Peanut Butter Cookies: A Bit of Kitchen Witchery

My mother would have a heart attack if she even suspected that I added magick to her peanut butter cookie recipe, but I did! I hate to admit it, but I do find a bit of satisfaction in knowing that. For all the mama traits the woman doesn't have, she gets an A+ in cookie making.  These are the ultimate in rich, creamy, melt in your mouth goodness and they are only composed of three yes, you read right only three ingredients. 

One of my favorite witches likes to say, "Live Your Magick!"  Since I am a full time mama, my magick is in mothering.  Yesterday just seemed like a good day to add a bit of extra memory making to equation, so Miss Busy and I mixed up a batch of these cookies.  Every time we make them, I tell her the three ingredients so that she will have this special recipe memorized by the time she is ready to try the magick on her own.  Since these cookies are one of my fond childhood memories, I include a bit on my own mothers magic as well: flattening them with a potato masher to get the little knobs on the top. 

Absolutely Wonderful, Amazing, Yummy, Melt in Your Mouth Peanut Butter Cookies

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

Heat the oven to 350.

Cream together your three ingredients.

Shape into balls and roll in a bit of extra sugar to coat. This is the step where you add your magick.  While I am shaping the ball I concentrate on the good, warm memories I want my children to have of their childhoods.  I then channel that energy and a good dose of love through my hands and right into the cookie.  To enhance the intent of the magick, we sit together and chat while we enjoy them. 

Set on cookie sheet and flatten with a potato masher. This creates round cookies.  Here we talk about the cookies being the same shape as the moon.  Miss Busy isn't old enough to have very in depth conversations with, but she is already learning about the tides and moon phases. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for them to cool.  Since they are really more like confections than traditional cookies, they cool very slowly and will scald your mouth if you are impatient enough to bite into one early.  Yeah, ask me how I know.  These are absolutely amazing with a glass of milk and I've been know to justify them as breakfast food.

Southern Style Biscuits: A Bit of Kitchen Witchery

 

 

 

Although I do not consider myself a Kitchen Witch, I do practice a bit of Kitchen Witchery from time to time.  To tell the truth, I believe that any one who has ever whipped up special comfort food for a loved one has knowingly or unknowingly practiced this form of the craft.  Yesterday morning, getting ready for work, Superman was dragging his feet like a school boy with a history test he hadn't studied for.  The previous day had been particularly stressful and he was dreading a repeat.  There wasn't much I could do to ease his frustration, so I did what I could. I gave him something to look forward to-the promise of a batch of fresh, homemade biscuits when he came home for lunch.  Now Superman is all Southern and nothing says love to a Southern man like biscuits and sweet tea.  Since we are never without sweet tea, I was already halfway there. 

 

About an hour before he was due to arrive home, I smudged the house and started mixing up his favorite biscuits.  I started my milk to clabbering and mixed all my dry ingredients.  This is where the magic comes in.  Then instead of cutting the butter in, I used my clean hands to sift and squeeze, incorporating the two together.  While I mixed those ingredients, I silently focused my energy and love through my hands while envisioning a comfortable, content husband.   I saw him sitting at the counter, happily eating his buttered biscuits while all the stress of his morning flowed away.  After adding the clabbered milk my go-to substitution of buttermilk I lightly kneaded the dough, once again focusing on my husband and the relaxed state I wanted to evoke.  Finally, I shaped the biscuits and put them in the fridge to wait and be slid into the hot oven as my Superman walked through the door.   

 

The magic was a complete success.  Not only did my husband feel loved and happy eating his biscuits, that feeling of relaxation carried him into the afternoon.  He didn't have a wonderful day at work, but he managed to get through it with minimal frustration.  He was even able to shake off an incident that would usually have caused a confrontation. 

 

Even though I do say so myself, I have never found a biscuit recipe better than mine.  It is many batches worth of experimentation using various recipes as sources until I found just the right combination and technique.  The ingredients are pretty basic, but there are a few guidelines that come with this recipe. 

 

For the absolute best biscuits, use real butter and use it cold.  Also, make sure the shaped biscuits are cold when you put them in the oven.  I like to pan my biscuits ahead of time and put the pan into the fridge.  Then, just before we are ready to eat, I put my cold biscuits into a hot oven.  This technique is the big secret to tender, fluffy biscuits. 

 

Southern Style Biscuits

 

3/4 cup milk

1 TBL lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

 

2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup cold butter, cubed

 

Combine milk and lemon juice/vinegar in a cup or bowl and set aside to clabber.  If you've never done this, don't be surprised at the outcome.  The milk will sour and curd up.  That is exactly the result we are looking for. 

 

Mix dry ingredients and cut in cold butter cubes.  Stir in clabbered milk and knead lightly.  At this point, I sometimes add yummy extras to create fancy "steak house biscuits."  Fresh rosemary and parmesan or fresh cracked pepper and cheddar are two of my favorites.  Shape biscuits either in the traditional way by rolling and cutting or by hand like I do.  By hand keeps the working of the dough to a minimum and results in more tender biscuits.  In my home, biscuits are big and always eaten fresh from the oven: this recipe creates six, but doubles or even triples easily. 

 

Pan biscuits and allow to chill while oven heats to 475.  Bake for 12 minutes and serve hot with butter gravy, jelly, honey, plain, how ever you want. 

 

 

 

Where the Witch Lives

Abandoned Home: Moore County, NC

Some times I just have to laugh at the people who insist that a witch is no different than anybody else.  I have read that a witch looks and dresses just like "normal" people and her home is no different than that of the Agnostic or Anglican next door.   Honestly, I just cannot believe that.  

To start with.  Can we define "normal"?  I am not sure how a "normal" person dresses or what an "average" home looks like.  Even when I go out in our relatively small town, I cannot find one style or kind of person to narrow down what is normal.  Everyone of us is slightly different and that difference is expressed in how we present ourselves to the world and the kind of environment we create in our home.  Which leads me to my second point...Since our personal style and homes are expressions of self, it only stands to reason that a witch would have a few quirks about herself and her home that others  might miss. 

I do have to admit that walking into my apartment, there is no shock value.  It looks fairly close to what one would expect when entering a modern home.  Unfortunately, it is not nearly as charming as these lonely old homes I love to photograph.   There are two computers, a great kitchen, and brightly colored baby toys scattered about randomly.  The first "oddity" one might notice would probably be the lack of a television...or maybe the random decorative "skulls" about the room.  Superman and I are both long time collectors of skull emblems and nic-nacs.  Initially, they were just something we liked and maybe a bit of rebellion, but now that we know more about how more primitive cultures view the symbolism of the skull we find them to be fun and encouraging accents to our home.  Around the corner in the kitchen, a few more surprises await.  The shelves above the sink are dotted with 32oz tincture bottles waiting to be filled and on the other end of the room sits my shrine to the Elementals.  Next to the shrine (hidden from first glance by the refrigerator), is probably the biggest shocker in the whole place: a life sized plastic skeleton named Chubbs.  I wanted to buy him for Halloween, but wasn't about to shell out $50.  Superman found him on clearance for $9 around Thanksgiving and brought him home for me.  I couldn't stand the thought of putting him in storage, so he has his own seat year a round.  After that, things look pretty much as expected unless one goes perusing our bookcases or poking around in our magical cabinet.  Our home is a bit quirky, sometimes messy and always busy, but fairly mundane. 

Far more than it's visual appearance, smell seems to be the element that sets this witches home apart from others.  Coming down the stairs into the apartment, the aroma of herbs and incense seem to waft up in greeting.  Besides those that I burn on the shrine, there are always aromatic candles or incense sticks in various parts of the living space accompanied by the scents of whatever herbs I am currently working with.  Underneath all that is the smell of wholesome, made-from-scratch cooking and good, old fresh air from the open windows.  Then, if I have been cleaning, the aroma of vinegar adds a few twangy notes.  Superman often walks in at the end of the day and declares, "This smells like a witche's house!"  It sounds like a lot going on, but it all blends into a warm homey smell that invites you to sit down and chat over a cup of coffee.  To me, that says a lot. 

The final touch that sets my home apart from others is music.  Superman and I both love music and for a good part of everyday there is some kind of lively Pagan music coming through our speakers.  Omina and S.J. Tucker are two of my favorites.  Going about my daily tasks to a good play list, makes the work a lot lighter.  If I am doing divinations or magical art, I create a proper ambiance with more meditative music or nature sounds.  YouTube plays like the radio in this home. 

No, my witchy home is not dramatic like the ones seen on television, but it certainly carries a unique vibe.  It truly speaks of who we are and close attention is paid to keeping a positive energy to the space.  As our refuge and sanctuary, this little apartment does a big job and we are truly grateful to have this place to just be ourselves. 


 

 



That Magic Moment

Elemental Shrine

All of us, witches and non-witches alike, long for a bit of magic in our life.  That subtle difference that makes everyday life a little less mundane.  Some women find this in the flavored coffee creamer they keep hidden way in the back of the fridge or in a favorite lipstick they feel particularly pretty in.  I find it in a quiet morning routine that ends with a few moments of greeting and honor at my elemental shrine.  The moments spent in front of the shrine help center me for the day and the flickering candles that continue to glow once I've walked away and the aroma of incense that follows me give additional meaning to the everyday chores of a SAHM.  I am not just scrubbing a floor or loading a dishwasher.  I am creating a magical space that not only shelters my family, but protects and nurtures them as well.

From many years as a SAHM, I know that having a routine is essential.  It gives meaning and structure and keeps hyperactive spirits (such as myself) from running off on endless tangents and getting nothing constructive done.  So once Superman is off to work and Miss Busy is bathed and down for her nap, I officially begin my day. 

At this point it takes a lot of discipline not to hop all over the ever calling internet, but the strength required to resist is worth the gain of a day that is well balanced and productive.  My first order of business is yoga (pregnancy yoga right now) to ground me both emotionally and spiritually.  Then I visit my shrine to greet the elementals and welcome them to my day with the lighting of the candles.  I spend a few moments honoring their power and acknowledging that they and I are one.   I finish up with the Blessing of the Green Witch as taught by Ann Moura in her Green Witchcraft manuals and then read my Oracle cards for daily direction.  I have created a bit of a daily liturgy for myself, but it is fluid and changes slightly from day to day.  With all this done, I am ready to go about my day by pouring a cup of coffee and enjoying a quiet breakfast or using the consecrated atmosphere to finish small magical tasks (cleansing the energy of my recent thrift store finds or lighting candles and sending blessings to those in need).  I have started my day off on a good note and feel ready to tackle anything, even a tantrum at the grocery store.