Cait Johnson - Witch in the Kitchen: Magical Cooking for All Seasons

Acknowledgments

I offer my devotion to the personal pantheon of Great Ones who oversaw the original cookbook project, were involved with this new, winged version, and who generally guide and shape my life: Artemis of Ephesus, Brigid, Cailleach, the Dagda, Demeter, Durga, Hecate, Kali, Lilith, Persephone, Sheela, and especially the Shaman of Wands, Son of Wands, and Queen of Discs.

Great gratitude to my spirit-sister, author Elizabeth Cunningham. Her powerful words have infused Witch in the Kitchen with her own special brand of wisdom and humor, and her presence in my life fills me with abundance.

My deep thanks to Maura D. Shaw, who is sometimes my coauthor and always a fine writer and soul-friend. Her vision was instrumental in birthing the first incarnation of this book.

This project was inspired, supported, and sometimes transformed by my generous friends: hugs and thanks to Santha Cooke, Nadine Daugherty, Elaine Fletcher, Karen Holtslag, Kerri Karvetski, Ashling Kelly, Farah Shaw Kelsey, Jessica Kemper, Laurel Kerr, Richard Kramer, Pangea Jaeger, Donnalynne Lefever, Nina Lewis, Rhianna Mirabello, Anne Nightingale, Nancy Rowe, Regina Seigel, Sandy Sklar, and Raven Wild. I feel so very fortunate to be surrounded by their loving enthusiasm.

Many thanks to my son, Reid, for his willingness to try new things and for his sometimes devastating honesty after he has! His directness, humor, and love of sushi continue to amaze me. My parents are a fine source of encouragement: It helps to be believed in. And my most heartfelt gratitude to my sweetheart, Joe Bartusis, who heals me with his tenderness and fills our kitchen with laughter and our bellies with wonderful food.

Blessings on my marvelous editor, Elaine Sanborn. She delighted me throughout the prepublication process with recipes, gardening bulletins, and a shared love of animals and theater performance. All this, keen judgment, and sensitivity, toowhat bliss! Also my thanks to Susan Millen, artist and dear friend, who created the absolutely delicious cover. And honor to Johanne Renbeck, for the spirit and depth of her monoprint collages that add such magic to the four seasons of this book.

Contents

Preface

M any years ago, my mother sent me a knickknack called a kitchen witcha calico-skirted figure glued to a twig broomstick, with a benign if stereotypical nose-meets-chin sort of facewith the suggestion that I hang it over my kitchen cabinets. The manufacturers tag assured me that this kitchen witch was a traditional source of good luck. I found it both amusing and touching to think of ordinary women all over the country hanging these little magical icons over their stoves and cupboards without knowing that there were real kitchen witches who really did make magic. Just a few years before my mother sent me that little good-luck figure, I had learned not only that real witches existed, but also that the term kitchen witch refers to pagans who practice informally, with the tools at hand and a deep appreciation for the sacred in the everyday. With a sense of having finally come home, I embraced this group as my own.

Now I have come to realize that there are many ways of being a kitchen witch. Your grandmothers and great-grandmothers probably knew a few of them, since many of our foremothers were Wise Ones who celebrated the magic in food, in cooking, and in kitchens, those home-hearts where family and friends are nurtured. Today we may not be used to thinking of our kitchens as magical places, but they are. Cooking was once considered a sacred act. After all, the cauldron and the stewpot are clearly related, and making a meal from a recipe is akin to casting a spell. Ingredients are gathered with intention, specific actions are performed in a certain order with a desired outcome in mind, and thenvoil!the magic is served up. And there is a very potent magic available to us as we cook. We can do so with the conscious and loving intention that our food will connect us joyfully to the great Earth and her seasons, deeply nourishing us all.

This book is a revised and updated version of Cooking Like a Goddess, which was written several years ago when the word witch was still a bit incendiary for the general reading audience. Now, joyously out of the broom closet and with the addition of new spells and magical poetry, Witch in the Kitchen has emerged with wings to match the Wiccan roots that were always there.

Witches have a special relationship with food; we understand its importance in the sacred scheme of things. I have always deeply appreciated the fact that SageWoman magazine, that ally and guide for so many witches, includes recipes right along with its articles, poems, and rituals. The Beltane Papers, too, gives food its magical due. Food is the Goddess, and enjoying her is part of the whole ritual experience. My sisters in Full Moon groups always brought platters and bowls heaped with homemade goodies to be shared in the circle. One particularly memorable autumn moon included the eating of a special pie with our hands onlyno utensils! A sticky and delicious time was had by all, and I came to realize that this sense of holy fun, of sacred sensuality, is at the root of all my work.

Like so many of you, I have always been a witch. From earliest childhood, I made seasonal altars, danced with green spirits under the trees, and devoted my life to awareness of the magic in all things. But twenty-seven years had passed before I met my first Wiccan priestess and learned that there was an actual Goddess Path. At first performing by-the-book rituals, making up complicated spells, and delving into tarot and the use of other divination tools made up the backbone of my spiritual practice. Spells, especially, gave me a feeling of empowerment: I could direct my will to change thingsno more suffering in silence! Now, twenty-or-so years later my way of dancing with Wicca has slowly transformed. I facilitate simple Wheel of the Year celebrations that focus less on formal ceremony and more on joyful community. When I engage in spirit-centered activities the intent is more often to open myself, to embrace and accept the potential for growth in what is, rather than to change things to suit my desires. My relationship with tarot has deepened into a counseling practice that helps people live more authentically, encouraging them to truly embody the needs of their souls. And the magic of the Goddess continues to guide and inspire me.

Witch in the Kitchen is my personal testimonial to the transformative power of cooking and eating with spirit awareness. In the past two years my life has changed utterly. As of this writing, I am living with a loving, gentle man who cooksand cooks better than I do! My heart is filled with a kind of stunned gratitude. So I offer this book with love to everyone who longs to live in celebration of the divine Mystery, in deep and delicious relationship with magic. May we all become the people our souls long to be, for the good of all. So mote it be.

Introduction

All living things eat and are eaten. Its cooking that makes us human.
Elizabeth Cunningham

T his book is for all of us who would like cooking and eating to be more magical and deeply soul satisfying. If you have ever felt hungry after youve just eaten, if you long to recover the ancient sense that your hearth is sacred, if you want to feel more connected to the Earth and to your own inner Wild One, or if you simply need some inspiration in the kitchen, then