Tarot Diva, page 12
Pull out an old-time board game and challenge someone to beat you, knowing full well they won’t.
Knight o f Swords: Extreme bravery. Fighting for one’s ideals.
Moving forward quickly. Jumping to conclusions.
•
Plan a quick and unexpected outing. Surprise a friend:
tell them they are coming with you.
Queen of Swords: Intelligence. Honesty. Strength of mind. A
woman deeply connected to intellectual thought, books, and
communication.
•
Do a crossword puzzle—in ink.
King of Swords: Clear expression of thoughts. Precision. Intellectual. Accomplished.
•
Write down a list of ten reasons why you are super
smart.
Pcntacles
Pentacles are about the material world, possessions, money,
and our bodies. If you can see it, touch it, or feel it, it relates to
the world of pentacles.
Ace o f Pentacles: A new idea. Having a solid start. Holding
something real in your hand.
•
Take a quarter in your hand. Imagine this quarter
growing, increasing, and multiplying to a great
amount of money.
Two o f Pentacles: Balancing your life. A happy choice. A gentle balance, back and forth.
•
Write down two different options you are considering
on pieces of paper. Hide them behind your back and
have a friend choose left or right. Perform the option
they pick.
Three o f Pentacles: Collaboration with others. Wonderful creativity. Calling in an expert. Checking in with someone else.
•
Expert information exists on every imaginable subject
on the Internet. Think of an area where you need
some expert advice and look it up.
Four of Pentacles: Standing on solid financial ground. Planning ahead. Opening your chakras.
Stop for a moment and consider all the money you
have ever earned in your life. Count it up in your
head.
Five o f Pentacles: Downturn in the ups and downs of life.
Financial problems. There is light if you look hard enough.
•
When you turn on the lights in your home, imagine
you are turning on your own inner light.
Six o f Pentacles: Charity. Giving. Not judging others.
•
Select an online charity and make a small (or large)
donation to it.
Seven of Pentacles: Taking stock of what you have. A pause
before finishing a big project. Consideration over further actions.
•
Look around you right now and see the beautiful, solid
things you have brought into your life. Write what is
your favorite thing and why.
Eight of Pentacles: Happiness in work. Lost in what you are
doing. Pleasure in work. Skill. Profitable undertaking.
•
Think of something you do very well. If you can’t
think of anything, ask a friend what you do well. Congratulate yourself for doing it.
Nine of Pentacles: Delight in quality alone time. Happy with
who you are. Qualities you inherit from your family. Financial windfall.
•
What is the best quality you’ve inherited from your
family? How can you honor that quality?
Ten of Pentacles: Massive abundance and wealth. Cycle has
come to an end. A turn to the more spiritual side of life.
•
Splurge on an item or indulgence for yourself and a
loved one.
Page of Pentacles: The student of the tarot deck. Love of learning. Back to school. Absorption in study.
•
Select a class you’ve been meaning to take. Now register for it.
Knight of Pentacles: Slow but steady progress. Planning for
the future. Consideration and care.
•
Literally plant a seed or transplant a flower or vegetable.
Queen o f Pentacles: The earth mother, fertility, abundance,
providing well for those around her. Fabulous cook. A
woman deeply connected to the earth, gardening, and nature.
•
Cook a special dinner for someone you love.
King o f Pentacles: A wealthy man. Protected. Assets. Great
abundance.
•
Make a list of the first ten things you would do with
five million dollars.
[contents]
Kitchen Tarot
Cooking food and reading tarot have much more in common
than one might think. They both require use of your intuition
and instincts. They require you to trust yourself. It takes a special intuition to see how your card-a-day applies. It takes this same gentle use of your inner voice to know the precise moment your cupcakes are done and remove them from the oven before the bottoms are burned. To pull together an inspired
meal, you open yourself up to divine forces so your food will not
only taste delicious, it will look beautiful and appealing.
Through cooking, you offer family, guests, and yourself a
form of sheer sensory pleasure. Food is a direct line to our senses. Just think: your meals are three opportunities a day to indulge yourself and treat yourself well. A tarot diva knows when there is pleasure to be had. She reaches out and accepts it. She
finds delight in a bowl of summer sun-wanned strawberries
and in pots of creamy, rich pasta and anything else that tickles
her taste buds.
Food is an important pa it of a balanced diet.
Fran Lebowitz
The Major Arcana provides us with a slew of tarot archetypes.
The first ten Major Arcana cards, the Fool through the Hermit,
offer us personality archetypes. You can apply these archetypes
to your kitchen, cooking, eating, and entertaining style. Doing
so, you will get one step closer to understanding what these
cards mean. You will discover how you embody them. Find out
which major card you identify with—it may be more than one,
depending on your mood. Peruse the first ten major cards to
figure out which archetype you are in the kitchen.
ARE YOU A FO O L?
The Fool's Kitchen
Your kitchen is one topsy-turvy hot mess. There is no rhyme
or reason in the chaos of what appears to be a stove (or is that a
dining table)? Your shelves contain a mishmash of unmatched
dishes. Plates and cups pile sky-high in your sink. Ice cream
melts across your pantry; crackers, hard as slate, shiver in your
freezer. Dozens of paint swatches smear the wall, but you never
decided so they never got painted. Green fuzzies grow in the
corners of your fridge because someone— you—keep forgetting
to clean it out. The Fool doesn’t have time to clean or organize
because lie’s always onto the next thing ...
The Fool's Cooking Style
Completely fearless when attempting a new dish, you cook
startling, untried recipes. Cooking is a grand adventure for you,
all about spontaneity. Your meals are at times dismal, at times
sublime. You don’t bother to stress about your meals. You
know if a meal goes south you can always order a pizza, so
you’ve got nothing to prove and nothing to lose.
The Fool's Eating Habits
You have never met a food you wouldn’t try— even once. Venturing into new, untried restaurants, you order daring, offbeat menu items, easily making friends with the people sitting beside you. You are more than comfortable eating a meal alone in public. You are the first one to get a splash of red sauce across
your shirt while diving headfirst into a bowl of spaghetti. Who
cares? fust the word spaghetti makes you giggle.
When to Invoke Fool Energy
•
Learning a new recipe
•
Dining out while traveling
•
When you get bored cooking
The Fool’s Croque Madame
Which came first: the Fool or the egg? You can look at the shape
of an egg, hold it in your hand, and he reminded of the Fool’s
number— zero. Just as the Fool represents pure potential, so do
eggs with their infinite varieties of preparation. The egg is
considered by many to be a perfect food. Let this idea of perfection remind you that the Fool is safe, no matter what path he follows. Like a newborn, the Fool begins his journey perfect from the offset.
The trick to this French bistro classic is slow-cooking the grilled
ham and cheese. A low f ame ensures the sandwich is warm and
gooey on the inside and crunchy on the outside.
i tablespoon mayonnaise
i teaspoon grainy Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon butter
2 slices thick white sandwich bread
V2 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
4 thin slices Black Forest ham
1 farm-fresh egg*
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Mix the mayonnaise and mustard together.
Melt butter over low flame in a nonstick pan.
As butter melts, assemble sandwich. Spread half the
mavo/mustard mixture over one slice of bread. Sprinkle half
the cheese over mayo/mustard mix and top with ham.
Spread the remaining mayo/mustard over the second slice
of bread and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Press together, cheese sides facing each other, to form sandwich.
Place sandwich in pan with foaming butter.
Cook on very low flame, flipping over to ensure even cooking and pressing down with spatula to flatten. When sandwich is golden brown and toasty, after 5 or 10 minutes, remove from pan and place on plate.
Increase heat to medium flame and immediately crack egg
into the same pan. Fry the egg, covered, until the whites are
set and the yokes are still runny, about 3 minutes. Slide the
egg on top of the toasted sandwich and top with a sprinkling
of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Makes 1 sandwich.
* If salmonella is a cause of concern for you. cook eggs until
yolks are set or use pasteurized eggs (in the shell).
ARE YOU A M A G IC IA N ?
The Magician's Kitchen
Serve the dinner backward, do anything—
but fo r goodness’ sake, do something weird.
Elsa Maxwell
The air in your kitchen hums with an invisible yet present,
taut energy field. Guests gather at the island in your kitchen to
watch you whip up wizardlike meals. Your knife skills are on
par with Japanese steak and seafood chefs; your sauce-making
skills rival the finest French saucier. Your cupboards are
stocked with every imaginable foodstuff. Your kitchen is chock-
full of fabulous, shiny appliances. Ever)7 item is at your fingertips, ready to be put to use by your expert hands.
The Magician's Cooking Style
You work at a feverish pace, vegetables flying through the air,
pots boiling, and flames dancing in a brilliantly orchestrated
performance. At the height of summer, crowds gather to watch
you flip, smoke, and grill meats and fish. On the coldest winter
evenings, you entertain guests with witty jokes and anecdotes
while whipping up a hearty7, succulent stew. You command the
flames that lick the bottom of your copper pots. The Magician, a
true Iron Chef, always puts on a show.
The Magician's Eating Habits
Always serve too much hot fudge sauce on sundaes. It makes
people overjoyed and puts them in your debt.
Judith Olney
Your gift of showmanship means you are always “on,” aware
of your appearance and actions. For this reason, you are quite
careful about what you eat and monitor your caloric intake.
Luckily, your high energy level and active lifestyle allow you to
indulge in foods you love. Paying attention to what the hot
chefs around town are serving, you re-create their dishes at
home. You’ve got a keen eye for fancy food trends and are eager
to share them with your family and friends.
When to Invoke Magician Energy
•
Hosting a party
•
Demonstrating a recipe
•
Showing off
The Magician’s Parmesan Herbed Risotto
Risotto is a labor of love. It requires about twenty minutes of
continuous stirring. A Magician uses this time wisely. Write
spells, words, and shapes in the risotto as you stir this heavenly
Tuscan treat. Act like a proper Magician and you'll know the
risotto is finished when it is al dente, like pasta—tender to the
tooth. Be sure to use Arborio rice, which is found in any supermarket in the pasta aisle.
5 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
i tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
i clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup shallots, minced
1V2 cups Arborio rice
V2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon butter
Va cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or fresh mixed herbs
Salt and cracked pepper to taste
Bring the broth to a steady simmer in saucepan.
In a heavy 4-quart pan, heat the butter and olive oil over
moderate heat. Add the garlic and shallots. Saute for 1 to 2
minutes until it begins to soften, being careful not to brown
it. Add the rice; using a wooden spoon, stir for 1 minute. Be
sure all the grains are well coated. Add white wine and stir
until completely absorbed. Begin to add the simmering
chicken broth, a half a cup at a time, using a soup ladle and
stirring frequently. Wait until each addition is almost completely absorbed before adding the next V2 cup, reserving about 1/4 cup to add at the end. Stir frequently to prevent
sticking.
When the rice is tender but firm, add the reserved broth.
Turn off the heat and immediately add the butter, cheese,
and herbs. Stir vigorously to combine with rice. Serve immediately; top with more fresh cheese, tons of fresh cracked pepper, and a sprinkling of sea salt.
Once mastering the art of risotto, you can prepare it with
an endless number of flavors and additions. Adjust for the
season; pumpkin and morel risotto in the fall, hearty beef
and mushroom risotto in the winter, sugar snap pea risotto
in the spring, risotto primavera for summer.
Note to vegetarians; the chicken stock in above recipe may
be replaced with vegetable stock. The white wine may also
be omitted.
This recipe makes 4 servings.
ARE YOU A H IG H PRIESTESS?
The High Priestess's Kitchen
Fresh and dried herbs fill your kitchen with heavenly aromas.
You have the ability to jump inside of an herb and work magically with their chemical compounds to unleash their healing properties. Loose-leaf teas dance and flitter inside glass jars—
peppermint for a sore tummy, mugwort for prophetic dreams,
chamomile for peace. Antique cookbooks fill your shelves. They
remain dusty, as you never need open them; all your recipes are
known by heart Odd and interesting cooking gadgets from another era dangle from the ceiling.
The High Priestess's Cooking Style
Quiet and refined in your cooking and serving style, you have
an innate sense of how flavors mingle with each other. High tea
is your specially7; your table is a wooden confessional to the
guests who grace it. Friends purge their souls, strangers confess
their secrets, traveling salesmen are reduced to tears by the
steady gaze you lift to meet them over a cup of tea. You’ll carry
their information to the grave and beyond, as it’s not your style
to gab about the stories that grace your ears. You are happy
enough simply to act as a mirror to those who would sip your
herbal concoctions.
The High Priestess's Eating Habits
Fresh, seasonal food is of utmost importance because you
understand the innate value of living in tune with nature’s cycles. You eat organically or nothing at all. You are often found gardening amidst the moonlight, nibbling on a carrot to ground
yourself, popping sweet peas for pleasure. Listening to your
body, you know a craving is the body’s way of finding correct
nutrients. Beauty lies in simplicity, and you are not one to ever
fuss over a meal.
When to Invoke High Priestess Energy
•
Hanging out with your best friend
•
Helping someone mend a broken heart
•
Hosting a tea party
The High Priestess’s Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
High tea is a time-honored tradition that encourages one to sit.
relax, and indulge. Think of the High Priestess’s connection with
the rnoon while spreading the cream cheese and slicing the
cucumber in this ultrafeminine and girly delight.
V2 seedless cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced (about 32
slices)
V2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
V2 cup watercress leaves, washed and chopped
16 slices thin white bread
