A Dinner Invitation Inspired By The Queen Of Pentacles

From The Kitchen Of The Queen Of Pentacles

This blog post was written as my contribution to the Lammas 2014 Tarot Blog Hop of which I felt very proud to be the wrangler.  I chose to wrangle this particular blog hop because I wanted to celebrate Lammas by inviting all of you to dinner to celebrate my birthday which also fell on the same date, 1 August.  

Coincidentally, this Lammas 2014 Tarot Blog Hop would mark my 2^nd year of being part of this community of beautiful, generous and talented Tarot bloggers.  I would love to have you explore the contributions of the other Tarot Blog Hop participants by following the links below.

Blog Before        |             Master List              |               Blog After

Lammas – The First Harvest

For those unfamiliar with the festival, Lammas celebrated the first harvest.  It honored the bountiful crops, the first gathering of grains and the first plucking of fruits and vegetables, and a table full of food brought in from the garden well-planted in spring. As the season allows for even more opportunities for growth in the next few months,  Lammas reminded us to not rest on our laurels but to continue to work towards even more growth whilst being thankful for the blessings of abundance that surrounds us.  This was significant for me as I took a moment during this Lammas to say a prayer for more creative inspiration around my work at my consultancy,  Sun Goddess Tarot.  At the same time, I whispered my gratitude for the many blessings I got like the ardent support of my family for what my husband jokingly termed, “ another level of weird”.

Queen Of Pentacles

That was why I had decided to look to the Queen of Pentacles as my muse this Lammas.  She was the epitome of the nurturing earth mother, providing the family with warmth and love whilst managing  a productive career too.   She taught me the importance of striking a fine balance between my continuous efforts to reap a bountiful harvest of more knowledge, experiences and skills whilst being present for my family and my friends.

Like the Queen of Pentacles, I was inspired to balance my love for Tarot with my desire to be present for my family and friends.  So, I would like to cordially invite you over for dinner.  You will be treated to a 3-course meal with recipes personally designed by me and guided by my Tarot Cards.

My Dinner Menu Inspired By Tarot

Clearly as the Queen of Pentacles was my muse, I used her as a “significator” for my meal planning so she inspired my main dish of The East And West Harvest Pasta.  The dish was designed to reflect my managing that fine balance between my 2 careers as a marketing communications professional and a professional Tarot reader, that dainty juggle between my family life and my work life and the even more intricate complexities between my Eastern culture and my husband’s Western culture as expected in an inter-racial marriage. And in every aspect of these priorities, I had every desire to bring 100% of myself into everything and everyone that I touched nurturing these with lots of diligence, attention, commitment and love.

For the starter,   I picked the 6 of Cups to inspire my recipe.  Wow! That was a difficult one.  How do I come up with a recipe that reflected appropriately the 6 of Cups in Tarot?  While mulling over the possibility of  using  6 cups for presentation or stealing my son’s jello from the fridge because the card had image of kids in it, I then remembered that it was a card that represented good old familial memories.  So I had decided to create an appetizer inspired by my Mum’s version of prawn cocktail.  I loved prawn cocktail and I remembered that when I was very young, the first chi-chi dinner that the entire family got invited to was a grand wedding dinner of a relative who had invited 1000 guests from all over the world to attend that event. We were served prawn cocktail as the starter.  I felt so grown up eating it.

The last dish was of course the dessert!  My favorite! I hoped to pick a court card.  It would be easier to match a personality to a dish.  However, I ended up picking the Sun instead. Perfect.  Not wanting to risk serving you sunflower petals sprinkled over ice-cream, I had to think doubly hard about this one.  The Sun represented happiness, joy, positivity, vitality, zest, energy.  I had to create a dish that had a burst of energy in it.  So, my dessert, inspired by the Sun Card was a Fruit Salad With Orange Honey Dressing And Creme Fraiche.

I have appended the recipes below this blog post, but allow me a paragraph or two to mull over this menu that I had put together with the help of the Queen.

A Lesson From My Lammas Muse, The Queen Of Pentacles

When I re-evaluated this meal that I had put together with my Tarot cards, I saw a special message within it. To help me channel the Queen of Pentacles in my life, I was reminded about the happiness that I had felt with the wonderful memories of my childhood ( 6 Of Cups + The Sun).  No matter how busy Mum and Dad were, they always made sure they involved me in everything they did, they took me everywhere, they gave me as much room to explore my creative potential as they could.  They were present for me.  The Queen had just told me that the best way to channel my inner Queen of Pentacles, was to be present for David and Joel the way Mum and Dad had been for me.

Below are the recipes created and shared with love.


The Starter
Prawn and Mango Cocktail With Kaffir Lime Leaf Dressing
Ingredients:
2 Cups of peeled and deveined blanched prawns
1 medium size mango, sliced.

Dressing:
1 tablespoon finely chopped spring onion and red onion
Extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons Kaffir lime juice
Chopped kaffir lime leaves
2 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1 red chilli de-seeded and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon sugar

Whisk dressing ingredients together and mix until the sugar has dissolved. Spoon over the prawns and mix well. Spoon marinated prawns over mixed lettuce leaves. Garnish with some mint and coriander, and decorate some mango slices around it.


The Main Course

The East And West Harvest Pasta - Inspired By The Queen Of Pentacles
Ingredients:
1 cup roasted pumpkin pureed in food processor
1/2 cup roasted aubergine sliced
1/2 cup roasted zucchini sliced
1/2 cup chopped bok choy blanched in salt water
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
1 cup toasted pine nuts
Dash of Olive oil
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 leek, white part only clean and sliced.
1 teaspoon whole coriander
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 chilli de- seeded and chopped.
salt and pepper to taste
1 pack pasta, cooked to package instructions
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 leek(s), white part only, cleaned and sliced
1 teaspoon whole coriander
a pinch of ground cinnamon
Chopped basil


Method:
Pour olive oil into a skillet or large sauce pan and sauté garlic until aromatic. Add the leek and tomatoes. Stir in the coriander and cinnamon and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add white wine and raise heat to reduce volume by two-thirds. Add cream and then puréed pumpkin, then simmer. Set aside.

Add the penne to the sauce and warm thoroughly. Toss with the zucchini, aubergine, bok choy, chilli, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. Then serve.


The Dessert
Fruit Salad With Orange Honey Dressing And Creme Fraiche - Inspired By The SunIngredients:
1 cup blueberries
1 cup cubed pineapples
1 cup cubed cantaloupe
1 cup strawberries
2 bananas sliced

Dressing:
Juice from 1 orange
2 tablespoons honey
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon of chopped mint leaves

Method:

Whisk all dressing ingredients till honey is dissolved and pour dressing over the fruits. Toss, spoon into individual bowls and serve immediately with a dollop of Creme Fraiche. garnish with a sprig of mint.


Do remember to explore the contributions of the other Tarot Blog Hop participants by following the links below.

Blog Before        |              Master List               |               Blog After

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About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a Tarot consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
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