Day 1 of Kitchen Witchery

Welcome to November and my month long celebration of Kitchen Witchery and cooking. This is like my October celebration of Witches, but it's much more detailed because I'm going to write- a lot. This is going to be long post. I took 22 pictures. What subject was so fascinating? My cookbook. I've posted about my cookbook twice before- once when I put it into its current binder and again when I started making needlework to decorate it. If you're a long-time reader, you've seen much of this before.

My plan was to just cook. I have never photographed my cooking before and as I took all the pictures of my cookbook, I realized this could be a month of very long, daunting posts. I am determined to plow ahead anyway, but I apologize now if I skip steps or fail to present something in a clear, easy to understand manner. My goal is to make cooking more approachable. I really and truly hate to cook. I know, I know, I'm a Kitchen Witch. But I can't lie. The kitchen is NOT where I want to spend most of my time. I do cook, and I cook often, but it is out of necessity. As a diabetic, the best way to ensure I'm sticking to my diet is to prepare the food myself. I try to keep things simple and easy. Some people think cooking is hard or that the only really tasty food is hard to make. This isn't true. Cooking is very versatile and most recipes can be made simple.

I decided to start with my cookbook rather than a recipe because I want you to get a sense of both how I cook and the magick I do. Later, I'll have some posts on Kitchen Witchery in general, what it means to me, and what separates it from other kinds of magick. I'll have cooking, house keeping, and gardening tips.

Front cover. Nope, doesn't look like a cookbook at all. When I decided on needlepoint covers, I wanted a witch stirring a cauldron. Surprisingly, there aren't many patterns for that. I settled on a broom riding Witch, but didn't finish her. I hated the cover being bare, so I made some stars out of scrap canvas. Then I added a wolf card which slides around instead of staying in one place. And the cover is still mostly blank so I didn't achieve anything. Moving on...

Spine. Reads 'stir up some magic' I used variegated thread for some letters, then added seed beads for magick dust.

Dragon charm. I love charms.

Back cover. Star sampler and a turkey feather. Feathers look like crap when slid under plastic so heed my warning and don't do it.

Front binder pocket. Here is where I store recipes until I can find a place for them in the book. I have art taped all over the binder, most of which I colored.

My cookbook has a book mark that I made. This is the front.

Back.

The cookbook is divided into sections. I have 'normal' cookbook sections plus a few extra which you will see at the end of this post.

Recipe cards.

A whole page of AJ's recipes. She made her own cookbook as well, but hers was first typed on a word processor and thus much neater looking than mine. She was the greatest Kitchen Witch I ever met, but I'm glad I have a messy book and you'll understand why later.

More recipe cards. These are taped on 1 side

so I can flip them over and read both sides.

More art.

When I got to the Drinks section, I had loose recipes and art to place. This book will always be a work in progress.

Biggest section is desserts. I realized that may be a surprise because I'm diabetic, but I started my book BEFORE diabetes, and sometimes I cook for other people and regular people eat sweet things. If I cook for you, I love you. If I make you dessert, you probably gave me awesome sex.

More sweets.

Great-grandmother's cookies hand written by my mother. Now do you see why my recipes can't all be in the same print? And on stationary from a building company my father used to do business with, no less.

Nifty and useful section. Here are recipes for things that aren't food like play dough, facials, and flea repellent.

Spells section. All of these are original spells developed by me using a pendulum to determine which ingredients to use.

Yep, that says 'banishing creeps powder'. I had a creeper. He's gone now.

Last section. This is the garden section and pictured is my very first garden which was a container garden and I loved it deeply. It was small enough to fit on a table top. Did I say I loved it? I loved it very much and it was my most successful garden ever. Here is where I have general plant info and notes on my personal gardens over the years. Sometimes I include other garden like my father's.

Last picture. Are you tired of reading? I've been sitting at my desk so long my sugar has dropped. I keep my cookbook on my altar. The book rest on a stand. I wanted a fancy stand but somehow I ended up with a plain, cheap one. Maybe one day I'll have a book stand worthy of magick instead of a flimsy wire thing. My altar is in my living room, but on the other side of the wall is my stove so all in all, this is a great place to keep my book.