[hathor6]

I can't think of nor find any on the internet. After watching Like Water For Chocolate, I was wondering if there are spells or prayers one can do to bless the food or your cooking for people to really eat it passionately at the table. I think it would be cute to have a little before preparing the meals in order to remember how good cooking is important in bringing people together and keeping friends and family close.

Providing tasty morsels to the one you love is LOVE. How about it...let's create some Kitchen spells (or prayers).

[lizziness]

What a great idea, especially right before thanksgiving for those of us - like me - that are making the meal...
I'm not much one for casting a spell or anything. But I like the idea of meditating on it, putting your love into the food and thinking about the feeling you want everyone to have while consuming the goods. I usually like to light some candles after giving some thought and feeling into them by thinking and meditating while holding them, then burning them while I'm cooking, or better yet - during the meal.
One thing I'm doing to make this holiday feel better for my little family is to put up some photos of those of the family that have passed or can't be with us, that way they are sort of there for the meal with us. I'm hoping that will add to the feeling of love in the house too...
looking forward to hearing any real ideas...

[mauvaisroux]

I like this one ...

To promote prosperity from the kitchen, keep a good countenance whenever you cook food and transfer good wishes to the food. Your stove is the sacred hearth. Your wooden spoon is a magical wand. Be careful never to cook in anger. Always stir the pot with a clockwise motion,and wish health, wealth, and joy upon all who will eat the food.

You may say this from time to time as you cook:

“The gods do bless you, when you give with love.
This is the greatest spell, which encompasses all”

Whenever I'm stirring soups or sauces, I find myself automatically stirring symbols into the soup: crescents, pentacles, eye of Horus.
Anyone else know any cauldron magic?

A great book: "Cooking Like a Goddess"--check it out!

[Yogini]

I Reiki Bless everything I make before serving/eating and say that I intend for the food to provide the best nutrition and enjoyment and that the nutrients serve those eating it, working for thier highest good at all times (not a spell exactly but the same intent).

[BerkshireGrl]

A great book that includes a chapter on kitchens (or as it says, "Stove and Spoon", is The Magical Household by Scott Cunningham & David Harrington. It was published in 2000 by Llewellyn Publications, ISBN 0-87542-124-5, and costs $9.95. (It is also on Amazon new and used, and if you get lucky, a library may have a copy too.)

A good friend of mine is no longer interested in Wicca, and I noticed she had this book on her to-give-away pile when I visited, and I asked immediately if I could have it

I read Scott Cunningham a long time ago, must've been over a decade ago, when I was first looking into paganism... and I really like his writing style. He's got other books (50+!) and a few deal more directly with food and cooking, and the powers of certain ingredients, herbs...

In regards to this book, the descriptions are just so... homey! And the pen-and-ink drawings are great.

Here is a sampling:

"Cooking is a magical process of transformation that utilizes the four elements: Earth (the food itself, which sprang from our planet), Fire (the source of heat-flame, solar, electric), Water (the liquid used to prepare or cook the food), and Air (the steam that rises from the heated substance). Through the use of the elements, the cook prepares magically nourishing meals...

When kitchens came into being, they were rarely idle. Soup-bubbling cauldrons hung over oak-scented fires in huge open-hearth fireplaces. Baskets overflowed with fruits, vegetables and scrubbed roots. Jars of herbs, flours, nuts, oils, honey and vinegar lined the shelves, awaiting future needs, and the air was heavy with the delicious scents of meals to come."

Makes me want to cook all day!

Looking through this chapter, there are many little tips and spells to use... and magical history of common tools which I never knew!

Like... "Some kitchen spells are designed to prevent hunger in the home. One involves filling a small jar with alfalfa and depositing it in the food cupboard. As long as it remains there, the family will never know hunger."

Now that I've pulled this off my shelf, I'm going to spend some more time with it!

[mauvaisroux]

Sarah - that sounds like a great book I will have a look for it next week.

[djadecatz]

Sarah - I had no idea he had written that many books! Thanks for your info - I am going to look for it too!

[StargazerJMK]

Anyone have Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen? Its pretty good as well.

[Wulfcwen]

You may like to try this it works for all recipes.

Assemble all your ingredients whether it is for baking, preparing the vegetables what ever it is your going to cook.

Hold your power hand over the ingredients and move deosil ( clockwise) over the ingedients saying:
'May the Goddess and the God bless this food
That it may nourish us and do us good
May the elements of the Air, Watrer, Fire and Earth
Imbude this food with joy and mirth
May the powers of East, West, South and North of me
Bless this food for my family'

Tap the counter three times and say:
'The Love is sealed'

You are welcome to use this if you want to.
Love and Light Wulfcwen

[mauvaisroux]

SAMHAIN SERVING BLESSING

Hold your hands over the cooked food, and say:


THE GOLDEN RAYS OF SUN KISSED THE GRAIN
SWEET DROPS OF RAIN CARESSED THE FRUIT.
STREAMS OF MOONLIGHT DANCED IN THE FIELDS
SENDING ENERGY INTO THE ROOT.
BLESSINGS OF THE MOTHER
STRENGTH OF THE FATHER
UNITY OF LOVE.
SO MOTE IT BE.


Make the sign of the equal-armed cross over the dish. Tap the dish once and then serve.

[cathrynb]

I'm working at home at the computer today, and I am keeping it open so that I can absorb everything in it.

Getting back into cooking is part of some general changes I want to make, not only weight loss but getting back into cooking, paying more attention generally to the home environment. I love to get into cooking on a weekend day and make several produce-heavy dishes at once. One mess, and perhaps a bit of energy savings as I cook a couple of casserole-type items together. But the real reason is that I just love it. It puts me back in touch with how fortunate I really am, all this bounty in a world where so many have nothing, and a lot of my preoccupations take a back seat to this. I really like how that feels, and I want more of it. Plus it is a pleasure to share a well-cooked meal with my husband.

I really dwell on the gratitude and also on being as present as possible when chopping vegetables, etc., doing nothing automatically. I have an organic garden and grow most of our herbs and a lot of our vegetables. I frequently marvel at the alchemy of earth, sun, water coming together to make our food. This is usually what I keep in mind when cooking, but now I have other ideas.

[mauvaisroux]

I find that handling fresh ingredients and herbs and taking the time to note their colour, texture and scent is making me appreciate food more. I also find that cooking with intention has spilled over into other areas of my household too.

I don't find housework and yardwork as tedious as I do it with purpose and intention and think of it as blessing my home.

It's weird how the smallest things can become more interesting and satisfying once you change your way of looking at them.

[Mummy_Tummy]

I have:
Scott Cunningham's Wicca In The Kitchen
Cait Johnson's Witch In The Kitchen
Kate West's The Real Witches' Kitchen
Patricia Telesco's A Kitchen Witch's Cookbook

Telesco's book is nice because it has a lovely intro as well as little tidbits of folklore along with each recipe and alot of the food is actually something I would cook and eat.

West's book includes herbal beauty remedies, teas and incenses as well so is useful for that purpose. If I remember correctly, her book is setioned up into Sabbat recipes with maybe a few additional categories, like love recipes. She does make an attempt to address weight and a proper diet so I'll give her props for that. I don't like the bit she has added at the beginning which is pretty much a beginner's snapshot of Paganism/Witchcraft/Wicca. Maybe because it's so basic that it's boring to me but any book called The Real Witches' Kitchen should be for people who already know all that anyway. It's a cookbook, for heaven's sake, not propoganda.

Johnson's book is divided into the 4 seasons with each of the Sabbats represented by recipes, spells and kitchen rituals. I like the idea that she has discusses creating a kitchen altar (although the rest of my home belongs solidly to Aphrodite, my kitchen is very much Hestia's domain - she has a shrine there!) and basically treating your kitchen like it's sacred space (which it is!). Particularly funny is the idea of creating a kitchen Goddess apron to don as ritual clothing whenever you cook! I've never gotten around to doing that but I think i's a lovely idea. She also tackles ideas such as cleaning green and stuff, too.

And what can I say about da man? Cunningham's book is, like all his other's, chock full of interesting stuff. He has divided the food up according to magical properties and gives the correspondents for each one he mentions. He really stresses the magic of each individual ingredient. There are not so many recipes in this book as the other ones I've listed but if I'm remembering correctly, he died before the book was actually considered complete. There is a recipe in there for "prosperous" banana fritters which totally rocks. And is totally fattening but hey...

[DianaG]

Merry Meet all. I like Cunningham's Wicca in the Kitchen, but I enjoy and use Telesco's A Kitchen Witch's Cookbook more often.

Cunningham's book is a good place to go for choosing ingredient's that have a significant magickal meaning and is written in Encyclopedia format. I agree with Mummy_Tummy that Telesco's has more folklore and interesting tidbits in it.

I haven't come across the other books mentioned, but I will have to check them out.