FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Identity

Feed Your Spirit (and Sex Life) with Recipes from a Kitchen Witch

For Valentine's Day, kitchen witch Dawn Hunt shares two recipes that will get your (and your intended's) motor running.
Photo by Darren Muir via Stocksy

Supposedly, pizza is like sex: When it's hot, it's good, and when it's cold, it's still kind of good. But can better pizza lead to better sex? We turned to a practicing kitchen witch to find out.

Dawn Hunt is the owner and CEO of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem, NH. She's devoted her life to perfecting and sharing foods and recipes with magical properties—ones that, when prepared with intention, have the power to impact life beyond the cutting board.

Advertisement

Using an example from her own past, she reports using kitchen witchery to dig out from a tough financial situation shortly after she and her husband were married. Her intentions were clear: to help her husband find and keep a better-paying job. So every Thursday (the best day of the week to deal with money matters because of its association with Jupiter, the god of prosperity), she made a meal of spinach, garlic, shrimp, and pasta for them to share. According to pagan belief, leafy greens like spinach, chard, and kale are innately energized to bring money into our lives. But simply preparing the food was only the beginning.

A kitchen witch is anyone who puts thought, love, and joy into cooking, using food to nurture the body and spirit and stay connected to the earth and elements.

While cooking the meal, Dawn visualized her family being able to pay their bills on time, and her husband cashing the checks from his new job. "It's important that these visualizations are always done with the caveat of harming none and for the good of all," she stresses. "You certainly don't want to manifest someone else losing their job so you can pay your own bills."

A mere month later, her husband had a better-paying job and their financial woes had begun to wane.

By Dawn's definition, you might be a kitchen witch and not even realize it. "A kitchen witch is anyone who puts thought, love, and joy into cooking, using food to nurture the body and spirit and stay connected to the earth and elements," she says.

Advertisement

So that vegan baker your friend just started dating? Most likely a kitchen witch. The barista who lovingly draws a heart in your latte? Kitchen Witch. Your Italian grandmother? Also a kitchen witch. (In fact, Dawn says the first kitchen witches she ever encountered were the women in her stereotypical Italian Catholic family—although, of course, they never would have called themselves that.)

In Dawn's pagan worldview (which draws inspiration from spiritual paths ranging from Hinduism to Celtic and Greek polytheism to New Age doctrine), it all comes down to intention, love, positive energy, and fresh ingredients. "Mindfulness is the key in kitchen witchery," she says.

But can it get you laid? According to Dawn: only if you do it right.

While stirring, think vividly about passionate lovemaking. Get lost in the fantasy of a lover's embrace or a steamy kiss.

"Yes, some foods have innately aphrodisiac properties," she says. "Scientifically, oysters have high levels of estrogen and certain acids that trigger sex hormones in your body. Energetically, they're ruled by the goddess of love, Aphrodite. Also, the oyster and pearl can represent female genitals and therefore energetically arouse sexual desire. But if you're preparing oysters for a first date and think that all you need to do is wash them and put them on a plate, you're in for a disappointment. To use oysters to attract a lover, you must first have clear intentions and concise visualizations. While you're washing the oysters, you might call on Aphrodite or Eros, the god of passion and sex. You might visualize the perfect mate, or the perfect lovemaking session. You might put on some music that makes you feel connected to your own sexuality and do some deep meditation on the beauty of the act of sex. When it comes down to it, the power of attracting new love, old love, or more love comes from you."

Advertisement

She stresses that no recipe, no spell, and no food can make anyone fall in love with anyone else. Kitchen witchery or food magic must be handled delicately and thoughtfully—and, it bears repeating, with the goal of harming none and for the good of all.

Dawn, who has authored magical cookbooks including Tastes from the Temple and The Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery Cookbook, generously shared two of her spiciest—literally and figuratively—recipes for enticing hot sex and passionate love.

Spice-It-Up Simmer Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons Cucina Aurora Hot Pepper Infused Olive Oil (or substitute regular olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon chipotle pepper and ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper)
  • ½ white onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Instructions:

  • In a medium skillet, heat olive oil on medium high heat.
  • Add onions and garlic and sizzle for about 3 minutes.
  • Add crushed tomatoes and parsley and stir. While stirring, think vividly about passionate lovemaking. Get lost in the fantasy of a lover's embrace or a steamy kiss.
  • Turn heat down to low and simmer for 20–30 minutes. If you're enjoying this meal with a partner, take this time to put on a sexy outfit or doll up your hair as if you were going on a first date. If you're flying solo, then pour yourself a glass of wine and dance around the kitchen to your favorite song, feeling comfortable and sexy in your own skin.

Advertisement

Serve over pasta and add cooked shrimp to entice the goddess of love, Aphrodite to bless your meal.

Serve over chicken and rice to bring passion back into an already healthy relationship.

Serve as a dipping sauce for bread or fried mozzarella sticks in entice passion into a friendship and take it to the next level.

You can also store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.


Sweetheart Swirl Cheese Cake

Dawn says: "Strawberries are traditionally a food to attract sweet love. As you swirl mantled strawberry jam, create shapes and symbols like hearts and infinity symbols to attract a sweet new love into your life or to sweeten up what might be turning sour."

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups graham crackers, crushed
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 5 (8 ounce) squares cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 4 eggs
  • ¼ cup seedless strawberry jam

Instructions:

  • Heat oven to 325°F. Line a 13x9" cookie sheet with foil.
  • In a medium saucepan, heat butter. Remove from heat and mix in graham cracker crumbs and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Press mixture firmly into lined cookie sheet and set aside.
  • In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla until well combined.
  • Add sour cream and beat on low. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed just until blended.
  • Pour mixture over prepared crust.
  • In a microwave-safe bowl, heat jam on high for 30–40 seconds until melted.
  • Gently drop small spoonfuls of jam over batter about 2 inches apart. Use a chopstick or butter knife to cut through batter and jam several times, creating a swirl effect.
  • Bake for 40 minutes or until center is almost set.
  • Let cool and then refrigerate no less than one hour, or overnight.
  • Lift cheesecake from the pan by the foil and cut into squares.

Enjoy!