Bena Mae’s Kitchen: Potions and Elixirs

There was a time when potions and elixirs were common to every mother who guarded the health of her family. Antibiotics were yet to be developed and doctor visits were few and far between, so they had to rely on common sense and motherly intuition.
My mother relied heavily on this motherly intuition upon which she dosed her children during all their childhood diseases. And there were many of them, many which we did not know the names of and many that would have cured themselves because we were a resilient lot in those days of measles, mumps, whooping cough, croup and stomach ailments. Oh, how I remember some of those home remedies that were worse than the illness. But our mothers meant well.
I guess you could call my mother a medicine “junkie,” although the term was not a familiar one in those days. Her motto was “Be Prepared.” And prepared she was.
When I was growing up, the shelf in the kitchen looked like a drug store pharmacy. If you could ingest it, swallow it, sniff it, or rub it on, Mama had it and stuck it on that shelf.
I remember some of the old herbal medicines she bought from a partially blind woman named Aunt Lizzie who came by our house once a month. When it was time for her to come by, Mama could hardly wait.
The two of them would sit in the front porch swing and talk about the latest illness going around and a new medicine Aunt Lizzie had to show her. As they talked, Mama would go through the black satchel bag of miracle cures the old lady carried–she was like a kid in a candy store.
No matter what the ailment was…boils, croup, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite, fever, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, rashes, vomiting…you name it, Aunt Lizzie had the cure and Mama bought it. And stuck it on that shelf in the kitchen.
That shelf got mighty crowded at times There was Paregoric (illegal today but widely used back then), Castoria, Hadacol, Geritol, Indian River Tonic, Epsom Salts, Castor Oil, Cloverine Salve, and many more too numerous to mention.
It’s ironic and funny that ours was an alcohol free house, Daddy being a Baptist deacon who never let Demon Rum pass his lips while all the time the kitchen was full of bottles laced with alcohol. But this was unbeknownst to my mother, who, when we told her years later was horrified.
It was remindful of one of the Andy Griffith shows when Aunt Bea and the ladies of the town were enthralled with a traveling medicine man who sold them bottles of highly laced spirits that made them “tiddly.” It was more than mortifying to Aunt Bea who would never serve rum cake at Christmas time. Mama was just as mortified. but she was never tiddly, considering that she had to have her “nerve” medicine every day which was supplied, after all, by Dr. Lydia E. Pinkham.

Don’t like spinach? You’ll like it fixed this way.

Cheesy Creamed Spinach Casserole

yield: one 9-inch casserole

My choice of Asiago cheese was based on nothing more than I had some in my refrigerator. Any other hard cheese may be substituted. If Parmesan is used, additional salt might not be necessary.*

1 medium sweet onion
1 tablespoon cooking oil
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup half and half
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, squeeze to remove as much water as possible.
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, fresh grated
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese , divided
1 cup shredded Asiago cheese, divided*

Saute onion in oil until tender. Set aside to cool.
Mix half and half and cream cheese with a mixer until creamy. Add spinach, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, kosher salt, 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup Asiago cheese and sautéed onions. Mix well.
Pour into a 9 inch buttered casserole dish. Mix together remaining cheese and spread over casserole.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until casserole is bubbling.