This Blog is Moving!

I'm moving this blog to a new location: http://Third-Infinity.blogspot.com

Why the change? To get all my blogs on the same dashboard with the same login. I keep neglecting this blog because it's not with the others.

I've already begun to post at the new address. Please follow me there. It isn't pretty yet, but I do try to be informative.

Lena

craft to Craft: Halloween Eyeball Silverware to your Altar Ware

I have lots of Sculpey! Think about this and what fun you can have beyond Halloween. Think of silverware with colorful handles and crystals embedded in them. Or Goddess symbols carved in them.

What about your own bland, boring table? Could you use some silverware made to match your dinnerware? Did you know that, if your glassware can take the heat, you could use Sculpey to make your goblets match too, by wrapping a bit of Sculpey around the base and maybe up the stemware? Are you getting the picture?

Okay, now go one step further. How about that altar? Could your athame use a facelift? How about your bolline? Do we need to go into the offering plate or incense burner? What could you do with Sculpey to make your altar unique?

For the Dumb Feast

I don't do a dumb feast every year. How morbid can you get? However, I see no harm in a remembrance feast. Keep it short, sweet, and simple and your guests will think well of you. Don't forget to set that empty place at the table for our spirited guests, just in case someone does decide to show up.

Lena

Candy Spook House and Halloween Beanbags

Another candy house, just for fun. Kids should enjoy themselves, and I like the kid in me to come out and play.

Cakes and Ale-- Pumpkin Bread

This is my best Samhain bread, made for bread machines. It's easy and delicious. I skip the pumpkin seeds, personally, and just throw in some pecans. What can I say? I'm lazy.

Ghosts and Grave

This grave has the best "post mortem" for after Halloween. Just when you could use a little fresh soil in your garden to wait for spring, all you have to do is drag the tarp to your garden on Nov 1. The tarp can cover any part going fallow, with the new dirt to hold it down until spring. Weed seedlings won't have a chance.

Pumpkin Nog-- For Cakes and Ale

Who says we have to wait for Yule to get a nog? This is even diet! How cool is that.

BTW, if you right click on any image I post, you can use "Save As" to get it so you can have a copy.

Ritual Ideas for Samhain-- Pagans Only

Samhain (October 31st)

8. HISTORY

Samhain to the Celts was their New Year's Eve even. That mysterious moment belonging to neither past nor present, or this world nor the other. It was a time when the herds were slaughtered and the meat salted, which also led to the use of salts in magic ritual as a disinfectant against psychic or spiritual evil. On this night also, the spirits of dead friends sought the warmth of the Samhain fire and communication with a living.

The divinatory aspect of Halloween is understandable for two reasons. First, the psychic climates of the season favored it, and second, the anxiety about the coming winter demanded it. The fertility ritual aspect was reflected in legends of gods and heroes. As such, it was a time of deliberate (and tribally purposeful) sexual freedom. That is primarily a Celtic tradition, as many other superstitions say to refrain from sex for fear that your former (dead) friends would take over your body and you might have A Change Child.

"So, Halloween was on the one hand a time of propitiation, divination, and communication with the dead, and on the other, and uninhibited feast of eating, drinking, and defiant affirmation of life and fertility in the very face of the closing dark." (Witches Bible Complete page 122)

"The feast itself, in the banquet sends, the original food was of course a proportion of the newly slaughtered cattle, roasted in the purifying Halloween fire, and doubtless having the nature of ritually offered first fruits. The fact that the priesthood had first call on the board divinatory purposes and that what they did not use provided a feast for the tribe, points to this." (Witches Bible Complete page 126)

B. THE ALTAR AND CIRCLE

1. Decorate with apples, pomegranates, plug-ins (as he is or cut into jack-o'-lanterns. If using jack-o'-lanterns, let the mark the four corners), squashes, marigolds, and chrysanthemums. The altar cloth and candles should be our range, to symbolize the harvest.

2. Foods-turnips, apples, corn, nuts, gingerbread, pumpkin dishes, meat, pumpkin cookies, candy apples, popcorn, and candy corn.

3. Drinks-cider, the mulled wine, pumpkin nogs and smoothies

4. The cauldron should be in the north quarter, filled with firewood.

See. RITUALS

1. This is the time of reflection, of looking back over the past year and friends who have passed on. Honor them, but do not call them to you. Leave the plate of food outside the home for the souls of the dead. A candle placed in the window guides them to the afterlife, varying apples "feeds" them on their journey.

2. Right on a piece of paper and aspect of your life you wish to be free of. Such as anger, a baneful habits, disease, or misplaced feelings. Burn it in a ritual. (Solitary Practitioner page 142)

3. Past life regressions are sometimes done in CIRCLE.

4. Scry eating into the past or future in CIRCLE

5. Return the corn dollies of last year to the ground. (See Imbolg)

6. Bobbing for apples. There were many divination practices associated with Halloween, many of which dealt with marriage, health, and the weather. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination based on the belief that the first to bite into an Apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. This is similar to the wedding tradition of throwing the bride's bouquet for women and her garter for men. Apple peeling was another type of divination to determine how long one's life would be. The longer the unbroken peel the longer the life of the one peeling it.

7. Have the high priest dress in "Man in Black" costume and charcoal for his space. He leads a chance within the CIRCLE.

8. Divination using tarot cards in CIRCLE.

9. At the close of the Halloween CIRCLE, please extinguish the altar candles to symbolize the dark half of the year now beginning.

10. This is an invocation. Wise one of the waning moon, goddess of the starry night, I create this fire within your cauldron to transform that which is plaguing me. May the energies be reversed; from darkness, light! From bane, good! From death, birth!

11. Carved jack-o'-lanterns

12. Finish any incomplete projects and payoff lingering bills, if possible, to close out the old year and begin the new year fresh.

13. Leave food out for the birds and other wild animals. Make a donation of food or funding to an animal shelter in honor of the spirit of animals who have died for your family's nourishment over the year.

14. Put pictures of ancestors who have passed on your altar for your Sabbat rite. Light a special candle for them. Visit the graves of your ancestors or if this is not possible, the nearest cemetery. Be still there and listen for the voices of those who have passed. Leave offerings of food and drink for them, and for the animals.

15. Have a mask making party in which you create masks to celebrate and represent your ancestry.

D. SYMBOLISM

1. Farewell to the God. The God dies, and prepares to be reborn at Yule.

.2. Time of sacrifice when animals were slaughtered to ensure food throughout the winter.

3. The feast of the dead, when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, sometimes called the Dumb Feast.

Scare up a Haunted House

Who says we can only make candy houses at Halloween? Why not have the kids help with this project? Why not have the coven create them?

Indian Corn Treats-- Delicious!!

Folks, you've just gotta try this tasty treat! YUUUMMM! I'm a sucker for Rice Krispie Treats, and this is close enough to make my mouth water.

A Halloween Stitch to Do

I can no longer do countd cross stitch, so I'm sharing this with all my friends. Enjoy!

Lena

"Moth-eaten" Curtains Craft

"Moth-eaten Curtains" are so easy, you'll laugh. Don't worry if you can't sew. Use fabric glue or spray adhesive for a quick fix with no needles or machine needed.

Mini Bundt Pumpkin Cakes

Mini bundt pans are all you need to create these delectable treats. Go ahead. Right click on the recipe to save it for your own.

Lena

Spider Web Dip and Chips

Even if you don't like the dip, do try the chips. I cut the tortillas using a pizza wheel to make quick wedges and serve with cheese dip or salsa. It's a quick snack people will appreciate any time of year.

Lena

Meringue Bones for your Party

This is easier than you think. Give it a try.

Lena

Cooking Fresh Pumpkins

A little hint or two on how to deal with those sloppy things. I personally use an ice cream scoop to scrape out the nasty stringy bits, and I open my pumpkin from the bottom.

For pies and other recipes, I'll use a tiny pie pumpkin. Those big honking pumpkins for sale as jack-o-lanterns make lousy food. They're grown for size, not taste. Get a pie pumpkin and be sure your recipes will be the very best.

Lena

Halloween Wine Bottles

This is too fun not to do.

Halloween Fun: Specimin Jars

Another thing is to put cooked spaghetti in a bowl with oil mixed with red food color. You'll get something resembling intestines.

Halloween Fun: Silhouette Curtains

Imagine these eerie silhouettes in your windows. Fun, huh?

Lena

Recipe: Blithe Spirited Grog (Adults Only)

I've had this recipe for about twenty years. We rarely drink, but our friends tell us it's delicious.

The Practical Pagan- Lunch Box Sandwiches

For Samhain, use the large spooky cookie cutters. This small trick can really enhance your kids' prestige with their friends because they have "cool food."

Craft: The Bewitching Witch Statue

This is much easier than you might think. However, that cheesecloth is very messy. This is not a project to do over the carpeting by any means.

Make the form and get ready one day, then proceed. Take your time.

Humidifier Plant Tray -- Winter for your Plants

Think about it. If you live in a place where you shut in for the winter, your plants will be living in the same dry, heated atmosphere you do. They need moisture, same as you. Their leaves are their "skin" and it needs extra help.

This is an easy solution for just about any budget.

Craft: Coffin Tables and Ghost Glasses

Note on the Ghost Glasses:

An alternative to the glassine is more permanent. Tape the handprint to the inside of the glass. Use glass etching solution and paint it on the outside of the glass. Follow the directions on the bottle of glass etching solution for wait time and rinsing. Oh, and don't forget to remove the handprint before washing.

Craft: Severed Finger Invitations

This is too cool not to use, even though you need to start many days in advance of the party.

Can you imagine a little black box arriving in the mail with a severed finger with a ribbon tied around it as a "reminder"? LOL!

Halloween Craft: Tombstones

I can't wait to do this one! This is easy work for a decoration that will last for years with reasonable care.

Just be aware you must test your paints to be assured that the ingredients will not melt the styrofoam and give you the effect you want. Please test the paint on a scrap of styrofoam.

Bloody Mary Pot Roast

I used V-8 juice and a dash of hot sauce instead the Bloody Mary mix. It worked very well.

However, my itty bitty Dutch oven would not come close to holding the roast and veggies my DH likes in his roast. I used my grandmother's roaster instead.

Lena

The Frugal Housekeeper

I've used the fabric softener trick, and it works.

Here's another: If you have ceiling fans, put a pillow case over a blade, close the end, and wipe in one motion. All the dust will fall inside the pillowcase and not all over your furnishings.

I use a sock to dust the furniture. I dampen it with spray polish and start swiping. When it's full, I drop it in the laundry and grab another.

Apple Recipes for Sabbats and Anytime this Fall

These are worth printing out and keeping year after year. Who doesn't love spiced cider on a chilly day? The smell alone has been known to bring my men to their knees.

The spiced cider is wonderful in a crock pot, scenting the air while a sabbat takes place, and makes the best libation to serve with pre-made apple fritters.

Baked apples are a treat anyone can make in a hurry. Keep some delicious red globes around for quickie dessert to go with some of my other recipes.

Homework Help for Harried Parents

Roast Pork with Mushroom Butter Sauce

If you don't have dry white wine, apple juice or chicken broth will work.

Recipe: Creamy Squash Soup

So...what's everyone doing for Mabon? We do a fruit bowl and a squash soup or casserole. This recipe is so beloved, it's in my BOS to pass down.

Creamy Squash Soup

4 cups cooked mashed butternut squash (you can substitute 2 cups of cooked mashed acorn sqash for 2 cups of the butternut)
2 cans (14 oz ea) of ready-to-serve chicken broth
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup whipping cream, divided
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Process half of the first 5 ingredients in a food processor or blender and pour into a large saucepan. Repeat with the remaining half. Bring to a boil over medium heat; gradually stir in half of the whipping cream, and cook until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat. Beat remaining whipping cream at high speed until stiff peaks form. Dollop on each serving of soup. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Makes about 7 cups.

Recipe: Apple Oat Bread

I love my bread machine.

Gruyere Apple Spread for Bread

Herb of the Month-- Garlic

Garlic is very good for you! Don't forget a garlic braid made from sprouted garlic to hang in your kitchen. Just don't eat it. Replace every fall.

Recipe: Pork with Apple-Nutmeg Sauce

This is delicious! I chopped the apple in my food processor, then added previously chopped onion and garlic and pulsed a few minutes.

Lena

Oven Dried Fruit

Craft: Corn Dolly

We tried this corn dolly last month. It works very well.

Mabon Incense

Cakes and Ale-- Mabon Saucy Apple Bread

Note this recipe has two sizes, depending on the size of your bread machine.

Harvest Pot Roast

This is one of the few that actually tastes better from the oven than in the crock pot or dutch oven. I have a huge covered roaster left to me by my grandmother, so I load all the veggies in the bottom, add some stock or water, then the bouillion and roast. Sprinkle the herbs over the roast, and pop it in the oven for about 2-3 hours, depending on your oven.

I've served this since the 1980's, and it's a favorite with the DH. He looks forward to fall every year because he knows the Harvest Pot Roast is coming!

It's Library Card Month

Need I say more?

A Review of Eyes of the Cowan!

I don't often mix business with my pagan faith, but once in awhile I have to tell a story a certain way. Eyes of the Cowan was such a story. Valda and Blaze demanded their story be told as pagans, and I obeyed.

Please read this wonderful review from Sarai of Bitten by Books.

http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=899

You may purchase the book here, if you desire:

http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=662

My thanks to Sarai and Bitten by Books.

Lena

Smelly Arts 101-- Overview

First, go pick up Scott Cunningham's book, "Incenses, Oils, and Brews." Here's a link:

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0875421288

This is the latest version. I have one of the earliest, with the Robin Wood cover, so mine will be different. However, my poor book has suffered in the long years of use, and has literally fallen apart at the binding. (sigh) Because we've used it so many times for Smelly Arts Workshops, as soon as you open it, the scent of incenses wafts up. I'm going to hate to replace it.

Anyway... IMHO, there's no reason why anyone can't have lovely incenses, oils and brews in their homes. Anyone who cooks likely has many of the most common ingredients like cloves, cinnamon, and allspice already in their homes. I've been known to throw a stick of cinnamon, a handful of whole allspice, and a pinch of whole cloves in a small pot of hot water on the stove minutes before guests arrive just for the welcoming scent.

I lucked into a small pot of Corning Visionware in the thrift store, and this is my favorite brewing pot. Visionware is glass, and therefore non-reactive. It won't affect your brews in any way, nor do you have to keep it for "witchy" things only. I do, but that's a choice, not an imperative. I highly suggest a trip to the thrift store to search for these ellusive brown glass pots. They're becoming difficult to find.

While at the thrift store once, I also lucked into one of the tiny potpourri crock pots, so I have one of those as well. They may be slower to heat up, but you don't have to watch them as much when you've got a little brew simmering. I rarely make up any large amounts of a brew requiring a regular-sized crock pot, but if I ever do, I'll get one. So far in the past twenty years, it's never been needed by my coven or myself.

Like many witches, I collect mortar and pestles for their esthetic beauty as well as their usefulness. However, I also keep an electric coffee grinder as well. I have one for grinding coffee, and another for grinding herbs. The top of the herb grinder is well marked with red nail polish so I don't confuse them.

You'll want to have a box of the snack-sized zip top bags handy, as well as a Sharpie and stick-on address labels as well. Write on the label what the scent is before sticking it on the bag. That way, if you make a mistake, you've only wasted a label. Don't forget to date it.

Of course, you'll want a place to test your creations, right? Right. So, this means a censer. Don't panic if you don't have one of the fancy kinds made of brass or ceramic. All you need is a heatproof container and sand or kitty litter. Put the sand in the container, and make sure there's enough sand to disperse the heat, just in case. Better too much than not enough! I've been known to use a terra cotta plant pot and fill it with kitty litter. Don't get anal, okay?

Finally, you need the special charcoal briquettes made for burning incense. No, not the same thing as you dump on the charcoal grill every weekend! The briquettes I refer to resemble tiny hockey pucks, with a indentation in the center for dumping herb powders on. Each briquette can last an hour or so, and are perfect for the average home ritual.

Now, the reason we call this a Smelly Arts Workshop should be painfully obvious. The reason we wait until fall is so we can do this outside. We'll test a whole bunch of scents, so using the air outdoors makes perfect sense. Make just one of the stronger smelling ones inside and add just a little too much...you'll get the idea quickly. This is how you learn what a "pinch" really means!

Now grab up your BOS (Book of Shadows). You'll want to record what the formula you used was for each incense you keep. For instance, I'm highly allergic to eucalyptus, a common ingredient in some incenses. We substitute camphor. You'll find substitutions listed in the book. It really helps to note your personal formulas. After all, you may not remember next year what you did.

Now go find the recipes you want to do. You may have to make a trip to the local herb and oil shop to find some ingredients. Buy the pure essential oils, please. They do make a difference, even if they cost more.

Ready? Go make your own scents! More tomorrow!

Mabon Overview-- The Sabbat (with recipes)

VII. AUTUMN EQUINOX (C. SEPT 21)

A. HISTORY

“The two Equinoxes are, as we have pointed out, times of
equilibrium. Day and night are matched, and the tide of the year
flows steadily. But while the Spring Equinox manifests the
equilibrium of an athlete poised for action, the Autumn Equinox's
theme is that of rest after labor. The Sun is about to enter the
sign of Libra, the Balance. In the Stations of the Goddess, the
Spring Equinox represents Initiation; the Autumn Equinox, Repose.
The harvest has been gathered in, both grain and fruit, yet the
Sun- though mellower and less fierce than he was- is still with
us. With symbolic aptness, there is still a week to go before
Michaelmas, the festival of Michael/Lucifer, Archangel of Fire
and Light, at which we must begin to say au revoir to his
splendor." (WBC p.116)
Unlike Lughnasadh, which marked the time of beginning to
gather the harvest and emphasized the sacrifice aspect of the
God, Autumn Equinox marks the completion of the harvest, and is a
time of thanksgiving for that abundance with an emphasis on the
future return of that abundance.
There are also legends mentioning the times and places of
balances such as the Equinoxes, dusk, dawn, and crossroads.
Places and times where/when it was neither one thing nor another.
These were reputed to be places/times when the veil between
worlds was thinnest, and great care had to be made to avoid what
we know to be psychic phenomena at such places and times.
Witches, of course seek such experiences, and often are found out
celebrating balances at balanced times. Indeed, the whole
religion seems based on Neutrality; not Good, nor Evil, but a
Natural Balance in all things. There can be no natural thing
without its opposite or counterpart.

This is also the fruit and grape harvest, so wine-making and Bacchnallia are all traditional. While we cannot reconstruct the great vats where women danced the grapes, we can still make a Bacchnallia of it with friends. A cider press is also traditional, and those are still affordable. There are wine and beer-making shops in many cities and many mail-order places.


B. THE ALTAR

1. ALTAR CLOTH AND CANDLES SHOULD BE RED, SYMBOLIZING FIRE.
2. DECORATE THE CIRCLE WITH AUTUMN FLOWERS, ACORNS, GOURDS, PINE
CONES, CORN SHEAF, ETC.
3. A BOWL OF FRUIT IS ON THE ALTAR.
4. OFFERINGS SIMILAR TO SUMMER SOLSTICE SACRIFICE OFFERINGS SHOULD BE NEAR THE ALTAR.
5. HAVE A SMALL BASKET OF DRIED FALL LEAVES ON THE ALTAR.


C. RITUALS

1. SCATTER THE LEAVES ABOUT THE CIRCLE, SAYING APPROPRIATE WORDS SUCH AS THOSE USED IN "SOLITARY PRACTITIONER" P.140.
2. WALK WILD PLACES, GATHERING SEED PODS AND DRIED PLANTS AS PART OF THE RITUAL. SOME CAN BE USED TO DECORATE THE HOME; OTHERS SAVED FOR FUTURE HERBAL MAGIC.
3. USING FRUIT FROM BOWL ON ALTAR, GIVE ONE TO EACH COVENER TO SYMBOLIZE REAPING REWARDS OF JOYOUS HARVEST.
4. A PHRASE TO BE USED FOR RITUAL OFFERING OF SACRIFICES IS, "WE OFFER A PORTION OF OUR FORTUNES TO GO WHERE IT MAY BE NEEDED".
5. HONOR DIONYSUS IN RITUAL BY MAKING GRAPE WINE.
6. BEFORE THE CIRCLE, GO TO A FARMER'S MARKET AND GET BUNCHES OF CORN AND WHEAT FOR UPCOMING RITUALS.
7. AS PART OF CIRCLE, GATHER MANDRAKE ROOTS FOR AMULETS. CARVE THEM INTO MALE OR FEMALE SHAPES FOR PROTECTION, OR FERTILITY.
8. Poetry

'Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods,
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt,
And night by night the monitory blast
Wails in the key-hole, telling how it pass'd
O'er empty fields, or upland solitudes,
Or grim, wide wave, and now the power is felt
Of melancholy, tenderer in it's moods
Than any joy indulgent summer dealt.'
William Cunningham


D. SYMBOLISM

1. COMPLETION OF THE HARVEST.
2. DAY AND NIGHT ARE EQUAL.
3. THE PREGNANT GODDESS WATCHES THE WANING GOD DECLINE, KNOWING HE WILL BE REBORN AGAIN.

E. Suggestions for celebrations

1. Have a Roman Bacchnallia Feast. Have everyone bring a potluck dish, and recline on pillows all over the floor if inside or on blankets or sheets if outside.

2. Have a sedate wine tasting. Have everyone bring a favorite wine to share. You provide the crackers, cheese and fruit/veggie tray. Play classical music and pretend you are yuppie pagans. (grin)

3. If you are lucky enough to have a skilled herbalist/botanist available, let them lead an expedition into a wild place for seed-pod and mandrake gathering. If not, make a trip to a local Botanical Garden and grab one of those who work there to tell you all about the plants. Sometimes, at this time of year, you can wrangle a propogated plant from them, if you are polite and show great interest.

4. Have the whole group invest in a wine-making kit and appropriate recipes. Everyone gather to make wine, beer and/or mead. Here again, a potluck is appropriate.

5. Oktoberfest is also seasonal and usually held just after Mabon. Don’t be a Sabbat-go-to-meeting pagan. There are Oktoberfests held all around the country. Grab up your pagan friends, go, drink beer (in moderation!!) and eat all that delicious German food.

F. Recipies

1. Butternut Squash Casserole

2 cups cooked, mashed butternut squash
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup softened butter
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. coconut flavoring
Crunchy Cereal Topping (following)

Combine first seven ingredients; pour into a lightly greased 8¬inch square baking dish. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Sprinklewith Topping, and bake 10 minutes more. Yield: 6_8 servings.

Crunchy Cereal Topping
1_1/2 cups cornflake cereal crumbs
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
Combine all ingredients. Makes 2©1/2 cups.

2. Acorn Squash Cake

1/4 butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup cooked, mashed acorn squash
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all_purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans
Streusel Topping

Beat Butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg, beating well. Stir in squash and vanilla.Combine flour and next four ingredients in a separate container.Gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed after eachaddition. Pour batter into greased 9 inch square pan. Sprinklewith Streusel topping. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes. cool cake onwire rack. Yield: 9 servings.

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Combine all ingredients. Yield: 1©1/2 cups

3. Creamy Squash Soup ( a real favorite!)

4 cups cooked mashed butternut squash (can substitute 2 cups ofmashed cooked acorn squash for 2 cups of butternut)
2 (14 oz each) cans ready_to_serve chicken broth
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup whipping cream, divided
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Process half of first 5 ingredients in a blender or food processor, and pour into a large saucepan. Repeat with remaining half. Bring to a boil over medium heat; gradually stir in half of whipping cream, and cook until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat. Beat remaining whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Dollop on each serving of soup. Sprinkle with nutmeg. 7 cups.

Review by Berdache, Jaysa, and Tira: Pretty good...Good color and taste.

Acorn Squash Bowls
Cut off tops of squash; cut a thin slice from bottoms tostand squash upright. Remove seeds, and brown tops of shells in a hot greased skillet.

Bread Machine Cherry Yogurt Bread

This bread tends to sour easily, so watch your timing and have the bread machine go off about half an hour before you want to serve. That way, the loaf has time to cool and firm, but not enough time to lose that delicious moist flavor. Wrap it tightly and store in the fridge.

Equinox Cleaning

The Equinox Cleaning

Is this like spring cleaning? Yes. Spring cleaning was a necessity in historical times when the house remained closed up all winter, gathering soot and smoke from the fireplace as well as the accumulated mess made when people are cooped up inside for long periods of time.

That being said, we all need to do a thorough cleaning now and then. I recommend doing so at the equinoxes. In fall, we’re getting ready to shut our homes up for the winter and the holidays. Friends will visit, parties will be thrown, and of course we all want to show our homes off to the best advantage. In spring, we’re driven to open our homes to the warm spring breezes.

However, let’s be honest. Very few of us have the time to strip our rooms completely one by one, washing anything that holds still for it. However, a few things can be done in a very short period of time.

First things first! Take down the curtains, carpets, and throws. Dump them in the washer and/or load them in the car for a trip to the dry cleaners. (Don’t drive off, yet!)

Now bring in three cardboard boxes or three containers. One is labeled “Keep,” another “Put Away” and the third labeled “Give Away.” Take everything off of the horizontal surfaces. Throw away anything that doesn’t fit in the box categories. Think about your knick-knacks and decorations. Are they seasonally appropriate? Do you have so many you can’t dust without causing destruction? Put some away and keep only the ones you love and are seasonally appropriate. For instance, I have a lovely ocean blue pitcher and tray in my living room. They reflect the light and sparkle all summer, but in the winter they’re horribly out of place. I’ll put them away for the winter, and replace them with a more seasonal item like my ceramic crèche come Christmas. (Yes, I said Christmas. Please, let’s be real. I may not celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but I do put up a tree and enjoy the season.)

Put the Give Away box in the car only after you’re done cleaning for the day. Put the Put Away box where it will annoy you until you do put everything away where they belong. Bag up the trash and toss.

Now that all the horizontal surfaces are cleared, dust using a lamb’s wool duster, one of the electrostatic dusters, or even a used dryer softener sheet. Please, no feather dusters. They just flick it in the air to settle back down later. What’s the point of that? Start from the top and work your way down.

Take the Keep box and clean everything you can. Wipe down every knick-knack, the sides of the potted plants, the pictures, and even the remotes. Set them out to dry.

Now vacuum anything that holds still for it. The furniture, the carpets, the tables, and whatever else is left in the room. Yes, that’s what that duster brush attachment is for. Use it. Same for the upholstery attachment. Move what furniture you can, but don’t give yourself a backache trying to move the sofa unless you can do so easily.

Now grab your keys and take the stuff to the dry cleaner, and stop by any charity box or thrift store to drop off the contents of the Give Away box. When you come home, put your reduced collection of knick-knacks back on the shelves and rest in your revitalized room.

Tomorrow/next week, you can choose another room and repeat the process. Pick up what’s clean from the dry cleaners while you’re dropping off the next load. My curtains are mostly all washable, so I only take the comforter in. However, I’ve included two opportunities for those who must dry clean their curtains.

I do the Public Areas one week, the Kitchen the next, Bathrooms, and on the last week the Bedrooms. By spreading out the dry cleaning from Week One to Week Four, I don’t faint when I see the bill! LOL!

Polymer Pen Set for your BOS or Desk

First, let me give you the URL for a full set of instructions from the Carol Duvall show on HGTV.com. You will need to go print this out and see all the instructions.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_other/article/0,,HGTV_3239_1376361,00.html

IMHO, you should have a good pen dedicated to the task of writing in your BOS. (You do have a BOS, don't you? You aren't just gulping down anything you find on the net, are you? That sort of behavior will give your computer indigestion, and you don't learn anything that way.) Well, I'll assume for now that you have one.

We're entering the traditional time of year when --in my trad at least-- things turn much more esoteric rather than practical. As the seasons change to the colder months, we spend much more time indoors, and our Craft takes a turn toward indoor activities now that there are fewer herbs to gather, and less to do outside. The last of the fruits from our gardens will be preserved and put away to bring a little summer into the winter months. The rows of pickles, jars of tomatoes and herbs, and the fruit preserves bring much joy and satisfaction to our lives.

Soon we'll do the second of our equinox cleaning/cleansing, and prepare to shut ourselves in for the winter. We'll also make our new corn dollies to protect our homes and absorb negativity, allowing them to also gather energy beneath the altars until Samhain, when we'll ritually burn the old ones to release that negativity from our lives.

We'll do one last "smelly arts" workshop, preparing incenses, oils, and soaps in the cool air of fall this October. This must be done outside, since some of the incenses are the "throw it on the brazier and run" protection and cleansing variety.

In November, we make the ritual candles we'll use all year on our altars, allowing them to charge out of sight under the altar until they're needed. Most of us have saved candle stubs and wax all year, just for this one event.

All these recipes and instructions must be written down, as will the lessons on rituals, history, divination, and spellcraft. Who could remember it all otherwise? Even I, who've been doing much of this since I could walk, can't remember everything, and I don't try. I write it down. I don't depend on the internet. Files become corrupted, hard drives fry, and websites go down with alarming frequency.

This year, I'll have a new pen to record our adventures with, the old one having sputtered its last recently. I've chosen a beautiful silver and blue this time. Should be lovely.

Lena

What's in Season and Corn Fritters

If you've never tried corn fritters, give these a whirl. I serve them for dessert with a pork roast.

Check out the zuchinni in the produce section! Yum!

Lena

International Coffee Coolers

Who can afford those expensive lattes, frappes, and other coffee treats? Not me! Not when I can make my own any time I want one for pennies!

For extra flavor, head over to World Market (if you have one handy) and get those flavored syrups like the coffee shops use. They even come sugar free! I've even added expresso crystals for an "extra shot" just like those expensive coffee shops.

Lena