Recipes

The Moon's natural House in the Zodiac is the Fourth -- the House of Family and Home, ruled by the domestic sign of Cancer -- the Martha Stewart of the signs, if you will. The Moon influences entertaining and caretaking, and food is often the central theme in both cases.

The most enriching part of food preparation -- after witnessing the looks of satisfaction on the faces of the loved ones to whom you serve your food -- is finding a recipe and gathering all the ingredients. A recipe can be like a personal expression of creativity. It may not be written down -- it's even more yours if it's in your head. Anything that expresses your personality is invested with emotion, and that's where your connection to the Moon comes in.

Secret recipes speak to the mystery in the art of cooking, the competition, the special feeling of creating a particular dish.

Cultural icons can play on this secrecy. Colonel Sanders' secret herbs and spices in the KFC is a way of personalizing fast food, an attempt to elevate it to the level of a family legacy. Rumors about ingredients can have a life of their own.

Sometimes you don't want to know what's in certain foods. You might not enjoy eggnog as much if you knew how much fat was stirred in. Dishes from a foreign culture may have ingredients that seem so strange that you may shy away from trying them at all. We hear many stories of travelers who discovered what was in the spicy, delightful concoctions they were served, only to lose their taste for them once they knew a soup was simmered from chicken feet, or that tasty meat dish was tongue or brain.

Recipes that are passed down are a special kind of inheritance, an heirloom of nurturing. Their value increases with each generation, as the story is told to the children of when "my mother fixed this." Often we associate these with a certain holiday or a comforting time like a tradition of hot chocolate and cinnamon toast on a rainy morning.

Today, when you're consulting a recipe, it's likely that you're cooking for someone else. So, you feel the anticipation of company coming. A meal becomes an occasion.

When you entertain, you make an extra effort, offer part of yourself. You invite someone into your home, which reveals you -- it's an extension of your personality.

Some cultures routinely offer food or drink to a guest, others don't. For instance, visitors from Latin countries or Australia are surprised that they are often not offered something to drink when they arrive somewhere in America.

In some cultures, having friends over may not feel like entertaining, but is merely the accepted social intercourse. An ordinary meal becomes a time for gathering, telling stories, playing music -- where going out is not the custom, and eating together is what people do with friends and family.

More on the Home:

The Home
Gardening
Redecorating and Repairs
Relocating
Wining and Dining
Check the Spice Grid

Recommended Links on Recipes:

iVillage Food Channel