{"id":11913,"date":"2015-12-01T01:10:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T06:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=12505"},"modified":"2015-11-24T15:17:13","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T20:17:13","slug":"the-kitchen-witch-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2015\/12\/01\/the-kitchen-witch-6\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kitchen Witch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heirloom Holiday Cutout Cookies<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I have been studying and practicing the skills associated with the Pagan and Wiccan religions for over thirty years now. My Book of Shadows, once a small spiral notebook, has grown to three large notebook binders, organized by subject and carefully maintained. Much of my information was copied from library books but nowadays I am more likely to print directly from the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a fairly eclectic witch \u2013 I live with the seasons and work to develop my divinatory skills \u2013 as a solitary, my rituals are very quiet and quite Zen-like in their simplicity. I am also unapologetically Dianic and see no reason to invoke a male god. <\/span><\/p>\n

Like my BOS, my personal culinary notebook has grown from a slender binder to two large binders with pockets for recipe cards. I collect cookbooks and read cooking magazines and have more subscriptions to cooking blogs than I really have time to read. Like so many of us magical people, I am a kitchen witch \u2013 I grown my own herbs and I enjoy my time in the kitchen. <\/span><\/p>\n

The holidays are my favorite time of the year. Starting with Samhain and ending with Twelfth Night, it is a time to feast with family and friends. Many of us have specialty recipes that we only cook this time of year. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHeirloom Holiday Cutout Cookies\u201d are what I call a recipe that has been in my family for generations. In my personal cookbook, the name is \u201cChristmas Cutouts\u201d but I have been changing names of cookies to reflect a more multicultural bias. Anyway, these cookies are a rich butter cookie \u2013 the very best cookie of its kind. I insist that you <\/span>only<\/i><\/span> use butter \u2013 not margarine and not shortening. And use whole milk. And real vanilla. It makes a big difference. Also, make sure <\/span>all <\/i><\/span>your ingredients are at room temperature before you start mixing them together and that your butter is truly soft.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Heirloom\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Heirloom Holiday Cutout Cookies<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1 cup soft butter<\/span><\/p>\n

1 cup sugar<\/span><\/p>\n

2 eggs<\/span><\/p>\n

1 tsp vanilla<\/span><\/p>\n

3 cups flour<\/span><\/p>\n

2 tsp baking powder<\/span><\/p>\n

1 tsp baking soda<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bd tsp salt<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bd cup milk<\/span><\/p>\n

Cream together butter & sugar until smooth. Add eggs & beat well. Add vanilla. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mix together dry ingredients in another bowl. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chill dough several hours. Roll out to desired thickness & cut, using cookie cutters. The fatter the dough, the more cake-like the cookie. Also, the fewer cookies produced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bake at 375 until lightly browned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frost cookies with Buttercream Frosting (below) & decorate as desired.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buttercream Frosting: <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bd cup soft butter<\/span><\/p>\n

3 cups confectioners sugar<\/span><\/p>\n

Enough milk to make it spreadable<\/span><\/p>\n

1 tsp vanilla<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heirloom Holiday Cutout Cookies I have been studying and practicing the skills associated with the Pagan and Wiccan religions for over thirty years now. My Book of Shadows, once a small spiral notebook, has grown to three large notebook binders, organized by subject and carefully maintained. Much of my information was copied from library books but nowadays I am more likely to print directly from the internet. I am a fairly eclectic witch \u2013 I live with the seasons and work to develop my divinatory skills \u2013 as a solitary, my rituals are very quiet and quite Zen-like in their simplicity. I am also unapologetically Dianic and see no reason to invoke a male god. Like my BOS, my personal culinary notebook has grown from a slender binder to two large binders with pockets for recipe cards. I collect cookbooks and read cooking magazines and have more subscriptions to cooking blogs than I really have time to read. Like so many of us magical people, I am a kitchen witch \u2013 I grown my own herbs and I enjoy my time in the kitchen. The holidays are my favorite time of the year. Starting with Samhain and ending with Twelfth Night, it is a time to feast with family and friends. Many of us have specialty recipes that we only cook this time of year. \u201cHeirloom Holiday Cutout Cookies\u201d are what I call a recipe that has been in my family for generations. In my personal cookbook, the name is \u201cChristmas Cutouts\u201d but I have been changing names of cookies to reflect a more multicultural bias. Anyway, these cookies are a rich butter cookie \u2013 the very best cookie of its kind. I insist that you only use butter \u2013 not margarine and not shortening. And use whole milk. And real vanilla. It makes a big difference. Also, make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before you start mixing them together and that your butter is truly soft. Heirloom Holiday Cutout Cookies 1 cup soft butter 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda \u00bd tsp salt \u00bd cup milk Cream together butter & sugar until smooth. Add eggs & beat well. Add vanilla. Mix together dry ingredients in another bowl. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Chill dough several hours. Roll out to desired thickness & cut, using cookie cutters. The fatter the dough, the more cake-like the cookie. Also, the fewer cookies produced. Bake at 375 until lightly browned. Frost cookies with Buttercream Frosting (below) & decorate as desired. Buttercream Frosting: \u00bd cup soft butter 3 cups confectioners sugar Enough milk to make it spreadable 1 tsp vanilla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}