Halloween wouldn’t be complete without the “goodies” part. Whenever you prepare any food, here are some magickal rules of thumb:
• Stir counterclockwise to banish negativity from the food.
• Stir clockwise to instill good wishes of harmony, peace, and love.
• Add seasonings not only for their taste and nutrient value, but for their magickal correspondences as well.70
• When completed, empower the dish with love, health, and wealth energies by holding your hands over the dish, humming what you wish to instill until the palms of your hands tingle or grow warm.
General Ingredient Blessing
Put your hands over the ingredients of any dish. Envision pure, white light entering the ingredients. Circle your palms five times over the ingredients, and say:
From the east, the air brings wisdom
From the south, the fire brings creation
From the west, the water brings love
From the north, the earth brings stability
From the center, Spirit brings blessings.
Tap the kitchen counter three times, and say:
The love is sealed.
Cooking Blessing
Put your hands over the simmering pot, and repeat three times:
Three angels came from the east
Bringing blessings upon this feast.
The first said, “I banish all negativity.”
The second said, “May you never thirst.”
The third said, “May you never hunger.”
In the name of the three
So mote it be.
With your hand (or a wooden spoon) make the sign of the equal-armed cross over the cooking pot, then tap the spoon or your fingers lightly on the stove, saying:
This work is sealed.
Blessings of Vesta upon us.71
Samhain Serving Blessing
Hold your hands over the cooked food, and say:
The golden rays of sun kissed the grain
Sweet drops of rain caressed the fruit.
Streams of moonlight danced in the fields
Sending energy into the root.
Blessings of the Mother
Strength of the Father
Unity of Love.
So mote it be.
Make the sign of the equal-armed cross over the dish. Tap the dish once. Serve with a smile!
All Souls’ Day Bread Recipe
In Cleveland county, England, loaves of bread, called Sau’mas Loves, were made for distribution among the children and the poor. Sets of square farthing cakes with currants in the center, commonly given by bakers to their customers, were kept in the house for good luck throughout the coming year. Some of the more prosperous individuals in Lancashire and Herefordshire gave cakes of oaten bread to the poor, saying “God have your soul, beens and all.”72 In Warwickshire seedcakes, much like rolls, were given as gifts to the inhabitants of the county. From Scotland, we have a large cake in the form of a triangle. Leave a small portion of All Souls’ Bread outside for the faeries, and a portion at the cemetery or on your altar for the dead.
4 yeast cakes (fertility and money)
2 cups milk
8 cups flour (fertility and money)
1 teaspoon salt (protection)
8 egg yolks (fertility)
2 cups sugar (love)
1 teaspoon grated orange peel (love and money)
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (protection)
½ cup butter
1 teaspoon poppy seeds (luck and invisibility)
Dissolve yeast in ½ cup milk, and add 1 cup of flour. Sprinkle a little flour on top and let rise until size doubles. Add salt and egg yolks, beat until thick. Add sugar and peels and mix with other ingredients. Add 2 cups flour and remaining milk, alternating each so that the mixture doesn’t get too dry or too wet. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes, saying:
Blessings upon the living.
Prayers for the dead.
Hum if you like, or simply chant. Add remaining flour and butter, and knead until dough comes away from hands. Set dough in a warm place, covered with a warm, damp cloth, until it rises to double in bulk. Separate into 4 parts, braid. Brush top with beaten egg yolks and sprinkle with poppy seed. Let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.73
Pumpkin Bread
The pumpkin belongs to American culture and therefore carries no European magickal history. The pumpkin is considered feminine, ruled by the moon, with its element seen as water. Its magickal associations are protection and abundance of the harvest. Without a European connection, we have no European deity to fairly associate with this wonderful vegetable, though I’m sure any harvest deity would be amicable to the association.
1¾ cups all-purpose flour (fertility and money)
1½ cups sugar (love and passion)
¾ teaspoon salt (protection)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (spirituality and protection)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (luck and health)
1 cup canned pumpkin (abundance)
⅓ cup water (cleansing)
2 large eggs (fertility)
1 teaspoon vanilla (love and mental prowess)
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup chopped walnuts (health and wishes—will counteract a fertility spell)
Confectioners’ sugar
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. In a different bowl, combine pumpkin, water, eggs, vanilla, and oil. Mix well. Add dry ingredients slowly and beat thoroughly. Stir in nuts and pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 75 to 80 minutes (but watch your time as different ovens may lengthen or shorten required time). Cool 15 minutes before removing from pan. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Makes 1 loaf.
Harvest Pumpkin Pie
This quick pie can be made even by noncooks like me! Serve with whipped cream on top. Display with dried Indian corn or dried corn husks.
1 (9-inch) frozen pie shell (cauldron of transformation)
3 eggs (fertility)
1 (16-ounce) can pumpkin (abundance)
¾ cup brown sugar (love)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (spirituality and protection)
½ teaspoon nutmeg (luck and health)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (spirituality)
1 cup evaporated milk
½ cup chopped pecans, optional (money and employment)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take frozen pie shell out of the freezer and leave at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Prick bottom and sides of the pie shell with a fork. Put into the oven to bake for about 3 to 5 minutes. Take pie shell out of the oven and cool for about 15 minutes. Leave the oven on.
Put eggs in large mixing bowl. Beat with a fork, whisk, or rotary beater until eggs are frothy. Open the can of pumpkin and add to eggs; add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix with spoon until blended. Add evaporated milk and stir again.
Sprinkle pecans on the bottom of the pie shell. Pour pie mixture over nuts. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 25 minutes. Lower temperature back to 350 degrees and bake another 15 minutes. Take pie out of oven and cool for 1 hour. Serves 8.
Divination Doughnuts
These doughnuts have a wonderful surprise in them for your Samhain guests. You can use them for a regular Halloween party or in ritual for communion. Take one doughnut and a bowl of milk and set outside on Halloween Eve as an offering to your local sidhe (devas or faeries).
1 egg, beaten (fertility)
½ cup brown sugar (love)
¾ cup molasses (love)
½ cup sour cream (protection)
3 cups all purpose flour (fertility and money)
¾ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt (protection)
2 teaspoons allspice (protection)
1 large container of vegetable oil
A heavy pot
1 roll of paper towels
17 fortunes written on small slips of paper (keep the fortunes positive and upbeat)
In a large bowl, blend egg, brown sugar, molasses, and sour cream. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix well. Chill for 2 to 3 hours. Pour oil into heavy pot. Heat to approximately 365 degrees. On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough, a small amount at a time, until the dough is ½-inch thick. Cut out the doughnuts with a 3-inch floured doughnut cutter. (If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, use a cleaned tin can.)
Fry the doughnuts for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown, turning once during the cooking process. Drain the doughnuts on paper towels. Cut a small slit in each doughnut and insert the fortune. Sprinkle doughnuts with powdered sugar or other topping. Makes approximately 18 doughnuts.
Green Man Cake
Serve garnished with antlers and autumn leaves.
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (love and protection)
1 stick butter
2 cups sugar (love)
3 eggs (fertility)
1 teaspoon vanilla (love and mental prowess)
1 teaspoon green food coloring (healing and abundance)
2¼ cups all-purpose flour (fertility and money)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup sour cream (protection)
1 cup boiling water (cleansing)
Cooking spray
1 container frosting (your choice)
Decorative candy (candy corn, chocolate candies, and so on)
2 (9-inch) round cake pans
One set of real or decorative antlers; leaves for decoration
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt chocolate in small saucepan over low heat. Allow to cool. Put butter, sugar, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and the melted, cooled chocolate. Add green food coloring. Beat on low speed for about 1 minute until batter is blended.
Sift flour and baking soda into second bowl. Add to batter alternately with sour cream, mixing with long wooden spoon. Add boiling water to batter and mix again. Batter will be runny.
Spray bottom of baking pans with cooking spray. Lightly flour. Pour batter into pans and bake for about 35 minutes. Cool for 15 to 20 minutes. Frost and decorate.
Prosperity Pumpkin Raisin Muffins
This recipe is from Morgana of Morgana’s Chamber in New York City. The recipe can be halved, and the muffins freeze well, too.
2 cups canned pumpkin purée (abundance)
1½ cups honey (riches)
4 eggs (or 8 egg whites if you want low fat)
1 cup evaporated skimmed milk (goddess symbolism)
1 cup water (element of water and the flow of prosperity)
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon cinnamon (success)
1 teaspoon nutmeg (antihunger)
1 teaspoon ginger (money)
⅓ teaspoon ground cloves (money)
3½ cups whole wheat flour (abundance)
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup black raisins (money)
Mix the first ten ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to wet ingredients all at once, whisking until blended (do not overmix). Stir first counterclockwise (widdershins) to banish poverty, then clockwise to pull in abundance and prosperity. Stir in raisins. Fill nonstick muffin pans to the top. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan. Batter can also be baked in two nonstick loaf pans for 60 to 65 minutes. Makes 2 dozen muffins.
Note: Adult supervision required. Pumpkin seeds are excellent for Halloween spellwork and Halloween munching. If you designed the jack-o’-lantern protection totem (page 135), you’ve got plenty of pumpkin seeds. Some pumpkin seed recipes call for boiling the seeds first, where others do not. Although we boil them in this recipe, if you’re in a hurry, you can skip that step—just be sure you’ve cleaned the seeds thoroughly before baking them.
Pumpkin seeds (wishes)
2 quarts water (purification)
½ cup salt or to taste (protection)
2 tablespoons olive oil (healing and peace)
2 tablespoons dried rosemary (protection)
Rinse pumpkin seeds. Boil water. Add salt. Pour seeds into boiling water. Boil until seeds are soft. (They should turn brownish-gray and many will slip to the bottom of the pot.) Drain the boiled seeds in a colander, and pat seeds dry. Put in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and the rosemary. Mix lightly. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread the seeds on a large cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. Make a single layer of seeds (don’t have any little piles). Put seeds in oven for 20 to 30 minutes. If the seeds turn brown, you are overcooking them. They should look white and dry. You do not need to turn the seeds. When finished, use a spatula to slide the seeds off the foil and into a bowl. Allow to cool before little hands touch them.
Witches’ Brew
The offering of wine, ale, water, cider, or other fruit juice used for religious symbolism dates back to Paleopagan times. As an example, in Scotland on Samhain Eve (relating to the Isle of Lewis), inhabitants would take a chalice of ale brewed for the occasion and enter the sea up to their waists. There, they would speak the words of invocation to the God/Goddess of the sea, asking for blessings and protection, and then pour the contents of the chalice into the waters. Even during the early Christian era, this practice remained alive—the priest offering the ale to the mysterious power of the ocean and, of course, unto the God whom they believed created those seas.
If you would like to design a ritual for yourself along the lines of the sacred communion, you may wish to make the brew listed below. Apple cider has long been used as a libation to the Earth Goddess and deity in general. The apple (prized food of the unicorn) brings health, love, and wisdom to those who taste its enchanting juices.
1 gallon apple cider (love)
1 orange (love)
1 apple (love)
3 cinnamon sticks (love and psychic powers)
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg (fidelity)
1 handful rose petals (love)
1 big pot
Pour apple cider into a large kettle. Peel orange and squeeze its juice into cider, discarding the pulp. Tear the orange peel into 1-inch strips, and add to mixture. Core apple and cut into ¼-inch slices. Add to mixture. Break the cinnamon sticks in half. Add to mixture. Add nutmeg. Warm over low heat for 2 hours. Do not bring to a boil. Stir often, saying:
From the moon to the vine
From the vine to the fruit
From the fruit to this brew
May the Lady send her blessings
May the Lord grant your desires.
Serve warm from pumpkin punch bowl, next page. Sprinkle with rose petals.
Pumpkin Punch Bowl
In magickal traditions, the cauldron represents purification and transformation. Use a pumpkin to represent your cauldron at your next Samhain ritual or for that great Halloween party.
2 glow-in-the-dark sticks
1 large pumpkin (abundance)
1 heat-resistant punch bowl that will fit inside the pumpkin (cauldron
of transformation)
Hollow out pumpkin, and carve a design in it. Place punch bowl inside pumpkin. Right before the party begins, activate the glow-in-the-dark sticks per package instructions and place between pumpkin shell and bowl. Add enchanted Witches’ brew!
Easy Enchanted Punch
Keep your party safe and sober by using this great nonalcoholic punch recipe.
8 cups cranberry juice (health and love)
6 cups apple cider (love)
6 cinnamon sticks (psychic powers)
6 orange slices (luck)
1 liter ginger ale (success)
1 tray of ice cubes
Pour cranberry juice and apple cider into a large bowl. Break the cinnamon sticks in half. Put one cinnamon stick and one piece of orange in each cube holder. Fill an ice cube tray with some of the cranberry-apple mixture. Freeze. Refrigerate remaining punch mixture in bowl. Before serving, add ginger ale and ice cubes.
Mozelle’s Party Pumpkin
My mother, Mozelle Strader, was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia, and grew up on Pocahontas Street. She was the primo party thrower, coming up with amazing ideas on a shoestring budget. No one could outmaneuver her when it came to party ideas. Here’s what you need for this terrific Halloween edible centerpiece that has been a tradition in my house for over forty years.
Note: It takes approximately one hour to “dress” the pumpkin. This is something for the kids to do while you’re running around with other preparations.
An assortment of block cheeses
Ring bologna—sweet, plain, and garlic
1 can pitted black olives (protection)
1 jar pitted green olives (healing)
1 jar small, sweet gerkins (healing)
2 boxes round toothpicks
1 medium-sized pumpkin (abundance)
Cut the cheese and bologna into ½-inch blocks. Put a piece of cheese or bologna on a toothpick. Top with olive or pickle. Insert the free end of the toothpick into the pumpkin. Continue this procedure until your pumpkin is covered with these fun party snacks!
Angel’s Dreams and Wishes Pumpkin
Note: I advise using this treat for adults only. This Halloween sweet treat follows somewhat the same procedure as above, but found a new twist in the mind of my eighteen-year-old daughter.
1 can Sterno cooking fuel
1 medium-sized pumpkin (abundance)
2–3 bags large marshmallows (dreams)
1 bag large gumdrops (wishes)
1 box toothpicks
Carve a hole in the top of the pumpkin that matches the size of the Sterno can. You want the Sterno can to fit snugly in the top of the pumpkin. (If you make the hole too big, don’t despair—wrap the can with tin foil.) Insert Sterno can. Put one marshmallow on a toothpick, and stick the free end of the toothpick in the pumpkin. Intersperse with the large gum drops. Cover pumpkin with the marshmallows and gum drops. When the party begins, light the sterno. Guests can roast their own marshmallows. (Don’t roast the gum drops.)
Candied Love Apples
Samhain is sometimes called “Feast of the Apples” as these luscious fruits have a historical significance as food for the dead. Earlier in this book, we learned that the Celts fed apples to Samhain fires to spiritually empower their beloved dead, or buried the fruit in honor of a special loved one. The apple has long been a symbol of immortality, lust, and love. Perhaps the oldest apple spell consists of cutting an apple in half and sharing it with the person you wish to entice.
3 cups sugar (love)
1 cup light corn syrup (abundance and love)
1½ cups water (purity)
1½ teaspoons red food coloring (passion)
12 Popsicle sticks
12 medium apples (love and passion)
1 cup chopped peanuts, optional (fertility)
Combine sugar, syrup, water, and food coloring in sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture looks like wet cracks (8 to 10 minutes). Turn heat to low. Stick a popsicle stick into each apple (at the stem), and dip each apple into the sauce pan. Roll in peanuts. Place apples on waxed paper to cool and harden. Hold your hands over the apples, and say:
I conjure thee, O sweet fruit of love and immortality
To bring to those who touch or eat thee
Many blessings in love and wisdom.
Keep your hands over the apples until your palms grow warm. Be sure you tell your guests that they are eating enchanted apples—we certainly don’t want to cheat.
Baked Harmony Apples
These scrumptious apples will add harmony wherever they are served!
8 McIntosh apples (love and passion)
1 cup brown sugar (love and lust)
10 tablespoons chopped raisins (fertility and abundance)
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
Ground cinnamon (success and love)
Ground nutmeg (health and fidelity)
2 cups water
2 cups dry white wine (fertility and passion)
Wash apples. Core the apples on one end. Mix together the brown sugar, raisins, and butter. Place the apples in a baking dish, cored end up, fill them with the brown sugar mixture, and then sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and nutmeg. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a separate bowl, add the water to the wine. Hold your hands over the wine water, and say:
From the autumn sun to the vine
From the vine to the wine
I bless and empower this mixture
In the name of harmony.
Pour around apples. Bake for 45 minutes, basting occasionally. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon. Serves 8.
Frosted Grapes and Honeyed Apples
Grapes have been used in fertility and money magick for centuries, and fall under the auspices of the moon; their element is water. A Samhain altar garnished with grapes is supposed to bring health, fertility, and material abundance. Magickally, honey is used to draw good things toward you or sweeten a situation. Apples, of course, represent love, passion, and lust.
1 large bunch of grapes (love and abundance)
1 egg white (fertility and protection)
½ cup of sugar (love)
6 apples (love and lust)
Lemon juice (protection)
Water
Honey (love)
Serving platter
Divide grapes into small clusters of about four or five grapes each. Put egg white into a small bowl. Whip until frothy but not stiff. Put sugar into another bowl. Dip each grape cluster first into the egg white, then into sugar, shaking off any excess sugar. Put grapes on paper towel to dry. Arrange grapes in the center of the platter. Just before serving, core apples and cut into slices. Arrange them in a circle around grapes. Sprinkle with a mixture of lemon juice and water to keep the apples from turning brown. Serve with honey.
Roasted Corn on the Cob
The Corn Mother or Corn Goddess is considered a deity of plenty and fertility. The corn dolly figures prominently in two rituals, one at Samhain and one at Candlemas. Corn has been used by various religious systems in ritual to signify the bounty of the earth. The magickal uses of corn include protection, luck, and divination techniques. In American folklore, an ear of corn was placed in the baby’s crib to ward against negativity, and ancient Mesoamerican peoples would toss loose corn in the air during rain ceremonies. At Samhain, corn stalks hung over the largest mirror in the house and over the front door were thought to bring good luck to all those residing in the house.
Preparing corn on the cob for a Samhain feast or Halloween party is a wonderful, magickal way to bring prosperity to your party guests. Your adventure begins at the grocery store or produce stand. Check the corn by looking at the tassel. If the tassel isn’t too dry, then the corn should be good. You can also break a few kernels with your fingernail—if juice spurts, then the corn is fresh.
Bring the corn home and place on your altar or in the center of your kitchen table. Hold your hands over the corn and ask the corn goddess (or your version of deity) to bless this corn and bring health and prosperity to all who will consume the corn. Keep your hands over the corn until your palms grow hot.
Carefully peel back the husks from the corn without taking the husks off. Pull off the silk and discard. Replace the husks, smoothing them onto the cob. Tie the ends together with a strip of the husk or string. Hum the words “abundance” and “prosperity” as you work through the corn. Set the corn aside until one hour before you plan to grill it.
Soak the corn one hour before grilling. Prepare your grill outside, asking Vesta, the goddess of hearth fires, to bless the fire. Place the corn on a medium-hot grill and turn often for 15 to 20 minutes. Try not to overcook. You can also wrap the corn in tin foil to help control the heating process if you are very busy scurrying around the house getting ready for your party! You can use the dying embers of your grill for nut divinations or in a personal ceremony for the remembrance of the dead.
Prosperity Popcorn Balls
Spread the wealth around by giving your friends empowered prosperity popcorn balls with a special wish for a productive and enchanting New Celtic Year.
1½ cups sugar (love and passion)
⅔ cup apple cider (love and passion)
⅔ cup maple syrup (abundance)
½ cup butter
1½ teaspoons salt (protection)
¼ teaspoon vanilla (love)
4 cups warm popped corn (abundance)
Combine sugar, cider, syrup, butter, and salt in a large pot. Bring to a slow boil over low heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and remove crystallized sugar from sides of pot with a wet pastry brush. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn to low heat and add vanilla. Turn off heat. When mixture cools slightly, hold your hands over the bowl or pan, and say:
Mother of the Corn
Blessings of the sun
Blessings of the rain
From the earth to your hands
May each bite bring prosperity.
Hum or chant the word “prosperity” as you pour mixture over popcorn. Mix well. Butter your hands and roll into balls. Place on waxed paper. Store in an airtight container.
Tuna Ghouls
My son dearly loves this recipe. If you can’t find Halloween cookie cutters, use the shape of a gingerbread man and cut off the legs to make tuna ghosts. If you’re really in a hurry, just cut them like regular sandwiches and tell everyone that you had originally made them ghosts, but they shapeshifted into regular sandwiches.
2 (8-ounce) cans white tuna, packed in water
3 tablespoons of salad dressing
2 tablespoons relish (healing)
20 slices wheat bread, crusts removed (fertility and money)
Halloween cookie cutters
Whipped cream cheese
5 black olives (protection)
Drain tuna and mix with salad dressing and relish in a bowl. Cut the bread with the cookie cutters (be sure to have two of each shape). Spread 10 slices of bread with the tuna mixture. Put the matching slice of bread on top. Spread the top of each ghoul with cream cheese. Use two slices of olive to make eyes. Makes 10 sandwiches.
Magickal Mice
For a different twist, you can pickle the eggs and create red mice for that special Halloween party!
6 eggs (fertility)
1 carrot (fertility)
24 whole cloves (protection)
12 pieces licorice shoestring candy (wishes)
12 lettuce leaves (protection and love)
Hard-boil eggs by boiling gently for 15 minutes for medium to large eggs (or 12 minutes for small eggs). Remove from stove. Run cold water over eggs until they are cool to the touch. Set aside for 20 to 30 minutes or refrigerate overnight.
To make mice, peel eggs and run them under cold water to remove excess shell. Slice eggs in half lengthwise and set them, cut side down, on wax paper. Wash and peel carrot. Cut 2 carrot slices, the size and thickness of a dime or nickel, to be ears for each mouse. Cut a pointed base in each slice, then stick points into egg just above the narrow end, which will be the mouse’s face. Put 2 cloves into each mouse for eyes. Arrange on lettuce on platter. Add licorice tails.
Quick Ideas for Busy People
Let’s face it: you’ve got a full-time job and a full-time kid. October brings requests for that special costume, going to parades, trick-or-treating, and holiday parties. Although you try to be supermom, superdad, superstep-person, or superguardian, something’s got to give. Here are some quick treat ideas for school or home that may save the face you normally wear.
Witches’ Flying Mix
This fun mix takes only five minutes to prepare, looks great on the table, and tastes terrific. Witches’ flying mix was especially designed for working moms or guardians whose schedules are jammed and who can’t make something for the school party, or for the mother who, at 10:00 p.m., learns from her third-grader that she’s expected to provide a snack for tomorrow’s Halloween party.
1 cup popcorn (or Cracker Jacks)
½ cup candy corn
½ cup small marshmallows
½ cup black jelly beans
Mix all ingredients together in a colorful bowl. Makes 8 servings.
Sugar Snakes in Graveyard Dust
Be sure to have plenty of napkins around for these “dusty” cookies! We can attribute this recipe to my older son, who makes strange things in the kitchen no matter what time of the year it is. His concoctions have become quite famous and often turn out to be pretty tasty. Because of the honey and sugar mixture, you can’t prepare these too far in advance, as the honey and sugar seep into the cookie. Also, my son has also been known to use various holiday sprinkles (found in the baking section of the grocery store) for that added artistic touch.
2 tubes cookie dough (in the grocery store’s dairy section)
Chocolate chips
½ cup honey
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Confectioners’ sugar
Separate dough into golfball-sized pieces, then separate each piece into four small balls. (Flour your fingers to keep the dough from sticking to them.) Roll out the balls in your hands into snakelike shapes. Place snakes one inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until snakes turn light brown. Remove from cookie sheets. When cookies are slightly warm to the touch, use chocolate chip pieces for the eyes. Allow to cool completely. Mix honey, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl and drizzle over cooled snakes right before serving. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar (call it graveyard dust).
Oranges and Peppermint Sticks
This is an on-the-spot treat, and should not be prepared in advance.
1 orange for each guest
1 peppermint stick for each guest
1 apple corer
Roll the orange in your hands to make the insides nice and juicy. Use the apple corer to cut about ¾ of the way into the core of the orange. Place the peppermint stick in the hole, and use it as a straw.
70. Use Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magickal Herbs by Scott Cunningham (Llewellyn, 1985).
71. Vesta is the fire goddess of hearth and home.
72. W. C. Hazlitt, Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs, Reeves and Turner, 1905, page 299.
73. Francis X. Weiser, The Holyday Book, Harcourt, 1956.