Buckeyes

This is a great treat to have around especially in the fall.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 1/2 cups Smucker’s® Creamy Natural Peanut Butter, stirred
* OR Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
* 1 (12 oz.) package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 2 tablespoons Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening

Directions

COMBINE peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on LOW until blended. Add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating until blended. Beat in additional powdered sugar until mixture, when shaped into a ball, will stay on a toothpick. Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate.

PLACE chocolate chips and shortening in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Reheat as needed while coating peanut butter balls.

INSERT toothpick in peanut butter ball. Dip 3/4 of ball into chocolate, leaving top uncovered to resemble a buckeye. Remove excess. Place on wax paper-lined tray. Remove toothpick. Smooth over holes. Refrigerate until firm.

Kitchen Lore

I am posting these more for humor and knowledge than trying to enforce a strong belief in these tidbits of folk lore.

* Money will soon come your way if any of the following things should occur: bubbles appear in a cup of coffee, you accidentally knock over a sugar bowl, rice forms a ring around the edge of a pot, or tea leaves float to the top of the cup.

* Trouble is indicted by the accidental omission of spices from a recipe or by the spilling of salt. Be prepared for an argument with someone if you should happen to spill pepper on the kitchen table or floor. (According to occult tradition, these bad omens can be remedied by simply adding the spices, and by tossing a pinch of salt or pepper over your left shoulder, respectively.) It is also said that if two persons stir the same boiling pot or sit together on a table, they will soon find themselves involved in a quarrel.

* If your apron comes untied by itself and falls off while you are working in the kitchen, this is generally seen as a sign that someone is thinking about you. Some say that it means your sweetheart is having romantic thoughts about you at that moment.

* It is believed by many to be an omen of good news when baked apples burst while in the oven, or when the salt and sugar are accidentally mixed up.

* If a fork accidentally falls onto the floor, a woman will soon knock on your door; a spoon indicates the arrival of a gentleman. (In some parts of the world, the fork means a man, and the spoon a woman.) Unexpected or unwelcome visitors are also presaged by the dropping of a knife that sticks in the ground and by cracks that form on the shells of eggs boiling in a pot of water.

* If you are engaged or wish to get married, according to an old belief once common in England, you should take care to never sit on a kitchen table, for this will break the engagement and also prevent you from ever being wed.

* There are also numerous kitchen omens concerning bread. It is considered unlucky in certain countries to wash a bread-knife on a Sunday, cut both ends of a loaf of bread, leave a knife stuck in the loaf, or take the last slice of bread. Accidentally dropping a slice of bread with the buttered side down is also said to be a bad omen; however, it is a good sign if the dropped bread lands with the buttered side up. If you and another person reach for the same slice of bread at the same time, an unexpected visitor will soon appear.

Weather Lore

Like with the rest of the lore pages, I am not saying all of these are true and should be strictly believed in. I post old folk lore because I love seeing what people of the past believed in.

* If the cows lie down in the field it is going to rain.
* When bees are out flying, there will be fair weather. When they stay close to the hive, rain is coming.
* Grasshoppers chirp louder and louder the hotter it gets.
* When a donkey nods and shakes its head a lot, it means rain is on the way.
* Flies bite more if there is a storm coming.
* If the spiders are making bigger webs, the weather will be dry.
* Bees will not swarm before a storm.
* A full moon rising clear means good weather
* If the wind blows so you can see the bottoms of leaves it will rain.
* A purple sunset means frost that night

Dark Chocolate Orange Shortbread

From Two Peas and Their Pod


2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
Zest of 2 oranges (about 3 tablespoons)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cups flour
1 cup dark chocolate, chopped into tiny pieces

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 2 9 inch cake pans.

2. Place the sugar and orange zest in a bowl. Rub the zest in with your fingers. In the bowl of a mixer, cream together butter, sugar/orange mix, salt, and vanilla.

3. Chop chocolate. You want the pieces a little smaller than chocolate chips.

4. Beat the flour and the chocolate with the butter mixture, until well combined.

5. Divide the dough in half and press in prepared cake pans. Make sure each pan is even. Smooth the surface and prick the dough with a fork.

6. Bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown on the edges. Remove and loosen the edges with a knife.

7. Wait five minutes, then carefully place the shortbread out onto a clean work surface, all in one piece.

8. Using a pizza wheel or knife, cut into wedges. Do this while it is still warm so you can cut it. Transfer wedges to a cooling rack.

What is Light and Dark Magic?

This is a very common question for those learning about magic. Terms like Light, White, Dark, Black, Neutral, and Grey Magic litter web pages and blogs. Should you do this? Should you do that? Will a band of demons rip you from your bed at night if you do this? I would like to give my perspective of this.

Quite simply I do not believe in these classifications. Magic is energy. Energy is life. It is constantly changing forms. What I do believe in is a balance.

When you look at nature there is balance everywhere. A thunder storm rolls in and brings both death and life. A baby bird is pushed out of the nest and dies but in its death its siblings grow stronger.

In my personal life I feel there is a series of checks and balances. If you are born with everything money can buy there is something in your life that is negative to balance this out. Maybe your parents were never around for love and comfort. Maybe your line of work makes you feel uncomfortable or makes you suppress other people. You may become an adult to realize the woman who are attracted to you "love" you for your money and not for the person inside your body.

On the other end of the scale, I feel someone who has struggled to survive either has something others wish they had or will end their lives with a brighter outlook. I have had some bad things happen to me the past few years but on the other hand I have a husband who loves me unconditionally and my family has become closer.

My views may sound generic or like I have no faith in greater powers impacting my life. Well I don't. I am an Atheist and feel everything around me should be accounted for either by myself or science and nature. I personally feel it is sheepish to blame bad happenings on evil demons or to keep hoping to a deity to make things better.

If you have a bill that is due what do you do? You pay it. It is unrealistic to look at the bill and say "Deity I ask that you help me pay for this bill" and then set the bill aside. You have to do something about it for it to get paid. The same goes to those asking deities to heal their illnesses. You can ask your deity to help you heal your body but if you don't do anything about it yourself then nothing will ever happen.

So Black and White magic...

There is always a payment for what you do and YOU need to be accounted for it. Is it wrong for you to pray and cast spells to influence someones decision? Depends on the situation but I am sure many of you have already done this without realizing it. You go into a job interview. In your mind you keep thinking really hard that the person will like you and hire you. You are metaphysically pushing your ideas onto someone else. Have you used words or gestures to influence a conversation into your favor? Have you twisted facts to make people agree with you? Have you used your body, voice, and gestures to influence a sexual partner into being attracted to you? You may say "But I didn't actually cast a physical spell to do these things!" Then ask yourself what is a spell? Is a prayer to a deity to help a family member in a car accident a spell? Is imparting love and kindness into the food you cook for your family a spell? Is being infuriated and invision a protective shielf around you a spell?

But what about the Rede? The Wiccan Rede is for followers of Wicca. Current Wicca is a bastardization of the origional path. It was a path created by Gardner in the 50s that had a set of rules, structered progression through learning, and the requirement that covens needs to be traced back to the foundation coven. How many followers of Wicca do you know can say and trace their coven back to Gardners? Wicca has become the stepping stone for people leaving main stream structured religions like Christianity and step into a socially acceptable non mainstream religion. The Internet has further watered it down to the point it is hard to find what is really Wicca and what is the neo "I can call myself Wiccan and belief anything I want because this is an religion a billion years old" mindset. The Wiccan Rede is for those who follow Wicca which is only one path of Paganism.

I dont want you to take what I say as fact. What is fact is what you learn through your heart. You already know everything you need to know it is just the process of unlocking what you already know in your heart. Read and research all you can but always take things with a grain of salt and never stop learning. If you feel uncomfortable with a certain path then start looking into others that have the same types of beliefs you have. Know that names of religions were put in place by a small amount of people with a big voice. If you start researching into world religions you will see many religions are connected in beliefs. You do not have to label your beliefs. Just say you follow what you feel is right. Know that you do not have to follow deities to be Pagan and that many Pagan authors, especially ones in the past 15 years, only pump out books because it is a money maker right now.