Cooking and Sympathetic Magic

In the dead of winter, I find it most comforting to make what I think of as Winter Foods - chili, beef stew, chicken soup, a roast, a baked chicken. It runs the oven or stove for several hours and helps warm the house and fills it with good smells.

But as the winter winds down, we need to engage in what is called "sympathetic magic." This is when you do something, trying to get the higher powers to imitate your behavior - sprinkling water on the ground to try to induce it to rain, for example. In cooking, this involves making a very summery meal, even though (like today) it's 40 degrees and sunny. So I just boiled some rotini for a pasta salad, gonna cut some lettuce and spinach for a tossed salad, I got a can of baked beans, and I'm gonna make some hamburgers. Yay!!