Witch in the Kitchen: Magical Cooking for All Seasons

A book of recipes, spells, and rituals for celebrating our connection to the Earth and her seasons.

• Redesigned to focus on all eight pagan holidays.

• Includes new spells, rituals, and meditations, as well as 80 vegetarian recipes.

• Written by practicing witch Cait Johnson, coauthor of Celebrating the Great Mother (12,000 copies sold).

The beliefs of Wicca are rooted firmly in the earth--in the gradual circling of her seasons and the bounty and blessings she provides. In Witch in the Kitchen: Magical Cooking for All Seasons, practicing witch Cait Johnson celebrates the sacred in each season with more than 80 soul-satisfying and appetizing recipes. In engaging and inviting prose, the author provides rituals, spells, and meditations for the eight pagan holidays, inspirations for creating a kitchen altar, and ways to prepare for each season. She offers ideas for decorating your kitchen with objects of power and magic--eggs symbolizing fertility in spring, dried orange slices as reminders of the sun in mid-winter--to align our bodies, spirits, and senses to the pace and mood of the Earth's changes. Above all are the recipes for delicious, sensuous salads, soups, main dishes, and desserts made from ingredients in tune with the Earth's seasonal gifts. Serve Stuffed Acorn Squash and Fig-Apple Crumble at a Samhain gathering; celebrate Winter Solstice with Pomander Salad and Savory Yuletide Pie; welcome Imbolc with Sprouted Spring Salad and Magic Isle Pasties; or share the harvest at Lughnasad with Spicy Stir-Fried Greens and Sunny Peach Pie. With its recipes, rituals, and reminders of our ancient connections to the seasons, Witch in the Kitchen invites you to honor yourself and the Earth and delight in the magic that comes from sharing good food with good company.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Part1: Kitchen Magic
Making Your Kitchen a Sacred Space
Putting Down Roots
The Kitchen Altar
Making a Kitchen Witch Apron
Kitchen Rituals
Kitchen of the Goddess

Part 2: Autumn
Setting the Stage for Autumn
The Autumn Kitchen
Early-Autumn Recipes
Mabon Magic
Mid-Autumn Recipes
Samhain Magic
Late-Autumn Recipes

Part 3: Winter
Setting the Stage for Winter
The Winter Kitchen
Early-Winter Recipes
Yule Magic
Midwinter Recipes
Late-Winter Recipes

Part 4: Spring
Setting the Stage for Spring
The Spring Kitchen
Imbolc Magic
Early-Spring Recipes
Ostara Magic
Mid-Spring Recipes
Ostara Magic
Mid-Spring Recipes
Beltane Magic
Late-Spring Recipes

Part 5: Summer
Setting the Stage for Summer
The Summer Kitchen
Early-Summer Recipes
Litha Magic
Midsummer Recipes
Lughnasad Magic
Late-Summer Recipes
Witchy Tips for Acting Out in the Kitchen
Supplies

Suggested Reading

Index

About the Author :
Cait Johnson, an artist and writer who leads workshops on tarot, dreaming, and ritual-making, is coauthor of Celebrating the Great Mother. She lives with her family in New York's Hudson Valley.

Review :
"With a rich and nourishing mix of recipes, rituals, meditations, poetry, and down-home passion for the earth, Cait Johnson welcomes us into the Great Archetypal Kitchen and invites us to make it our own. Here we cook and dream, make love and feast. Here, at last, we are encouraged to play--and pray--with our food." "Our culture may well have lost the spiritual connection with food and cooking.Cooking Like a Goddess reconnects us with the 'Goddess Way' of our ancestors - a way of life in which food is a gift from the body of our sacred Mother Earth. Food again becomes something holy." "The subtlety of this book is exactly what it's all about. After reading it, no one will ever look at food preparation the same way again.The writing itself is poetic, magical and personally inspiring. The rituals and meditations suggested will give you a grateful appreciation and conscious awareness of kitchen magic." "Cooking Like a Goddess is a vegetarian cookbook, and much, much more. This is a text for sacred living. . . . Overflowing with treasures. Highly recommended." "More than just a cookbook, Johnson has created a primer on how to work with food and kitchen energy in a holistic spiritually satisfying way. She starts with a 35-page ode to the magic of the kitchen altars, cleaning, even how to make a kitchen goddess apron. And then she gets right down to it-the recipes. Organized by season, her year (like the Witches' Year) starts in Autumn. Each season contains meditations, ideas for ritual, decorations, as well as the luscious recipes. First-rate, through and through, with the gentle touch of a truly gifted priestess-and a talented cook. Recommended." "A magical tome that explores cooking as a nourishing spiritual practice." "In her latest book, author Cait Johnson shows us how to reclaim our kitchens and reconnect with our ancestors. . . . I highly recommend it." “. . . these are vegetarian and vegan recipes, and thus may seem to be restricted in their appeal - Wrong! Even for those of us who are omnivorous, the appearance of a new side dish can enhance our dining experience. Then, there are the recipes for the beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) which also appear within the covers of the book. There absolutely is something for everyone here.”