food fun and love

If you did not know, Pauline, or Good Gracious wrote a book of recipes many years ago. Over the next several months we will share those recipes, chapter by chapter. Today, we'll dive right in to Chapter 1: Drunken Tomatoes with Chili Salt and Zatar Spice!


I have always been interested in the idea that the power of ancient spirits exists and that it can give us the energy and ability to create positive change in our lives and the lives of those around us.

One day when wandering into a book store, a book of good spells caught my eye. I immediately thought it would be perfect to have a party based on this book and on the notion of good spells. After all, I believe that casting good spells is what we do over people when we bring them together for a meal.

The look of the book, with its deep red fabric cover,was my inspiration for the colorscheme of the table. And because my home is Spanish in style, I chose a menu influenced by the cuisine of Spain.
A book was placed at each setting. I added my guests’ names to each book, very easily, with a gold label and a label maker. That little detail was so effective in creating the first good spell – breaking the ice!



Before the party, I had chosen three spells from the book – one for love, one for health and one for wealth – and provided all the elements those spells took to perform (according to the book, a candle, a penny and a key) and placed them in a decorative bag for each guest. During the evening, we performed each spell as directed by the book. I’m sure you can see where this is going – dinner was a riot, with interesting conversation brought on by the spells...and the Rioja wine helped too!

It made me think about the nature of dinner parties. Really, we – the host and the guests – are the entertainment for the evening. But, because people have somewhat forgotten the fine art of conversation, The Good Spell Book gave this group a structure for their conversation, for the entertainment really. It enabled us to share time with one another in a completely different way. Now that is what I call a powerful energy!

To me, this is the essence of great entertaining – bringing out the best in people with food, fun and love to create a moment in time that is remembered forever. In the“spirit” of this evening of giving, each guest was given a copy of the book and their bag of goodies so they could continue to practice some good spells on their own.

Below, is the recipe!