Signs and Seasons

"Uh oh....Venus in Pisces....not a pretty sight!" sighed Margaret, one of my college friends who was consulting her astrological charts regarding my love life.  "What does that mean?" I asked.  "Venus in Pisces means you will forever be unlucky in love" she said, shaking her head.  "The best thing you can do is look for a Gemini or another Aquarius and see if that works", she proclaimed with a sad finality.   I wondered how I could have such a bad prognosis when we were supposedly living in the Age of Aquarius.....  and I am an Aquarius...isn't that supposed to be good?

Flash forward 30 years later, and I do think I was lucky in love, as I've been married to the same man for almost 25 years. Perhaps it worked out because he is another Aquarius, like Margaret suggested?  Otherwise, I haven't paid much attention to my astrology, but I was intrigued when the good people at Harper Collins asked me to review a new cookbook they sent to me, Signs and Seasons.

I had my family over for dinner yesterday, and consulted the book to determine what I should make.   The recipes are organized by star sign (seasonally) which is fine, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to make Aquarian recipes because that's what I am, or Taurus recipes because we are in Taurus right now.   My daughter, currently pursuing a BFA, noted that the artwork is beautiful in this book.  Indeed, one of the authors, Amy Zerner is an award winning artist.  The recipes looked promising, they are written by John Okas, a personal chef in the Hamptons.  I saw a recipe for peas, but forgot to mark the page, and couldn't find it later.  I checked the index under "peas" and it wasn't there.   The book needs a better index.   I was trying to remember if  I was looking in the Taurus section, so I looked up "Taurus" in the index and there was nothing there! No listing at all for Taurus.  I looked in Aquarius....nothing there either.  I wondered if my confusion must be happening because Mercury is in retrograde.   Finally,  I started paging through the book and eventually found the recipe I remembered.....it was for "snap peas" .   And it was in Gemini, not in Taurus!  Oh well.

I didn't have any snap peas, but I made this recipe instead with green peas, and everyone loved it.  Here's how I did it:

Sesame Green Peas

3 T sesame oil
1 lb frozen peas
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T sesame seeds
2 T soy sauce

Heat the oil in a large skillet, and when hot, add peas, garlic and sesame seeds and stir fry until pease are hot, about 5 minutes.  Dress with soy sauce.

Since I'm not seriously into astrology, I don't think I can comment much on the writing.   The artwork in the book is lovely and the recipes look promising    I wish the book had a better index and food photography.    I think this book would make a great gift for a person that is really into their star sign.