Desperation Pie (NOT a Pie)

Twilight’s Insights (A Kaleidoscope Of Magical Perceptions Weekly Post) #TWILIGHT So a little while ago, I noticed that it had been over a week since I made my first Twilight’s Insights post, and thought, “Ohmigosh! What will I write about?” As I sat thinking about it, I had to get up a couple of times to take another step in preparing dinner for my family. Tonight’s dinner is aromatic, full of herbs, and the smells of those herbs kept wafting past my nose. “What am I going to write about? What? What?” I kept running in circles inside my head. I opened the oven to check on dinner, and a blast of herb-scented hot air smacked me in the face, and I knew what I was going to write about. How many of us say we are kitchen witches? How many of us take that to heart, and bring our witchcraft into every aspect of our kitchen, including dinner? Many of the herbs we use in our craft have dual purposes - sage, for instance, is a cooking herb as well as a cleansing herb. The meal I prepared for my family tonight contained the following herbs, and for each of them I have posted a corresponding link from several different sources. It seems to me, that with each meal, I could be invoking any one of these delicious plants to not only make my taste buds sing, but also to add a bit of magickal zing! Even the mundane onion has magickal attributes that I could have worked with, along with the power of intent and maybe a bit of verbal spell craft to make our meal mean so much more. As it was, it was just a savory, delicious dish that I threw together when I realized half of the ingredients I needed for my planned meal had gone off or weren’t in my pantry and fridge. I’ve posted the recipe below for those of you looking for a new dish to try. Maybe you can work in some edible spell craft when you do! Onion: http://herbalriot.tumblr.com/post/131160595322/magickal-uses-for-onion Parsley: http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbParsleyMag.htm Turmeric: http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/plantprofiles/turmeric.php Celery: https://www.themagickalcat.com/Articles.asp?ID=242 Corn: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:corn Marjoram: https://www.magicalrecipesonline.com/2016/08/herbal-magic-of-marjoram-2.html Oregano: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:oregano Thyme: http://eluneblue.com/thyme-magical-properties/ Rosemary: http://herbalriot.tumblr.com/post/53191266546/magickal-uses-of-rosemary Savory: http://www.herbs-info.com/savory.html Basil: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:basil Garlic: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:garlic Sage: https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/magickal-properties-of-sage 

Desperation Pie (NOT a Pie) To begin, you plan to make a traditional Shepherd’s Pie. You are sure you have a pound of beef, a package of frozen peas, and twelve ounces of mushrooms in the fridge/freezer. You KNOW you have a five pound bag of russet potatoes, and cream of mushroom soup for the rue. Step One - Realize that you have to do the dishes in order to cook, because you ran out of dishwasher pellets last week sometime, and no-one has been keeping up with the washing-up. Wash the large non-stick skillet, and place it on the stove. Open fridge, grab the ground beef you bought, open the package, and realize that you bought it about a week ago and didn’t freeze it. Whoof! Resist urge to gag. Place in dustbin. Step Two - Open freezer and grab the partial three pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken, determine there is in fact about a pound and a half left - just enough to feed four. Put 2 tablespoons of salted sweet cream butter in the skillet over medium-low heat, and dump in a generous amount of the pre minced garlic in a jar you keep in the fridge. Probably over two tablespoons. You don’t know - it’s garlic, everyone loves garlic, right? Grab the powdered chicken bouillon from the spice cabinet and add a tablespoon (at least) to the pan. Shake your container of ‘Italian Seasoning’ generously into the skillet. Let the butter melt, spread the concoction all over the bottom of the skillet . Put frozen chicken in to the skillet, then pour in about a quarter of a cup of apple juice (pray the kids don’t see you have the juice out and start griping about how they are thirsty), then cover. Go play on the internet for ten or fifteen minutes. Step Three - Check on the chicken - it should be cooked through, so flip it over and remove the lid to allow the juices to cook away. Start attacking the chicken with your wooden spoon because the cutting board is dirty, and the chicken is tender enough that it works. Open the freezer to get out the frozen peas. Realize you do not, in fact, have any frozen peas. Look in the fridge with a tight feeling in your stomach and discover your mushrooms are growing mold. Curse loudly and violently, thanking the powers that be that the kids are too engrossed in Disney/Pixar’s film, Coco, to notice. How did that happen??? You don’t have the stuff to make a chicken Shepherd’s Pie, what were you thinking? What you DO have is a partial bag of frozen corn, and two bags of frozen broccoli. Grab a small sauce pan and put an inch of water into it and put it over high heat. Dump the corn into the saucepan. Add one and half tablespoons of butter, and enough black pepper to make the cat sneeze. Ignore, ‘till half of the water has cooked off, then drain. Grab the potatoes, select the ones you wish to use, then realize that somehow in your recent move, you have lost your potato peeler. Die inside a little bit. Look at the clock. Panic because spouse will be home VERY soon, hungry. Step Four - Grab the trusty can of cream of mushroom soup you got the other night just in case you were out (you weren’t, just like last time, so there’s like, FOUR cans in there) and dump it in with the chicken, stir. Add the corn, stir. Turn off the heat under the mixture. Clean the saucepan you cooked the corn in. Add water and steamer basket, and cook one whole damned package of broccoli, because they WILL EAT THEIR GREENS, DAMNIT. Clean the cutting board and a knife. Go play on the internet for about ten minutes. Step Five - Chop your not-quite-cooked-all-the-way-through broccoli into small pieces that can’t be picked out easily. Dump it into the skillet with the chicken and corn and soup, stir. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Find the Shepherd’s Pie casserole dish, and dump the mixture into it. Clean the saucepan again.Grab the lonely box of chicken flavored stuffing living in the pantry, and cook according to the directions. Fluff stuffing and cover chicken and veg mix with it. Pop into oven. Go play on the internet a bit. When spouse arrives about twenty minutes later, check on your new dish, which you have lovingly dubbed, ‘Desperation Pie’, even though it is in no way a pie, and is, in fact a casserole. Carefully reach into the oven to pat the stuffing to see if it has got any crispness to it yet. Decide it doesn't have to be crisp, and call everyone to the table for dinner. When Child A decides they don’t like it, take their plate and eat their portion, allowing them to go make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When Child B declares they are full and you see they have eaten everything EXCEPT the stuffing, take their plate and eat their stuffing, because that’s the best part. Well, maybe the chicken. Happily eat their food and your food while your spouse sits in the other room playing World of Warcraft. When he tells you that the dinner was delicious, decide it is a win, because he HATES broccoli. Send the kids to bed. Step Six - Go play on the internet. You deserve it.