Food is a major component for any successful Sabbat celebration (just as with any cultural/traditional celebrations that include feasts that have existed throughout history and the world).  Many years as a Pagan mom of a large household, I have spent countless hours searching and searching for the perfect “Pagan” or “Wiccan” recipes that my kids would eat and my whole family would enjoy; not just novelties that would be cool to look at but end up sitting on the counter or in the fridge until I had to throw them out. I didn’t like wasting food like that, not to mention the expensive specialty ingredients/items I would have to buy specifically for that recipe, which were not something I would consider staples.

So when I began to pull together all of my recipe cards, notes, printouts, and then go through the bookmarks in my countless recipe books, I realized I had a  huge organizational issue. No wonder I was frustrated when trying to find recipes! I had changed so many things over the years because I love making them my own. I tweaked seasonings and other ingredients and had faded pencil marks and smeared ink notes on everything. It was a major mess. So I took them all and one by one I typed them up on my computer and eventually printed them out. I then slipped them into plastic page protectors and snapped them into a large 3-ring binder. This way I could organize them, easily add new recipes, and simply slip the pages out to add notes and then slip them back into their page protector. Finally, I had notes that wouldn’t end up smeared from cooking splatters. I had them arranged in categories that made sense to me.

In recent years (after my back surgeries)I began using a clipboard so I could pull out the recipes I’d be using for that particular Sabbat and place them in the order I was going to cook them. The lightweight clipboard meant that I would not be lugging the heavy binder all over the kitchen, flipping back and forth to find the recipe I was going to use. It also made it easier for me to create my shopping list when I had the small, lightweight clipboard at my teeny tiny kitchen computer/office/bill-paying workstation instead of the gigantic binder. One of these days I’m going to divide the recipes by 3 or 4 categories into smaller binders, but I will still be using my trusty clipboard. This works for me and you may like to use a similar system.

I have many recipe collections (especially from my Grimoire) but this collection of recipes is a culmination of many years of cooking for my family. You’ll see that my family recipes are not vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free. However, we do eat consciously with organic fruits and vegetables usually bought at our local organic produce stand, which also carries exceptional organic milk and other local dairy products. Our beef is purchased from friends of ours, and are grass-fed and free of antibiotics, not to mention are treated very, very well, living happy lives. My husband fishes for salmon, although this year has been a difficult one for salmon fishing so we have had to thaw some of our reserves or purchase wild caught from Alaska. We gather our own eggs and occasionally are offered goat’s milk from our neighbors but I rarely use it in our recipes.

Whether your diet is similar to or different from ours, I hope these recipes will spark your creativity, giving you ideas to work with by substitution, and where you can add your own spin on them. Of course you could even use them just as they are! This collection of recipes include ones that I created myself, acquired from cookbooks, or given to at parties and magickal gatherings. Some are from friends and neighbors, and some are my favorite Grandmother’s recipes that she handed down to me before she passed on to the Summerlands.  And now, through my blog, I can share them with all of my awesome readers (thank you!)

I have made each and every recipe in this “Year of the Wheel Recipe Collection” and my family and myself have enjoyed them all. So if you want, you can think of these recipes as being ‘tried and true’ (at least from a non-vegan, gluten included perspective) And when others join us for Sabbats, there’s always something in this collection that is requested. I think that you will find these recipes and the ideas you get from them will work well for your own family Sabbat planning. Add some of your own recipes to begin to create your own “Wheel of the Year Recipe Collection”  and add them to your Sabbats; maybe even make new traditions! Have Fun! Explore! Enjoy!

Questions? PLEASE feel free to ask.                                                                                        

 I’d love to hear from you!

Want to add a recipe? Please feel free to do that too!                                                      

Just send it in the comment section.