Tag: Salad

The Witches Magick for November 17th – Perfect Health Potion

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Perfect Health Potion

When you find something is “going around,” you should make this potion immediately.

Taking doses of the Perfect Health potion once a week on a regular basis will keep you healthy and fit. And at the first signs of feeling under the weather, brew up a new batch right away.

Here are the Items You will need:

Garlic cloves (the more the merrier)

Apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar

Choose four of the following herbs:

Whole cayenne pepper

Lavender

Mint

Rosemary

Rue

Sage

Thyme

Wormwood

To brew the Perfect Health Potion, peel the garlic cloves and add them to the vinegar.

Add the other herbs, and shake very well until blended.

Allow the potion to steep in a cool, dark place for seven days.

Don’t take more than a tablespoon or two at one time.

Actually, this potion also makes a great salad dressing.

And here’s another interesting fact the Perfect Health Potion…

Legend has it that this potion was created in Europe in the Middle Ages, at the height of the plague epidemic. There was a group of thieves that, in the middle of the death, chaos, and quarantines around them, would enter the homes of the sick and dying and rob them.

Yet they never got sick. And when they were finally caught and sentenced to death, they cut a deal. Let us go free, they said, and we will give your our secret to staying healthy in the midst of this plague.

This potion, as legend has it, is a variation of their original recipe. And while you may not be taking it in order to commit robbery, you have to admit that the legend is pretty interesting.

 

Whip Up A Little Magick For Supper Tonight

That’s a Wrap

Wraps — sandwiches that forgo bread and are instead rolled in tortillas — are a fast, fresh and fun way to make a magickal meal in no time. Choose vegetable such as yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, onion or cucumber. Charm the vegetables to enhance their natural power: simply connect with the energies in the food and calll out the attribute most suited to the magick, magnifying the ingredient’s inherent qualities or color associations. Prepare the begetable using a magickal slicing technique, then either put them fresh into the tortilla or quickly saute them in a little butter, letting the heat magnify the magick of your empowered ingredients. Add protein with a bit of cold tofu salad, a nice begetarian assimilation of chicken salad — just drain a package of firm tofu and mash it up with a little mayonnaise and curry powder. If you’re a meat eater, simply add sliced turkey or forkfuls of tuna. Serve rolled in wheat or spinach tortillas, adding cheese or honey mustard if you wish.

Excerpt from:
Ten-Minute Magickal Meals
By Melanie Marquis
Llewellyn’s 2012 Witches’ Companion,
An Almanac for Everyday Living by Llewellyn

Just In – Garden Fresh recalling 7 tons of packaged salads

Garden Fresh recalling 7 tons of packaged salads

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin company that makes packaged salads is recalling nearly seven tons of products because they contain onions that are the subject of a separate recall.

Milwaukee-based Garden Fresh Foods makes packaged pasta salads and chicken salads. The company is recalling 13,600 pounds of products that contain onions possibly contaminated by the bacterium Listeria.

The onions are from supplier Gills Onions LLC. The Oxnard, Calif., company launched its own recall last month due to contamination concerns.

The Garden Fresh products have the establishment number “P-17256” or “Est. 17256” inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture mark of inspection. A list of the specific recalled products is available on the USDA website.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the products, which are sold nationwide.

Fennel

 

Fennel

Magickal Uses:  Grown around the home, fennel confers protection. Wearing a piece of fennel in the left shoe will prevent wood ticks from biting your legs. Fennel is also hung up at windows and doors to ward off evil spirits, and the seeds can be carried for the same reason.

Fennel is used in purification sachets, as well as in healing mixtures.

Poppy Seed Divination (Seed Moon)

Poppy Seed Divination

(Seed Moon)

Use this divination to answer a pressing question.

You will need a charcoal block, an incense burner, and nine poppy seeds. Because fire played such an intricate part in their daily lives, the people of ancient cultures commonly used smoke as a method of divination. One of the Norns, the Norse Goddess Verdandi, weaves the fabric that becomes each of our lives. This spell asks for the help of the Goddess in divining the smoke that rises up from smoldering poppy seeds.

Use your athame to draw a circle of light. Call in the elements. Carefully light the charcoal block, and invite the Goddess into your circle.

Great Goddess Verdandi

Weaver of all patterns

Help me to see

What is and will be,

So be it! Blessed be!

Ask the question you want answered, then blow on the charcoal. When it burns hot, place the poppy seeds on the lit charcoal and watch the smoke as it rises. Traditionally, if the smoke rose lightly and straight upward, it meant something good was going to happen, and if it hung around it was a portent of something bad. For yourself, try clearing your mind of all images before looking into the smoke. As you look into the smoke, let the image of the Goddess move into your consciousness. The smoke is a reflection of the fabric she is weaving. Look and see the patterns of your own life as it unfolds from the future into the present.

Thank the Goddess and pull up the circle when you are done.

Daily Motivator for April 13th – Needless needs

Needless needs

One of the most disabling assumptions is the assumption of need. Consider that much of what you assume you need, you really don’t.

Remember, just because everyone else has some particular thing, does not mean you need it too. Just because someone says you need something, doesn’t mean you really need it.

If you’re being held back by the need to satisfy your needs, stop and ask yourself a key question about each one. Do you really need it?

Life can be difficult, and yet there’s no sense in adding to the burden. Instead of assuming more and more needs, choose to question those needs.

Live more by intention, and less by reaction. Put your time and effort into those things that create real fulfillment for your life, rather than into needless needs.

Choose your own priorities, based on what’s most important to you. Let go of the need to need so much, and free yourself to live life at its authentic best.

— Ralph Marston

The Daily Motivator

Unusual Pets of the Day for March 9th – Introducing Max & Luna!

Max and Luna, the Pet of the Day
Name: Max and Luna
 Age: Eight months old
Gender: Unknown
 Kind: Dalmatian Tortoises
Home: Germany
Hi, this are my two tortoises. Their names are Max and Luna. They are Dalmatian tortoises. Both have black eyes and a yellow, black and brown tank. I do not know their genders yet, as they are too young to tell.

When I give them salad every day, they eat it happily and quickly. The tortoises live in a terrarium with a lots of plants. I like it, when they eat the salad and the tomatoes. The tortoises like it when I stroke their heads. Max is more active than Luna, but Luna’s shell is bigger than Max’s shell. They don’t like getting their picture taken, though, you can tell because they pulled their heads in! I love both my tortoises very much.

Witches’ Protection Bottle Spell

Witches’ Protection Bottle Spell

Get a glass jar such as a Mason jar, or even a baby food jar, anything that has a lid to it. Fill the jar halfway with small sharp objects such as pins, metal scrapings, broken glass, razor blades, etc. Be careful when you are filling the jar! Once the jar is half full with these objects, fill the jar up with a holy water mixture of salt and water.

Put the top on the jar and be sure it’s secured.

This jar should be buried in the ground at least twelve inches deep.
As long as the bottle remains in the ground, you will be protected from harm that is sent your way. If you bury the jar somewhere away from home, and you wont know if it will still be there in a year (City Witches don’t always have backyards), then be sure to repeat this process each year.

Guests, Gifts and Potluck

As with non-Wiccan weddings, the number of guests in attendance depends on how many people the couple chooses to invite. Most handfastings are very informal, and they’re usually not catered. Guests may be asked to prepare a signature dish, cook an old-fashioned delicacy, or bring a first-rate bottle of wine or a case of imported beer. These days, it is not so fashionable to buy large, expensive gifts or home appliances, most witches feel that small, homemade items or foods are more personal and allow each and every person invited to contribute in some way.

All of these offerings are placed on trestle tables, and once the wedding ceremony is over, the guests help themselves to the many mouth-watering contributions. Witches don’t tend to be materialistic, so this potluck arrangement is ideal for us and it keeps the cost to a minimum. I’m sure you’ll agree that this make the term ” the more the merrier” is very true indeed.

 As guests arrive, gentle music is played in the background, and each person is offered a glass of wine. Chairs are placed in a large circle around the altar (which is off-center in the circle), and the guests sit, drink and await the celebration.

Once all the guests are seated, the “right-hand man” (usually a member of the groom’s family or a good friend) walks into the circle, ringing a handbell. This cleanses the area inside the circle of any negative energy. The bride’s made of honor then takes dried lavender flowers mixed with small chips of rose quartz and casts them at the feet of the guests for good luck. At the same time, one of the bride’s handmaidens or bridesmaids follows the right-hand man, waving a smudging stick or some sage incense from the altar to further purify the circle.

A Pioneer’s Apothecary

TO RELIEVE A COUGH, squeeze the juice of one large onion and add one tablespoon of honey. Take one teaspoon three or four times daily. Apply the onion to the chest, “mashing it well.”

Mix two teaspoons of cider vinegar in water or wine. Sip one tablespoon four times daily.

Combine two tablespoons of honey with one tablespoon of grated horseradish root to sooth a cough.

Make a tea of one teaspoon grated nutmeg in one cup of hot cider. Drink three times daily.

Herbal Oil for Salads and Sautes

Enjoy this spicy oil for Mexican salad and rice dishes, or add it to a fresh garden salad.

1    cup oil

3    (2-inch) sprigs each of oregano and basil or rosemary and thyme

1    tablespoon each fresh oregano and basil or rosemary and thyme

1    (1/4-inch piece ginger

1    chili

1/2     teaspoon seeds, crushed with mortar and pestle

Gently heat oil 3 – 5 minutes. Pour into a glass jar with six 2-inch sprigs of herbs for each cup of oil. or one of the following fresh herbs, ginger, chili, or seeds. Cool, cover, and refrigerate up to six months.

*Note:  Only add garlic to oils to be used within three days,. Garlic forms a botulism in oil that can cause severe  diarrhea.

Green Outdoor Weekend Activities

Green Outdoor Weekend Activities

posted by Greennii
 

Spring has finally arrived here in Northern California and all this sunshine begs for fun things to do outside, which often also happen to be green. I tend to go outside at even the slightest hint of sunshine (then again, I’ve also been known to walk the dog in the rain just for fun), and do whatever it was I was doing inside, out under the sky. For instance, I’m sitting at an old-fashioned school desk, replete with wooden cross-bars under my seat for holding my books, and peeling green paint; outside; half under the Wysteria-covered arbor and half in the sun (the computer screen is oh-so-much easier to see in the shade); occasionally throwing the ball for my dog, who earlier got a little bath during the watering of the lettuce.

As I sit here considering the glistening, black-bottomed pool, I’m also considering the possibilities for the weekend:

1. Plant some organic lettuce. It’s so fun to open up your front door (or back door, or kitchen window) and snip off a few pieces of lettuce for your sandwich, a garnish or your dinner salad. I love lettuce and would have thought it beyond me to grow such a delicate, frilly, easily wilty plant, until my husband forced me to do so by planting a half-dozen little teeny baby lettuce plants and then promptly leaving them in my daily care. Turns out, lettuce is easy! Oh joy! So hop on down to whatever nursery is nearby and pick up a couple of six packs of the lettuce varieties which suit you. Then, rummage around in your backyard, ask your neighbor, scour the garage sales and thrift stores, and find yourself some shallow, wide pots (you could also plant each lettuce in its own pot, which would be very cute, but perhaps space-consuming). Stop by your local ACE and pick up some organic potting soil (or grab some where you get your lettuce). You’re ready to plant! Lettuce wants its little neck sticking out a bit, so don’t plant all the way up to the leaves. Keep the soil moist. Cut leaves from the bottom as soon as the plant starts growing.

2. Visit the Alameda Point Antiques Faire, held the first Sunday of every month, which just so happens to be next Sunday, April 3. Take a list with you of things you were otherwise going to buy brand new and see what you can find. I have not yet been, but I have it from a reliable source (read: friend who loves antiques and has discerning taste) that this is the best show in the Bay Area.

3. Go to any of the local farmer’s markets held all around the Bay Area. Most have food (the kind someone makes for you, not the kind you buy and take home as ingredients) vendors, so you can take your appetite and eat there. Take your refillable coffee mug along and get your morning dose from one of the local coffee shops along the street. Use these guides to find the market closest to you:

4. Unplug your life (and that of your family or a group of friends) and go outside with a picnic made from the organic stuff you bought at the farmer’s market (or at least from a small, local market). If you drive in a group, you’re lowering your carbon footprint, as well as not using all those electronic devices you’d be using if you stayed at home. Check out any of the local beaches, state parks or local parks and enjoy nature. The California State Parks system is vast, and their website has great ideas and guides for getting outdoors:

I’m likely to do at least two of the above, unless I decide to help my husband and our friend finish changing a Land Cruiser from right-hand-drive to left. I’m guessing the beach will win out over that. At least for me and the dog.

-Jocelyn Broyles

Herbal Tips for Your Kitchen

Now that Spring is here, we will be having fresh vegetables and herbs shortly. Knowing how to use the herbs properly will give a new taste sensation to your meals. You can use tried and true recipes or make-up your own. Either way when you cook with herbs, you will have a fantastic meal the whole family will enjoy.

Hints for Using Herbs

  • Serving Rule:  Two teaspoons of minced, fresh herbs will flavor four servings One teaspoon dried herbs or seeds serves four. Delicately flavored herbs, like marjoram can be use more liberally.

  • For soups and stews, add fresh herbs during the last twenty minutes.

  • To develop the flavor of freshly dried herbs, soak them for ten minutes in lemon juice, stock or oil before cooking.

  • Before cooking rub fresh herbs between clean hands to release their unique flavor in the volatile oils. This will accelerate flavoring  as your entrée cooks.

  • Firmly press herbs into the flesh of meats, fish, or poultry before cooking to enhance aroma and taste. No sauce or further preparation will be necessary.

  • Flavor salad dressing by soaking herbs in it for thirty minutes to an hour before serving. Use one teaspoon of herbs to one cup of dressing.

  • Microwave: Whenever possible, saute herbal blends in a small amount of liquid, stock, butter or oil before adding to a microwave dish to assure flavor.

  • Sugar can be flavored by layering twelve to fifteen rose geranium or lemon rose geranium leaves on top of one pound of sugar.  Any flavor of geranium leaves will do. Keep it covered until ready to use. Flavored sugar adds a delicate flavor to biscuits, cookies and muffins,

  • A substitute for lemon peel in baked goods is finely chopped lemon balm, lemon thyme or lemon vervain.