Wednesday, August 29, 2012

~ Kitchen Witchcraft ~


Yeah I know, Come ON Vickie! Please, not another post on how to be something… LOL!! In this post I’m not telling anyone how to be something or incorporate something into their lives. I’m writing about MY personal experiences in MY kitchen… that is all.


I never considered myself to be a Kitchen Witch, I LOVE to cook and bake and be creative with different recipes handed down from my ancestors. Then I began reading about exactly what a Kitchen Witch is and what she/he does. And that got me to thinking, which we all know is a dangerous thing for me to do, LOL! I’ve come to the conclusion I have a little Kitchen Witch in me along with Faerie Witch, Hearth Witch, Hedge Witch and all of this walks hand in hand with Traditional Witch (and I use the term Traditional Witch at this time for lack of a better way to explain my feelings on Witch vs Wicca. I am NOT Wiccan. I will go into this subject in a later post).


Most of the magic a Kitchen Witch practices is centered in of all places… her kitchen! I know! I’ve always known the kitchen is considered to be the center of the home, the place that is the most comforting and where everyone wants to congregate, so it would only fall in to place that the kitchen is a perfect place to make some magick. My mother’s kitchen was like this, even before they bought the larger house, we all still managed to somehow hang out in the kitchen. And we had such a great time in my Mom’s kitchen, there was always coffee on and she had something cooking all the time. It’s where I learned to fry chicken to a perfect golden brown, make the creamiest mashed potatoes I’ve ever had and bake all sorts of cookies, cakes and pies…from scratch! I have many fond memories of my mother’s kitchen.


A Kitchen Witch regards her entire home as sacred and makes a point to keep it cleansed and free from anything that could be considered harmful. I smudge my home with white sage at least once a week, I burn incense and fragrance oil daily, and I open the windows and doors as the weather permits (this is where I tell you I am SO looking forward to the full onset on Fall, so I can fling those windows open wide!).


I *try* to keep my house clutter free, I can’t function in chaos, and my kitchen is MY domain, LOL! I have all my cupboards organized and arranged to the point I know where everything is and if someone has come in and moved something, I can be a bit frantic until I find the *lost* object. We try to keep the pantry stocked, and the freezer overflowing (I’m thinking about buying a small chest type freezer to handle the large items I buy around the holidays), and I have most of the newest and greatest kitchen gadgets on the market. Ya know… the things that are supposed to make the cooking experience easier and more convenient. BUT! I have this habit of going back to the old ways I learned from my great grandmother…cast iron is THE only way to cook a multitude of dishes.


When I am cooking, I try very hard to not use boxed or prepackaged things. I make most of my broths from scratch, with the exception vegetable broth. Since I’m the only one to eat veggies in this house, I’d be overloaded on the darn things if I made homemade veggie broth, LOL!! I prefer to use cream and real butter, along with fresh meats and vegetables. I have a small herb garden and use fresh ground peppercorns and sea salt.


Making magick in the kitchen is probably one of the least complicated things we can do. If I spill salt I throw some over my left shoulder, I stir my pots only deosil, and I sing or chant while I’m creating which ever goody is *on the menu* for today. And I clean up as I go along… I absolutely HATE trying to clean up after someone who has left each dish or pot they have used stacked up on the counter or in the sink. And don’t use my dish towel for something and then leave it in a pile on the counter…grrrrr! Hang it back up where you got it so it can dry doesn’t begin to smell nasty.


There are times when I will use a recipe as written, but I’ve been known to change things up a bit and make substitutions while cooking. Not because I may not have an ingredient that is called for, but because I want to try something new and see how it will taste. Most times my experiments are a success, but I will admit to having quite a few failures as well. I’ve learned which things I can change and which ones to leave alone. I love it when I am successful and I’ll remember for the next time what I changed so I can reproduce it again.

The Kitchen Witch charm is said to ward off evil spirits and bring peace and harmony to the kitchen thus insuring perfect recipes every time. I've been looking for the perfect little charm to add magick to my kitchen and I recently found these cute little dolls. Unfortunately the place that was selling them has gone out of business and so the search begins once again. This is exactly what I pictured hanging in the window above the sink, and then one more over the entry door into the kitchen. I’ll keep searching, but if any of you know where I can find these EXACT charms, please let me know…

So there you have it…Vickie’s adventures in the kitchen and finally learning to embrace the possibility of being called a *Kitchen Witch*.


Next up my investigation into what makes a Hearth Witch…