flipping through Roz Denney’s Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook and came across a recipe for Kitcheri, which she said was the original Indian dish that inspired Kedgeree.

Lentils and rice. Kusherie/Kitcheri/Kedgeree. Are we seeing the pattern here?

So I pulled my laptop into the kitchen and opened the book to the right page and started tweaking.

2-3 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup basmati or long-grain rice
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 whole cloves
3 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 stick cinnamon
1 qt stock (vegetarian or chicken. I went with veg and found it a little thick.)
2 Tbs tomato paste
salt and pepper
Chopped coriander/cilantro (same thing) or parsley (optional)

Heat the oil in a good sized saucepan (this is a one-pot meal!), and saute the onion and garlic until the onion is starting to go golden. Add the lentils and stir until they’re well coated in the oil and starting to brown a bit. Stir in the spices and cook for about a minute. Add the rice and coat in the oil and spices.

Add the stock and tomato paste and season to taste. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the stock is absorbed and the lentils and rice are soft. Fish out the bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Stir in the cilantro or parsley if you like, and serve.

So it’s not the most gorgeous thing you’ll ever put on a plate. It tastes good! Serve it with some naan or other flatbread and a salad or green veg and you’re good to go for dinner.

*Note: The spices. You’ll want to hit a large grocery store or international store for the odd stuff like cardamom pods. I have them because I’m a freak and my spice cabinet is out-of-control weird. The rest of it is available in most grocery stores. If it comes down to it, you could use a bit of ground cardamom or skip it entirely.

The Minotaur was the offspring of Pasiphae (the wife of King Minos of Crete) and the Cretan Bull. Aphrodite gave Minos a perfect bull so that he could sacrifice it to her, but he decided to keep it instead. To punish him, the goddess made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull. Insert bestiality here and the Minotaur was born, the offspring of a human and a monster.

Minos had the monstrous child placed at the center of a labyrinth constructed by Daedelus and life went on until Minos’s[1] son was killed by the Athenians in battle. Minos won the war and to punish the Athenians, he commanded that they send their seven best young men and seven loveliest young women to be sacrificed to the beast. They were released in the labyrinth and consumed by the Minotaur.

After a few of these sacrifices, the hero Theseus decided that enough was enough. He went to Crete where Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with him. She gave him the key to the labyrinth and a ball of string to help him find his way back. Theseus slew the Minotaur, led the Athenian youths out of the maze, and escaped Crete with them and Ariadne. (At this point, Theseus ceases to be heroic because he abandons Ariadne on the isle of Naxos. Jerk. She curses him to forget which color sails to raise on his way home and when his dad sees the black sails, he assumes Theseus is dead and throws himself off a cliff. Good start, bad ending.)

Anyway…back to the labyrinth. While the maze of the Minotaur is a myth, there is substantial archaeological evidence to suggest that there truly was a labyrinth at the Minoan palace of Knossos. The palace actually WAS the labyrinth![2] The building was arranged so that it was virtually impossible for someone unfamiliar with the layout to navigate it. That doesn’t really explain the whole bull-man thing, but it lends the ring of truth to the idea of the maze.

There are mazes from Ancient Egypt, as well. The labyrinth at Hawara[3] that was, according to Herodotus, “…it is hard to believe that they are the work of men; the baffling and intricate passages from room to room and from court to court were an endless wonder to me….” [4]

This labyrinth was originally constructed as a mortuary hall and built over several generations. The oldest name recorded at the temple was that of Amenemhat III, who also built the “Black Pyramid.” The burial temples of the pharaohs were never forthright and even the contemporary archaeologist “Dr Zahi Hawass has said that when he first entered this pyramid he had a rope tied around his ankle to ensure he didn’t get lost inside.”[5]

While the labyrinth at Knossos is certainly one of the most famous, it’s not the only ancient labyrinth left for us by our ancestors. From the Bronze Age, there are petroglyphs of what’s now known as the Classical or 7-circuit maze in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

There are labyrinths from the Bronze Ages – even some the Neolithic Age – that can be found throughout Europe. The vast majority of them reflect the same Classical form, which suggests that the symbolism of the labyrinth was in some way universal. However, it’s impossible to know for certain. Labyrinths found in the Valle Camonica in Italy are usually found with scenes of battle and soldiers, where similar patterns in Galicia are surrounded by wild animals – a symbol of the hunt, perhaps.

Labyrinths aren’t specific to the continents across the Atlantic, however. The Tohono O’odham, a Native American tribe in Arizona have a symbol they call “The Man in the Maze.”[6] Petroglyphs of the maze, which features a man standing in the opening of the labyrinth, have been found at the Casa Grande Ruins.

But the real mystery is in the meaning of the labyrinth. As I mentioned, the Stone Age labyrinths seem to symbolize something…but what? Their meaning is unclear.

The Cretan labyrinth might have been merely the result of creative architecture, but was mythologized into a scenario of terror and death.

What, then, do those early symbols have in common with the labyrinths and mazes of the Middle Ages? And how do they connect to the modern-day resurgence of labyrinths as paths to inner peace?

The connection is entirely uncertain. People of many faiths today walk labyrinthine patterns to help clear their minds. It’s said that following the path to the center of a labyrinth will help untangle problems as you meditate.

Whatever the symbolism, current or past, they provide an artistic framework for the famous “What if?” How can a labyrinth inspire you?

An excellent resource on labyrinths can be found at Labyrinthos.net.

Mom had her 8th knee surgery on Friday and I brought her home on Monday after a whole bunch of mangled communication with the hospital.

So yesterday’s myth? That people involved in patient care are capable of communicating clearly.

Anyway, she’s home now with her leg in an immobilizer for the next 6 weeks. After that, she starts very gentle physical therapy. I’m just glad she finally got a good night’s sleep and she’s eating again. And would you believe that she’s right now on the phone catching up on 600 messages. Not a typo. 600. Lots of well-wishes, but lots of clients, too. She’s just not happy unless she’s drowning in work!

Crust:
You can use a regular pie crust, but my favorite part of this recipe is that it uses a thing of those canned crescent rolls. Did you know they now have that dough without the crescent roll perforations? Yup, I guess they figured so many people were using it as pie dough, they’d just save us some time. Rock on, Pillsbury!

Ham:
Sure, you can use your home-smoked leftover ham that you froze at Christmas. Just chop the pieces into a fairly small dice. Or, you can cheat. I picked up a couple of 8 oz packages of pre-diced ham in the grocery store. The only thing I can think of that you should probably do is not dump it straight into the pie, but into a colander – or a sieve, actually, since the pieces are pretty small – and rinse it to get rid of the extremely salty ham juice. I didn’t do this step and everyone in the family remarked on how salty the end product was.

Cheese:
Umm, just use 8 oz grated cheese. I picked sharp cheddar.

The process:
Preheat your oven to 325F. Line a pie pan with your nifty dough. In another bowl, mix together
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbs finely chopped onion. I was so lazy I even skipped this step.
1 1/2 cup diced ham. I just used both packages, so ours was extra hammy. Don’t forget to rinse.
8 oz grated cheese. Use a couple of different kinds, if you like. Clean out the cheese drawer.
Here’s where I deviated from the recipe. I did the eggs first, then hit my spice cabinet. I added onion powder (to make up for the onion I was too lazy to chop), garlic powder, dried mustard, a dash of cumin and a bit of chili powder. Mix that into the egg, then add the ham and cheese.
Pop the mixture into the pie pan, bake for one hour.

That’s it. Took 5 minutes to prep, then I had time to do all my other stuff while it baked.

And once again, I didn’t think to get a picture. Hey, I said I was busy! But it actually is a pretty pie when it comes out of the oven.

ALSO:

Mom’s having what will hopefully be her 8th and final knee surgery today. They’ll be putting in the actual knee joint. Prayers for easy surgery and quick recovery, please!

And then Monkey Boy sprained his ankle over the weekend, and it didn’t get better with RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. So instead of writing a post about something geeky, we’re headed to the pediatrician.

You know what’s a myth? That a Stay At Home Mom’s life is boring.

Good. Because I don’t like cabbage.

I wish I’d taken a picture, but I hadn’t had my brilliant Friday Foodie idea yet, so just pretend there’s a pretty picture here.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Spray a casserole dish with Pam.

Peel and chop 2 lb of potatoes. Boil in plenty of salted water, drain and mash with a bit of butter and milk.

Take 1 bunch of curly kale, tear the leaves off the ribs in bite-sized pieces. Bring a pot of salted water to boil, boil the kale for about 8 minutes, or until tender. Drain.

Mix the potatoes and kale together with a couple of chopped scallions (green onions), some freshly grated nutmeg and a bit of salt and pepper, and spread into the casserole dish. Now take your spoon and make 6…divots…in the mash. Indentations. Holes. Whatever you want to call them. You don’t have to go all the way down to the bottom of the pan, but you’re going to crack a whole egg into each hollow, so make sure they’re just deep enough to accommodate an egg.

Sprinkle some kosher salt over the eggs and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the eggs are set. When it comes out of the oven, sprinkle a generous handful of grated sharp cheese (I used a sharp white cheddar, but Parmesan will work. Use something with some bite) over the top and it’s done.

There you go. 1 eggy section per person. You can dress this up by flavoring it with mashed roasted garlic, throwing some cayenne into the mix, whatever herbs you want. I can see dill working here, thyme, some fennel fronds, maybe basil. Whatever strikes your fancy.

So, low fat, high carb, meh on the cholesterol because of the egg, but the egg is good on protein. And of course kale is filled with vitamins, even though we boiled it. You could even do this without the egg and serve it as a side dish.

Next time, I’ll remember to take pictures!

ETA: My family loved it! They were surprised because, really? Potatoes and kale with baked eggs on top? But they all told me I needed to make it again.

Here’s the thing. There are a ton of food bloggers out there. Pioneer Woman, Smitten Kitchen, A Year of Slow Cooking, Authors Kitchen…. And then there are the major recipe sites like Food Network, AllRecipes, Mollie Katzen (Moosewood, vegetarian) and my favorite – Cook’s Illustrated. To get the really good stuff at CI, you have to subscribe. Best $4/month I spend.

Since all those people specialize and do food blogging much better than I do, I’ll probably just limit my contributions to a Friday Foodie type thing. But it’s Thursday, and since I feel like talking about food, here you go.

My mother was a great cook. I say “was” not because she’s gone, but because she’s pretty much retired from cooking. A lot of her meals were simple, but she’s always had a liberal hand with the spices, so they were never bland. Also, she was a daring cook. She’d fry frog legs, host crawfish boils, make weird terrines, do a crown roast for dad’s birthday…all kinds of stuff.

But she never taught me how to cook. I’d get in the way, I was too slow, too messy, too whatever, so I didn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Fast forward to the après-honeymoon phase of my marriage.

I couldn’t cook. Anything. DH would ask what was for dinner and I’d go, “Umm, what cans do we have?” It was about that time that Emeril Lagasse started doing his “Emeril Live” show. Bobby Flay showed up on TV. Martha hadn’t gone to jail yet. I started writing down recipes and tweaking things.

But it wasn’t until we moved from Idaho to Louisiana that I really started working in the kitchen, though. I wasn’t working anymore, wasn’t going to school anymore, and we launched into the whole baby thing, so I had plenty of time to fuss around in the kitchen. We were buying cookbooks like we had room to spare and I discovered that the quickest way to make DH happy was to have the scent of onions and garlic cooking in hot oil when he walked in the door.

Honestly, what is it with men and food?

Long story short, I learned. A lot. Over the years we’ve hosted Gourmet Clubs, officer’s wives meetings, neighborhood get-togethers, New Year’s brunches, and countless holiday meals for the family.

Sure, sometimes it’s pizza night. Sometimes it’s a pre-made freezer meal. But mostly it’s my cooking and I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve gotten further and further away from pre-packaged things except for emergency situations.

I’m also working on switching to more organic/local produce, dairy and meat, but it can get expensive quickly. While pesticide residue is only one aspect of organic farming, I found that using the Dirty Dozen Food List is helpful in prioritizing which fruit and veg to buy organic and which isn’t so critical.

Dairy was one of the first things we changed, and honestly, I still don’t buy organic. I do, however, buy hormone-free. For years, I thought I was lactose intolerant. When we moved to an area that had a regional dairy, they made a point of only using dairy products that came from cattle that hadn’t been treated with growth hormones to force more milk production. I decided to do an experiment for a week and drink the “new” milk and lo and behold! No digestive issues! I’m not lactose intolerant at all, but I’m wicked sensitive to that hormone. Now that I’ve solved the milk issue, the trouble is finding other hormone-free dairy products like yogurt, cheese and cream — that don’t cost the earth.

Meat is by far the most expensive change, so we’re still inconsistent. I mean, good grief. I recently saw a whole chicken that weighed 3 1/2 lbs marked at nearly $17!! That’s crazy talk! Obviously, I need a more reasonable source for that sort of thing.

Last year, I decided I needed to lose about 30 lb and figured that I would sacrifice all that whole food goodness to try Jenny Craig. And it worked. I went through a few weeks and lost weight…and broke out in hives every night. I could NOT figure out what was wrong with me until I asked some friends and they pointed to the food, which is filled with preservatives and colors and chemicals of all kinds.

Damn. That food kicked my immune system into overdrive and I had to go on a really boring elimination diet to see if there were any actual foods I was sensitive to now, aside from the chemical garbage. I’m still working on that. So far, it seems to be mostly the food colorings and preservatives, but I might also have a soy thing. Which is particularly awesome since soy is in nearly everything. *sigh*

Anyhoo (I did tell y’all about my unfortunate ‘anyhoo’ habit, right?) tomorrow I’ll be posting a recipe I found for a vegetarian dish that everyone in the family was surprised that they actually liked. Cheap, easy to find ingredients, and low effort. Yay!

Wrote/Didn’t write (Wrote)

Children fine/disease-ridden (Children fine. Mom has a cold. I wrenched my back, but it’s getting better.)

Dinner was chicken/pasta (Dinner last night was Chicken Korma with rice and broccoli)

Had 1/2/3/too many cups of coffee today (On my first and quickly headed to my second.)

No. There’s more to blogging than me just blathering about the same things over and over. I don’t DO a lot of interesting stuff, but I know a hella lot of weird things. And my thought process takes me some … unique directions. So I’m going to spend a little time figuring out how to make my blog something fun to read for everyone.