One of my loves is cooking. I adore it. One of my calming meditations is to go to the grocery store. I wander the aisles thinking about what I could make. Sometimes I go prearmed with a list based on a recipe. More often I just go. Pushing the squeaky wheeled cart up and down the rows and rows of food. And it occured to me that Tarot-related recipes might be fun.
I may make this a regular feature here at the TarotByArwen blog. You will be my guide for that. If you like this, let me know. I have a thousand (that’s on the low side trust me) recipes to share. I actually started a list in 1998 (or 1996?) called The Pagan Table. We started way back when on Onelist and moved to Yahoo eventually. Somedays we have tons of posts. Lately it’s been fairly quiet. Do come join us if you like to share recipes or get recipes. There are some great food detectives on the PaganTable who can help you locate old loves as well.
There’s a great recipe Tarot deck called the Epicurean Tarot by Corrine Kenner. Each card is a recipe along with the classic RiderWaite imagery. For instance her Fool is Carmelized Nuts. Here are a few of my own Tarot-inspired recipes. I hope you will try them. Let me know if you do because I’d love to hear what you think of them.
I love vegetables. My favorite come right from the Farmers Market (or if I’m industrious enough–my own garden). The card I call the gardener is the 7 of Pentacles. Here is a very Arwenized version of a vegetable stew. A friend tried it. They told me it was a ratatouille. Grin, ok! So here you have Arwen’s 7 of Pentacles Ravishing Ratatouille-wannabe.
- Arwen’s 7 of Pentacles Ravishing Ratatouille-wannabe
- 4 slices of bacon, sliced into 1″ pieces
- 1 md eggplant, peeled and cubed
- 2 md yellow squash, cubed
- 2 md zucchini, cubed
- 1 md green pepper, diced
- 2 md onions, diced large
- 6 cloves garlic, diced or smashed
- 6 Roma tomatoes, whole
- 1 Cn Tomato sauce
- 1/2 C balsamic vinegar
- 2 C water
- 1 TBS Tabasco
- Pinch of sugar
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cooked Rice
Fry the bacon in the bottom of a large stock pot. I don’t worry about it getting crispy. Just want the bottom of the pan to be slippery.
Throw in the onions and garlic. Stand back. Take a deep breath. Doesn’t that smell heavenly? It’s the scent of the South to me. Bacon grease complemented with sharp garlic and tangy onion. Let that cook down a bit til the onions are close to clear. Toss in the green pepper. You just want them to soak up the flavors a bit so once they start looking wrinkly, move on to the next step.
Now add in the eggplant, both the squash, and the tomatoes. Stir it up a bit. Cook until the first roma skin puckers and pops from the heat. Now add in the liquid including the Tabasco. You can go easy on the water if you like a thick sauce, or heavier if you enjoy a brothier stew. Your choice… just like the 7 of Pentacles. You get to start making decisions about what is ready in your garden to harvest.
As it starts to bubble up, taste it. It’s going to need salt most of all so put the pepper in first. Me, myself and I? I like to use Tony Cachere’s Cajun seasoning. Then again, I like things that POP with flavor. Once you have the taste where you like it, turn the fire down and let it simmer a while. Here is where you throw in that tiny pinch of sugar. Trust me on this. You need it.
Start your rice now if you haven’t. The stew needs to simmer a bit to let the flavors marry. Once the rice is done, you can test the stew. Make sure ALL the veggies are soft or you won’t be happy.
Remind those eating that those tomatoes will burn the heck out of your mouth so cut them open and let them cool a bit first. I love this best the second day. That’s why I make a huge pot of it for myself.
Like the 7 of Pentacles, this stew is about choices. You can leave the bacon out and use a good olive oil if you want to go vegetarian/vegan. You can experiment with other vegetables. Sometimes I’ll throw in somd chopped okra. Don’t be limited by life. Expand out and bring that 7 of Coins energy into your life. It’s hard work, but the payoff is so worth it.