going veg

Over the past few months I’ve been going through a major transformation in lifestyle. It started as a diet. In my younger days I never would have thought I’d go on a diet; I’ve been skinny most of my life. As I’ve been getting older though, my metabolism has been slowing down. And even though I wouldn’t consider myself overweight, I was still heavier than I’d ever been while not pregnant, and wasn’t happy with the heaviness and bulk of my stomach. So I started my diet by just counting calories and did have some success.

Then a few serendipitous things happened that led me to try vegetarianism again. The first of these was that my grove was going to meet at a center that was hosting a Thanksgiving vegetarian potluck, and they were letting us meet there only if we could help clean up from the potluck that was happening right before. So I decided that I might as well attend the potluck if I was going to help clean up, and then stay for my grove meeting. I looked up a wonderful vegetarian recipe to bring and all the food there was great.

Well, the next week was the actual date of Thanksgiving, and upon learning that my girls weren’t coming down for the holiday and it would just be the three of us, I decided to sign us up for the UU church potluck. It just so happened that the only slot still open to bring was for vegetarian mains. I brought the same chickpea dish I had made for the other potluck. There was a lot more people and food there than what I thought there would be! With so much to choose from, I decided to just go with all vegetarian for my Thanksgiving plate. I ate my fill and had a big plate of dessert too. And guess what, I actually lost a pound that day instead of gaining. It was then that I decided to begin a transition to a vegetarian diet. Over the next couple of weeks as I phased out meat, I lost ten pounds. The last time I ate meat (or ever will again) was at a Yule celebration I attended in December.

In my enthusiasm, I began looking up vegetarian videos on youtube, to keep myself motivated and on track, and perhaps get a few pointers. What I found was a myriad of reasons to go all the way vegan. Needless to say, I got my eyes opened about factory farms, and the milk and egg industries. All the old arguments that I ever heard (and used myself) against veganism/vegetarianism, were very logically shut down. The most compelling of these was a video titled 101 Reasons to Go Vegan. I began to become motivated, not so much by weight loss, but more for compassionate and environmental reasons. So now I’ve been transitioning to vegan, and it’s been a lot easier than I thought it would. After about a week, I didn’t crave cheese anymore.

I tried vegetarianism two other times in my life. The first time, I was married to someone who was strongly (and angrily) opposed to it, and the second time didn’t last very long because I didn’t have the information and motivation necessary to succeed. Now, I can look up any kind of vegan recipe I could ever want on pinterest, and find tons of motivational videos on youtube. I’ve already been vegetarian longer than I was the other two times I tried. And it’s been easy.

So now I’ve been thinking about all the non-vegetarian recipes I’ve shared on this blog. I’m in the process of taking most of these down, but veganizing he ones that can be veganized. I cannot in good conscious leave them up and contribute to what I no longer believe in. I only regret having not done all of this sooner. A song has been going through my head lately–
I Was Wrong… and I’m so so sorry.

Harvest Home Fruit Magic

With another harvest holiday coming up, I thought this would be an auspicious time to share with you one of my favorite tricks from ye olde kitchen witch cupboard: a simple all-purpose fruit spell.

For this easy method of magic, one chooses a fruit of the appropriate symbolism, clearly visualize your goal or desire (see associations below, or use your own intuition). Then speak the words of your spell and eat the fruit.

I find that the ever-popular apple makes a great all-purpose fruit for this spell, so I like to keep some around. If you have chosen a large enough fruit, you could also carve runes or symbols of your goal into it. You could juice it into a potion, or bake it into a pie with symbols formed in the crust. You could even slice up a piece of fruit and share it in a group spell. If using an apple, you could slice it horizontally to reveal the star in the middle, eat around the center and make a wish on the star then bury it.

Below you will find the words I have crafted for a general fruit spell, and some associations I have for some common fruits. Of course, this spell could be used for other foods as well.

“Fruit of Earth, the Mother’s gift,
with you I seek a fateful shift.
With my goal placed well in mind,
your taste brings forth my will in kind.”

Fruit Associations for Magic
Apple: health, vigor, youthfulness, wholesomeness, and love.
Blackberry: abundance, prosperity, and protection.
Cherry: love, desire, passion, and playfulness.
Blueberry: protection, happiness.
Fig: sexuality and fertility.
Grapes: fertility, prosperity.
Lemon: cleansing and purifying.
Orange: friendship, courage, luck.
Paw-paw: protection, love, or revenge.
Peach: love, beauty.
Pear: love and desire.
Persimmon: joy and wisdom.
Pomegranate: desire, commitment, mystery, lifeblood.
Raspberry: love and protection.
Strawberry: youthful attitude, love and happiness.
Watermelon: joy, freedom, prosperity.

The 11th Night of Yule

The eleventh night of Yule is sacred to all the Goddesses and and the Valkyrie.

Favorite Valkyrie/goddess crafts are gathered or made to adorn the altar. If you’re not in the mood for crafts, bird ornaments and angel figurines can be used to represent the goddesses and Valkyrie, with beautiful results.

Our soundtrack for the night is Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen for it’s elegance and timelessness. For our ritual meal I like to include Himmel und Erde (heaven and earth), a German dish consisting of apples (from the heavens) and potatoes (from the earth).

Our simple dinner blót includes a Valkyrie invocation and a litany of goddess hails, along with praises of their blessings.

refrigerator dough

Something I like to do now and then is make a batch of refrigerator dough at the beginning of the week and use it to make small batches of bread stuffs throughout the week. It’s especially nice to have in the fridge when there’s a holiday coming up in a few days, as it can be shaped or adapted to fit any theme. It’s also nice to have on hand for food magic or offerings.

I used to make potato refrigerator dough, but wanted a recipe for when I don’t have leftover mashed potatoes. So I found this recipe and adapted it a little. I like to use unbleached flour (sometimes with a little bit of whole wheat mixed in), but use whatever kind of flour or flour mixture you like best.

*Edit: You can veganize this, and other recipes you find on my blog (and please do), with these substitutions:
•choose from this list of vegan sugars in place of sugar
•use maple syrup in place of honey
•use Earth Balance vegan butter or coconut oil in place of butter
•use coconut milk/cream in place of sweetened condensed milk
•any vegan milk can be used in place of dairy milk
•to make vegan buttermilk, add a tablespoon of vinegar to soy milk and leave at room temperature a few minutes
•see this list of 5 Vegan Substitutes for Eggs in Baking
•use vegan chocolate

A
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter or oil

B
1/2 c. lukewarm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 pkg. dry yeast

C
1 well beaten egg
3 1/2 c. sifted flour

Scald together ingredients listed under “A” and pour into a large bowl and cool to lukewarm.

While “A” mixture is cooling, work on list “B”; dissolve the teaspoon of sugar into the lukewarm water and sprinkle the yeast into this. Let stand 10 minutes. Then stir briskly with a fork.

Add yeast mixture and well beaten egg (from C) to “A” mixture. Beat in 1 cup sifted flour. Then thoroughly blend in 2 ½ cups sifted flour. Knead 5-10 minutes, or until dough begins to resist kneading. Brush with soft butter or oil. Place dough in a lidded container with enough room for it to rise and place in refrigerator. It may be stored for a week, but can be used anytime. When ready to bake, punch down dough. Shape into desired type of bread. Cover and let rise. Makes enough for 1 large batch (2 trays of rolls, or 1 braided loaf) or 2 medium batches. Bake at 350°F. Baking times will vary depending on the size of the bread. Loaves of bread will be golden and sound hollow when tapped when they are done.

ROLLS, BUNS & BREADSTICKS
Shape as desired, let rise 20-30 minutes and bake about 20 minutes or until golden.

CINNAMON ROLLS
Roll dough out into a large rectangle, spread with butter, add cinnamon & sugar. Roll up, slice, and place in round baking pans. Let rise, bake about 20 minutes or until top appears dry and lightly browned. Drizzle with icing.

DOUGHNUTS
Roll out dough, cut out doughnut shapes, let rise, and fry in oil 325°F until golden. Dip in sugar or add icing, if desired.

SOFT PRETZELS
Shape ropes of dough into pretzel shapes. Dip in a baking soda solution (½ c. baking soda + 4 c. hot water), sprinkle with coarse salt, and bake 7-10 minutes in a 425°F oven, turning halfway through cooking.

PIZZA CRUST
Skip extra rising time, press and stretch into a crust shape. Top with pizza toppings. Bake about 20 minutes.

a kitchen witch’s wooden spoons

Wooden spoons are an essential item in any kitchen witch’s tool kit. They are sturdy enough for mixing thick concoctions without scratching surfaces. Wood is naturally resistant to bacteria. Here is how to prepare and transform an inexpensive set of wooden spoons for magical cooking.

Your wooden spoons need to be cleaned in mild soapy water before you prepare them for use. Rinse and let dry.

Sand the surface, taking special care to smooth any rough edges.

At this point, you can carve or wood burn meaningful designs onto your spoons. Trace your design lightly with a pencil. An art-gum eraser works quite well on wood. Then carve it with an exacto knife or wood-burn with a pyrography tool. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. Mine are very far from it! It’s the meaning, feeling, and thought behind it that counts. You can dedicate different spoons to certain deities, spirits, or powers, using symbolism and intent. Their power will be invoked when you use them. Mine are a sun for Sunna, a moon for Mani, a heart with an amber teardrop for Freya, and a goose with a basket and broom for Mother Hulda. That one is my favorite, and I have burned on my name in runes and the bottom of the handle.

Sanitize spoons in five parts warm water and one part vinegar. Let them soak about 5 minutes. Let dry completely.

Now it is time to cure them. Dip a clean rag in melted coconut oil and rub down the spoons generously with it. This keeps them from drying out and cracking. Let spoons set overnight in a warm place to soak up the oil, or use the residual heat of the oven after baking something; place spoons on a baking sheet and leave in the warm oven for a while.

You’ll want to re-oil your spoons once a week when you oil your cutting boards.

Meatless Meals, Southern Style

For the last decade or so, “Meatless Mondays” have been gaining in popularity. I’m more likely to go meatless on Wednesday, when the leftovers from earlier in the week are dwindling.
I have actually converted ground beef recipes into very good meatless meals… Recipes that call for both meat and beans can be made with just the beans. Some (but not all) recipes featuring ground beef are good with cooked lentils substituted for the beef. I have made Picadillo with lentils instead of beef with good results. Also, I converted a recipe I had for Curried Beef to Curried Lentils. (I use about 2 cups of cooked lentils in place of 1 pound of ground beef.) Recipes that call for beef broth or chicken broth can be made with vegetable broth instead. Most Mexican style dishes are good with beans in place of the meat. (I have made Mexican Chef Salad without the meat a few times- its just as good with the dark red Kidney beans as the only protein.)

Meatless Meals from Side-Dishes
Old Southern restaurants once had a feature on their menus called “Veggie Delight”; you were to create your own meal combination by choosing three side dishes to have together. The ideal (most nutritious) formula for this would be to include a protein, a starch, and something green or colorful. Cheese and eggs are good sources of protein. Beans, nuts, and legumes are also good sources of protein but should be paired with a grain or dairy food for maximum benefit. Below are some suggestions for meatless meals that consist of mostly side-dishes.

Baked Potatoes with Broccoli & Cheese
Simple Seasoned Beans, any kind of bread, green salad
Pasta Shells in Tomato sauce – with dark red kidney beans added in
Spinach Potatoes (fried potatoes with spinach and Swiss cheese)
Cornbread Salad
Cranberry-Wild Rice Bake (with pecans added in), Spinach Salad
Scalloped Potatoes, Green Beans with Browned Butter & Pecans
Bean cakes & Green Rice
Cheddar-Macaroni Salad, Corn on the Cob
Mushroom Rice (with white beans or almonds added in), Parmesan Zucchini Sticks
Oven Fries topped with Mushroom Gravy, coleslaw
Macaroni & Cheese, Fried Okra

UU Chalice Cookies

This fall I started going back to my old Unitarian Universalist fellowship; the community I first joined in 1995. I went to their Samhain service and have gone back every week since. I felt nostalgic and happy seeing old friends and singing familiar favorite UU hymns. I guess you could say I’ve been having a UU renaissance. Although my personal religion is very culture-specific (Heathenry combined with ADF Druidism), I love the idea of having a more universal outer religion to link with a larger community. It helps that the UUFF is now more awesome than ever! They don’t have a minister right now, but are lay led by a small group of dynamic, creative members. I helped with a Winter Solstice ritual there that turned out to be one of the best I’ve experienced on those grounds. They’re adopted a year-end Burning Bowl ceremony that was a favorite of mine from a different denomination, made dramatic by the special effect of flash paper! I look forward to many more happy/magical/comforting/fulfilling times within those walls and upon those grounds.

This past Sunday, I brought chalice cookies for coffee hour. This is how I made them:
For the cookie cutters, I used a large biscuit cutter, a small flame cookie cutter (from a craft store), and I couldn’t find a chalice cookie cutter, so I made one using instructions like the ones on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.
I made two batches of butter cookies; one of them plain, and to the other one, I substituted 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder for the same amount of flour. So I rolled out each of the doughs between wax paper, cut out biscuit shapes, then out of these, chalice shapes, and interchanged the dark and light chalice shapes directly on the buttered cookie sheets and lightly pressed seams closed. I cut out the flames and filled the cavities with crushed cherry flavored jolly ranchers candies. Then I baked them at 375°F for 8 minutes and left them on the pan to cool. They weren’t very hard to make, just a little time consuming!

time to make the sugarplums!

 “… the children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads…” When I was a kid, I used to wonder what that meant. What are sugarplums? I imagined they must be great if the kids in “Twas the Night Before Christmas” went to bed dreaming of them instead of dreaming of presents. At some point I decided the poem must have been referring to plums the fruit, and that any kind of fruit in the winter was a treat in those days. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I finally found out that what was meant (in those days) as plum, was not the fruit, but any kind of dried fruit confection. Sugar plums were usually made from a combination of dried fruits such as prunes, figs, apricots, dates, and cherries. They were chopped fine and mixed with chopped almonds, honey and spices, rolled into balls, then often coated in sugar or coconut.
So last year, I tried making some to use as stocking stuffers. They were a big hit! So now they have found their way into my calendar of food traditions. I make them well in advance, so that their flavors can meld a good long time. I mark the container “do not open till Yule” and put it way in the back of the fridge. When it’s time to fill the stockings, I divide them up into several sandwich bags and tie closed with a ribbon. I’m glad I picked up this tradition because my kids will know what the famous poem meant,and it is a link to traditions of the past. Who knows, maybe my kids, and theirs after them, will have “visions of sugarplums” as the holidays approach.

*Edit: You can veganize these and other recipes you find on my blog (and please do), with these substitutions:
•choose from this list of vegan sugars in place of sugar
•use maple syrup in place of honey
•use Earth Balance vegan butter or coconut oil in place of butter
•use coconut milk/cream in place of sweetened condensed milk
•any vegan milk can be used in place of dairy milk
•to make vegan buttermilk, add a tablespoon of vinegar to soy milk and leave at room temperature a few minutes
•see this list of 5 Vegan Substitutes for Eggs in Baking
•use vegan chocolate

Sugar Plums

2 c. whole almonds
1⁄4 c. honey
2 tsp. grated orange zest
1 1⁄2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1⁄2 tsp. ground allspice
1⁄2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 c. finely chopped dried apricots (or other dried fruit)
1 c. finely chopped pitted dates
1 c. powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Arrange almonds on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast in oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool, then finely chop.
2. Meanwhile, combine honey, orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl. Add almonds, apricots, and dates and mix well.
3. Pinch off rounded teaspoon-size pieces of the mixture and roll into balls. (Rinse your hands often, as mixture is very sticky.) Roll balls in sugar, then refrigerate in single layers between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers for up to 1 month. Their flavor improves after ingredients have melded a while.

kitchen witchery basics

In this new age of Pinterest picture tagging, it has occurred to me that maybe a picture doesn’t paint a thousand words. In fact, I think someone new to the world of kitchen witchcraft or folk magic may get the impression that its all about just cooking something witchy or old-fashioned, or about having a witchy looking kitchen and cool symbols etched into your wooden spoons. Well, there is a little bit more to it than that; at its heart, what is needed is…

good food + good energy

Well, that’s the main idea, anyway. There are also a number of other things to consider; knowing the nutritional/medicinal/magical value of food and food combinations, directing one’s energy from a heightened state of consciousness (and how to get to said state of consciousness)… also, kitchen witchery isn’t just about food and cooking; its really about hearth and home and all the things one makes in the kitchen, like homemade natural housecleaning products, bath products, health & beauty aids, and even crafts.

chant the veil back, sing the magic in

One of my favorite ways of opening the door to the flow of magic is through chanting. It puts me into a heightened state of consciousness, puts me into a magical rhythm, and also flavors the type of magic I am doing. (There are a number of great chants to use while cooking on the Pagan Chants of the Month Page.)

stirring, mixing, kneading, shaping

So after the tasks of getting out all the bowls and utensils and measuring out ingredients is done, I start my chanting/singing, I get in my “zone”. I’m mixing, stirring, shaping; the ambient and spiritual energy in my (purified & blessed) household (see my article on stovetop shrines), as well as my personal energy or Od, flows into the substance I’m mixing, through my hands, through my spoon, which functions as a wand. (Actually, I think a wooden spoon can be a lot more powerful than a wand.)

I stir deiseil (sunwise, clockwise) for increase and prosperity, while tuathal (counter-clockwise,  widdershins) would be for decrease of banishing. So too, would the phase of the moon enhance this effect; the waxing (increasing) moon for the former, and the waning (decreasing) moon for the latter.

The shapes formed are of significance as well; circles of eternity, triangles symbolizing goddess energy, with a sharp knife and a good collection of cookie cutters, the possibilities are endless. A kitchen spell can be as simple as cutting a symbol (or sigil) into one’s food (an apple or a biscuit, for instance), with intent, then slowly and mindfully eating that food.

nutrition, medicine, magic

Most of us have a repertoire of home health cures and herbal remedies handed down to us through family- this is kitchen magic carrying on through the generations! Most of these are valid and nourishing, but some should be re-examined and discontinued if necessary (like putting butter on a burn- don’t do that).

And for the magic associations, there is usually a bit of science in the magic connotations a culture puts on certain foods; an apple a day really does keep the doctor away. And most of us do know the magical associations our own culture has with certain foods, but doing a little research and making a chart of magical food associations to go in your cookbook can be helpful, as well as notes on the use of home remedies and common herbs for minor ailments.

The Family Cookbook

I never really realized I love cooking so much until I started scrap-booking my recipes. It all started when I got the idea a few years ago to make copies of all my favorite recipes and compile them into a homemade cookbook to give to my oldest daughter as a birthday present. In order to do that, I made copies from my favorite cookbooks (sometimes re-writing a lot for the changes I made to them through the years), and I also wrote out a lot from memory, and even found some recipes that my own late mother had hand written for me.

I arranged these recipes on regular sheets of computer paper, along with illustrations from old books and magazines, and also my own little doodles and embellishments. And of course I didn’t stop at recipes for food, I also included herb charts, home remedies, helpful hints, formulas for making one’s own natural cleaning products, and menu suggestions for holidays… Then I took them all to a copy machine, made a copy of each to go into my daughter’s cookbook, and saved the originals for my original master copy. For both sets, I used a large three ring notebook and a whole lot of page protectors- that way the pages can be taken out, rearranged and updated, and there’s always room to add more.

So I’ve added to and altered my copy occasionally over the past few years, looking forward to the days when I will be giving copies to each of my other children when they grown. I have a feeling all four copies will be different, because who knows when I’m going to finish altering it?! Actually I have been working a great deal on it lately and I think I may be reaching a tentative finishing point soon- the point where I think very little changes will be made from there on (at least by me)… This project is one that I am very proud of. Sometimes I just like to open up the book when I’m not even going to cook anything- just to look at the pages.

Then the other day I had a funny thought; handing down this recipe book, for me, is akin to handing down a family “book of rituals”. So many of the recipes are tied in with pagan/heathen holidays and traditions! A lot of our favorites were a result of my interest in trying dishes from Irish and German culture to honor our ancestors, not to mention a rich thick mix of Ozark recipes that honors our more recent ancestors. So many of the meals I prepare seems to be symbolic in some way; in honor of this or that holiday, or a particular deity or ancestor. And yes, I have made note of that significance, where practical, in the book itself.

I hope this family cookbook continues to be passed down through the generations, and I hope that those meanings never get lost. For I’m sure each generation will have something to add of their own.