The Magick of Food


Thoughts before the sabbat

I just got back from visiting a friend who isn't doing so well. I took them a tomato basil loaf that I baked last night. Better today than tomorrow, I don't want my sabbat to interfere with their Sabbath. From the looks of it, the church crowd will be going through until early evening at least.

This one was a healing loaf, so the bread machine wouldn't do. There is nothing like getting your fingers in the dough, chanting and singing and keening as you pour your passion into creation.

Early in the morning, I'll make sunflower-cornbread for me and the gods. My family has an old tradition with cornbread, it has to be baked in a cast iron skillet. Every time I do this, it takes me straight back to my grandmothers kitchen, or out camping with my grandfather, uncles, and cousins. I do drop a couple of bits of the tradition though, I'm not all that fond of buttermilk. And it is been years since I had real cracklin corn bread.

Cracklin' corn bread is a dish from the American South where pigskin and a little pig fat is cooked into the cornbread. It's an acquired taste. I haven't really missed it.

Even without the extra protein and fat, the smell of cornbread cooking is one of my favorites. It just makes me feel very centered.

Sunflower-cornbread is my own concoction, based off a old johnny cake recipe. Two thirds of the sunflower seeds are ground up and mixed in with the other dry ingredients. I add a bit of brown sugar too. The other third of the seeds are sprinkled over the top, just before you put in in the oven. Oh, and you never use white vinegar, always apple cider vinegar.

My skillet is nicely scoured and seasoned and it is already to go for my predawn cooking. I have some fresh blueberries to go with the sunflower-cornbread. The birds will take the gods portion when the gods are through, I'm sure.

May your path be blessed this day and season.

Posted: Sun - July 31, 2005 at 10:58 AM
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