K is for: Kitchen Magic (Pagan Blog Project)

There are few things as satisfying as sitting down to a big dinner surrounded by family and friends and beautiful food. There is something inherently magical about a thoughtfully made meal whether it is on a special occasion or holiday or just a regular weekday. Why not take a meal and make it actually magical?
I often forget to pay attention to the magical properties of the ingredients I'm using- how they combine, how the energies play off each other- I'm usually thinking about 2 things: flavor and color. I like a pretty plate... presentation is everything. But when I take flavor and presentation and add an element of intention, the meal is taken to a whole new level.
Kitchen magic is a huge subject, much too big for one little blog post. But we can approach it like a recipe:

A Magical Meal:
Ingredients:
Intention
The best ingredients available
Concentration
Patience
A Smile
An apron (optional, but helpful!)

Step 1: Begin with your Intention.

Do you want your meal to seduce? Relax? Do you want it to cleanse and bring clarity? Do you want to honor a certain season or deity? Find your intention before you begin planning your meal, or if you already have something in mind, let it help you find your intention. If you are in the mood for something in particular, spend a moment figuring out why that sounds so appealing to you- this will be your first clue.  For example, perhaps I am craving a big salad of spinach with apple, pecans and goat cheese. When I stop and think about why that sounds so tasty, maybe I realize that I want something that makes my body feel as good as the food tastes- so my intention could be to heal and support my body while seducing my senses. Then I would follow that intention through into the details. What herbs and spices will I use to flavor the rest of the meal? What kind of beverages? Perhaps something like ginger lemonade- cool, refreshing, yet spicy and incredibly flavorful. Take into account the actual magical properties of the foods you are combining. I myself keep Scott Cunningham's "Wicca in the Kitchen" handy next to my cookbooks for quick reference when I need to know the planetary and elemental alignments of my ingredients.

Step 2: Plan your meal with Love.

A truly magical meal involves many different elements, from the actual cooking process to the presentation, the table setting to the music playing and even the people sitting around the table. An elegant meal by candlelight can easily be either posh or seductive simply based on the music playing- classical or french jazz? A sunset picnic or an early-evening barbecue?  Once you've decided on the feel you want for your meal and what you want to serve, it's time to go shopping! If you can afford to, especially for special meals (or any meal that you're putting this much love into...), I suggest getting locally grown produce and/or meat, fresh herbs, and going organic as much as possible. The best of all, of course, are ingredients from your own garden, if you have one! It becomes pretty obvious how much better it tastes and makes you feel when you invest in locally grown and high quality ingredients. Take time and enjoy your shopping; choose your produce lovingly- find the onion that feels right in your hand, the tomato that beckons to you amongst all the other little tomatoes, the steak that makes your mouth water just to look at it. Savor the experience of "going to market"!

Step 3: Cook with Intention, Concentration, Patience and a Smile!

If your only intention is simply to make yourself and your guests full and happy, cooking with patience and a smile on your face can go a long way! If you'd like to take the magic a step further, say a chant to help get yourself to a trance state as you are chopping and preparing your ingredients. Do the same as you are stirring, basting, flipping, tossing, or adding ingredients... if you don't have a chant, try humming a little tune that evokes the magical intention you are aiming for.. cheery, sultry, soothing, etc. and continue humming it at every stage of the cooking process. Once you've entered a trance state or at least a more concentrated, mentally focused state, begin to hold your intention quietly in your mind. Feel your intention spread outward into your core and through your limbs, and hold it there. Then, send it out into the food through your hands and your breath as you are working. This is where the true magic lies. :)
Patience is key. Cooking can actually be quite stressful, as I'm sure you all know- trying to get the timing right so everything is ready at the same time and nothing is over- or under-cooked, getting the meal on the table before your guests start eating each other (or have gone through too much wine), making sure nothing is burning, keeping the pan simmering just so while juggling a sink full of dirty dishes, the list goes on and on. Trust me, I've been there-- on the verge of tears, frustrated, irritable, and trying to keep my mother out of my kitchen. Usually, in those moments, I remember that the food will only taste as good as the cook feels as they are cooking it-- it is remarkable how hard it is to truly enjoy a meal if the person preparing it was stressed or angry or the like, even if you have no idea they are feeling that way. Besides, I hate the thought of all that stress and frustration going through my cooking into the food and affecting my friends and family! So, even if the meal seems on the brink of disaster, I force myself to take a deep breath, smile at myself, smile at the food and send it some loving vibrations. I slow down, take a sip of wine, and let my intention fill me once more. If you feel you've really spilled some bad energy in your beef bourguignon, it can be fixed- concentrate your mind on the food and draw the bad energy out (use a wand if you like, I just hold my hand over the concoction). Then pour more love right on in and keep working.

And an apron. Oh yes, the apron! Well, the apron helps with the patience part, I find. I tend to get a bit messy when I cook, and I use my hands a lot (don't worry, I keep them SUPER clean!!!), so it's inevitable that I'll lose the kitchen towel somewhere along the way. I don't like using up paper towels. So, the apron is the solution! It's always just there to wipe my hands on quick after I've rinsed them off or gotten flour on them, and it saves my clothes from destruction. What's there not to love?

Now, this may not be the type of magic you were expecting to find under a topic on kitchen magic- and certainly there are many other ways of using magic in the kitchen- but I've found it to be some of the most rewarding magical work I do.
Well, that's about it, dearies! I'll follow this post with a few ideas for magical meals, to help you get started. Have fun, have patience, and cook with a SMILE! :)

Bon Appetit!