The Mage's Kitchen

Why You Should Keep Fruit In Mason Jars Instead Of The Containers They Come In…….

When you get your fruit home from the grocery store, the first thing you should do is remove it from the plastic containers they’ve come in and recycle them. Next, clean out your sink and fill it with water (you could also use a large bowl). Then, toss in a few tablespoons of distilled vinegar. You’ll then want to submerge your fruit in the water and let it soak for about 10 to 15 minutes. The purpose of this is to get rid of any mold or bacteria on the fruit which is what causes them to go rotten more quickly.

Once the fruit has had a nice soak, remove it from the vinegar water, transfer to a strainer, and rinse with cool water. Leave the fruit out to dry on a tea towel or paper towel. Once dry, transfer the fruit to mason jars and seal up those lids. This is the best way to make your fruit last, particularly berries, which tend to be very prone to mold and bacteria buildup.

Pumpkin Cream Puffs

Cannoli Cream Puffs

Strawberry Cheesecake Cream Puffs

strawberry shortcake cream puffs

STRAWBERRY CREAM PUFF CAKE

Churro Cream Puffs

Churro Cream Puffs

Baileys Cream Puffs

More recipes here

Follow for recipes

Get your FoodFfs stuff here

many of which are poisonous and have been shown to cause cancer. youre not even supposed to sniff it, because that can get spores into your lungs. like if you look up the health and safety guidelines for mold they barely stop short of telling you to put on a hazmat suit. 

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/molds-on-food-are-they-dangerous_/ct_index

and there’s a lot of ‘whose doing this!?!??’ in comments

the answer is, unsurprisingly, poor people. poor people, and people who fear poverty, honestly

it’s horrible what that will do, how people will endanger themselves because of it, of fear of food scarcity

Minus the green bean casserole, my opas german cooking is frickin

HERE

Twenty minute veggie roast? Make a foil pocket with chopped potatoes, green beans and/or pea pods (frozen is great!), chopped zucchini and yellow squash and cucumbers. Add a couple pats of butter over the top. Basil, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and a shit ton of garlic. Seriously. Just go crazy with the garlic. Your vampire gf will hate you for three days, but it's so damn good and good for you. Worth it. Have fun. Grill it for 20 minutes or put it in the oven at about 375F for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are just starting to lose their crunch. Easy. Fast. Would be healthy if not for the excessive butter but it keeps it from burning and adds a little something extra. Use unsalted if you have to manage your salt intake for health reasons.

Chicken pot pie with biscuits? Cut three chicken breasts into three pieces, put them in the crock pot with a pat of butter on each, two cans of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom, fill one of those cans with water and pour it in, salt, pepper, a bag or two of frozen mixed veggies (just as good for you as fresh unfrozen). Cook on high for four-five hours. Cook biscuits separately and serve with a bowl of the chicken pie filling.

Can add cheese to almost any vegetable and it'll be good.

Carrots are great when you dip them in peanut butter.

Carrots are also great if you cook them and then drop them in a bowl of melted butter and brown sugar for a glazed carrots side dish.

Can take fresh green beans and toss them in the oven with a touch of salt to make them into a dried, crunchy snack. You'll have to bake them on low heat for an eternity to dry them, not actually cook them. Can do this with other fruits and veggies too in order to have dried snacks later. Makes it easy to take them to work or school with you and not have to worry about heating up your food.

But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?

Let me tell you a thing.

This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then. 

This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together. 

AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing. 

You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already. 

Here’s her list of kitchen basics. 

Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic. 

Make your own pasta–gluten free. 

She gets it. She really does. This is the article that started it all. It’s called “Hunger Hurts”.

She has vegan recipes.

A carrot, a can of kidney beans, and some cumin will get you a really filling soup…or throw in some flour for binding and you’ve got yourself a burger. 

Don’t have an oven or the stove isn’t available? She covers that in her Microwave Cooking section. 

She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days. 

Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling. 

Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.

I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that. 

Honey Oat Bread

Ingredients:

- 1 cup milk (almond or soy for vegan or dairy free)

- 2 tbsps unstated butter or margarine

- ¼ cup honey (agave for vegan)

- ¼ cup water, lukewarm

- 2 ¼ tsps instant yeast

- 3 cups all-purpose flour

- ¾ cup oats (instant or old fashioned)

- 1 ½ tsp salt

For topping:

- 1 ½ - 2 tbsps honey, warmed (agave for vegan)

- 1 ½ -2 tbsps oats

Directions:

- In a small bowl heat the milk so that it is warm enough to melt the butter, but not boiling. Add the butter, stirring until melted, then stir in the water and honey.

- Stir the yeast into the mixture and let sit for 15 minutes until bubbly.

- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, oats, and salt.

- Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, mixing with a dough hook or spoon until it just comes together to form a dough. Knead in the mixer or by hand for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

- Cover the bowl with a clean dry towel and allow to rise until doubled, about ½ to 1 hour.

- Once doubled, with your fingers, flatten the dough into a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Tightly roll the dough, tucking the ends as needed, into a loaf. Place the shaped dough into a lightly greased 9×5-inch loaf pan, cover with a clean dry towl, and allow to rise until doubled, about ½ to 1 hour.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Place an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack of the oven and bring 2 cups of water to a boil.

- When the loaf is doubled again, brush the top with the warmed honey and sprinkle with the oats.

- Place the bread in the oven and pour the boiling water into the empty loaf pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread is deep golden brown and the internal temperature is about 190 degrees.

- Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before serving.

Magickal Correspondences:

- Bread ~ (in general) kinship, sustenance

- Oat ~ grounding, prosperity

- Butter ~ smoothing relationships, spirituality, tenacity

- Milk ~ Goddess energy, love, nurturing, spirituality

- Water ~ purification

- Flour ~ revealing hidden matters, consistency

- Honey ~ happiness, healing, love, lust, purification, spirituality, sweet things in life, weight loss, wisdom

- Salt ~ cleansing & purification, grounding, protection

- Yeast~  grounding, purification

Lemon Chamomile Whipped Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

- 2 cups salted butter or margarine, very soft

- 1 cup powdered sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- ½ cup cornstarch

- 3 cups all-purpose flour

- 3 tsps lemon zest

- 3 tsps loose chamomile tea

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lighty grease three baking sheets.

- Using a hand-held electric beater, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until very creamy.

- Gradually beat in the cornstarch and flour.

- Beat in the lemon zest and chamomile. Continue to beat the batter for a full 10 minutes until it looks like slightly overbeaten whipped cream (see notes).

- Drop the batter by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets.

- Bake the cookies for approximately 15-20 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven just as they start to brown on the bottoms.

- Let the shortbread cookies cool on the cookie sheet for at least 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Do be careful when moving them as they will fall apart if you transfer them too soon.

Notes:

- If you use a stand-mixer instead of a hand held electric beater, the cookies will fall flat. If you want to use your stand mixer, please make sure to reduce the time you mix the batter.

Magickal Correspondences:

- Cookies ~ (in general) nurturing, love

- Lemon ~ faithfulness, friendship, happiness, longevity, love, marriage

- Butter ~ smoothing relationships, spirituality, tenacity

- Vanilla ~ joy, love, luck, lust, mental powers

- Chamomile ~ the sun, purification, protection, calming, luck

- Flour ~ revealing hidden matters, consistency

- Sugar ~ love

Honey Lavender Lemonade

Ingredients:

- 1 ½ cups honey lavender simple syrup (recipe below)

- 1 ½ cups lemon juice

- 2 ½ cups water, sparkling water, or sparkling wine

Honey Lavender Simple Syrup:

Ingredients:

- I cup honey (granulated sugar for vegan)

- ½ cups water

- 1 tbsp lavender buds

Directions:

- Stir all ingredients together in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

- Remove from heat and refrigerate. Strain out buds before using.

Directions:

- Stir all ingredients together until combined. Serve over ice.

Magickal Correspondences:

- Lemonade ~ love, purification

- Lemon ~ faithfulness, friendship, happiness, longevity, love, marriage

- Honey ~ happiness, healing, love, lust, purification, spirituality, sweet things in life, weight loss, wisdom

- Lavender ~ fertility, love, purification, relaxation, rest

- Water ~ purification